Well no – I never imagined starting a blog post with a quote from Olaf either, but here we are and there we go.
What a time for the world. The children’s school closed a week early for spring break, giving us a headstart on our planned foray into homeschooling, and with play dates and hangouts slowly transitioning into the current distanced lifestyle, I suggested that Jacob (10) and Elsa (8) keep a journal (or a captains log, as apparently that makes this activity much more appealing).
They have been quite excited about the notion of creating a primary source of history during these strange and unprecedented weeks — and then I slowly realised that I really ought to be doing something similar, especially given that I have taken the time to record the past four years of (arguably far more mundane) family life.
Our lives, like many, have taken a bit of an unexpected turn, and instead of driving down to our house in the Bay Area tomorrow as anticipated, we are still on Vancouver Island, taking a pause with the process of selling our home, and considering unpacking some of the things we’d started to get ready in advance of the removals people packing up the house.
Veering wildly between the relentless optimism of contingency plans (including mr tMatM driving the essentials down to California in a giant lorry while I corral the children in our car behind – dashed by the border likely impounding non essential goods); to the calm realization that this will likely take much longer to resolve: landing on the overarching and immutable fact – that this really is one of those moments in life where you can’t entirely control your own destiny.
So here we are, here we remain, and the children so far seem to be taking this radical overhaul of their expected spring break plans pretty well, all things considered.
There are a lot of blogs and educational organizations out there with excellent activities and schedules, so as you can imagine I am poring over them all and coming up with a smug-and-lazy solution here – including waking everyone up early -ish and insisting on some daily maths, journaling, reading and arts/crafts along with plenty of time in the garden (thank you sunshine), a “recharge hour”, and a solid nod to screen time every late afternoon so that I can make supper and scroll through increasingly troubling news.
How are you all doing?
tMatM x