real life is stranger than fiction for the past two months. Georgia is starting to ease it's quarantine restrictions but it's not quite the free for all that the media seems determined to portray. the few times i actually do venture out, people are playing it safe, staying far apart and being considerate and kind. pandemics have their benefits.
after 9 weeks all together, no one seems to mind a far drive anymore. everyone begs to go anywhere they can in the car. today thomas had his temple recommend renewed out in a our new stake center(for our BRAND NEWLY formed stake) in winder. normally everyone would have balked at the thought of riding together for no reason but today everyone jumped at the chance to go together and look out the window at anything besides the walls of our house.
we've spent hours upon hours on the trampoline. we started a club called the "butt bounce club". Athena Blythe even wrote about it for one of her online school assignements.
only picture that loaded:
thomas got horrifically ill with covid-19. he actually believes he contracted it in march while getting lunch at the whole foods by his office. our pollen season was especially bad this year so we weren't immediately aware of how sick thomas was. he started out thinking it was simply seasonal allergies to within a few days not being able to walk a few steps at a time. his fever spiked up to 105 and he couldn't sleep more than a few minutes at a time because of how bad the coughing got. it was hard to get a doctor to see him until we were eventually able to get an appointment at an urgent care. from there they did the exam while thomas was in the car. they didn't have any covid tests on hand but they did a barrage of other tests to rule everything out. our doctor was pretty positive that thomas had covid on top pneumonia. she contacted the county to get him an official test done. we went to the county the next day it was like a movie scene. police were blocking the road, they triple checked to make sure we had an appointment. medical personnel were wandering about completely covered in PPE gear. they stuck the text wayyyyyy up thomas nose until he sang soprano and then we were on our way. for the next two weeks thomas sucked down his prescribed medications and a bunch of nyquil on top of that. he languished like that for a few more days until our urgent care called back and i told them he wasn't improving and i was still really worried each night that thomas wasn't going to wake up in the morning. we had many scary conversations about what if he didn't recover because my giant, healthy husband was in very dire straits and it was hard enough to get thomas tested in the first place and getting him admitted to a hospital felt impossible. once he finally got a cheritussin prescription, he was finally able to sleep and he started making baby steps towards recovery. cheritussin thomas was loads of fun. he even did some work conference calls while he was drugged up. our bishop braved our house while wearing a full hazmat suit and gave both thomas and me a blessing. it was a pretty powerful experience. he pronounced many blessings and that was truly the time when thomas started making bigger strides toward recovery. finally, we got a call from the county saying that thomas had officially tested positive for covid-19. no duh, gwinnett county.
the first thing we did when thomas was able to stand for longer periods of time was to do a photo recreation of american gothic. i'm not sure why, but thomas was still pretty hopped up on drugs.
our district did a really good job of transitioning to digital learning but it was still really hard to get 4 kids doing 4 different assignments on 4 different computers. i've never aspired to homeschooling but i respect anyone's choice to do it. both reagan and athena blythe each have 5 support staff so i was really feeling out of my element. scarlett was a champ homeschooler who got up early every day and was done by 930 every day. weirdo. she also never missed a zoom or google meetup. i cannot say the same for myself. herschel was a pretty good student if athena blythe was a pretty good student that day.
outdoor chalk math:
photos i'm not buying because i'm so cheap.
we've done a million miles of walks and hikes. we've tried to hit up new parks that are farther away from the house because the aforementioned interest in long car rides.
the kids got pretty good at biking. i got pretty good at loading up bikes and scooters and children efficiently.
one of our favorite hikes is just around the corner from our house. this picture was taken right after herschel went to pee in the woods and then peed on MY BACK for fun.
finally, when i get a better, newer computer i'll write more on titanic day. i'll upload the video of thomas and i reenacting, "i'm the king of the world" on the back deck for herschel's amusement. i have loads of pictures of titanic day handwriting tasks and art projects. but for now, here's a picture of our titanic loving little boy watching titanic.
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