We stay at home most days, all day. When this all began, almost four weeks ago, I made up a daily schedule for weekdays that we mostly stick to.
8am Wakeup, read in bed, eat breakfast, get dressed
9am Go outside: play catch, bike ride, walk, scooter
10am School: mostly online reading through school apps
12pm Lunch
1pm Chores; also Theo and Beckett sometimes have a zoom conference with their classmates at this time
2pm Go outside
3pm Quiet reading
4pm Video games, iPad
5pm Make dinner
6pm Dinner
7pm Family walk, family TV (part of a TV show or movie--recent picks are LegoMasters show and Frozen 2)
8pm bedtime
In some ways the days have gotten longer, but in other ways they've gotten shorter. Without evening commitments like sports and meetings and political events, we usually eat a leisurely meal between 6 and 6:30, and we try to reflect on things we've enjoyed about the day. There's nothing keeping us from getting the boys to bed by 8:15 or so, and sometimes they sleep in til 7:30. On weekends no one is allowed to make noise til 8am. I'm sleeping more than I usually do at night too, even with two or more hours in the evening to watch TV or movies with Jeff.
I've been organizing all of the meals, which I enjoy. It's a mostly-fun challenge to see what we have, what we need to use up, and what pantry staples we might be short on and need to make a plan to acquire. Jeff cooks his specialties--quesadillas, grilled chicken, fried chicken, turkey burgers--when requested.
Acquiring food and other essential items for our family has become a daily challenge. The week of March 9 I felt like it was the beginning of the end. I didn't know when I wouldn't be able to go to the store freely again, but I knew it was coming soon. Between Jeff and me we went to the store several times that week. Wegmans was out of toilet paper by then, and by March 13 the stores had been stripped of most nonperishable items--paper towels, yeast, canned soup, flour, and sugar. March 12 was the last day I went to the store. I went to my favorite store, Aldi, where the store looked pretty normal. The thing is, poor people can't afford to stock up and sweep everything out of the store, at least as early as the wealthier people could. I bought ridiculous quantities of my favorite Aldi's milk, which inexplicably keeps forever, as well as their organic canned tomatoes and beans. I had a strange sense in the store that I knew something that no one else knew, and as I felt bad about stocking up on all the items I knew we would need, I also felt grateful to be able to buy what we needed. About three weeks ago a neighbor offered to get me yogurt, knowing that my kids eat a lot of it and that I was low. Her husband delivered 6 quarts of our favorite Traders Joe's plain whole milk yogurt and 6 boxes of squeezy yogurt that my kids love.
Since those early days, Jeff has taken over as chief procurer of goods for the family. First we were getting curbside pickups from Wegmans, but the incredible demand at Wegmans locked us out for a couple weeks. Lately he's been ordering from the Tops near SU, which may have less traffic because the students have returned home. Everything is more expensive, for many reasons, including that we have to buy brand-name items instead of the usual generic we might get, and also because it seems like prices are higher at Tops, or for curbside delivery, or both.
Watching our supply of vegetables, fruit, milk, and yogurt dwindle in the fridge to the barest I have ever seen, I started having fantasies of going to Aldi. The first couple times I talked to Jeff about it, he said no, it was too big of a risk. I made more masks and I tried on his balaclava head covering. Yesterday I begged and promised all the precautions I would take, and he agreed reluctantly to let me go.
I found both these photos on my phone, of me and Jeff in the balaclava. You can't tell but I'm wearing another mask over the mouth and nose of the balaclava.
I went to the Aldi in Nedrow instead of the one closer to me on Geddes St, based on my entirely unproven hypothesis that higher income people would be better at social distancing and mask-wearing, and the Nedrow one generally has a higher income clientele from what I can tell. I was also prepared to fake cough and sneeze to get people away from me if needed. It was mostly pretty good. It is also possible they thought I might rob them or the store, so they gave me some distance based on that. Which is also just fine with me. Most people were moving slowly, respectfully, waiting to move until the person ahead of them cleared out of the way first. There were a few people (men) who appeared annoyed by my trying to keep distance or slow moving, and even a couple who aggressively moved closer to me or refused to move out of the way until I told them to please move. I got everything I wanted and more--lots of vegetables and fruits and milk and yogurts, as well as lots and lots of "fun" stuff for us--chips, popcorn, ice cream, candy, cookies, and their favorite yogurt drinks that I don't usually get. I moved around the store strategically, never entering an aisle where there was anyone else, and planning where to put everything to fit it in my cart. I lucked out with a free checkout line when I finished, and she let me take two carts because there was no way all of the stuff was going to fit back in the one cart I'd used to collect everything. I usually pack all my bags in the store but instead I parked in the most remote area of the parking lot and took my two carts to the car and then, 20 yards from anyone else, I packed up all my groceries in paper bags in my van and then returned the carts. (Free carts! Aldi apparently doesn't want people worried about not having the quarter for a cart these days.)
When I got home I brought in bags and then stripped all my clothes and masks off, then washed my hands super-well and got redressed. Jeff wiped down every item and then I put them all away. I cannot even explain the feeling of pride and triumph in seeing my fridge full of good food for my family, with meal plans for another couple weeks set, seeing the delight on my kids' faces when they saw everything I brought home.
As for work, we're making do for now. Theo and Beckett's teachers are not giving them that much work, and most does not require much active parental participation. Reed's teachers are posting a lot of videos of them reading books, and introducing their pets, and Reed gets a kick out of hearing his teachers say his name on the videos.
I'm generally in court a lot, usually a couple times a week, so that part of my job has quieted down a lot. It's very difficult some days to keep up with all the emails, but mostly they are not client-related as much as they are agency related. I coordinated a clinic where law students who usually volunteer with me at the courthouse are instead talking to clients on the phone and helping them complete petitions to get orders of protection remotely. I am talking to clients about what they should do about their court-ordered visits in this time of social distancing, and then talking to people who want to be able to file once the courts are open for filing "non-essential" matters like custody petitions and divorces when this is all over. I'm working about 20 hours a week, about half or more than I used to, which I'm able to do because Jeff's work has been more relaxed and he's able to be the primary parent most of the time.
Jeff's campaign for city court is certainly different than we had imagined it would be, but he's moving ahead and planning for the future, whatever that may be.
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