Just Gotta Laugh

Recording some of the memes that have made us LOL this month!

Making History

Since the blog is my own scrapbook, I thought that I wanted to record some of the surreal facts we've been living with for the past 3 weeks.

On Thursday morning, March 12, I was teaching when my phone blew up with texts that Ella's Robotics team was headed home 3 days early after their big Central Valley Regional competition, that they had arrived at just the night before, was cancelled.  This was the first that COVID-19 touched us personally and it was a major blow.  For us, it was kind of the first domino.

The next day, our church girls group was slated to head to the hills for our annual camp for the weekend.  All the area pastors and club coordinators met to discuss cancelling and decided to go ahead with it, as long as extreme safety measures were taken.  Our coordinator, Erin, carried a tub of Chlorox wipes around the entire weekend. We laughed a lot about the absurdity of it all.  We shared face-to-face fellowship and worship up at camp-- something that would end up being a major gift, as the life we returned to was quite altered.  It was up at camp where we learned school was being cancelled the following Monday for two weeks.  We comforted a lot of emotional girls.

Our church tried to run its first live streamed service the Sunday we were up at camp.  It remained open for congregation members to come, but they were encouraged not to. All children's ministries, greeting times, and fellowship were cancelled.  My whole newsfeed that Sunday was full of people posting about the novelty of attending church at home.  

I attended a meeting at school the next Monday for all the staff, where our questions were answered and where plans started getting laid for the possibility of this all lasting more than 2 weeks.  It would be the last time I saw my co-workers.  Though many of them I still talk to every day.

School's closing did last more than 2 weeks.  And over the course of those 2 weeks, our world changed.  We were told to "social distance", a term never used before that has become a major part of our lexicon.  Stores let in just a few people at time, creating long lines outside the doors.  Signs reminded us to stay 6 feet away from each other.

Non-essential stores and businesses were required to close.  My friend who runs our local donut shop expressed fear that her shop was her only income.  Another friend, who runs our local home goods store, is staying alive by taking online orders and driving to people's houses to drop them on doorstops.

We made a crazy "Corona Fun" to-do list for our weeks off school, but quickly had to disregard it as parks, trails, beaches, and zoos locked up.

Concerts, tours, plays, and all sporting events were cancelled.  No Hamilton in San Francisco for the VMs to enjoy (Ella's early birthday present and our big Spring Break plans).

My friend texted to cancel the wedding shower she was throwing for her future daughter-in-law.  We're praying the wedding can still happen this summer.  Another friend is burying her father without a funeral, and without even being there because she cannot travel out of state.

Our church has moved 100% online.  All services are pre-recorded on Friday and air on Sunday. All Council and youth group meetings now happen over Zoom.  Dave hosts a live prayer meeting each Wednesday.  He's trying hard to figure out how to creatively lead a Good Friday Communion Service.  Our far away families are able to join us for church each Sunday for the first time ever.

We were first told no gatherings of 500 or more, then it switched to 50, then 10, it is now 5 or more.

We aren't supposed to socialize with anyone outside of our homes.  A sweet friend stopped by to drop off a gift of fruit and meat for us yesterday, how I longed to visit with her.  Instead we had a quick conversation, separated by a ridiculous amount of space-- me in my door frame, her on my lawn.

There is a shortage of masks, gowns, and gloves for our front-line workers.  There is a shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.  My sister, who works in a private surgery center, but who has ICU and ER experience, is wrestling with if she should jump in and help.  I'm reading and hearing the harrowing tales of our nurses and I'm honestly terrified for her to put herself in danger.

Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no hand sanitizer, no flour, no bread, or other dry/canned food.  Shelves are eerily bare.  Target.com has been a lifesaver delivering everything from guinea pig food to laundry detergent right to our door (and some fun stuff too-- like purple hair dye, because why not?)

My social media is full of funny memes, trying to keep the scary situation light.  We mourn and pray for those with deep losses-- friends whose parents tested positive, or whose parents they can no longer see for their own safety; friends who are let go from their work; friends going through chemo with compromised immune systems; friends moving and being robbed of closure; impoverished children without school meals; dysfunctional families trapped under the same roof with no escape; the list is ever growing.  But, we have found plenty to laugh about too in these strange days, our human way to not be crushed under the immense burden of this.

Every day my kids do school from home.  They log onto their laptops around 8:30, Delia at the desk in the study, Ella at the desk in her room.  Distance learning has been pretty positive for them.  Their teachers send a devotion to start each day with.  They keep in touch with their friends.  Ella actually said, "I might be learning more this way, Mom!"  Being highly self-motivated, she was kind of built for home school.  Delia's dance teacher wins my undying appreciation for leading dance classes on Zoom.  The kids roller blade and walk the dog and do yard work for PE credit.  My friends who teach are struggling to balance homeschooling their own kids with re-imagining and reinventing all their lesson plans for a completely new platform each week.  It's SO much, with such a steep learning curve.  Nurses and teachers will be our heroes when all this is over.

I miss my own students like crazy.  I popped into my classroom to pick up some stuff and saw my last lesson on the white board, the pieces I'd prepped for my projects all laid out on the counter, and my calendar frozen on March 13.  A deep wave of sadness hit me.  I grieve all the fun plans I am not able to teach right now.  I started a Facebook Messenger group for the moms of my students and send them videos of Bible stories and devotions.  I pray with them. I email at-home modifications of my lesson plans each week.  Every day our administrator posts a video on the school's FB page of one of our teachers reading or singing.  Every day, I hear from my kids in the form of videos or pictures their families send of them learning at home.  This delights me.

Our world continues to groan, but respond in cool ways too.  Manufacturers, distilleries, and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.  The government closes the border to all non-essential travel.  Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients in New York.  Press conferences are held daily.  City streets and roads are deserted.  People are wearing masks and gloves in public.  Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.  Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.  There are 1,000,000 applications for Employment Insurance as people go without work.

This is our reality right now.  It's worth recording because it's history.  We know there are many ways the world will never be the same.  But, we continue to put our trust in the Lord and choose faith over fear.

Snapshots of Quarantine

Like the rest of the world, we have been sheltering in place here in the VM House.  While there is much I can say about all the feelings that come with this, I think I will mostly let the pictures I've been taking for the past 2 weeks do the talking.  Today the girls officially begin their distance learning and one of Delia's assignments is to create a Power Point about her personal experience throughout this historic time.  She asked me to write this post so she could grab some of my pictures. :)

 We started with a very ambitious Corona-virus to-do list, but as the days stretched longer and we got lazier, we paired it down to these 7 things, and, in some ways, this alone sums up our experience pretty perfectly!

 There has been much sleeping and not as much showering or regular clothes wearing.

  I have loved reading my all time favorite YA book aloud with Delia (and Ivy!).

 Delia continues to practice her lines and choreography for Aladdin (she did get a major part!), with the hope that somehow the show will go on.

We each take turns picking what board game we'll play each night.  If you've ever played Pandemic, you will find this as hilarious as we did!

 Watch for Ella and Delia's Masterclass in Fort Making-- coming soon!  ;) This one was so cool, I let them keep it up for several days...and even sleep in it.

Ivy is in heaven!  We walk her ALL the time now.  The girls skate every single day.

We try to support our town's small businesses.  We've been making lots of visits to our local donut shop.  Above, some sweet encouragement from our town's cute home goods store!

I'm part of the 8 person team running our online church services each Sunday.  It's very strange to see Dave preach to an empty sanctuary, but we're thankful for the technology that keeps us connected and the Lord's promise that "where two or three gather in my name, I am there."

Everything ended up being fine, but at the beginning of all this, I got some irregular test results back from a routine visit and had to go in ASAP for follow up.  This was possibly my most unsettling experience thus far-- a long line out the hospital doors to be screened and a totally empty, normally bustling, radiology department.

We had to stop at school last week to clean out lockers and pick up supplies from teachers.

And today we start our learning from home!

Thinking of you, loved family members and friends!  Wishing you health and eyes to see the gifts and possibilities in each strange new day.  Praying for healing and strength for our land, so we can soon return to some semblance of normalcy. 

Winter Drama

It's been a busy winter balancing the practices of not just one, but TWO drama productions for Ella.  When the second show closed last weekend, the director pointed out that some of these kids were on their fourth play in less than a calendar year (Annie Get Your Gun, Singin' In the Rain, Women And War and Meet Me in St. Louis)!  We LOVE our school's drama program and feel excited that Ella could gain even more experience in  2 more drastically different dramas.

The long story is that after the huge success of Singin' In the Rain, about twice as many kids tried out for the winter drama, Meet Me in St. Louis, as what the director needed.  Not wanting to cut anyone or lose any interest or momentum, she found and cast a whole second show, Women And War, so everyone could have a part.  Meet Me in St. Louis was the headliner and was cast with mostly upperclassman, but it's the one Ella originally landed a part in.  Then, the director asked her later to help out with a small role in Women And War too.  

Women And War was SO cool!  It was a one act, monologue-style story, telling the life long affects of war on the not just the people who fight, but on the family members at home, the SOS girls, the nurses on the front lines, the telegraph operators, even the Donut Gals (which was the part Ella played).  Characters emotionally told of husbands, sons, and brothers dying, abuse they endured, limbs they lost or amputated, heartbreaking telegraphs they sent, etc.  I totally cried.  To add to the intimate and intense telling of the stories, all the audience seating was right up on stage with the characters, giving it a black box theater feel.

Ella and her good friend Ansley were the 2 Donut Gals.  They told of making and delivering coffee and donuts to the soldiers and they were the only ones who did not have a sad story to tell.

The cast of Women And War in real life (above) and in artistic form (below).

A few weeks later, it was time to perform the full length comedy Meet Me In St. Louis.  This play could not have been more different!  It was HILARIOUS!  It was about a family with 5 crazy kids who were told they had to move from their home in St. Louis to New York for their dad's job.  The kids met this news with rebellion and anarchy, doing things like derailing trolleys by tossing dummies on the track, biting the boss, slapping boys, throwing cats at people, or soaking them with water.  Ella played Mrs. Waughop, the irate, offended, and prim neighbor to this completely senseless family.  She'd often storm into the neighbors' house to lecture them about dousing her dress with flour or stomping through her flower gardens.  Even though this part could not have been more of a stretch for sweet, earnest Ella, she played it perfectly and got tons of laughs.

I thought it was so cool to watch her in two plays that evoked such strong emotion-- tears one weekend and roaring laughter a few weekends later!

Meet Me in St. Louis had TEN seniors take their final bow and kiss the stage goodbye.  Ella has loved learning from, laughing with, and becoming friends with these older role models.  We are all sad to lose such a huge group of major talent, but the upcoming freshman can bring it too!  The above picture is our director with the freshman.  She told Dave and I after one of the shows how proud she is to work with students who are such versatile actors, and many of them so young still!

And a friend picture to close.  Ella loved having her sweet group of buddies come cheer her on!  Though high school drama is now done for the year, life shows no signs of slowing down!  This month, Ella's other major extra curricular activity, Robotics, will be going to the 2 major competitions they've been preparing for since January.  And Delia's Aladdin cast list goes up tomorrow.  So, stay tuned for recaps of this year's equally exciting Acts 2 and 3!