Quarantined Times

Over four years is a long time to go between blog posts. I'm not even sure I remember how to write anymore!

I have been toying with the idea of blogging again for a few months. I wasn't sure if I should just start a brand new blog, if I should resurrect Elisablog, or just scrap the whole idea. But, my lovely friend Sarah suggested that those mommy-bloggers of ol' should chronicle our lives during this weird, frightening time of coronavirus and quarantine, and I thought that she might be right.

I remember messaging my friends on February 29th about what this coronavirus deal was and if I should be worried about it.  That seems like a really long time ago, but it was only a little over two weeks...which is so bizarre to really think about for too long.

Anyway, Evan (who loves the news and keeps up on it religiously) told me that it was something that was going to get serious and it wouldn't hurt to make sure that we weren't going to run out of things from the store anytime soon. I believe he suggested we make a small stock pile.

Usually, I am not someone who follows the news, but I really felt led to find out more about this virus and to take it seriously. I started following the fabulous Jenna Lee over at SmartHer News (if you are not following her, do it! She's on Instagram and she is such a levelheaded, honest news source). Evan and I started talking about what quarantine would look like for us after seeing Italy shut down and decided to make a big grocery run and start talking to the kids about coronavirus in an age appropriate manner for each of them.

Fast forward to Friday, March 13, when every school in Illinois was told they needed to be shut down by March 16th; all extracurricular events like sports, theater, and anything that would have more than 25 people was to be cancelled; to Sunday when they declared that all restaurants and bars in Illinois would be closed as of Monday (excluding drive thru and delivery). That is a lot of information to try to take in and I have no doubt that Monday morning will bring more changes.

We're holing up. We homeschool now anyway (besides Elisabeth, who is homeschooled half the day and attends the Catholic high school for the other half of the day), so our academic routine won't change too much, but all of our social and extra curriculars are done. No play practice (both girls were to have performances next weekend), no piano lessons, no youth groups, no science classes at the forest preserves or Discovery Center. We decided to not have anyone come into our house anymore and that the kids could play outside with the two families of neighborhood kids that make up our cul-de-sac crew, but after tonight, we're saying no to that, too.

I really feel wound up about this whole thing. I'm struggling with this being so epic and new and not having background knowledge to lean on besides what information China, Italy, and South Korea have given us just a few weeks ahead of our crisis.  I know plenty of people that think this is all being blown out of proportion, but I am following my gut. This is going to be huge and it is going to be like nothing we have experienced before. New things are hard to wrap our brains around, especially things that ask us as a culture to sacrifice in such a big way. We're being asked to think of others that we don't know, to trust medical professionals going through things in other countries that we can't see or witness. It would be so simple to just assume that the powers that be directing our country, state, county, city are talking to everyone else but *us*.

So, I am going to take the suggestion of Sarah and record this time in history with my family--what we're doing, how it's going for us. If anything, it will be cathartic for me and a journal for my kids one day about the crazy year in 2020 when the world shut down.

It's been a long time, but it is so nice to be back blogging. I started this blog eleven years ago to help Evan (who had just started training for the Air Force) keep up to date on me and our girls (little kindergarten Elisabeth and baby Julia!) and so that when we moved to our first base as an Air Force family, our families back in Illinois could keep tabs on our daily ins and outs (we didn't have smartphones yet!!!) with pictures and a play-by-play of our little family's moments.

Now we have five kiddos, we're settled back in Illinois after six years of moving to two different states with the Air Force, and I am rebooting this blog to chronicle a pandemic sweeping the world.

Crazy.