April 6, 2020

We are all home either working or doing school online. Day one for online schooling for the kids.  They are in high school and have done some of this type of online schooling before, but not like this.  Not where they are working on figuring out time management as well.  Sorting out their week, due dates and where they should be in their course content.  It is a big responsibility for them and I am trying to encourage them to figure it out, make a plan, stay organized and yet, don’t stress.  This is a hard time for us all.  We are all trying to figure it out!

I had a conversation with some friends about the stress on the kids.  They seem ok, but in January we discussed the potential of War and what drafts looked like in history.  What would happen if they were drafted, what changes in our lives would take place?  They were concerned, they asked a lot of questions and now just 2 months later we are fighting a different type of war.  One that requires them to stay home, not attend class and don’t see their friends.  Remember being a teenager, when our friends were the most important part of our lives.  My teens already have a very different looking social life than I did at their age, and now it has changed even more.  A month ago, I was trying to get them to go out, get offline and be with people.  Now I am learning their online world, learning about Tik Toc, and encouraging them to chat and text with more people.  And when they do ask if they can go out, I must refuse them. 

The social part is hard for me too.  I am a people person.  I love to be with people, meeting new people, going out and seeing new places.  Now I am trying to learn to connect more online.  I am trying to blog, trying to be creative with my photography, trying to connect like I hadn’t really before.  Fortunately, the sun is out, and the afternoons can be spent working on the patio.  We are a fortunate family, with laptops and strong internet.  With a home with lots of space and a big yard to enjoy.  I think of the people who have small apartments, with little balconies, who chose their homes because their lifestyle is to be out, enjoying the local parks, the downtown businesses.  I think about the families who have one laptop, who maybe don’t have the internet.  I think about how hard this is on them.  It makes me realize that our little sacrifices are not that big of a deal. That we are the lucky ones in this situation.

Sam and I have talked about how we are lucky to be home.  That we both have a workspace that we can enjoy, that we can walk away from, that we can find quiet in.  We joke about the price of gas is low and that we are unable to take a big road trip.  We have the patio furniture all out, as we can use this additional space for breaks for our brains.  The birds welcome us in the mornings when we have coffee and the patio has been beefed up some by utilizing some of our camping gear, as we believe we won’t be using it for camping trips this year.

This time at home, it is a gift.  We are safe, we are together and we have the things that bring us comfort. 

Sidenote: I have also been working on a Jet Lag Awesomeness playlist on Spotify. I want it to be a great collection of tunes for travelling. This may turn into a couple of lists, one for road trips, one for flights, one for homesickness! If you have suggestions please leave them in the comment box or message me!