Our days are falling into a predictable rhythm now.
It starts with breakfast in front of the screen. This used to be a weekend thing. Now, it’s all one big weekend. While they watch some inane, overly zany cartoon on PBS Kids or Amazon Prime, I make breakfast, feed the animals, brew coffee, and try to cope with being cognizant of reality right now.
Around 9, we typically have a school Zoom call that they willfully ignore.
If it’s a good day, we might try to do some “works.” School has been brilliant at supporting us during remote learning. They send home activity packs of stuff that, for instance this week, include real wool from the teacher’s farm, the ingredients to make “feeling jars,” and collections of “loose things” kids can create with. Yesterday, my inventive kids made “fork people” they proceeded to play with literally all day. “Forkie” and “Whitie” (lol, touche) had a blast playing dress-up with belted felt outfits and making sartorial demands of my mom. (If it’s a really good day, my mom comes to watch the girls while I try desperately to catch up on work.)
Sans my mom, sometime around mid-morning, I usually turn a blind eye to pet abuse so I can have a minute’s peace and quiet to clean up the kitchen and make a snack. If I hear a genuine call of distress or things get too quiet for too long, I intervene. This morning, I found the cat in a bathroom drawer, desperate.
Mostly it’s just all intense free play. Today they made an elaborate “obstacle course” full of “stations”: drawing station, book station, feather station, bouncing station, nap station (never once used), and my favorite, timer station, where you must sit quietly until the timer goes off. Or until you’re bored to pieces and can’t take it anymore, which is what happens.
At some point in the late morning or early afternoon, we get outside. And then dad comes home from work and it’s fun parent time.
If it’s a bad day, most of this is out the window and it’s just all pet torture, bribery, and threats.
And if it’s a really, really bad day, we all get back in bed and watch “educational” TV about animal babies.
The quarantimes beat on.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What I’m eating:
Carrot ricotta tart, one of my favorite easy dinners (Bon Appetit recipe)
What I’m reading:
Amongst the deluge of COVID-19-themed everything, I’m actually really enjoying reading the humanity-infused stories in The New Yorker these last few weeks. Despite my love-hate with this relentless subscription, it’s really the best reading material.
What I’m listening to:
I started a 2020 Quarantimes playlist on Spotify you are welcome to listen to. So far it has two songs in it: You And I Are Falling, You And I Are Free by Rising Appalachia and Here’s Where the Story Ends, a longtime favorite by The Sundays that seems so right right now.
What I’m watching:
I might be in danger of becoming a late-in-life deadhead. This would make a lot of people very happy. (Thanks Andrea)
What I’m working on:
A series of “Work Unleashed” customer stories for Box, highlighting how Box customers maneuvered the transition to remote work: How GE Built a Foundation for Work from Anywhere
Thanks again. Joslyn!
I would add reading your daily blog as part of the pleasures of quarantime. Nice word, by the way.
I remember the ominous silence around pet torture. When Devon was about that age, she and her friend Thomas decided to play catch with the guinea pig. RIP, Connie Baby Jesus (it had been a Christmas gift).
And I have recently subscribed to the New Yorker for the first time (having previously rationed myself to issues left at the doctors’ office).
Finally, I started listening to the Dead with enthusiasm. Never took to the term “Deadhead” and I’m mostly around the bend on that. But I’m happy for your discoveries and your friends’ happiness with it.
JB
The New Yorker sucks up a lot of my time and brain cells and makes me really boring to talk to at a party but hey, who goes to parties anymore?
I don’t imagine that you are boring at parties, whatever they are.
Oops. Left out when I started listening: 1967. Yeah, old guy,