Thankful Thursday

Hi, all! We're now under stay at home orders here in Colorado. (I could have this wrong but I think the entire state has orders until April 10, and our county has orders until April 17.) We've been basically doing all of that for a week and a half-ish already anyhow, so no big changes. :) And, since it's Thursday, here are some things I'm thankful for today...

1. Sidewalk chalk. It was too beautiful on Tuesday to stay inside, so I broke out some sidewalk chalk. I remember fondly the days when all the kids in our cul de saq were younger and outside and playing together. They're mostly all grown now but I enjoyed the sidewalk chalk for them:

I made the hopscotch for anyone who might be out walking and was just randomly doodling in the driveway. Made all the boys come see my artwork and Micah had me add his poem. :)

2. The timing of our Europe trip. As I read the news and see the empty tourist spots around the world, I'm ever so thankful that we went on our Europe trip when we did...before Notre Dame burned or Venice flooded...before all of this. :(

3. The ability to workout outside. Even under the current stay at home orders, we're still able to exercise outside...so long as we continue to maintain social distancing and all. Yesterday's boot camp workout was an outdoor workout, so I met up with Lynne (we both walked/jogged the half mile or so to meet in the middle) and we completed it together...but at least 6 feet apart. ;)  

4. The boys' schools. Both CSU and CEC have done an excellent job of helping families transition to this distance learning situation. I've been very appreciative of the communication and care. I see other schools around the nation working to figure this all out and am thankful that all of my boys' schools have managed to make the transition as seamless as possible. Yes, some labs are disrupted and can't really been fixed and other things have definitely been complicated. But, classes themselves are all moving forward without any delays so that the semesters will end as scheduled. This morning, Asher and I completed his advising appointment for fall classes via Microsoft Teams...easy peasy.

5. My siblings. Even though the topics haven't all been lovely, it's been nice texting with all my siblings more often lately...sharing information and checking in on each other. (My brother, Joe, by the way, turned out to be negative for COVID19, and he and the four kids who also got sick are all better now.) And I'm ever so grateful that three of them live in Washington and can help my mom and gram. As I type, my sister is picking up my gram (who's recovering nicely from her hip replacement!) and taking her to stay with my brother and his family. (Also, thankful that Bekah lives nearby and can check in on mom so she's not alone!) They wanted to transfer gram to another nursing facility nearby, as she still needs more physical therapy and supervision than she could get at home. But after some back and forth conversations and googling of the facility (not impressed and worried about potential COVID19 exposure since a partner facility has positive cases and they might share staff), and Joe's family's generous offer to take gram, themselves, they managed to make the switch. Joe can provide the physical therapy and his family provides the supervision. Whew. Truly, so, so thankful.

(Thought I'd add a picture. This is my sibs, gram, mom and me back in November 2007.) 

And those are some of the things I'm thankful for today. How about you?

Ten on Tuesday

Hi. Day 10 of social distancing for us (meaning no known exposure and everyone healthy here (so we're not technically on quarantine or isolation)...only going out for groceries and moving Noah and his old roommate's stuff off campus...all while exercising social distancing precautions of keeping 6 feet distance and washing hands frequently). Here are some things I've learned so far (the "light" edition)...

1. There's less laundry. :) Without karate and climbing clothes to wash, we're definitely lighter on the normal laundry here. 

2. All the hand washing leads to dry hands. I've scrounged up numerous hand moisturizers from around the house...thankful for the many samples and gift sets I've acquired over the years. 

3. We're able to have dinner earlier! While we don't have to wait for Nathan's bus to get home on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we can eat dinner earlier. Nice. (Incidentally, it's been more than two weeks since Nathan's taken the bus or gone to his office in Boulder.)

4. I'm really tall in my shadow in the morning. ;) It's been awhile since I've run outdoors (and last week was overcast), so I didn't remember that. Went for another run this morning...appreciate the fun artwork along the trail!

5. So far, online schooling for Asher and Micah is going just fine. Having been in charge of their own schedules during homeschooling and having taken a few online classes then, too, seems to have prepared them just fine for this situation. 

6. Rescheduling standardized tests is annoying. Don't get me wrong. I totally get it and am fine with doing so...rescheduled both the ACT and SAT tests that Asher was set to take in April. Given that everyone's in the same boat, though, the nearest testing center I could get into is an hour away. Bleh. Wondering what will happen if the June tests don't happen either...most juniors need test scores before they can start applying for colleges in the fall. Guess we'll cross that bridge later...

7. Date nights are complicated. ;) Generally, Nathan and I try to go out for a date night weekly...not always anything big, sometimes it's just a drink after dinner at a local brewery or restaurant to catch up away from home. In any case, that's obviously not happening right now. Now that I'm realizing it, though, I'm working on ways to still incorporate some time into our routine...maybe just nice drives or walks together. 

8. One on one time with each boy needs the same attention. I try to do something with each boy at least monthly. Again, it's going to take a bit of creativity these days, though. :) (Neither date nights or one on ones are a problem...I'll figure it out. I'm just making a note because I'm realizing I need to be intentional about it.)

9. The spin bike, in case you were wondering, is getting plenty of use and appears to be helping to keep Micah's arthritis flare ups down...hooray!

10. I wonder if the traffic engineers in town will adjust the traffic signals during this pandemic. I was realizing that the signals are longer than necessary right now with so much less traffic out and about. ;)

That's enough for now. What sorts of pandemic lessons are you learning these days?

Social distancing Saturday

So. How's everyone's social distancing going? :) I'm hearing stories of folks already getting a little stir crazy. Personally, I'm doing just fine. This is mostly what a normal day looks like for me, lol. Of course, today was a little bit different thanks to social distancing, specifically thanks to the gym and college campus being closed.

This morning, my boot camp instructor texted our group that the gym is loaning out spin bikes FOR FREE during this time of being closed. Within minutes, at least four of us replied that we were on our way and saw each other out front to pick up a bike shortly thereafter. We signed the appropriate forms, kept our distance and took our bikes home...(thanks, again, to Lynne for giving ours a ride in her truck!)

I don't actually spin or bike much but am thrilled to be able to use this until the gym opens again. And it'll be fabulous for Micah's arthritis! (You may remember that over winter break we tried to go for bike rides to help with that...only to discover that we don't have a bike Micah's size.) He's already used it more than once today. :)

(It's rather heavy so will just live there near the front door, lol. Apparently that's also where we're keeping Noah's fridge and chair and storage box from his dorm...plus his old roommate's tv and shelf unit. It's actually pretty handy having the fridge there, though. We've been using it as extra storage since our fridge is more full than normal.)

After the excitement of that this morning, Nathan, Noah and I headed back up to campus. Noah's roommate from last year is in Hawaii (went home for spring break, before the announcement about switching to online only classes for the rest of the semester and encouraging most on campus students to stay home if possible). Given that it's very difficult for them to get back to pack up his apartment, we were happy to go meet the storage company to pick up boxes...go to his room and pack up all his stuff...and then meet the storage company truck again to load everything for storage over the summer. 

Campus was busier than when we packed up Noah's stuff on Wednesday but still considerably less crowded than usual move out days...a little sad but also nice because we actually got to use one of the carts and didn't have to use the stairs because the wait for the elevator was too long, lol. 

And now we're home and fed and going to play some family games. :) Happy weekend to you all!

Thankful Thursday

Bringing back my Thankful Thursdays...because it seems appropriate. ;) So...things I'm thankful for beyond the more obvious:

1. That we took advantage of yesterday's gorgeous weather (60s and sunshine) to go for a walk/hike in Lory State Park. Plenty of other people had the same idea but we all did a good job of maintaining our social distancing while smiling and enjoying the outdoors:

(Today, if you're wondering, it's grey, chilly and sleeting, and we're under a winter storm warning with snow expected this afternoon and evening. Blech.)

2. That we've been enjoying some fun family game nights. Earlier this week, we pulled out Pandemic...because pandemic. ;)

In case you're wondering, we managed to cure all the diseases, save the world and win. :)

3. That we have such nice trails near our house. I've already been running and walking on them this week. It's been ages since I've run outside, so that will take some adjustment, lol. And Noah and Micah joined me on my walk...which was lovely.

4. That I'm still able to workout from home. Even though all the gyms are closed, my boot camp gang has a group text going and I have the space in the basement...

(Handy that Nathan has that white board there for work brainstorming. I wrote the day's workout there.)

Micah's also been working out. His climbing coach sent him some workouts to do at home. I'm pretty sure they were meant to be done over the course of a week. He did them all Tuesday. ;) 

5. That we're local. CSU is officially going to online classes for the rest of the semester. Dorms and one dining hall (to-go only) remain open for those who need them, but students were encouraged to return home and are being issued a prorated refund. We were able to sign up for the very first time slot and retrieved the rest of Noah's stuff and checked him out from the dorm yesterday morning (before today's yucky weather). They're limiting how many people can check out at a given time, and everything went smoothly--we only came into contact with the one guy at the desk checking us out. (Course, now my front room is temporarily full of all of Noah's stuff, lol.) My heart goes out to the out of state parents trying to figure out how to coordinate everything...and my sincerest thanks to CSU for how they've been thoughtfully handling everything.

And that's my Thankful Thursday...how's yours going?

Staying home...part 2

So. What's going on here? As I mentioned, we're all home and staying here other than any necessary trips for groceries.

All of the boys are on spring break this coming week and then will be schooling from home via online classes. Colorado State University switched officially to online classes for the rest of the semester. Dorms and dining halls are still open for those who need/want them. (That may change. We're awaiting another announcement.) Colorado Early Colleges will switch to online schooling for the week after spring break and reevaluate on March 27. So, so far no actual missed classes for any of ours, just a change in location. Unfortunately, though, Noah's lab classes are still a bit up in the air, as those can't be done online. He's waiting to hear what will be done for those.

Academically, also, Asher and I had a road trip planned for this week for four college visits. Those have all been canceled, as the campuses are either closed altogether or have switched to online classes. We're sad, as we were really looking forward to the trip and aren't sure there will be another time that we can do it before college applications will be due. His April ACT test has also been canceled. (It will be rescheduled for the summer, I'm told.)

With a great many local businesses closing down, all of the boys' activities are stopped for the time being. We understand and fully support this, but missing out on the climbing gym is particularly hard on Micah...who relies on that activity to help keep his arthritis flare ups at bay. The rest of the season for local sport climbing competitions has been cancelled.

Appointments and such have been cancelled. Micah will go for his follow-up appointment with the Pediatric Rheumatology department down at Children's Hospital later. We'll volunteer again for Habitat when they start back up. 

Nathan had been taking the bus to Boulder three days a week for work and working from home the rest of the time. His office has closed and he's working from home. That's all fine. But, given the fact that his company deals with sales in the tourism arena, social distancing and shutting things down is a big deal. Just a week before all this, they finally opened their sales partnership with Google and Disney (woohoo!) for ticket sales...only to now have Disney closed for the month. Oy.

But. We've got this. :) 

We, having homeschooled for almost 15 years, are pretty familiar with how to school from home, lol. Boys are also used to being together for schooling and otherwise and generally get along just fine. Nathan's used to working from home. We know how to all be here together all day long. :) 

We were paying attention to the news and started stocking up slowly 2-3 weeks ago; plus I generally keep essentials well stocked in advance. We added a bit more in food stores when we realized Noah would be home with us also (and have had discussions with our three teenage boys about how having extra food on hand is not a challenge to eat it all, lol).

Four of the five of us are introverts and prefer to be home anyhow. Micah's not thrilled but has been reading the news and understands. Thank goodness for texting so he can still talk to friends!

I made it to the library less than an hour before they closed for three weeks so was able to pick up the things I had on hold...that will probably come in handy in the coming days at home. :) 

We fully recognize that we're fortunate...to have insurance and be healthy and have at least something of a cushion and not need childcare and have reliable, high speed internet (kinda required since Nathan works from home anyhow). And so many other things.

We've got a list of things to do in this social distancing downtime. Some should be fun. Some will at least be productive, lol.

We're thankful that our community is taking this seriously even though there is only one confirmed case in our county at present. (Most everything that can be is shut down.) We appreciate the forethought and patience being shared, and we thank the many individuals who continue to work to keep everything running...everyone in the health care industry, local government, utilities, internet service, and many more! We're doing our best to support our local businesses through this time and encourage others to do the same if they are able.