When The World Paused - Day 7

We planted these the day the schools closed.
Sprouting even in adversity.
Gotta love a good metaphor.

After giving myself a week to figure things out, I feel like we have a rythm and a confidence in this every changing, quietly terrifying world we're existing in right now. We're currently in an offical state of "Stay Home; Stay Healthy" here in Western Washington. Only essential business are allowed to operate and we aren't supposed to be out unless it's essential. Luckily mental health and fresh air is considered essential. Though our days of partonizing local drive through coffee shops are over for the time being, I'm eternally grateful that we can still get outside. It truly is my sanity. 

My Sailor sent me a care package - including this Tervis.
It couldn't have been more apt to our current situation, even though this was packed before our current situation evolved.

We got a care package today from My Sailor. It was a much needed boost that I knew was coming, but opening the small box of shirts, magnets, keychains, and a Tervis was more heartening than I expected. 

The weather is threatening to turn, and The Impossible Girl didn't feel up to doing too much outside today (just commenting she was very tired, so I let that ride today), but we had on errand to run. A friend in Port Orchard had found a bag of dog food for us while she was shopping for herself yesterday, so we sent her the money and drove over to get it from her today. (I'm avoiding grocery stores with The Impossible Girl due to her viral activated asthma. Most upper respiratory things end up in pnuemonia, so given the current circumstances, we're playing it safe.)

We left very early and partonized a small drive through coffee shop for a cookie (for her) and caffine (for me). We took the long way to drive through some backroads with the windows down. It was a windy day, but it was fun to turn off the radio and just talk about what we saw.

View of Bremerton shipyard from Manchester/Port Orchard Area

Needless to say, life is much simpler right now. While I'm constantly busy, and The Impossible Girl is constantly in motion, we're finding some grooves that seem to fit for now. She understands that most things are closed "because of germs". For 4 years old, that's a pretty good grasp on the current situation.

When we got home, we started on the long overdue task of fully cleaning and sanitizing my car - the car we usually ride around in.

 I wonder if the kids of this hiccup in time will end up being cleaning/neat freaks? We are certainly aware that we are living in a profound moment in history that we never saw coming. But now that the shock has warn off, it's feeling more and more normal.

But it hasn't stopped us from diving into crafts, school, online 'feild trips' to the zoos and aquariums (watching live camera feeds in tanks and enclosures).

Our cardboard roll family

Boxes make great tunnels.

 She even dug into some old party favors I've had around -including temporary face tattoos.

While some families have developed a solid schedule, we tend to keep things pretty loose. I set some goals for the day (like: tune in live to her teacher's feeds on Facebook at 10am, lunch around noon and outside time in the afternoon/evening for about 2 hours, then dinner around 5:30-6:30. Bath and bedtime 7:30-8:30) and then basically throw out some activity ideas (or don't ) and see what sticks for her. Bordem is the mother of invention though, so we figure things out as we go - and that's okay.

I'm incredibly grateful I'm still able to work - though not to my prefered ability, I'm able to keep going for the moment, and help my clients manage their stress levels through this crazy period of time as we try to flatten the curve of COVID-19.