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.

3.16.20 (Monday): Today was n’s birthday! We tried to make the most of it. D picked up the kids from my parents’ house. My parents and sister had given him his birthday presents (books about WWII and Legos), which were perfect for all of his time at home.

We had made camping reservations at Crystal Cove State Park when we realized that we would need to cancel our Seattle vacation. Since then, rain had crept into the forecast, but we did not want to cancel another set of plans. I will try to write a separate post on our trip. While we were on the beach, we received notification that the kids’ school (and my work) would be closed until April 10th. n kept on saying he would not believe our spring break was longer than a week until he heard it from the Superintendent. It was a relief to finally have a date to plan around. I was told I would still need to report to work next Monday in order to plan for online learning.

3.17.20 (Tuesday): We spent the morning at Crystal Cove State Park.

We picked up boba and popcorn chicken on our way home as n’s final birthday treat. The afternoon was spent doing laundry and putting everything away from our camping trip. I organized another shelving unit. I heard that I no longer had to report to work next week. A couple of hours later, we saw that Orange County was being told to shelter in place. However, by the evening, that message seemed to be retracted by the OC Health Agency.

3.18.20 (Wednesday): I had been putting off another trip to the grocery store, but I decided we needed to do some more stocking up. I tried to go just before 7 a.m. to avoid the crowds, only to see a sign that Ralphs was now open only 8 a.m. -8 p.m. I returned at 8 a.m, and there was a line of about 50 people. They were letting people in about 25 at a time, and people over 60 years of age were given priority (rightly so). This made my previous trip to Ralphs feel like a breeze. Anyway, I was able to buy some more toilet paper, milk, eggs, ground turkey and 4 chicken thighs (all of these items had limited supply). I was able to find pasta (hooray!) but they were all out of flour. I spent about $120 during that trip, which is double the amount I usually buy at a time. Hopefully I will not have to go for another week.

Back at home, I organized yet another shelving unit-ha! We went for walks (I have been successful so far in getting 10,000 steps a day). n watched Sully. Amazon delivered n’s birthday present from us (a teen/adult-sized scooter). D also bought one for himself, so two members of our family can go riding together.

3.19.20 (Thursday): It was a drizzly day. For breakfast, I made Buttermilk Protein Waffles with a mix from Trader Joe’s.

D had some phone-in meetings, so we all had to keep quiet. I organized my desk area where I blog. We threw out an absurd amount of old pens/pencils. I wrote a review for a couple of games, which also kept the kids entertained in the morning.

For lunch we ate quesadillas with cheddar, ham, and spinach. This cooking for four, three times a day is going to get old, fast. However, everyone has been pitching in to help cook or wash dishes, so that is good.

The kids and I did some GoNoodle (exercise videos) and started a new 1000 piece puzzle. k practiced her viola (I should see if she will let me post a video). D and n rode their scooters outside. In the late afternoon/evening, n and D re-watched one of the Star Wars movies that we have on DVD (don’t ask me which one).

While they were watching the movie, we received notification that Governor Newsom put all of California on lockdown (for real this time), for at least a month. This basically means that you cannot go out, except for essentials (food, gas, bank, doctor). We are the first state to do so; it will be interesting to see how long it takes for other states to do the same.

COVID-19 has officially disrupted our everyday lives, and I feel the need to document how it is affecting our family. Perhaps years later, my grandkids will be interested in hearing about what we did and how we felt while going through this time of so much uncertainty.

3.14.20: March, Friday the 13th, marked the last day of school before our district was scheduled for our one-week spring break. LAUSD and several other school districts in our area announced that they were closing schools. D received notification that he was to work from home immediately, until at least March 31. The kids and I left school not knowing if our break would be extended.

• We made Primo Pasta Pie for our Pi Day dinner with Kidstir. (Enter our giveaway here).
• The kids and I went to the public library and loaded up on books and some DVDs since I had a feeling all libraries would be closed soon.
• We watched Spaceballs, one of D’s childhood favorites. (Should be more of a PG-13 movie than PG, in my opinion-ha!)

3.15.20 (Saturday):

In the morning, I went to Ralph’s to do some grocery shopping. The pasta aisle was completely empty except for some gluten-free varieties that I am pretty sure my family would not enjoy. They were also out of meat and cheese. The store was crowded, but not too crazy. However, when I went to the check-out line, there were only two checkers, and each line was about 15-20 people deep.

We took a walk to a local park and hiked up a small hill. I wanted to make sure we all got some fresh air and exercise.

Disneyland may be closed, but n wanted to play his Disneyland game on Xbox. I usually do not play with him, but decided to try it out. I ended up feeling dizzy and sick after playing Pirates of the Caribbean.

Luckily I found some heavy whipping cream at the store, so n helped me make a chocolate pudding pie (also with Kidstir).

I am trying to organize our house by organizing one area at a time. I tackled this shelf area and decluttered.

At night we watched Groundhog Day as a family. Again, it seemed more like a PG-13 movie to me than a PG. Am I just getting older, or were guidelines less stringent back then?

3.16.20 (Sunday): Since there was a California ban on gatherings of 250+, our church decided to hold an online service. (We also have a lot of seniors in our congregation, so we wanted to exercise an abundance of caution). We watched our service online and also some of Rick Warren’s message on Coronavirus. Both messages urged us not to be fearful during these times and reminded us that GOD is still in control.

I made a Dutch Baby (German pancake) for breakfast. I feel like I definitely have more time for cooking these days. It is just a matter of being able to find the ingredients!

We brought out our folding table and set up a puzzle station. D implemented his organized puzzle piece strategy.

Later in the afternoon we took a walk near my parents’ house and dropped the kids off for an overnighter. I think it was good for all of us to have a little “break”. D and I did not really want to venture out (most places were closed anyway) so we just did take-out from Piadina and watched Sully at home. (This movie is rated PG-13, but I thought it was more like a PG! I might let the kids watch this one later).

What are you doing to keep busy?