Today ws day 1 of a different life. It seems that every generation has a life event that makes you stop and say, where were you when… I’m a millennial so I remember laying on the living room carpet in front of the tv writing a poem when Princess Diana died. I remember being at work with my pre-school class when I learned that a plane crashed into the twin towers. My kids are part of Gen Z and I’m positive that this time in their lives will be burned into their brains for the rest of their lives. Covid-19, the Corona Virus-our lives have changed so much in the past 4 days. The changes happened gradually, but then just kept changing. On Wednesday I was planning to leave for our church women’s retreat on Friday, by Thursday morning it was cancelled. On Friday our church service was planning to split into 2 services, by Friday night, it was cancelled. Event after event was being cancelled. My husband and I sat watching the news and realized it was only a matter of time before schools closed down. So Friday instead of leaving for the retreat, we went grocery shopping with every other person in the area and then came home and I worked on a homeschool schedule. By Friday afternoon it was announced that schools would be closed for 2 weeks. As of Sunday afternoon, just yesterday, 2 days after the first announcement, we are now looking at 3 weeks, at least. Boston public schools are closed for 6 weeks!

Life has changed. Things that I thought were no big deal Friday were deal breakers by Saturday. Any appointments this month-cancelled. On Friday, my kids playing with friends or going to the park seemed harmless-by Saturday-no more-no way! Saturday also brought some new emotions. The light bulb lit up on my brain as the new reality began to sink in. My hubby works the ambulance this month. He will be taking care of sick people and will be in and out of the hospital several times a day every shift. As we prayed together last night, tears filled my eyes and I got choked up. He asked me after if I was worried about being home with the boys all day(we had a rough weekend) or about him going to work. I told him that being home doesn’t bother me, I’m a homebody so I’m totally down for time at home-but rather-yes- I was-I am worried about his safety. He has a high risk job so I do believe that makes us a high risk house, so yes oh yes oh yes to social distancing! In our current state, our oldest doesn’t get it and is in and out of mad at us about not being able to go to the park, to the point where I thought-if all 3 get mad at me, it will be a quiet 3 weeks. Tonight he said, I don’t get it, after I have tried to explain it over and over, I finally said, you don’t have to understand, there are things in life I can’t understand, but it is just the way it is right now.

But today, we got up, and we did today. We don’t know when this will end-so we just did today. And it was hard. And at times, I was sad. But we did it and it was ok and we were ok. Everyone got their school work and chores done. We got to start our day with devotions(and a side of fighting). They had lots of screen time and there were some tears. But-we did it. We did day 1. And by dinner time, I made sure to express my appreciation to as many teacher friends as I could because they are super heroes for doing what they do. Thank you to all the teachers! And to any homeschool parents out there-I am in awe of you as well. Teaching is truly a super power! God bless you all-be safe-be well.

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