Weightless during Covid

So one of the things people complain about loudly online about the COVID quarantine is their weight. We are all indulging in comfort foods more often than we would at any other time, because we're all a little off center and want to feel better.

Hambone had the foresight to remove the battery from our bathroom scale on the 5th day of quarantine to keep us from obsessing. That was smart. Really really smart.

In other news, we haven't been able to get to a hair salon since February, which makes NO DIFFERENCE to the boys because I cut their hair anyway, but MY HAIR is a real disaster. It turns out I have gone pretty gray somewhere along the line and now I have tri-toned hair (dark brown, gray, and the brassy remnants of my last dye-job). There is no real date to look toward for a salon reopening AND accepting an appointment from  me, so I bought hair dye online, and then two days later I bought some wigs because the hair dye was super back ordered and did not have a delivery date available.

Ah, vanity.

Yesterday the Governor started phase 1 of reopening the state, but our county executive is not in agreement. So this means "maybe you can go outside?"  But it doesn't matter, we wouldn't go out in public anyway for a long, long time. 

Mothers Day 2020

Mothers' Day was low-key this year, as you can imagine. However, Hambone and the boys did their best to make it special anyway.

After dinner, Hambone made home made gluten free chocolate chip cookies and then made those into ice cream sandwiches with whip cream on top. It was a wonderful treat for us! And of course, I ate many more cookies after the sandwiches were gone. They were so good!

The boys made cards for me -- Little Ham's card said "I always knew you would be a good mom someday"  and Hamslice's said "You may be annoying and cruel, but you are also kind and caring" 

I'll take it =)

We Don't Need No Education....

Yesterday we heard the news that school will be closed for the rest of the year. That means from March 16 to June 22 we are homeschooling, using BCPS provided curriculum. Total time that we have no activities available for the kids as of today: 6 months and two weeks. That means no school, no summer camps, no Magic club, no sports, no Sky Zone, literally nothing to do outside of the home. We anticipate that "at some point" some of these non-school entities will be open again, but as of today, there remains a yawning span of primarily at-home activity.

So how am we doing? I honestly kind of prefer this. I love having this time with the boys, and I see them thriving without all the hustle bustle and peer pressure of school. We have hit a groove, where we all work during the day (them on school, me on... work) and then around 4, we all ease into the evening after a nice long walk.

Hambone has reduced his hours to 4 days/week, and he doesn't set a morning alarm anymore. My work is finally letting up, so I have less work overall to do.

As a family, we are having long conversations about things like "Why do people get married" and "What were you guys like when you were kids" and "Tell us about some of the jobs you used to have" and the connection between all four of us has never been stronger. We're like an old timey farm family from the 1800s, but with Amazon, Michaels' delivery, Pizza delivery and Instacart. We have never had this level of connection in our family.

When everything starts back up again, I will grieve the end of this time together.

Is it stressful? I'd be lying if I said no. The stress comes out in strange ways -- Hambone had the hiccups for three days (DAY AND NIGHT), and I have been eating frosting and marshmallows like I've just been released from Weight Watchers. My back spasms at night. My breathing is noticeably shallower, and so on. But it's not because of the time with family, it's because of the insane news cycle swirling in the background.

We are waiting to hear about school in the fall. As of today I am certain that even if schools open again I won't send Hamslice and I am on the fence about Little Ham. Home school has been a godsend for Hamslice (even with an admittedly bumpy start) and I am unconvinced that this virus mess will be resolved by fall. We've been talking at home that our boys may never see the middle school again -- the next time they go to public school may well be as high school students. This would be fine with me.

The Adventure continues: The Meat Story

Since the Corona virus hit restaurants squarely in the teeth, Hambone's restaurant owner friends have shared the fact that they are required by contract to continue purchasing food and supplies at the same rate all the time. Since their restaurants have been closed for over a month, meat and other foodstuffs are piling up in the restaurant freezers.

Hambone worked out a deal with a local steak house to purchase 200 lbs of beef and pork from them at a discount. Half came to our house, half to Hambone's business partner, Mr. Chris.

Our hundred pounds arrived last night in restaurant-sized portions. And, because we were fueled by anxiety and opportunity, we processed all this meat into family meal sized portions and tossed it into freezer in about 20 minutes. We took care of all of it while the kids were watching a TV show.

Hambone suggested that the kids help, and I said no. The kids really shouldn't see this. In my mind, the food should just keep magically showing up. No need for them to see us doing these strange things.