Bowers Blog: And the quarantine continues....

We are officially through week 2 of our national quarantine. At this point, there is no school until April 27th (tentatively), restaurants are closed for dine in, it's carry out or delivery only, non essential stores and establishments had to close their doors, and other essential stores have limited hours. I went to Publix because we were in desperate need of some food staples, and most of the shelves were empty. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Even in the worst hurricane predictions, I've never seen grocery store shelves that empty. For Worth's anesthesia group, all elective surgeries have been cancelled, which is about 80% of their business. Where I work, we've cancelled all patients that aren't immediate post ops and anyone that walks in the door gets their temperature taken right away.

It has been the strangest situation over the past several days. I have times in which I'm so frustrated and anxious that I feel like I just need to sit down and cry, and then there are times where I'm truly enjoying the slower pace. I worry constantly about the what ifs and the people that are losing so much more than I am during this quarantine. I'm thankful that Worth and I continue to have jobs. I'm also thankful that the kids can learn so much through so many resources online that the school has provided. I hope all of the small business owners can make it, and our country doesn't hit an all time low economically. I hope that no member of our family or our friends contract this crazy virus that has wreaked havoc in our world. My prayer daily is just for this virus to end. I know everyone else feels the way I do, we are all in this together, but hopefully for not too much longer.

The kids are doing great despite not leaving our house and neighborhood (other than 2 trips to the golf course) for the past 2 weeks. I'm not the greatest homeschool teacher, but I'm trying to make it work. If this continues they could potentially be done with school for the year, and I can't let their brains go to complete Netflix mush over the next 5 months. Monday through Friday they are up by 8 and we cover 2 hours of school work in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon with plenty of outside time and exercise. (Thankfully, so far, we've been blessed with the most beautiful weather!)

In addition to homeschool, we've celebrated St. Patty's Day, played with neighbors (until recently when Worth is spending more time at the hospital, and we don't want to infect the neighbors if he brings it home.) We've had nature walks, scavenger hunts, and Worth and the kids even made a ninja course in the backyard. It has yet to get boring, but I'm sure by the end of April, I may be singing a different tune.

Here are some pictures of our sometimes exciting sometimes mundane moments:

Unfortunately, COVID did NOT keep the leprechaun away. He did his annual drop in our laundry room toilet.

He also made a huge mess in the kitchen in some supplies that I had originally bought for Mack's class for St. Patty's Day, He opened everything in the hobby lobby bag.

He even found Elle's avocado and dressed her up.

A little rain St. Patty's afternoon didn't keep us from having fun. Go noodle entertained these 3 for a solid hour.

The dance moves were very entertaining.

Mack had the first jump in the pool for the year.

You would have never known it from this picture, but this fun-loving looking little girl had a complete come apart prior to swimming this particular afternoon. Worth and I were "the worst parents ever" because I made her do a small amount of narrative writing for her ELA work for the day.

Our kids and the neighbors enjoying a beautiful March afternoon.

Homeschool is a challenge, but thankfully there are tons of online resources and the teachers are starting to send more stuff daily for them to engage in.

Mack loves the Epic website because they have "read to me" books.

Ellie works hard on Study Island in ELA.

We can still go golfing, so that was another outing last weekend.

I let Emma drive the golf cart for a bit.

They competed to see who could get the ball across the water near the hole. Ellie won.

This was the grocery store when I went last week.

Completely empty shelves. Thankfully, the produce was in plenty.

We've done several scavenger hunts in the neighborhood. This was a nature hunt to get us out of the house so the maid could clean. They insisted on riding/scooting/hover boarding while I followed in the golf cart.

We ended up at the playground and the kids enjoyed the (almost) completely empty playground in our neighborhood.

The maid had the house to herself while these kiddos did scavenger hunts and school work. They loved having school outside and have begged everyday to sit out there to work.

I think it's so cool that the technology is so good, that the girls were able to take their tumbling classes online. Thankfully, we have a trampoline, so Ellie was able to work on her backhand springs while being coached by her teacher.

Emma worked hard on her front and back walk overs as well as her hand stands while she listened to and watched her coach on my iPad.

The baking is definitely happening in our house. Ellie even turns it into her own cooking show.

Church is now livestreamed online, so we watch in the living room every Sunday morning. This morning the minister challenged the kids to draw a picture about he scripture in Exodus that he was discussing - God parting the Red Sea for the Israelites. This is Emma's drawing.