So how we have been keeping ourselves occupied while we shelter in place (aren’t aren’t working or in school)? Aside from the aforementioned movie marathon and charade games, we:

-set up an elaborate indoor mini golf course
-made a lot of dance videos
-did various research projects (based on Zoe’s direction I did a project on therapy dogs and am now writing about the first female U.S. senator)
-took long walks (including Starbucks runs) with Maddie
-baked a berry pie – from scratch
-hung out in our backyard on sunny days
-celebrated Passover virtually
-read a lot

Let’s see what the next month brings.

-M

So, I didn’t intend to stop blogging. We went to Mexico for a family trip in late Jan. just before my last post, and when I got back things at work got incredibly busy. I kept planning to post an update – obviously there were things to share, including our vacation photos – and then: COVID-19 hit. For about seven weeks I found myself working at a pace I didn’t think was humanly possible; I worked long hours seven days a week and didn’t have the physical or emotional energy to do much other than focus on the pandemic. And so, here we are…

The Bay Area has been sheltering in place for just over a month now, and aside from last week’s spring break the girls have been doing distance learning since then as well. (There was a bit of an adjustment period to the new school format, especially for Avery, but now things are going pretty well.) My work is still bananas – let’s say that working for a health care institution during a global pandemic has been quite the experience – but it’s more manageable than it has been. And Q’s keeping busy with his work, too.

You read a lot about people’s feelings of anxiety and isolation over what’s happening, and I know that having smaller kids during this time is particularly challenging. But I can honestly say that things here aren’t that bad: The four of us have fallen into a nice staying-at-home rhythm. No fights, no major issues. The girls have been keeping themselves entertained and have gone entire days without getting dressed (which they love) – and I’m happy to avoid a commute that was starting to stretch to over an hour. Of course, the most important thing is that none of us or our loved ones have gotten sick.

There’s been a silver lining to being stuck at home, and it’s the extra family time that we all now have. We’re simply almost always together. We eat as a family more than ever before (Zoe cooks dinner several times a week), we’re playing tons of games (charades is our new fave), and we recently finished a major movie marathon (22 Marvel movies, concluding with last year’s excellent “Avengers: Endgame”). The pace of our new life, when I’m not working, is just slower and sweeter – and I don’t hate it. In fact, I’m going to do what I can to keep it going well after we’re through this thing.

-M