The Difference Seven Days Makes

Last week at this time, I had my regular Wednesday babysitter over in the morning. She got her at 9am and Elisabeth and I headed out to my favorite coffee shop. We ordered our usual coffees and sat down so I could spend a couple of hours reading my book and she could get some work done before I drove her to school for her afternoon classes.

When I got home, I piled all of the kids into our car so we could drive the babysitter home. I forgot to put the new checks in my purse and had no cash (per usual), so I told her I would just pay her for both weeks next Wednesday. 

I dropped Julia and Vivian off over at their friends' house (they are both friends with sisters from a family we go to co-op with) and their mom was going to drop the girls back off at our house before dinner time because her oldest was in both weekends of the show Julia was in--Music Man. It was tech week for Weekend One and Julia's friend wasn't going to get to go to youth group. Julia was disappointed, but the next week was going to be her turn to miss youth group for Weekend Two's tech week. I had sighed at the time because Julia was in the local community theater's (The Studio) production of The Music Man and Elisabeth was in her high school's production of Once Upon A Mattress and both of their shows were the same weekend. The next week was going to be chaos schedule wise.

I came home with only David and Thomas, which is rare since we homeschool, and the boys were SO WONDERFUL!! Seriously, it was like a gift. I added to the Walmart list I was making because Evan and I had been talking earlier in the week to make a big grocery run this Friday, just in case. We had decided to have enough food for two weeks at a time and to make a plan to do that for a while, just in case. 

I am sure I fiddle farted around on social media, did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, and read my book some more. Elisabeth had play practice after school and I didn't have to get her until 8. Julia was getting a ride home from a friend, so I didn't have to worry about being two places at once. Evan came home at his normal time and we had dinner with the younger three. After dinner clean up, I went to go get Elisabeth and got home just as my friend was bringing Julia home. She and I chatted in the driveway for a while about how two of her kids were sick again, how hard it was to believe that some of our friends' schools in other states were closing for a couple of weeks because of this coronavirus. We both wondered if that would happen with our district as well. Later that night, I offered to host a few friends on Friday morning for coffee because we were on spring break from co-op and we try to meet for coffee on Fridays during the school year when we can (something we do every Friday in the summer!).

Everyone went to bed that night like normal; I put Vivian to bed after reading a chapter of Harry Potter, Evan read books to the boys and Julia helped him by cuddling with Thomas (the worst kid at bedtime currently! Holy moly, he is a beast), and Ebeth worked on homework in her room.

I'm writing all of this down because that was just one week ago from today and it feels like a freaking lifetime ago. I feel like every day since last week had actually been a week unto itself. I want to have it written down what we were doing that last week before our lives were turned upside down. 

Today, we woke up and got dressed. One friend told me about the shortage of eggs in all of the stores she had tried in Rockford and I let her know I had reached out to another friend who (THANK GOD) has chickens and that I would go and pick up some eggs for the both of us. I asked the kids if they want to go with me and they all enthusiastically said yes! (Except for Elisabeth who decided to take her hour of solo time while we were gone because she is a genius). We all piled into the car and I realized I hadn't driven since last Friday when I had gone grocery shopping at noon. I looked at the gas prices as we drove to our friends' house and realized that the prices had really tanked and felt that continuous knot in my stomach get tighter.

We got to our friend's house, the same friend I had dropped my girls off to the week before, and kept a socially acceptable distance from each other as we talked the last few days, things we can't find at stores, meals we're planning, how bizarre the world has become. 

We drove home, had lunch, and went about our new schedule: school work, playing, art work everywhere, not leaving the house, washing out hands to the point they are now cracking, worrying that there is a new news break that I both do and don't want to read.

But, as with all things in life, time keeps moving forward, and we adjust and adapt and hope for better days soon. We make the most of what we have and try to live life well. It's our job to make home a safe place, and not just from this virus. It's our job to keep our home the safe place--where expectations of kindness, responsibility, growth, love stay stable and firm--when the world feels scary and unsure.  

So, I have decided I am going to keep trying to bake my way through this cook book:

 I love Judith Jones! I read her memoir years ago and bought this cookbook. She was good friends with Julia Child and I just found her life of cooking and working as a cookbook editor fascinating. I had made it a goal last year to bake our way through the whole cookbook, but as my mother-in-law's health continued to deteriorate, and with her passing away last summer, I found myself avoiding the kitchen because it reminded me too much of her. She'd taught me to cook and bake and really ignited my passion for the kitchen, but being in there was too painful and raw.

But, I have found myself drawn to the kitchen during this past week. Baking is how I often deal with really stressful things, and I wanted to be doing something that I know Jana would have totally understood--using the kitchen as a way of making something productive at a time when I have zero control. So, I used this cookbook last week to make pumpkin bread, we are using the recipe in it to make a sourdough starter, and tonight we made cloverleaf dinner rolls.

We are also loving the free art classes from McHarper Manor in Ohio that has opened it's studio online to anyone who wants to participate! The owners are putting up live videos daily and leaving them up for people to look at at their leisure. Tonight, the girls and I painted peg dolls.

 Vivian painted a penguin, a girl, and a fox (who still needs ears, she'd like me to clarify).

Julia made Harry Potter, a dotted non-person thing (?), and a girl.

I made me and Evan.

We ended up staying up later than normal, but it was fun.

Now, if this bedtime monster would SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT, I will be much better prepared for another day of quarantine in the Bonnett household.