Isn't it amazing how much life as we know it can change in a week? Or a day, for that matter? Last Sunday we were going about our Sunday routine as normal, attending church services during the day and a singing in the evening. When we got home, we learned school had been canceled for four weeks and gatherings of 50 or more should be canceled. The next day, that gathering limit was down to 10, preferably less. So much uncertainty to process in our minds and hearts as so many unknowns lying in our future.
I am not censoring my rambling today under the assumption that there are many readers who have all the time in the world to endure the endless details spilling out of my brain.
Day one (Monday) was the day we removed all events from our calendar. It was almost kind of a lifting of a burden of a busy social life. No more obligatory house cleaning, food prep, planning, schedules, or other obligations. Oh, and I started potty training Joanna.
Day two (Tuesday) all of the uncertainties of the future began to weigh me down as I processed everything. Like, what in the world was happening? How can the whole world just get cancelled? Will there be groceries in the store when I get back to town? How fast is this virus going to spread? How soon is it going to affect us or those we love? When is the class of 2020 going to graduate? And, obviously, how am I going to cope with no face-to-face social interactions with the outside world? I didn't think I was stressed, but my body told me otherwise. By Tuesday night I was in a very bad mood, overtired, headache, and no patience left to be found (perhaps the activities of the day exhausted me too). What frustrated me even more was that it was only day two of many days ahead, and I already felt like I couldn't cope.
 |
| The children were busy in the kitchen on Tuesday... |
 |
| A huge spread for our noon meal! Each one of them made a couple entrees! |
Last Friday I got a sourdough starter, so my baking projects on Tuesday were my first loaf of sourdough bread and a fresh strawberry pie with sourdough crust.
Tuesday evening was also the night that Matt brought his office home with him as Stanley closed down their offices until at least April 6th. Matt left right after he got home from work to go get the tractor from his dad to till our garden. By the time he got back home and the garden was tilled, it was dark and I was at my wits end. But hey, now we can plant the garden once the weather improves again!
 |
| Micah is loving riding his bike! Maybe we don't need a triple stroller after all! |
Day three (Wednesday) Matt had to work away from home doing some power line inspections, and I didn't try to get one thing done around the house due to my need to get my mood and outlook put back together. I just fed my children, sat on the couch, read books to the kids, and let them make a huge disaster of the house. By that, I mean it was such a mess that when Matt got home he stopped outside the living room and his eyes popped out of his head. I was in such a daze that I didn't even realize the reason for his odd expression until he had disappeared to the bathroom to put his eyeballs back in.
 |
| The boys like to play "teacher" or "librarian" and read books to us. |
I did decide to get the house put back together, and that helped me feel better too. That evening I took a walk and prayed. I decided we are going to make the most of this opportunity to stay home with only our family for the foreseeable future. Afterwards, we listened to church services. The refreshment of hearing the word shared and the (virtual but real) connection it gave us to our brotherhood was wonderful. We also listened to a very good talk from Rockville church regarding the coronavirus. I went to bed with a renewed hope for the upcoming weeks and months.
Day four (Thursday) things started to go better as we started to adjust to our new "normal." It was Matt's first actual day in his new "office" in the basement bedroom. He ate breakfast and lunch with us, which was so nice. It was great to see another soul during the day with a maturity level over age four. I also realized after talking on the phone on Wednesday that hearing another person's voice really lifted my spirits, so we video called my mom and Travis. I also kicked into high gear with child training and discipline, because if we are all going to be stuck together in this house, we better have some love and order going around so it can be a God-honoring bonding time.
Day five (Friday) Matt had a meeting in the morning but otherwise had the day off. My day got off to a rough start when I was taking Joanna potty and Matt gave the boys a carton of eggs and a frying pan and told them to make me eggs for breakfast. Then he picked up his bowl of cereal and headed downstairs to go to work. I was left in the bathroom with Joanna doing her business while listening to eggs fall and splatter on the floor as the boys tried to make breakfast. When I finally got out there to clean it up, the children walked off with the humidifier and spilled water all the way down the hallway. So then I mopped water up off the carpet before finally proceeding with our day. I had just gotten showered and dressed after 11 when Matt came back up for the day and took the kids outside to play.
I made another pie filling for the second pie crust I made on Tuesday. This time it was a chocolate silk pie, except with okra and coconut oil as the two main ingredients (blended smoothly and hidden, of course). It wasn't as tasty as the strawberry pie, so I ended up eating a lot of it myself. But that's ok because almost all of the ingredients are super foods so my body will thank me. :)
I also made sourdough pizza for supper. It was some of the best pizza we have had here in awhile! Mainly because I have been making pizza crusts out of alternative healthy flours that just aren't exactly the pizza crust we were used to. This actually tasted like real pizza crust.
We decided to get out by going for a drive. I needed to pick up honey from Tami, eggs from Phil and Kelli, and Matt needed a computer cord from Jake. We all enjoyed the scenery of the K Road and Highway 99.
Joanna was up during the night with a cough. The other boys also have coughs now. Every sign of a cold now makes me feel like we need to be even more strict with our quarantine. We are upping all of our immune boosting foods and drinks these days!
 |
| She is such a willing sport to drink whatever concoction I make up for her...usually it involves a good dose of apple cider vinegar because I am starting to think that is the cure for everything. |
Day six (Saturday) was a pretty good day. My final sourdough experiment of the week was a large batch of oatmeal honey bread. It was a day-long project (due mostly to six hours of rising time) but turned out well! I've also made sourdough pancakes a couple times now, and next up on the agenda is sourdough cinnamon rolls. Why all the sourdough craze? Well, for one I just got a starter last week and I love new experiments! But I got the starter because I learned that sourdough bread is apparently low-glycemic if you let it ferment long enough. I've been using white whole wheat flour, which is reportedly good after letting it ferment at room temperature for seven hours. With white flour I think you are supposed to do several days for enough of the sugar to be eaten up.
 |
| Matt found a new way to keep Micah entertained...let him bang all the nails down, then flip the board over and have him hammer them back the other way! |
Matt and the boys worked in the garage for a bit, then the boys came in and played in the basement. About 10 minutes into their play, I realized Matt wasn't down there with them. And I realized (per a report from Levi) that the boys were playing with the kitchen sink sprayer. By the time I got downstairs, the whole kitchen area of the basement was underwater...like, slosh, slosh, slosh went your feet on the carpet. The wood stove area was flooded. There was water in the cupboard under the sink. The couch by the sink was drenched. The walls and cupboards were all dripping water. And...somehow, somehow...there was water dripping down the windows that are definitely out of range of the sprayer. Their play wheelbarrow was full of water, and at the moment the boys were soaking their dolls in the water giving them "baths." Wow, oh, wow. After I got done mopping up all of the solid surfaces and opened the cupboards up to dry, I called Matt down and he got the fans going and started a fire in the wood stove to get things dried up faster. Thankfully we had nothing better to do than clean up the mess, so we were able to find the humor in it. As I keep saying..."we've got all the time in the world." Ain't it true these days.
 |
| Playing doctor! She reminded me of all the nurses helping fight COVID-19 these days. |
Another near disaster happened later in the evening while Matt was outside burning the pasture. Micah said, "Mommy, look! I cut some of Joanna's hair!" What?! Yeah, because Joanna gave him the scissors and wanted him to cut her hair. Thankfully it was just a little curl toward the back of her head and you can't even tell, except it is the one little lock of hair without a sweet baby curl on the end. I nearly forgot to dig the cut hair sample out of the trash and put it in her baby book for her "first haircut" envelope!
 |
| Just had to put this on here to show that it really turned out ok. You probably have to know what you're looking for to see the strand of hair that doesn't have a curl on the end. Her hair is getting so long! |
Day seven (Sunday) was also a nice day. We enjoyed a more relaxed pace to our Sunday morning routine since we got to sleep in longer than usual. We did try to keep things as similar as possible to church day, so most of us got dressed up- that is, as much as time allowed. Matt ran out of time for his button-up shirt and tie, and Joanna and I didn't bother with tights or shoes. Levi had already gotten himself dressed in everyday clothes since he didn't know we were going to dress up, so he didn't end up in church clothes. And Micah didn't have to put up a fight about what he wore, because Mommy didn't really care if he matched. As much as we really miss the fellowship of church services, it is certainly much easier to have church at home. It is definitely worth the extra fuss to be able to actually go to church! We will be so thankful to be back with our church family again!
Once again, it lifted our spirits to be joined in Spirit with our church family as we listened to services in Burlington in the morning, and Mediapolis's recorded morning service in the afternoon. What a blessing technology can be to us these days!
We also had somewhat of a "church lunch" between services. Since I am the only one giving my children food these days, I didn't feel quite as guilty getting out all of the unhealthy food in my cupboards and freezer to make church lunch slightly more genuine. By "all of the unhealthy food in my house," that meant some english muffin cheese sandwiches from the freezer, animal crackers, and a few swiss rolls that were sent home with us from church lunch a few weeks ago. I think I have one more Sunday's worth of stuff I can pull out before everyone is out of luck.
By the end of the afternoon service, all the children were asleep and Matt and I soon fell asleep too. There's another perk of our current church situation: naps work a lot better.
After the house started waking up again, we were invited to do a Zoom video call with my family while my Dad was trying to test it out for a possible Sunday School option. It was fun to be able to talk to everyone! Jonathan and Justin just got back from a spring break trip to Florida so they are all practicing some serious social distancing/isolation. After supper we also enjoyed talking on the phone to Grandpa and Grandma Schulz and Matt's Grandma Knobloch. Later, my family got my Grandma Knobloch hooked up to a Zoom call with everybody so we got to talk to her too before we all headed off to bed!
Today (Monday) we are doing well. I am feeling good about this new temporary way of life. I love having Matt home, and he has actually been able to stay busy and productive during the day down in his bedroom office. The children have not tried to bother him (though I am sure many of the sounds going on throughout the house get a little distracting at times!). It is nice to see him at lunchtime and when he comes up for a break. I think he also likes being able to sleep in a bit without a forty minute commute!
 |
| Matt brought the tractor back to Mom and Dad's tonight. The boys went along and Matt delivered a nice surprise to me when they got home...a sleeping Micah! Joanna still thought he might want to listen to the book she was reading. |
I also love having nothing on our calendar. It seemed devastating at first, but it is so relaxing. I feel like we are in a decent stage of life to be going through all of this. For one, none of our kids are missing school (or even Sunday School, for that matter), so it didn't really change my daily life. During the day I'm as busy (or non-busy) as ever keeping up with my children and household; it hasn't changed besides the fact that I'm not allowed to go anywhere now even if I wanted to. Our previously full evenings are now cleared up. We can actually relax once in awhile, and Matt can get all kinds of his projects done outside and around the house. I can stay relatively caught up around the house...and if I get behind, I know there will be time tomorrow, or the next day...as I said, we have all the time in the world right now.
Other reasons we have to be thankful: Matt has a job he can do from home; we have running water, electricity, modern conveniences, and technology; the weather is beginning to improve...really, what do we not have to be thankful for? We are very thankful to be in good health; as far as the coronavirus goes, it doesn't seem to be targeting young children so I am thankful for that. I am thankful Iowa got "shut down" when cases were first starting to show up in our state so hopefully we can keep the local spread from getting out of hand. I know that people we love will end up in critical condition and perhaps the virus will be fatal to some of our loved ones. We could even be a part of the count. But I am thankful that God holds the future and that He doesn't reveal it to us ahead of time.
I know things will get worse before they will get better, but the worse things get, the more we learn to lean and depend on God. We are praying for everyone who is less fortunate than us during this time, as well as those who are working endlessly to keep our people safe and healthy.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
No comments:
Post a Comment