the best we can

We have been observing our shelter in place for 51 days today. For the most part we haven’t left the house. Yao and I will go to the grocery store when it’s needed. Our only other times being outdoors is being in the great outdoors. There was one warm day that we packed up a picnic, took the kids hiking to a quiet open trail in Oakland Hills and had an outdoor picnic lunch. The kids complained about the hike the whole time. I’m becoming aware of how out of shape and physically lazy they are all becoming during this quarantine. It’s hard to fix that since we cannot go to the playgrounds or get much running around done. We send the girls out for jogs occasionally. We’re so lucky they are old enough to do that. I’d love to be able to send the boys out. But two six year old boys running down the street is very clearly not a good idea. We do the best we can. We try to play football and soccer in our own yard. I do yoga with the kids. Yao wrestles the four of them daily. They always get pretty sweaty after that.

We do the best we can. I try to feed them good meals. But often it’s frozen pizza and carrot sticks. I am homeschooling all four kids which is very much a full time job. They certainly aren’t doing the same amount of work that they would if they were physically in school again. I do the best I can. The boys have actually been excelling at reading. I think it’s the one on one instruction that helps. Sadie is so smart. It’s easy for her to finish her projects so quickly with barely any effort. I wish she’d put more into her work because I know it’s easy for her. I want her to be challenged, and to grow. She’s doing the best she can, for now. Middle school is a whole other beast to tackle for homeschool. There’s so many different classes it’s hard for me to keep on top of Kaymia about all of it. I am positive things are slipping through the cracks. I’m doing the best I can.

I continue to run my own business. I teach classes every day. It’s all virtual now. I’m grateful to be able to offer that. It’s turned out to be very fun for me and I know the students find a lot of value in it as well. It’s hard to keep up with the backside of my business. I have no quiet time or space to really promote or market myself right now. I’m doing the best that I can.

Yao is completely out of work and has been since mid-March. He has taken this time to build a motorcycle, redo our front yard and parts of the backyard, paint the entire house, stack the washer/dryer and build pantry shelving, take down all kitchen cabinets and repaint, organize the garage, redo our backyard trellis, install new exterior lights on the house, build a custom address sign for our front patio, make us all fabric masks, build a shoe rack for the front door, make me a raised garden bed, and I’m sure I’m missing other stuff. He’s definitely doing the best he can.

We’re all ok. We are together and safe. We are healthy, we are home. It’s good to be home.