Quarantine Days

As we were enjoying our spring break vacation in NOLA and spending time with extended family when we returned, little did we know how drastically our lives (and our entire world!) would soon change. On the tail end of our vacation, we learned that Cody and Jaden wouldn't be returning to school after spring break, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The boys were, of course, thrilled to hear that they'd be receiving an extra week of spring break! Soon, though, our state governor issued a stay-at-home order, and we learned the rules of social distancing. No longer did the thought of extra time at home sound like just fun and games. The last week of March, Jaden and Cody entered into the new world of e-learning and zoom calls with their classmates and teachers. Grammy and Aunt Sarah sewed masks for our family that we could wear when we needed to venture out for "essential items." Our lives as we knew it had changed dramatically.

Thankfully, amidst all of this change, we knew that we could lean upon our unchanging God. We were thankful that He was (and still is!) holding our hands and guiding us through these uncertain times. We have technology and social media to connect us to others. We have reliable, committed teachers that could keep our boys learning. We have a slew of young neighbors that make wonderful playmates for our children. We have a stable, innovative church that keeps sharing the hope of Jesus each week through online worship. So, yes, many things in our lives are different and even worrisome at times. But we have many blessings to rejoice in as well. Here are some photos that capture some memories of our time in quarantine.

Playtime

During our second "surprise" week of spring break, before the start of e-learning, we borrowed a few 1000 piece puzzles from Grammy. The boys and I finished two in just over a week.

Our neighborhood encouraged several community activities-- hanging shamrocks on front doors or windows to create a scavenger hunt for the kids, putting teddy bears in windows for a neighborhood-wide "bear hunt," and making sidewalk chalk art at the end of driveways. The boys were especially proud of this Pinterest-inspired chalk art that I helped them create. We loved going on walks or bike rides throughout our neighborhood to check out other neighbors' artwork.

All three kids played outside for multiple hours each day-- riding bikes and scooters, playing sports, and creating "rides" for one another (below).

When our church's Easter Egg Drop had to be cancelled, they switched gears and started planning a You've Been Egged activity instead. Jason brought home boxes of plastic eggs and candy so that our family could help with the egg-packing. Our children (and Adley especially!) willingly filled hundreds of eggs in the weeks before Easter.

Praise the Lord for wonderful neighborhood friends that have given our boys a social outlet. Because we all have small backyards, all of these kids have been in their front yards so much during this quarantine time. It was way too difficult to enforce any kind of social distancing rules on them, so we've just let them all play together. Here was one evening when they had some water wars.

Baking

Because we couldn't gather for worship or take corporate commuion, our church supplied us with a recipe for making our own communion bread. Adley was excited to help me with the process.

Another day, Jaden and Cody helped me bake chocolate peanut butter cookies-- their favorite! I love that they can help with so much of the process now and follow the recipe on their own too.

E-Learning

In late March, our school kicked off its online learning process. We were very impressed with how organized Jaden and Cody's teachers were--sending weekly overviews of assignments to parents, videoing and posting online lessons for the kids to watch, providing age-appropriate assignments for the students, and giving quick feedback on submitted work. It was definitely an unusual setup for school, but we fell into a good routine. Jaden and Cody typically started their schoolwork shortly after breakfast and were almost always done before lunchtime.

As the weeks of online learning progressed, the boys' learning places started to get more comfortable--especially when their teachers' videos extended beyond 15 minutes.

 

Thankfully, Grammy and Papa let Cody and Jaden borrow one of their old laptops so that we could have two with touchscreens. It was much easier to manage their SeeSaw assignments this way.

Twice each week, both boys would have short Zoom conferences with their classmates and teachers. They would usually have specific show and tell assignments (e.g. find something red, something shiny, something important to you). Jaden's teacher would occasionally have mini scavenger hunts for the kids. Both boys seemed to enjoy the chance to touch base with their friends and teachers.

Most of the boys' weekly daily assignments involved completing online worksheets, but occasionally they received some creative assignments that didn't involve staring at a computer screen. Mommy especially appreciated these new ideas! One day, the boys had to conduct a science experiment to test which would melt chocolate faster-- body heat or solar heat.

Each week, the boys also received optional activity assignments from their art and music teachers. Cody and Jaden's very favorite project was creating animals from toilet paper rolls. The assigment was to just create one, but they had so much fun that they asked to complete two. Here was the photo we sent to their art teacher at the end of the week.

Over the weekend, however, the boys' enthusiasm continued. They just couldn't stop making these animals! Thankfully, we had extra TP tubes saved up from a different school project earlier in the year, so Jaden and Cody continued creating new animals until our TP rolls ran out. We ended up with an entire zoo full of TP roll animals!

On the week before Easter, the boys' art assignment was to create butterflies.

Stuffy Days

A few weeks into the quarantine, Jaden and Cody came up with an idea to plan activities for each of their stuffed animals. They borrowed this idea from Grammy and Papa's summertime Jaden and Cody Days. It was so cute seeing how the boys singled out their stuffies one at a time and brainstormed how to make each day special. Whenever possible, the boys would even try to wear an outfit that coordinated with their stuffy. They probably cycled through 8 or 9 different stuffed animals! Here are some "stuffy activities" that they did...

The boys took this whole contraption around the block several times. Cody carried the stomp rocket pump alongside the car so that he could "fill up the gas tank" whenever needed. Ha!

  

Children's Ministry Activities

For several weeks in April, Jaden and Cody hopped on to Zoom calls with some church friends to play online Bingo. We appreciated the efforts of our Children's Ministry staff to coordinate fellowship with the kids.

Our church even started hosting weekly storytimes for Birth-3 year olds. After watching her brothers participate in countless Zoom calls, Adley was so thrilled to have her very own Zoom conversation!

The program directors usually started with a few action songs. Adley wouldn't sing along, but she would join in on the actions (like hugging herself below).

After the songs, the kids would have a little Bible lesson and a prayer. Adley loved the chance to see some of her little friends!

We are certainly living through some crazy and unusual, yet historic times! We continue to pray for the health of our country and world and hope that our quarantine time can soon draw to a close.