And So It Begins...

Yesterday was the day.  We kicked off in this strange new world of "social distancing".  After a week that literally up-ended everyone's world, I found myself and children entering a dark school with just a few staff available.  The chat with Princess Putterpants' teacher reflective of the mood, sad and unsure of what's to come.  Collecting our work packets and learning materials for the week, we returned back home.  Our new reality for the next few weeks? We are home-schooling.

As a former early childhood educator, I feel confident I can follow through on instructions from the teachers, but it is a switch of gears to move from Travel Agent and Coach, to Teacher.  Over the next few hours I tackled the task of de-cluttering our living space so we could have learning space. All the while the news and White House conferences played in the background.  Commentators and speakers alike painting a grim picture, but asking the public to positively be in this together, all while staying home and separated. I can't help but think what irony it is that our overly social nation is really more acclimated for this than we realize. The age of Social Media having become a more natural person to person connection, than face to face connection is.

Following our family dinner the kids excitedly gathered their Leprechaun Trap materials.  While we may not be able to go to school, this special tradition normally done with the kids' teachers, could not go to the wayside just because we are bound to our home.  With the table cleared, the kids zoomed around the house collecting what they needed to make "The One" ... the trap that would FINALLY catch that pesky Leprechaun.  Unfortunately for my husband and I our children have a nasty habit of using our furniture as trampolines, climbing equipment, and track surfaces.  Case in point, last week Princess Putterpants found herself at ER after a jumping-on-the-bed-incident-gone-wrong.  Thankfully she was ok, just a little sore with her ribs and lungs having a slight battle with each other.

BoBear however was not destined to fare as well as his sister this night. After a slick run of the socks on the farm table bench, down he went, face first!  As I rolled him over, he sure was a brave boy with hardly any tears, but he said, "Momma I can't move my arm." and the flood gates opened.  Agreeing with Daddy the arm didn't look right we were off to the local ER.


With last weeks rolling shutdown of our country, right into this day ... I was nervous.  The entire drive (the whole 10 minutes) I worried ... would it be a ridiculous wait?  Will the waiting room be full of COVID-19 patients ... should I have grabbed his mask (thanking the Big Man Upstairs quickly that "Blanket" was along for the ride as I imagined it would do as a covering) ...  We arrived, and I carried BoBear in ... and to my disbelief the place was empty...  We were taken to a room right away, seen right away.  While the process of determining if there was a break or just Nursemaid Elbow is long enough -- it was not the endless wait I was expecting because we are in the midst of a pandemic.  This all feels so surreal ... not real ... strange.

PS. It is a solid clean break of the distal end of his right humerus.

So, here we are ... Day 1:
✔ School Work for the week picked up.
✔ Home converted to a learning space.
✔ Tradition of Leprechaun Traps carried on.
✔ An appendage break to sufficiently occupy our time while we are "off".