We have officially completed a week of the “New Normal”. Today, March 25, 2020, marks the first day of week 2. I look back on this morning last week, and I feel largely the same. There is the same uncertainty, the same concerns for the economy, and it feels like there is so much that we still do not know. The one major difference is that while, I am optimistic that this will be over soon, I no longer have the idea that this will be over in 15 days.
What is new in today’s news: The stimulus package, which was stalled because of politics early this week, has now been agreed about by the Senate and the White House. The Stock Market had its largest one day gain in history. I hope that I am wrong, but I think that the market will go back down again, and I do not believe that we have seen the bottom of the market yet.
Prince Charles has tested positive for the virus. Sadly, when the media talks about the “high risk group”, they really focus on pre-existing health conditions and the person’s age. The level of health care that the person has access to is also a major factor in who lives and who dies. I do not expect any public figure to die from the virus.
Challenges with present situation: The economy continues to be the biggest challenge. Economic challenges are often a driver of suicide, and the virus is sending our economy into a tailspin. Sadly, I think that we will lose more Americans to suicide driven by economic hardship than the virus.
On a personal front, yesterday was my first bad day. I was just so tired, and then I was frustrated with Brainy Bird. I slept late this morning, not starting my workday until 7 AM. I feel well rested. I skipped my run this morning. I may take a rest day, or go for an early evening run.
Update on the Birds: We overcame our family’s yesterday morning challenges, and we had a wonderful evening together. When is the last time that we spent four nights in a row playing games together? Little Chirp continues to be Captain Positive of our little family’s ship.
Brainy Bird perked up after lunch. He got a great deal of his school work done, and then he joined us for Mario Party in the evening. I had not played video games in years. I am terrible! Little Chirp is uber competitive. He wants to win, and he gets so excited, jumping all around the living room. Little Chirp’s enthusiasm makes the game fun.
I agreed to let them sleep in this morning. I could make a solid case on either side of this argument. I absolutely believe in maintaining a schedule. I left the house yesterday, and drove around the neighborhood to talk to their dad without them hearing me. Dad agrees with me, as Dad said, “This is not a vacation. School work is just as important as it has always been.”
I agree with him 100%.
On the other hand, Brainy Bird’s entire summer is cancelled, and who knows when he will see his friends again. He was crushing it in school, set to make 5’s on all of his AP exams. There is complete uncertainty around the AP exams at this point. He himself will tell you, his problems are minute in the grand scheme of things. However, they are the things that he cares about. They are big in his world.
I think that it is about balance, the 80/20 rule as they say. So, it is official sleep in day at the Storey house. They earned this with their positive energy during family time last night, and by cleaning the kitchen top to bottom before they headed off to bed. The kitchen is crazy clean. I am thinking that I will offer a sleep in day as a reward one weekday each week.
I am also going to put structure in Brainy Bird’s day. He is self directing at the moment, aside from the 7:45 AM homeroom, which he had been neglecting to show up for. I am going to put an hour of reading in his schedule, along with some creative thinking projects.
Little Chirp never read before all of this, aside from the weekend cram session that he pulled off with Ender’s Game a few weeks ago. Brainy Bird has always been a big reader, but could not juggle reading for pleasure with his workload in school. That has definitely changed.
Things I am grateful for: I am grateful for all of the technology that we have in our house – computers, Wi-Fi, speaker/video equipment. This is helping us tremendously with home school and me working remotely. Brainy Bird’s Spanish teacher called last night, and she mentioned that she has counted 44 students so far that do not have Wi-Fi in their home.
Shout out to a friend: With all of the humans that I want to give a shout out to, it has to seem a little odd that today’s shout is going to my fur kids. I am in the mood to write something light hearted, and the furs have absolutely been a huge source of emotional support for our little family.
I often say that Potatoe is my best friend. Potatoe stays by my side night and day. He does the warm up portion of my morning runs with me, and he is often resting his head on my lap or shoulder, which he does to comfort me when he senses that I am worried or sad.
I find a cat in the laps of the boys through out the day. Storme stays in Little Chirp’s class room until Little Chirp is done with his school work. Yesterday, he was snuggled up on the shelf inside Little Chirp’s desk while Little Chirp was reading. When Little Chirp is finished with his school work; one can find his snuggled up with Storme on the couch.
Pumpkine has started climbing into my lap while I am at my desk on conference calls. She is a shy, timid little kitty, so this is a big step for her. Her brother, Trooper spends his days chasing squirrels around the backyard. I sometimes stand at the back window while I am on conference calls, and I watch him bounce around the yard; this definitely lifts my spirtis. Trooper then comes in for dinner, and falls asleep, exhausted in the nearest lap.
All four of the furs were hanging out on the couch with us last night when we were playing Mario Party. The furs out number the humans in this house, and that I not a bad thing!
Positives with present situation: Time with the human kids and the fur kids is the ultimate positive of the present situation.
Other positives include the fact that the house has never been cleaner. I used to hate cleaning, I am actually enjoying the physical activity.
All three of us are brushing up on our cooking skills. We are eating like kings!
It is the little things in life…