A few months ago a new virus was identified in China. Lots of stories claim it came from someone in a small village eating bat soup. But the virus infected the first human and has spread quickly. China built 2 huge hospitals in about 9 days to accommodate thousands of patients. Eventually the virus made it to the United States. Everyone has been in a panic about how dangerous this virus is, so by the middle of March they shut down the schools. Basically overnight I became a homeschool teacher and all the real teachers had to convert to online learning. The government closed down all non-essential businesses and most people began working from home.
Basically the whole world went crazy. There was a mad rush on all food and emergency supplies. For some reason that I can't comprehend, everyone began hording bottled water and toilet paper. Stores like Costco had lines winding all the way around the building, and suddenly everyone began wearing face masks. We had a few packs of toilet paper, but I would check every time I went to the store, and I couldn't find any for at least 5 weeks. I was starting to worry that we would legitimately run out. But the hording has been insane. One of the first days, I had to run to Walmart to pick up a birthday present for one of Luke's friends. I thought, "I will just grab a bag of rice and a few cans of beans to strengthen our food storage." But when I got to the store I couldn't believe how empty everything was. Every single aisle was completely picked over. There was absolutely no toilet paper, paper towels, clean supplies of any kind, flour, sugar, rice, beans, canned goods of any kind, etc. And there was such a feeling of panic. People were just buying anything they could find just because no one knew when we'd have a chance to get it again. And I admit that the frenzy was contagious. When you see everyone else buying stuff like crazy, you are kind-of forced to do it too before it's too late. The church has told us to have emergency food and preparedness stuff for years, and I will admit that I never expected it to be for a pandemic. I always assumed it would be used for a natural disaster, but after this pandemic started I was grateful that we had a pretty good supply of food and cleaning supplies on hand.
The first week of homeschool was terrible. The teachers were trying their best to get things set up, but there were lots of technical difficulties. We had a million different websites and logins to set up. My kids don't use computers at home, so I had to help them most of the time. Aspen's teacher sent home some big packets for her to work on. I actually liked the packets because I could sit with her and teach her the concepts and she could work on them and then I could easily check her work. Sophie's work was mostly online. So I spent every 5 minutes running back and forth between the office and kitchen trying to help them with their work. And the teachers were giving soooo much work. One night Sophie had to work until 7pm (she had a few breaks in there, but it was still a lot of work).
And the weather was terrible those first few weeks. It was cold and rainy outside, so we literally couldn't leave the house. So I felt like I had to come up with a million activities to keep the kids entertained. We made fairy houses, took "field trips" to Disneyland and other amusement parks on YouTube.
Fortunately by the end of the second week we had a pretty good system for homeschooling down. I made a schedule and Sophie would start on the computer in the morning while Aspen worked on her worksheets. Then in the afternoon we would switch. After a while the teachers had a better idea how to use the online systems, so that went a lot smoother. And they started giving a more reasonable workload. On top of all of it, the weather improved, so by mid-afternoon the kids could go play with their friends outside. We have been fairly relaxed about the "social distancing" stuff with the neighbor kids. Everyone has kind of decided that we don't want friends playing inside each other's houses, but if they want to ride bikes or jump on the tramps outside then it's okay.
Most restaurants closed to dine-in options. We tried going to drive-thrus or get take-out a few times, but it was a complete disaster. And the whole world has sold out of everything...there are no more weights or exercise equipment, bikes are hard to find, all yard work/landscaping/gardening supplies are gone. Isaac even tried to order bee boxes for a hive we found at the cabin, and it was sold out at IFA and took a while to order in.
We've had to come up with some alternate ways to keep busy and have fun. The Jordan River was running high from a damn release, so the kids floated down it a few times.
One day Luke asked me to paint his face. And a few weeks later he wanted it done again and I ended up painting the faces of all the kids in the whole neighborhood.
We have gone hiking quite a few times. The canyons are completely packed these days. It's almost impossible to find places to park because it is so crowded. But with all other forms of entertainment closed, more people are hiking and biking than ever before. We hiked to Stuart Falls and Scout Falls. They were both about 3 mile hikes that were really good for kids.
It is now July and we are still in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic. About a month ago, they loosened the restrictions on the economy. But Utah's number of infected people has been spiking, so I'm wondering if they will shut down the economy again. We still haven't taken the kids shopping or out to do much of anything. Fortunately they can play with lots of friends in the neighborhood, so that is keeping us sane.
Right now there have been discussions about whether or not kids will be going back to school in the fall. It sounds like they will allow them to, but the kids will have to wear face masks all day. We are all required to wear face masks in public and stores. It's all been a bit crazy. Hopefully they can quickly develop a vaccine and we can get back to normal soon.
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