March has been a very weird month. Coronavirus news has been ramping up. Italy has been having crazy cases and deaths and shutting down. We can now see that it is inevitable that it is coming here. By the middle of March, all church meetings have been canceled, school for the kids has been changed to online, the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament (March Madness) has been canceled among other major events. We keep watching and think it can't get any crazier. Mom even made the comment that she can't be surprised anymore, something would have to be really crazy to be surprising.
On March 18, Mom and the boys were up and getting going on the day. It was still the first week of at home school, so we were still adjusting and trying to get into a routine. At 7:09 am, a loud roar was heard outside. the house was shaking. Some in the house reported feeling a wave like feeling. Scott and Mom locked eyes as this was going on. Mom was sure it had something to do with wind (being from Idaho, wind was always to blame for any natural phenomens). Scott suggested maybe it was a tornado and that we should go down to the basement. Mom thought that might be a good idea. Dad came out of the room and said that it was an earthquake (at which time everyone's brains started working and we realized it was not a hurricane or a tornado, but in fact an earthquake). It shook everyone up all day. There were many aftershocks all day and everyone became really good at diving under the table. For a day, coronavirus took a back seat in the news and the earthquake was the big news. We were all pretty shaken and had a hard time focusing all day long.
This became an obsession for Ty. He began researching all kinds of natural disasters (with earthquakes foremost). He asked many questions about earthquakes and was pretty nervous to go to bed for a few days. He has since become an expert at Earthquakes, volcanoes (especially Mount St. Helens) among other natural disasters.
Scott took the earthquake in stride. It shook him up, but he was able to get over it fairly quickly.
Kate was sleeping when the earthquake happened. Some things on her shelf fell off and she thought her brothers were in her room shaking them off.
(This is a new day). Kate and the kids have become adept at making chocolate chip cookies and have pretty much taken over this job.
When Ty found out March Madness was not going to happen, he decided to make his own bracket between members of our family. It was pretty entertaining for all of us.
Joy School
Mom, Logan, and Scott went on a lunch date to Arctic Circle (definitely avoiding the play place to avoid getting corona)
The kids all had a dentist appointment. Here is Logan getting x-rays.
Dad has been working from home and has been around a lot more
We have been trying to do fun activities together. This was a painting project where we all watched a tutorial on YouTube and tried to paint it. The kids did really well.
Logan is loving having his playmates home all the time
Another activity we did was to make swords out of foam pool noodles.
There was a day where many people drew pictures on the sidewalk so that people could walk around and see them. We have all been quarantining so it was a way to interact somewhat.
Scott working on his Chromebook doing schoolwork.
Kate doing schoolwork.
Austin doing schoolwork
Ty working on Mom's laptop
The kids love having Dad to rough house with.
It has been a very crazy time!
