March 2020: A Farm Trip and Global Shutdown

March 2020 brought something none of us expected: the world began reacting to the spread of a novel coronavirus, and in a very short amount of time, most of the globe simply closed down. Everything "non-essential" was banned from operating, including schools, shops, sports, restaurants, travel, and churches. Since we homeschool, much of our daily life wasn't much affected, but two of those categories clearly hit our family hard. Churches were no longer allowed to hold public services, so even though Michael continued to go to work and say Mass every day, it was pretty much just him and a server, and us on Sundays. The Little Flowers group that I teach, children's choir, the Blue Knights and First Communion groups the boys were in, Atrium, the Schola Mary sings with... all of our classes and groups were cancelled. Michael was no longer admitted to hospitals for patient visits, the church administrative staff started working from home, and there was generally little for him to attend to.

The second big thing was sports. We went from a volleyball schedule that generally consumed 10-15 hours a week to nothing. The season was at first put on hold for a couple weeks, then a few more weeks, then simply ended. Gussie was signed up for Spring baseball but that never even got a practice in. Edie's ballet class was cancelled (including the recital that they had *just* started learning and she was already over the moon excited about performing for everyone come June). As far as commitments go, our schedule was wiped clean. Catherine was the hardest hit on this front, having made such amazing strides in her volleyball skills and having put so much time and effort into it day after day for months, only to have the end of the season and Regionals be swept away just as she felt she was making good progress. It was frustrating and disappointing, to say the least.

The silver lining in this clean sweep of our schedule was lots of time for visiting the farm. With nothing to report to in the city, we could spend several days a week at the farm and even Michael could join us most of the time. It was a welcome distraction for all of us.

I don't know what's happening here. It's a pretty normal state of affairs, me not knowing what is motivating the kids to do what they do, but my lack of insight makes it no less enjoyable. I love these goofs.

Anges loves loves loves the spider swing now.

She also loves coloring with anything she can get her hands on that makes marks on things. And she prefers sitting on counters to sitting in chairs.

I told Michael to jump really high and see if he could match up his body with the bear skin hanging on the wall. I think he got closer than this but my camera skills failed him.

The basement has a lot of room for gymnastics. Watch for Agnes's cartwheels!



I think after the amount of time we spent at the farm in March, April, May, and June, we owe Grandma approximately 2,483 cups of chai latte. The kids discovered the chai latte pods for the keurig, and discovered how quick and easy the keurig brews up the chai latte, and they can't stop. I have now limited them all to one chai latte per visit, regardless of how many days we are there.

Gussie has lots of favorite things about the farm, but I think his favorite favorite thing is fire. There is much work to be done still clearing dead trees from the woods (and live ones that grow giant painful spears from their trunks) so Grandpa piles them up and starts a gigantic fire now and then. Gussie loves to go back out to the burn pile as soon as he wakes up in the morning and poke around with a stick until he finds a tiny ember that is still hot so he can nurse it back to a real flame and then fire.

Everyone helps clear the trees!

The natural sand pit still a delightful mystery to me. It's in a great spot near the house and the kids spend so much time playing in it. I estimate it will still be a couple decades before they carry away enough sand stuck to themselves after playing that there is a noticeable lack in the sand pit.

Edie made this castle with a natural flag of stick and leaf.

Mary's favorite spots are the hammock and the screen porch, where she can sit and read for hours and hours and hours. Until I pop in and start taking pictures of her.

This is the only way I can get a picture of the two of us. Selfie culture for the win.

Then Catherine comes and takes over the selfie camera.

Hummus face. Agnes would eat bowls of hummus with a spoon, but since that seems weird somehow, I usually give her a single stick of cucumber or baby carrot, and she uses that as a spoon for her hummus which is somehow better.

Being at the farm always tires everyone out! This picture is a veritable "what not to do with seat belts and kids" lesson, and I was somewhat embarrassed by it when Mary showed it to me, but... it is what it is. And it's a good thing Agnes is sleeping in that rear-facing seat because with all the driving back and forth to Hermann she has relapsed a bit in her car tolerance; if she's not sleeping, she tugging at her buckles and crying "out out" or "muuuuuummmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy!"