A Day in the Life, Coronavirus Style

I figured I should do a blog post documenting what our days look like during this season of Distance Learning & sheltering in place due to the coronavirus. I actually just looked back and realized it's been exactly two years since I did one of these posts--my last one was May 2018 {blog post HERE}  as the girls were wrapping up their school year in Las Vegas as a first grader/Pre-Kindergartener & Brady wasn't quite two yet! It's always so fun for me to look back at those posts and remember what our days were like.

Without further ado, here is a peek at our day on Monday, May 18th, 2020....

4:45 Derek's alarm goes off, but I have zero recollection of this. He runs on the treadmill most mornings, showers, and puts away the dishes from the previous night's dinner before heading to work.

6:00 Derek kisses me goodbye and heads to work. Some days I do wake up early-ish with Derek to make videos for our church kiddos {while the house is quiet!} or to just have some time to myself, but if I'm being honest most weekday mornings I just sleep until I wake up. :)  I feel like there are very few upsides to coronavirus, but sleeping in is one I can/should take advantage of when I'm able!

6:30-6:40ish I roll over and look at the clock and think it's almost 7--clearly I was still more asleep than awake. Because I think it's almost 7, I'm debating whether or not I there is enough time for a shower & just start looking at email/social media on my phone for a bit.

6:50 I start to hear Brady and roll over to check the clock again to see it's not quite 7, which surprises me for two reasons. First of all, I must have actually woken up much earlier than I originally thought and would have actually had time for a shower, but oh well. Secondly, Brady is almost never awake before 7:30..so I'm wondering why he's already up for the day. I finally get up and head to the kitchen to fill up my water bottle and then head upstairs to Brady's room with a basket full of clean laundry to put away while I'm up there. He helps me sort everything and put it away, then we come downstairs to make my bed.

7:25 Shelby comes downstairs to start her laundry. Up until about a month ago, the kids had one communal hamper in our upstairs linen closet in the hallway that they all shared. Then I randomly realized one day that Shelby was almost ten years old & she should probably have her own hamper in her room, which led to her asking to do her own laundry. I didn't think it would last, but here we are a month later & she's still going strong! I am so proud of her!

7:30 Brady is reading while I braid Shelby's hair.

7:35 Shelby is now reading to Brady while I get breakfast ready. Hadley comes down a few minutes later thanks to her alarm. We finally realized last week after the kids were progressively waking up later & later every morning as this whole Shelter in Place went on that we needed to start setting alarms again. ;)  It was jarring to think that the last time the girls' alarms were set was March 6th for 6:20am....fast forward to May 18th, we had Shelby's alarm set for 7:20 and Hadley's for 7:45 and that seemed so early to us, ha! We're going to have a haaard time readjusting to early mornings again...whenever that may be! ;) 

7:45 The kids sit down for breakfast. Today's menu is cereal, pumpkin bread, and fruit.

8:05 The girls are off to do their "morning jobs"--piano homework, brush their teeth, make their bed, etc. Shelby also switches her laundry from the washer to the dryer during this time. I begin cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast while Brady drinks the leftover milk from the girls' cereal bowls. ;)

8:30 Shelby's first Google Meet begins every weekday at 8:30am. Hadley is logging into her student portal to see what her assignment will be for the day, and Brady and I are on the couch reading.

9:00 Hadley's Google Meet with her class begins. Shelby's Google Meet ends around 9, and she gets right to work on her daily assignments from her teacher. Brady is playing magnatiles.

9:15 Shelby had an unusually light day of schoolwork, so she heads upstairs to put her laundry away & then she and Brady start playing in the playroom together. While they're upstairs, I finally get dressed & brush my teeth.

9:35 Hadley's Google Meet ends, and she wants to get right to work on her follow-up assignment...but I wanted us to go for a run/bike ride before Shelby's next Google Meet at 10:30, so we have to move quickly! Everyone scrambles to have a last potty break, put shoes on, and apply sunscreen.

9:45 Outside for me to run & for the kids to ride bikes! We do 2.25 miles, and it is so HOT already! This week has been our hottest temps of the season so far. I think on this day the temperature got to 96. As I'm typing this, it's currently 95 with a feels like temperature of 102!

10:15 We get home & play on the driveway/cool off for a few minutes.

10:30 Shelby's next Google Meet with her reading group begins while Hadley & Brady play golf outside.

11:15 We head inside, and boy do we appreciate the AC! We quickly knock out Hadley's math assignment for the day--she chose to compare the height of her & Brady using pipe cleaners. Then all three kiddos play with the pipe cleaners while I prep lunch.

11:45 Lunchtime! We almost always eat the exact same lunch every day--peanut butter sandwiches for the girls, PBJ for Brady and me, bananas, strawberries, carrots, and some type of chip or cracker.

12:20 Kids are playing {I have no photographic evidence or recollection of what they did--maybe pipe cleaners again?!} while I clean up from lunch.

1:00 We all head upstairs to watch children's author Dan Gutman do a live read-aloud. He does this every weekday at 1:00, and it's our daily pre-nap routine.

1:15 Dan Gutmans's read-aloud is over. The girls head to their rooms for quiet time while I get Brady ready for his nap.

1:30 Brady is tucked in, and the girls usually have about an hour of quiet time in their rooms. Shelby's teacher occasionally does afternoon read-alouds for her class at 1:30, and on this day he was starting a new novel so both girls came down to listen. I love that her teacher does this for the students {it was actually Shelby's idea to implement, and it's so fun!}, but I just wish it were at 2:30 so it didn't interrupt the flow of our quiet time. ;)  So I came downstairs from tucking Brady in to find this view:

While the girls listen to the story, I start a load of towels in the washing machine, put away the dishes from lunch, and clean the kitchen sink.

2:00 The read-aloud is over, and the girls decide to play with the pipe cleaners again.

2:30 The girls sit down for a quick afternoon snack while I read aloud a couple chapters from My Father's Dragon.

3:00 Shelby's Skype piano lesson begins, and Hadley is back to the pipe cleaners.

3:30 Shelby's piano lesson is over, and both girls are playing pipe cleaners again.

4:00 Hadley's Skype piano lesson begins, Shelby is reading on the couch, and I head upstairs to wake up a sleeping Brady. I read him a couple of books while he slowly wakes up.

4:30 Hadley's piano lesson ends, and we all head outside to play golf while we wait for Derek to get home!

4:45 Dada is home!!! We have been so spoiled with having Daddy home early every day thanks to a lighter work load and no traffic--definitely an upside to coronavirus for us.

5:00 We head inside for dinner! We're having tortilla chips & guacamole with chicken fajita quesadillas. Prep time is super quick b/c the recipe for the chicken/filling for the quesadillas makes a huuuuge amount, so we usually freeze half of it. So all I had to do on this day was set it out to thaw. :)

6:00 Kitchen is cleaned up, and now it's time to swim! For the first several weeks of our stay at home life, post-dinner evening walks were our jam. Now that it's gotten super hot, post-dinner swims are where it's at for us! Brady's swiming has come so far in just the past couple of weeks, I think he's going to be a little fish before summer is over!

7:00 We heard the Kona Ice truck going through our neighborhood earlier when we were eating dinner. This is the first time in the {almost} two years we've lived here that we've ever seen an ice cream or Kona Ice truck come through, so the kids were bummed to miss out on it. So I decided to give them a little ice cream after they got out of the pool.

7:15 I had planned on skipping baths/showers on this night {pool bath for the win!}, but the kids managed to get chocolate everywhere. Boo! So baths/showers were back on the agenda.

7:45 Bedtime stories while Hadley does my hair :)  Every night we listen to one picture book read-aloud posted on Brady's school's Facebook page & then I read aloud a picture book or a chapter of a book we're currently reading. Tonight was My Father's Dragon.

8:30 Kids are all tucked in, and I finally get a quick shower {please note I'm still wearing my running clothes in the picture above} and then tackle a couple quick things on my "to-do" list. I'm struggling now to remember what all I did after my shower, but I know I did a quick load of swimsuits/pool towels & checked email. ;)

9:30 On the couch with a brookie in hand watching Friends with Derek. We have recently started re-watching the series on DVD, and it has seriously been the best way to end our days. It's nice to watch something so light & happy when everything in the world seems so strange, scary, and uncertain.

10:00 Getting ready for bed & then getting in bed and thinking of all the things I didn't get done today or need to do tomorrow ;) 

10:15ish Phones are off, and Derek falls asleep almost instantly. I read for about 15 minutes or so before I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Whew, there's a day in the life of us during this crazy season!

This is actually Brady's last official week of school, and next week his school will be hosting a little end-of-year celebration. The girls have about 2.5 weeks left, so the end is near! It's so surreal to be wrapping up the year like this & we are especially sad to be saying goodbye to the girls' teachers {they are phenomenal!}, but we are ready for summer! We're not exactly sure what our summer will look like this year with everything going on in the world, but we are ready nonetheless!