Well...that was a very long break from posting.... We kind of fell of the end of the earth for a bit, six months, to be precise, although you’d think that I would have had more time to do blogging and organizing pictures with all that was going on with COVID-19 pandemic.
The reality is that even right now, as I am writing this in September, I really feel that I don’t want to go anywhere deep into my thoughts and feelings, afraid it will bring out some extra worries, doubts and depressing ideas.
As we all know, on March 13th, the world pretty much stopped. Flights from Europe were cancelled (thus my mom couldn’t fly in on March 19th) and the way of life that we were used to turned upside down. I recorded a few video messages and wrote in my journal about what we were experiencing to help me grasp the new reality and organize my inner thoughts. I have to admit that about two days after our beach trip, that happened on March 21-22, I was in a very dark place for almost the whole day long. I didn’t want to get out of bed, I wanted to cry, cry, cry. And I did. But then around lunchtime, I got up, pulling myself together to help kids with lunch, wrote a lot in my journal, separated my thoughts and feelings, trying to figure out what I could control. Then I went on a long walk by myself, feeling better with every minute as I was giving my body new energy to feel ok with what was happening. I realized that I wasn’t as much worried about the situation in the world, as I was worried that I was not going to be capitalizing on this time we had at home with kids doing projects, learning stuff, doing useful things, and enjoying each other. I put a lot of pressure on myself because I saw what a lot of other people were posting online as they were tackling DIY home improvement projects or coming up with other creative ideas for the kids activities. I took a pause, looked at my life realistically, and decided to make changes in my expectations.
Phew..... THAT HELPED A LOT!! I am grateful for taking the time to deal with that mental issue I was having as it really helped me get through the hardest days of that quarantine we were about to face.
I have collected a few pictures from those days between March 16th till May 15th or so. Robert had to close his practice mid March and couldn’t reopen it till May 10th or so. It was a true blessing that he was still working at Riccobene, so he could go be there full time--they are part of a bigger practice and were able to stay open the whole time, mostly dealing with emergencies, but definitely had enough to do.
We made walks our daily activity with the kids! It was not always something they wanted to do, but even a circle around our neighborhood always was a welcome change in their energy.
We had church at home every Sunday (and still are having Sacrament at home). It was a bit strange the first couple of times, but after a while, it felt natural. This is a picture of us dressed up, before church.
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Mark started learning Ukrainian on Duolingo. In fact, he became obsessed with it, in a good way. He was on the leaderboard for weeks and weeks and somehow was zooming through the course. I was so happy that he had found something so useful and fun to do! Of course, todays’s update is that once things opened up, Duolingo has become a bit forgotten...
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We did a few projects outside. Kids had very little schooling, unfortunately, so they really did need to have something to occupy themselves with.
At some point we had to go back into the school to pick up Mark’s school materials...it was so eerie and sad to go back to the classroom and see all the desks and books there as if waiting for kids to return. Remember, no one had any idea that on Friday, March 13th, would be the last school day for a while.
We sewed a few masks, but they didn’t turn out greatly. We still have them as a memory of what we had time to do, but now are using either medical masks or the ones that Grandma Lorraine sent us.
Robert continued to entertain the primary children virtually by recording really funny videos of primary songs featuring a lot of silliness from our kids.
I did adjust my grocery shopping habits and made sure I only went once a week. At first I was going to Aldi and pretty much everything I was buying was around $150, mostly produce. Then Lidl opened and I was happy to add some pastries to the list (they reminded us of England as we had a Lidl there).
This picture was taken probably on one of the first times I wore a mask. Masks were not a mandatory thing till late May! But we still wore masks most of the time when we went shopping.
I love to only use reusable bags on my big grocery trips.
The biggest adjustment for Mark was the fact that the courts in Apex were closed till May 1st. He only got together a couple of times in April with his tennis friends (one at a time) on some courts in Cary or a private country club (which remained opened!).
Mark was taking his tennis training seriously and figured out how to keep practicing in our garage. We endured hours of him hitting the garage wall and working on his freestyle tennis skills and tennis trick shots. I am amazed with that kid! We even started an Instagram account for Mark where we post all things tennis (managed by me and Katya). He already has almost 800 followers and has found a lot of like minded kids all over the world that train, work hard and inspire others to do the same. We have found a lot of work out for tennis videos and tennis drills that have been so helpful as then he can be more independent in his training.
This is a picture of us for the first time on the tennis courts at our park, probably on May 1st.
The big kids have been missing hanging out with friends, of course. We made sure they were getting enough time to relax and enjoy this crazy world, but also feeling useful and getting things done around the house. One thing that everyone was looking forward to was getting haircuts:)
I think this was a pretty quick scoop on our quarantine life. Not much was happening, but we also didn’t sit and watch TV all day. In fact, now, half a year later, I almost feel regret that I didn’t just sit down and watch lots of movies... it’s just me, I will always find something to do.
Bye for now.
Lyana.
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