Covid Diaries Week 3

Week three. The weeks are not getting any shorter, I can tell you that much! 

Saturday March 28th 

We made a schedule for today even though it's the weekend. Instead of work we've scheduled in a run and some “me time” each. We both did our run first thing this morning which was a great way to start the day, and something I think we should try and do more frequently. We are both in a better mindset for the day when we start with exercise. Andy then had two hours to himself earlier this afternoon while I played with the kids and baked muffins with Ella once Ollie was down for his nap.

I’m having my “me time” now, which I’ve spent reading a novel and catching up on the blog. I'm currently reading The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse - it's basically mindless fiction to distract from the news. UPDATE: I'm finished that book now. It was kind of meh, I wouldn't recommend it. Easy reading and I was intrigued at the beginning, but I kept hoping for a twist that never came. 

Today’s random activity: drawing in boxes. This kept Ollie amused for about 15 minutes, Ella for a while longer. It will be a good one to return to. I need to find all our stickers to add to it.

I made a very yummy salad for dinner courtesy of Jamie Oliver. Cauliflower, broccoli, lentils and spinach spiced with baharat (which I had to make, a mix of cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and pepper), topped with honey glazed halloumi. It was one of my favourite dinners so far!

Sunday March 29th

We woke up to a rainy morning today. I tried to set up an indoor water station as seen on Instagram (I’m now following accounts like “busytoddler”). It took like 10-15 minutes to fill with water, complete with as much spillage as you’d expect. Then they played with it for like 5 minutes. Sigh. Our morning has been a bit all over the place. We don’t have a schedule today and we are falling apart!

Monday March 30th

Today was a good day. We got back on track with a schedule and it worked pretty well. I am loving the mornings lately, I snuggle with Ollie on the sofa while he has some milk, I have a coffee and we watch a bit of TV. It’s such a nice lazy way to wake up, and such a change from how I used to spend my mornings: waking at 5:30 am and rushing to get out the door by 6:20 am to beat traffic (and still spend 45-50 minutes in my car).

Ella spends a lot of time every day drawing and creating art. She's very creative, and will spend long stretches of time engrossed in her latest project. We sent photos of today's creations to her kindergarten teacher, who got in touch via text this week. The public schools are setting up online learning for the students (via Google classroom in our case), so for now the teacher was just trying to make sure everyone has access.

I made a Thai red curry for dinner today which was super yum. It’s the second time I’ve made this recipe since we’ve been social distancing, and I highly recommend it!

Tuesday March 31st

Today the provincial government announced that schools will be closed until at least May 1st. I have already set myself up for not going back until September, so I wasn’t really surprised or disappointed by this announcement.

We have had really good feedback from parents about how smoothly my school has adapted to online learning. My head of school is really very good, a very calm and efficient leader. He’s ex-military so  I think he’s in his element right now, crisis management.

We’ve started to watch Ozark season 3 on Netflix. SOOOOOO good. I love Jason Bateman. 

Wednesday April 1st

OH MY GOD MARCH IS FINALLY OVER. This has been the longest month of my life.

Went for our weekly grocery shop today. The shop opens at 7am but the first hour is reserved for vulnerable members of the community, so I got there just after 8am. It’s very weird to be driving around in rush hour with no traffic on the roads. The price of gas is $0.73/L (up from $0.68/L last week). It is ridiculously low, which is kind of terrifying in itself. 

The store seems to be better stocked now, lots of meat and eggs. I guess people have stopped panic buying which is good. I had a bit of a disaster shop. Not only did I forget avocados, but I also dropped two cartons of eggs in the parking lot. Nightmare! Luckily only about 6 broke. 

On the way home I called my friend Cheryl. She’s a single mother to an 8-month-old (and a dog). She must be pretty lonely. Being a single mother would be hard at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic when you can’t see anyone else. 

I had a department meeting today and one of my colleagues, who is around my age and is single and lives alone, mentioned she was thinking of getting a dog. Again with the loneliness. I had to laugh at that though, as dog would be the last thing I’d want to add to the mix right now.

While I was working Andy and Ella finished off some prints they started the other day. They are beautiful! Andy is trying out ideas for his online art classes on Ella which is a lot of fun for her.

We had gorgeous spring-like weather today, hallelujah! We spent lots of time in the back garden this afternoon, and then Ella and I went on a scooter run (she was on her scooter, I was running). I was pretty impressed as she managed to scoot the whole 3 km from our house, around the marsh and back. It was a nice way to get in some exercise and some one-on-one time with Ella, as she is mostly glued to Andy’s side when he’s around. It was really a lovely excursion, the highlight of my day! 

Thursday April 2nd

It was another glorious spring day today. Andy had to teach online lessons in the morning, so I took the kids in the backyard for a morning coffee and babycinos.



We spent most of the afternoon outside as well. Good weather is definitely making this whole isolation thing a lot better. It was so sunny and nice that Ella made herself this sun-lounger:

After she wanted me to fan her with these leaves. What a life this kid lives.



Friday April 3rd

Hello weekend! I actually look forward to the weekend more now than when I was going in to work. Maybe it’s because during the week the line between home and work feels very blurry. At least now I know my laptop will be shut for two whole days.

I went on a run today. Although it doesn't feel like it, my watch is telling me I’m getting a bit faster - my pace is about 15 seconds/km faster than last week. It is encouraging to get this kind of feedback from a workout.

My parents got out of isolation today. Hallelujah! Ella was glued to my mom’s side all day, it was fantastic. The timing couldn’t have been better, Andy had to teach 3 online classes and I had quite a bit of work to do myself. Having my parents around means we can both work at the same time, rather than us trying to take shifts. 

We have nice weather to look forward to going into the weekend. I'm envisioning lots of time in the backyard.