So I started this blog as a way of keeping up with all our family adventures. Sadly, after my first section of posts about our Disney vacation in January/February 2020 and a few other adventures at the end of February, our world as we knew it changed drastically due to the Covid-19 quarantine and I didn’t feel like we had done much to be blog worthy. But after almost 4 months into the pandemic way of life, I feel like I need to document what life has been like.
March 13th was my last regular day of work. The following week was deemed an early Spring Break, followed by the actual week of Spring Break and the following week started virtual learning for the remainder of the semester. These weeks were extremely trying as I was at home full time with Grant and learning how to teach from home. I survived on very little sleep. I found the easiest way to accomplish my work was to play with Grant all day and stay up into the wee hours of the morning working for school. We played outside nearly every single day. My typical school hours seemed to be about 6 pm to 3 am every day. We went approximately 6 weeks with very little interaction from anyone else including my parents. Eventually I had to ask for help and my mom started keeping Grant for me some. These were a very exhausting, mentally draining, and scary 6 weeks. While I am very very thankful for the time I was able to spend with Grant during those weeks, I quickly saw that I could not sustain this for much longer. Grant had virtual pre-school with lessons sent home by his teacher along with PBS AMI. To be completely honest however, we pretty much did our own thing. We did attempt some of the same pbs shows but his age category was pre-k to 2nd grade and much of the content was over his level of understanding. So we worked on anything I could turn in to education. Including “writing”his name with cotton balls, doing science experiments, playing with moon sand, etc.
This time frame also was complicated by taking care of my ailing grandparents. Grandpa got sick immediately following Grants flu diagnosis 3 days after returning from Disney. Turns out he had a extremely bad UTI that required hospitalization for a week and then they made the decision to move to the nursing home. They were in the nursing home for around 10 days before the lockdown prevented us from visiting them except through the windows. I hate that we can’t physically visit with them, however, I am so very thankful for the care the have received. It has been 4 months since I have seen them in person. Unfortunately mom has been able to have a few visits because of ER trips. However life is for sure not the same!
So during my “Spring Break” I decided that I wanted to redo our master bathroom! I did most of the work myself for it. With some help from friends as well. I painted the vanity, ripped up the awful old tile and replaced it with beautiful vinyl plank flooring, replaced the toilet, and light fixtures as well. I love the way it turned out.
During quarantine, our town hosted a huge “bear hunt” to give the kids something to do! We went on quite a few bear hunt walks around our neighborhood.
We also participated in our very first birthday parade for Langley Stocker. Grant had such a good time. He has a thing for parades now! We’ve participated in several since the pandemic started.
We made “huggers” for our grandparents who we miss so much!
Masks made an entrance in to our lives when you couldn’t find any PPE, Clorox wipes, lysol, germ-x, or evening toilet paper.
We made a day of outdoor activities with some shooting practice at the farm
Another parade. This time we were spectators for a teacher parade with all of the Walnut Ridge teachers driving by to show their students how much they were missed
That’s all for this update. Next up….Easter while quarantined.
Cagle Family Adventures 