The coronavirus is here. Not only has it made its way to the US, but it is in Kentucky and we had our first confirmed case in our county yesterday. I am anxious to look back on my recount of this pandemic to see how things played out across the world. Did we overreact? Did we underreact? Did we all make it through safe?
School has been closed for two weeks and will remain closed until at least April 20th. There are lots of speculation that the rest of the school year will be cancelled and we should hope for a normal start to a new school year in August. We now utilize NTI (non-traditional instruction) days to "homeschool" Georgia. She has done well with her packets so far. We also incorporate other activities for her (and Jack) through the day such as piano, creative time (painting, games, etc.), reading and of course, lots of outdoor recess :) Marcus has been responsible for virtually creating NTI packets for his 5th graders but he's been able to do all of his work from home which is such a blessing.
I have been home for the most part as well. We are continuing to serve meals to our students but I am doing my best to work remotely and stay out of the kitchens (I'm doing better now than I was in the beginning). There's just no point in taking a chance due to my pregnancy. Thankfully, I have amazing staff that I can lead from afar and they continue to get the job done amazingly!
We haven't been in public since Friday, March 13th (except Marcus has made a few necessary trips for us). We do grocery pick-up, online banking, online shopping and drive-in window service. Only essential businesses are still open at this time.
Thankfully, everyone has remained well. A blessing in the storm has been the extra family time we have had to do the things we don't always make time for because of our schedules. These past two weeks have included lots of playing outside, jumping on the trampoline, Georgia learning to ride her bike, house projects, experiments, great progress for Jack on his numbers and letters, nursery organization and the list goes on. This week we have plans to go fishing and other outdoor activities that keep us socially distant.
I have never valued living in small-town, rural America more than I do now. The basic blessing of having a big yard for our kids to play in everyday so their lives seem as normal is possible is invaluable.
Here are a few pictures (I haven't taken many with intentions of keeping things simple) of how we have spent the last few weeks:
Prayers to everyone that has been effected by this terrible virus and to all the "essentials" that are keeping the world spinning while the rest of us do our part and stay home. Those folks are the unsung heroes.
