Stay Home ~ Week 1

On Friday the 13th I dropped the girls off at school and headed into work as usual.  A co-worker and I were talking and she was telling me how the L.A. school district was in a meeting on whether or not they would be closing schools due to the Coronavirus and at that moment I realized that it would only be a matter of time before it was the same for our district as well.   The teacher came into the class shortly after and told us that there were only two kids coming in for the day out of our usual nine(I work with autistic children so classes are smaller).   She told us that we could choose to leave if we wanted to otherwise we would all be split up and working in other classes.   We pretty much all decided to leave and I'm so glad I did because I immediately decided I would spend the day visiting stores and stocking up on whatever we would need in case schools were to be out.

First up was a trip out to Trader Joe's.   I have never in my life seen so many people shopping at Trader Joes and shelves were already looking bare.   I bought a lot of frozen goods and other things I knew we loved to try and hold us over.   I waited in a very long line and then headed home but first I made a quick stop at Aldi just to try and find toilet paper because we were going to need more soon.   There was none so I grabbed frozen chicken and some other favorites we use and walked by ladies loading carts full of tons of canned items.  It was honestly crazy seeing all of the people stocking up on things but hey I was one of them too I guess.

When I picked the girls up from school that afternoon I let them know that school most likely would be out until the end of the month and while there were a few smiles of joy there were also questions.  That night we ate pizza in the family room together and watched Masked Singer.

Phones rang and messages were heard around 7:30 letting us know that kids would not be returning to school until April 3rd. 

Saturday morning the girls were up and busy drawing and writing together.

Kayla came out and shared how she decided to waste some of her time drawing on her toes.

Three weeks of this nonsense with this girl?

Saturday afternoon we decided to keep our plans to head out to Palm Springs to visit with my father in law.   We had been having nothing but rain for weeks and we knew Palm Springs would be warm and a wonderful way to spend what we were pretty sure would be one of our last outings before we were all told to stay home for good.

Sunshine is so good for the soul!

The pool was heated and the girls enjoyed swimming and playing around.

Cocktails and yummy food, oh this was a fun day!

This sweet girl cuddled up on the couch with her nose in a book was enjoying her Saturday night as well.

By Monday we were all told to stay home which we knew was coming whether we were ready or not.  The girls had no worries because playing at home for the next three weeks sounded like a dream come true to them.  I told them there would be things that we needed to get done as well as some learning from home.  There were many emotions and not happy faces when I told them schoolwork would still happen just a little differently.

We would also be going on lots of walks together as a family.   On this Monday though it was just us three girls because Chris did have to go into the office to pick up all of his work so he could work from home.

Once we got home Brooklyn worked on some Sudoku

While Kayla and I thoroughly cleaned and organized her room and drawers.   We filled an entire trash bag of junk.  Her room and desk area was so much nicer afterward.

Afterward she listened to music and rested

while Brooklyn created with LEGOS

We ate delicious dinners every night and the first week we all gathered around the tv and watched the series Locke and Key on Netflix.

The kitty's were happy to be having so much extra attention.

and another day meant another LEGO town set up

I love waking up and seeing my twelve year old still bringing out a new favorite toy (just stay little, just stay little....)

By Thursday I needed to head out to the store to pick up some more food.  Boy do we run out of food when we are ALL home!  I was happy to find that everything was pretty much stocked except for some canned items, milk and toilet paper.    

By now we were told that school would be out until the end of April and there were even rumors that most likely students would not be returning until the Fall.   I was wondering how in the world I was going to get through this because the days were dragging and my thoughts were all over the place.  The weather was not helping with rain of and on and it was just too cold and cloudy to be outside during the day.

Brooklyn loves to paint so she was happy having a few hours in the day to be creative.

The girls have kept busy playing card games together throughout the mornings and evenings

I happily did some baking to kill some time.

If the sun was out we were out for a walk!

Tommy is a stray cat we see out and about.  I think one of the corner houses here feeds him so he sticks around and I'm assuming they made him his collar that says 'Tommy the Sundance kitty', which is our neighborhood.   The girls look for him every time we go out for our walks and stop to give him some pets before we head on our way.

Finding the beauty on our daily walks has been a good mood booster

and ending Week one of staying home with some good food helps as well.