A new pattern to our days

A strange quiet slow new pattern to our days. Coco still wakes up super early - no corona vacation for her. She and I sneak out quietly while the rest of the house sleeps in. No alarms to wake everyone up. No school lunches to prepare. No school uniforms to put on. No scrambling to gather backpacks and rushing out the door.

 

Coco and I walk by the river. Often meeting up with her dog love, Bailey. When I return, the kids are emerging from bed. Breakfast is sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate. Usually depending on who is deciding (simple = parents; elaborate = kids; elaborate usually means huge amounts of clean up).

And then the first bout of classwork. So far this has fallen almost completely on David's shoulders. I hole up in a quiet corner of the house trying to triage what is left of different researchers' projects, lots of time on skype, zoom and whatsapp trying to help my group decide whether to leave or stay, sort out what options are still open to them, discuss how to salvage what's left of their research. Meanwhile David jumps into the digital classroom with the kids, trying to make sense of what the teachers have assigned that day, which is often kind of a mess - the teachers too are struggling to figure all this new territory out.

 

The afternoons usually involve lots of neighborhood kids all running around like crazy. Really hard to apply social distancing there, the kids have been totally pent up by then, so much energy to expend...

 

And then a cozy family dinner. And a TV show. David is introducing the kids to all his old favorite sitcoms, which surprisingly they seem to love (the IT Crowd is the favorite now). And then a late bedtime, with no pressure at all to get up early the next day. It feels strangely isolated and peaceful, a little cocoon, at least for now safe from the escalating alarm around us.