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A Day In the Life... Sheltered in Place Edition

Being home non-stop has made me want to start paying more attention to the blog again. Though, I think I am going to keep with only using this as a place to store memories mostly for myself and our family to read later. I guess I will continue to share the big things, like Will's 1/2 birthday post this week. We'll see. Anyway... 


So this is not the first time I have done a "Day In The Life" style post, but this one is way different than our normal. I made a post about the whole Shelter In Place a couple of weeks ago. We have settled into a sort of schedule or routine so I wanted to document that for our own memories. One day we will back to running around like crazy people trying to get it all done, and I think it will be interesting to remember what life was life during our shelter in place time.

This post is typical of our weekdays. Our weekends are less structured and more family time. During the week, we have distance learning and working going on so we keep some sort of schedule. This is also just a typical day. The bonus to what is going on right now is that we have a lot of leeway for what we are going to do and when, but this is our typical right now. And times are estimates.

7am - Everyone gets up. Lately we have been seeing the kids sleep in some. Kenzie has slept in a few days until almost 8 and Will to about 7:15 which is quite late for him. Typically though, everyone is up at 7. The kids come and snuggle in our bed for a few minutes before we get moving for the day. Sometimes Steven is out running just depending on whether he wanted to run in the morning or evening that day.

7:30am - Breakfast. We are keeping to most of our usual breakfasts of eggs, cereal, bagels, etc, but every now and then I cook on a weekday. It's rare though. Usually I save that for weekends.


8:00am - Bike ride/walk with the neighbors. Yes, we still social distance. The kids are all far apart on their bikes and no one is getting too close to anyone else so we let them ride together. They usually leave me behind and go their own way through the neighborhood. They typically ride around 2-2.5 miles on each ride. The neighbor's mom and I walk together (albeit far apart) and as long as my heel isn't hurting to much, we usually do about 2 miles. It's nice to get out and start the day that way. There are days though that we don't make it in time to go in the mornings and those days we either go in the afternoon if it isn't too hot or in the evening right after dinner. Steven starts work around this time, too. He goes into our room and starts working. Thankfully, he can do a lot remotely, but he was given the paperwork to be able to travel while the shelter in place continues because it may come to that on one of his start ups in a couple of weeks. We think the only reason that he hasn't traveled yet is because masks are required on sites now and his company hasn't been able to provide the masks yet. I can get him a mask from my nurse friend, but the company probably doesn't want to make people travel and work on sites unless they know you have a mask so they may want to provide them for him. 


9:00am - Every day except Tuesday/Thursday we watch the morning announcements from Kenzie's school online. There is usually a special area activity built in that we do if we have time (or save for later in the day if we don't). On Tuesdays/Thursdays we save the announcements for after lunch sometime because Kenzie has a virtual book club meeting those mornings. A teacher friend from church teaches second grade gifted at another school in OCPS and invited Kenzie to join her class in an optional book club. They are reading the book Wish. I'm reading along with them and it is actually quite a good book. Kenzie really enjoys reading the book and being part of the book club. I'm thinking about trying to keep up the book club thing with some kids in the neighborhood or maybe her friends or the girl scouts next year when all of this is done and we can do face to face. We'll see.


9:30am - Kenzie has her daily morning meeting with her teacher and classmates. It isn't required that she get onto the meeting immediately, but she likes to start her day with saying hi to everyone. Her teacher generally goes over what the kiddos will be learning that day and answers any questions the students may have or does any instructions she needs to so that they are off and running. Kenzie checks in, then moves on to doing her work. Her teacher provides digital access to lessons and she does it on her own time. Kenzie would rather get everything done by lunch so she powers through and typically finishes her work by 11am.


11:00am - We usually take a break in our day here and drive up to Kenzie's school to pick up the lunch they provide. Both kids are able to take part and even if they don't eat the actual food provided, between the four of us (and sometimes donations for the homeless), it all gets eaten. Nothing has gone to waste. It is actually a nice break usually for us to get out of the house for 20 minutes or so and leave the development.

11:30am - Lunch. The kids eat lunch and watch a tv show. Then we send them to rest time and Steven and I eat lunch together usually. Unless he is in a meeting that he can't leave. I usually try to wait for him though.

12:30am - The kids usually come out between now and one. Sometimes they do an online art class. Sometimes we watch the morning announcements if we haven't done that already. The kids usually color or play for a while inside. If I have to run to Publix, I put them in front of a movie so they will stay out of Steven's hair since he is working and do this then.





The afternoon is far less structured. We play in the pool, play outside, sometimes take another bike ride or walk, etc. etc.

Tuesdays are dance class at 4pm. We have dinner usually around 6 or 6:30pm. Bed is still set between 7:15 or 7:30 most nights. Will is in bed immediately and usually out within minutes. Kenzie reads for a while and then goes to bed.

And that's our day. It's not "typical," but it is working. I know we can easily slip back into our jam packed life once this shelter in place lifts, but I hope that we are able to remember the importance of slowing down some.

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