When the first cases were in the United States, my oldest son was about to go on his senior class trip to Disney World. I wasn't nervous at all. I honestly didn't think much of this. The went on the trip, leaving on an early Tuesday morning. Within one day, the cases in the country went up dramatically and Disneyland was going to close. As the seniors started to worry about the virus, I started getting multiple texts a day from my son. Still, I wasn't worried. I told him have fun, enjoy the trip and wash his hands A LOT. And then it was announced that Disney World would close on Sunday, March 15. He was due to come home on Saturday, March 14 very late at night. The chaperones took the steps to get the students home a little earlier to ensure they were home safe, sound and healthy. And they did come home a day early with wonderful memories of their time together.
And then school closed. We were thrown into "remote learning" on Monday, March 16 along with most of the state. I still had to do my job (which was very stressful because I work for a senior living community). Our events and updates were changed multiple times a day. We were scrambling to figure it all out with limited time and information. To say we were stressed would be an understatement. As I sat at my dining room table, laptop open, surrounded by my family also doing their work and learning, I got overwhelmed. How will this work? How will we juggle it all? How will we all get along for weeks on end in this house? Well...we managed that first week. My little one is 8 and in third grade. He needs the most help and encouragement. He is NOT one to enjoy sitting to do work. I'm trying to give him lots of opportunities to move around, get his wiggles out so he can finish the work his teacher sent home. His teacher...can I just say that she is an angel? What a sweet girl. Young, energetic, sweet and smart. She is using Zoom to keep in contact with the kids almost every day. She reads a story to them, checks in and lets them see each other's faces. Zoom has been a godsend. My older boys are also doing some virtual classrooms with their teachers. They are handling the workload fine. Thankfully they are very good students and self governing. I don't have to do anything to keep them going! Phew!
My oldest as I said, is a senior. I grew up in a house where "feeling sorry for yourself" was not an option. I have kept that going with my own children. You can have a bad day and feel down, yes. You can complain (for a little bit) but don't wallow and go on and on, feeling sorry for yourself. Now....I'm struggling right now with my oldest. He's upset about losing his senior baseball season and possibly the rest of his year. His prom, his graduation, senior memories...I keep telling him that we don't know yet if it will all be cancelled. And I remind him that he got his Disney trip and thank goodness his Italy and Greece trip was LAST summer and not this summer. There are so many positives that he has had this year but I get it...I try to put myself back in those senior year shoes and sympathize with him. My mom pointed out that Dalton loves history. Well...he's living in a time that will be in the history books.
I have never been more grateful for knitting (and wine lol). At the end of these LONG days, I can curl up on my couch with my family around me, my yarn, knitting patterns and I get to working away the stress from the day. I have finished a pair of socks. YES! You read that right. A PAIR of socks in one week! Who am I???? I pulled out a WIP that has been in hiding for too long, my Leaves of Grass shawl/blanket. I am still working on my son's college quilt. I started watching Homeland with my middle son. Wow it's good!
Over the weekend Liz and I (with the help from our friend Paige) held a virtual knitting night through Zoom. What a great time! We planned on doing it for an hour..... 4 1/2 hours later and some of us were still on there! We hope to do this again during the quarantine time.
So from my home to yours, I hope you are all healthy and safe, not bored, figuring this whole new normal out and getting by day by day.
Things could be worse.....
Here are some photos from the past week...
My finished knitting objects are: Westfjord Wanderer Shawl by Stephen West
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