Spring Cleaning

Since our schedules have been cleared for at least four weeks, I think many Americans have more time than usual. In most families this likely means they are spending far more time together than usual which might mean eating more meals together and playing games together more often. Eating with my kids for 21 meals a week was already the norm for me, and Paul is still working. We have been playing more games over the past week. I have been compiling a list of all the games we own. I haven't included Paul's games in the list, and there are 72 games on the list. Our goal is to play all of the games at least once during this time of "social distancing." So far we've played Connect Four, Picture Apples to Apples, Oval Office, Spot it, Mastermind, Racko, Mancala, Jenga, pizza fraction game, Skip Bo, Bananagrams, Swipe, and Apples to Apples Jr. We also attempted to play Trivial Pursuit, and then realized that it was too difficult for the kids and rather dated even for adults. I added the game to the growing collection of things that are in the trunk of the van which I plan to take to Goodwill once we are no longer homebound. The kids have primarily gotten their exercise by jumping on the trampoline, but this afternoon I said we'd go for a walk. They used their scooters. Even though I've had time to use the elliptical lately, I haven't been using it. Since the weather should be getting warmer, I'd like to start taking walks on a regular basis. We're also doing more Junior Ranger badge booklets than usual. Tomorrow we should be completing #49!

As for cancellations and postponements, the For King and Country concert was moved from April to June, the Sidewalk Prophets concert was moved from April to August (which won't work for us assuming we are able to travel to Canada as planned), and many other things have been cancelled. The Governor has only extended the closure of the libraries and schools for two weeks thus far, but I'm expecting for the closure to be extended longer than that. I was expecting things to be cancelled in April, but things in May are also being cancelled left and right. Sight and Sound has only cancelled their shows through April 17 thus far. Our tickets are for April 21; I'm not very hopeful we will actually be able to see Esther in April. We already knew our trip to Chicago in April was cancelled due to the coronavirus, but now it seems our trip to Maryland in May will also be cancelled because I already received emails this week that Ford's Theatre and the Washington Monument will be closed then (we had tickets for May 19). Hopefully life will be returning back to normal in June? Time will tell. So far there aren't any cases of COVID-19 in our county or two other counties we frequently visit, but there are cases in counties not that far from us.

I've also begun to do some spring cleaning. First I reorganized the five bookshelves in our living room and dining room. Then on Tuesday I started to organize, clean, and purge in the basement. I was thrilled that evening with the vast improvements. Unfortunately I injured my back working on that project. Yesterday I was in excruciating pain. Thankfully my back is on the mend today. Today I began tackling the tool shelves in the basement. That has been on the honey do list for years. That project isn't complete, but I'm very thankful that in the very near future it WILL finally be organized. The next thing on my to do list is to apply a coat of Drylok to the basement walls. Plus we've still be doing our usual homeschooling. We aren't bored. Yet. Nadia has been interacting with her cousin via Facetime and also using Skype, Zoom, Instagram Live, and YouTube live to interact with two youth groups. Her plan at the moment is to participate online with our church's youth group on Wednesday nights and FBC's youth group on Sunday nights. Since Ian is an introvert, he is definitely the one in our family least bothered by social distancing, although he was bummed to find out we couldn't go visit Wendy's family in Chicago. Here's to hoping and praying they will announce that COVID-19 has peaked in the USA sooner rather than later...