Easter 2020 - Covid Quarantine

Easter was on April 12 this year. I'd like to say it was low-key because of the coronavirus ... but while things were sparse, it was only a little less than the last few years, when I didn't have the "I couldn't go to the store" excuses. And we COULD go to stores, it was just discouraged (stay home/stay safe).  To make it look like there was a little more, I incorporated an old Westra tradition. Boxes of favorite cereal (I added some cereal boxes a couple years ago too). When I was growing up, sugar cereals were a treat, not something we had access to all the time. Today? I just stormed the food storage. But it is a good way to capture what the kid's favorites are. 

Cinnamon Toast Crunch for Colton. The other kids like it too.  Hershey's Fillows for Cooper (not really even eaten as cereal. No milk, just eaten as a snack).  Fruit Loops for Keaton. I'd just stocked up because he said he LOVED Loops ... but that was before he tried some Fruity Pebbles, and he now he actually prefers the Pebbles. Malt-o-Meal Dinobites are an acceptable alternative too (not always the case, the kids are "name brand" snobs).  Honey Nut Cheerios - Cal eats this pretty much every morning. Landon likes them too. 

Peanut-butter M&Ms are for the older boys (and ME), along with Reeses Eggs. The littles don't like peanut butter. We love the FavorREDS jellybeans ... and I still pick out the reddest reds to eat first. In addition to cereal, I added another pantry staple - chips. Doritos, Cheetos and Lays. Not very "Easter" but a treat the boys like. And unique to this year, I added some sanitizing wipes.  For Landon and Sol's basket, they got some treats, some wipes and toilet paper, which has been missing from store shelves of late.

I was happy the boys were willing to put on the fluffy ears and pose for a picture. Landon and Sol came over later and there was some game play into the evening hours. The big Easter gathering on the Westra side has petered out as there just aren't that many little kids around. I didn't even get out the plastic eggs. No visits with Westras or Blackhams this year (stay home/stay safe). 

There were some "nests" made this year, but only one batch. 

I didn't get around to sugar cookies or the chocolate chip with M&Ms. 

March 2020

Wow ... what to say about this last month. I mean, remember last month, in February, when the schools had to close down for ONE day and it was kind of a big deal ... will the kids have to make up the day over a holiday, or a weekend, or at the end of the year? That one day now doesn't mean much, as schools have been dismissed, and kids are now learning online at home. Sports are canceled. Going to the store is a completely different deal. Many individuals are no longer employed ... and all because of a little virus we can't even see.

I think we'd all heard a bit about it ... a "novel Coronavirus" in China taking a toll. There had been movies about pandemics, diseases and outbreaks that result in an "end of the world" scenario. We aren't quite there ... the world isn't ending, but it sure is changing!

The first part of the month was fairly normal. Hubs and the big boys working full time. Keaton juggling work, school and social stuff. I'd hit my Zumba each day and help Coop with school. Colton had school and sports. He'd wrapped up his 8th grade Jaguars team and his 9th grade Wolves had gotten back together for practices and had several tournaments planned.  Grayson had a trip to California for a weekend and had several Razor riding outings on the calendar. 

Sunday, March 8th started Daylight Savings ... and I think we handled the Spring Forward fine. It was Friday the 13th that week, and a full moon. While there had been rumblings of Covid-19 hitting closer to home, things had still been going fairly normally ... I think a turning point was Wednesday, March 11. I remember Callahan was on the couch waiting for the NBA/Jazz game to start ... and it didn't. It was then announced that Jazz center Rudy Golbert had tested positive. That game was canceled. Then ALL NBA games were suspended. Then March Madness was canceled. By Friday (end of day), schools were on a "soft-closure" for at least two weeks. Online learning (we were already pretty pro at that with Cooper's transition earlier in the year, but the teachers and other students had a big learning curve). 

By Thursday, there had been a run on all the stores. Toilet paper and other paper products were gone. Bottled water was scarce. Gloves, masks, sanitizer, medication ... empty shelves. It was(is) pretty crazy! Government offices were announcing limits on the number of people allowed to gather together. No more than 100.  Then no more than 50. This continued to go down ... to 10 people, staying 6-feet apart. My Zumba made it through Thursday that week ... then MZL and many others canceled. My smaller classes (under 10 people) continued a bit longer, until the LDS church closed the church buildings ... and then the temples. Recreation centers and libraries closed ... it took a bit for bars, sit-down dining, gyms, salons to close their doors (with a little nudging from government officials). 

That Friday/Saturday, March 13/14 it was the wedding dinner/ceremony/reception for my nephew Jase. They squeaked in right under the wire. They had more weddings at the temple than had been originally planned, as couples pushed up their dates (and the temples did close in the next few days). Jase and Ellen still went on their honeymoon, then had some panic about getting back into the country as airlines and borders were being shut down. 

• Grayson's company prepared to move their workforce to working from home. They bought several laptops for employees and made sure they were ready for the move ... Grayson has still been going in to the empty office to work himself. 
• Landon's work (construction materials) is still going on without too much change. Sol is working in healthcare, but hopefully won't be on the front lines as much with her job in the orthopedic sector.
• Callahan's electrician's job is still moving forward ... there are generally just a few guys spread out throughout a house. 
• Keaton's life shifted some! Nike, where he works, shut its doors, but still said they would pay their employees their base pay. Keaton, having his SLCC classes moved online AND having Spring Break was facing a week with NOTHING to do, so he went back to work with Callahan. He had put in a few months, also as an apprentice electrician, before shifting gears. He was happy that they were able to take him back, full-time, at such short notice. 
• Cooper ... his life isn't all that different. Back in February, as I took him to a doctor's appointment, I realized that was the first time he'd left the house in two weeks. Now, that was the recommended norm for everyone! He was already in online school, so his day-to-day has continued on. I think he enjoys having his brothers around more. There has been lots of game play going on, which he enjoys. 
• Colton is adapting a lot better than I would have anticipated, as he is very social, loves hanging out with friends and playing basketball. As all the tournaments got canceled, he was sad, but holding it together. He's adapted well to online learning, and is often "done" by around noon ...
• My life, like Cooper, isn't all that different. I miss going out to my Zumba classes, but other than those, I was a bit of a homebody too.  As the housekeepers are now working from home ;) I've had to pick up the slack and actually clean my own house!  

As limitations have come down further - with recommendations to ONLY group with immediate family members ... Landon and Sol have still been coming over. Landon generally comes over for lunch each day, and L&S are great game players, which is appreciated when there isn't a lot else to do! Callahan still had his follow-up appointment for his foot. He's so tired of the boot, but the foot is so slow at healing. The crack is still visible there on the x-rays. Oh, and he was in a car accident too! It was when he was in the work van, and it's still driveable, so not quite as impactful as Keaton's accident last Fall, but still, just one more thing this month! Keaton has had a hard time with the social-distancing. He was still playing basketball with buddies a bit beyond what was recommended, and he's had a few friends over (one at a time ... one resulting in an eye injury and ER visit, which stressed everyone out!) Again ... Colton is a champ and not complaining at all.

... and then, there was the EARTHQUAKE!
This post is long enough, so I stuck that in its own post. 

So ... yea, that was March 2020. 

Here's a look one-second-style ...