3.29.20 (Sunday): We watched our church’s online service on YouTube again.

D went on a massive gardening spree, and finished ripping out all of the plants on the side of our house.

We did a game/puzzle swap with my nephew.

D and n started watching The Mandalorian on Disney Plus.

President Trump announced that his stay at home orders are now in effect until April 30. That is a relief to me, since before he was telling reporters he thought America should be back to work by Easter.

3.30.20 (Monday): Back to school/work! k started her assignments from her actual teachers (instead of the district). n and his teacher seem to have a better handle on how assignments are given and turned in.

We did the BOGO X-Large pizza deal from Northwood Pizza. It is kind of fun looking for different pizza places since we usually overly rely on Costco.

3.31.20 (Tuesday):

I went grocery shopping, this time at Ralphs again. The situation was somewhat better. There was no line to enter the store. There was no flour, toilet paper or rice vinegar (I know, probably not a staple for most people!) The checker told me they are no longer allowed to bag groceries.

n also had a Zoom meeting with his soccer team.

The California Superintendent made an announcement warning school districts that they should be prepared for online distance learning for the rest of the school year.

4.1.20 (Wednesday):

It is April Fool’s Day, but I think people are not really in the mood to play jokes on one another.

I had two Google Meets for work.

Saw a group (4 teenage boys) of Covidiots playing spike ball at the park! AHHHH!!!

Our school district announced that we will be doing online distance learning for the rest of the school year!

4.2.20 (Thursday):

We hit the depressing statistic of having one million cases of COVID-19 around the world.

k did another online basketball training with Ironmen.

It seems that the guidelines regarding face masks are changing. Before the authorities were saying they are not helpful, and now California is recommending them when you are out in public. However, they are also warning people to leave the medical-grade masks for hospitals. According to the California Department of Public Health,

A cloth face covering may be factory-made or sewn by hand, or can be improvised from household items such as scarfs, T-shirts, sweatshirts, or towels.

Using this tutorial and scraps from my fabric stash, I whipped us up some masks.

3.24.20 (Tuesday):

Today Japan announced the Olympics would be postponed until 2021. So sad, but understandable.

We watched some American Idol on Hulu.

3.25.20 (Wednesday):

I had my first Google Meet meeting with the special education team at the school I work for. Let’s just say that Google Meet does not work when you have a group of 15+ elementary school students on at the same time.

My big outing of the day was that I went shopping at Costco. I had not dared go to Costco before, after hearing all of the nightmare stories. They limited the number of people in the store and gave out sanitized shopping carts once you were inside. I ended up spending around $200, which again is about double what I usually spend in a single shopping trip there.

We watched Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Hulu.

3.26.20 (Thursday):

I made a mini Google slideshow to connect with the kindergarten class that I work with. I do miss their smiling faces.

k did another basketball training session through Instagram.

Today the United States surpassed Italy and China to have the most cases of COVID-19 cases in the world!

I went for a walk and saw a group of five teenage girls running/walking together. This made me so angry! Why do people not take this seriously? Staying home is really a small sacrifice compared to the doctors and nurses who are risking their lives in order to save others.

We watched American Idol on Hulu.

n had a Zoom conference with his soccer coach and teammates. I guess they are going to try to do that every Thursday.

3.27.20 (Friday):

I started doing some online trainings for work.

It seems that a lot of people are stress baking, as flour and sugar are difficult to find. Luckily, my mom was able to find a bag of flour for me since we were running low.

I made blackberry muffins. Will need to make another batch of breakfast cookies soon.

n had another Google Meet with his teacher.

At night, k had a Discord meeting with her youth group and D and I had a Zoom meeting with our small group. It was nice to virtually “see”/talk/pray with everyone.

3.28.20 (Saturday): It did not really feel like the weekend, but it was nice not to have work/schoolwork/conference calls.

D relieved some stress by pulling out some plants on the side of our house. We need to figure what to plant.

This fried rice was a collaborative effort. n chopped the carrots/green onions, k chopped the broccoli, and I did the rest. Good way to use up leftover rice.

The cities are finally starting to make it clearer that the parks are shut down. I still do “passive walking” through them, which is explicitly allowed.

3.20.20 (Friday):

k was able to do a basketball training through her club basketball program.

We did takeout from Panda Express. (They are offering the Family Feast for $20, which is a good deal!) I have been sending D out to pick up our take-out food because he actually likes to get out of the house.

k attended a youth group meeting by using an app called Discord. (Millennials and Gen Z definitely seem to have an advantage in being able to use technology to keep in contact with each other. Our small group is still trying to figure things out-ha!)

We watched The Princess Bride. (The kids had never seen this movie before, even though we own it on DVD!)

3.21.20 (Saturday):

More gardening and cleaning. Still walking to the park. n and I played ping pong on the kitchen table (He had been asking for a while, and I finally had the time!) We watched a faith-based movie called Catching Faith 2. (Some parts were cringe-y, some parts were funny, and some parts were touching).

3.22.20 (Sunday):

We viewed our online church service. D and the kids did a hike at Peters Canyon.

I baked Breakfast Cookies using this recipe.

We did takeout pizza from Fresh Brothers. (I heard that pizza is one of the safer take-out options these days since it is heated, and placed directly in the box).

We watched Max 2. It was pretty entertaining as family movies go.

3.23.20 (Monday):

The kids officially started their “online distance learning”. n’s teacher was on it, and had several assignments already lined up. His teacher also dropped off some of his notebooks and books to another classmate, who then delivered them to our house.

k’s teachers sent e-mails throughout the day. This week they are doing district-wide lessons, and next week they will start with individual classroom assignments.

We decided we should wake up by 7 a.m., and start schoolwork by 8 a.m. We are also making sure to change our clothes instead of sitting around in our pajamas all day. n did not finish his schoolwork until around 2:30, but that was with plenty of breaks.

In the evening, I walked while n rode his bike and k rode a scooter. We also decided that we are only going to watch movies on the weekend now. Instead, we watched a couple of episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives via our free Hulu subscription.