Coronavirus Quarantine Week 2: March 22-28

Playing Guess Who with Ellyza


Playing a game on Facebook Messenger for Kids with kindergarten classmate, Otis.

Talking about Pokémon with preschool friends, Ezra and Gus. 


Makai + Ezra

Virtual family yoga through Wildlight Yoga.


Chatting and playing games with Konrad!

So much going on, so much to worry about, everything changing from hour to hour, day to day. Tried to keep this in mind. It didn’t always work.

There was a lot of social media pressure with people.. no MOMs.. making these elaborate schedules and somehow sticking to them WHILE WORKING! It was making me insane. I made a schedule and the first day we tried to use it we only could stick to it for one hour. Which then makes you feel like even more of a failure.

This is a schedule that worked better for us. No times. Only goals for the day. If we didn’t do everything, whatever. We will try again the next day.

Makai added “hugs” and “go crasey” to the list.

Again, with the social media pressure. If you have an elaborate schedule and are teaching your kids new things and using “all the extra time to improve yourself” and your kid isnt on the screen all day, good for you. But all the rest of us are just trying to get through each day. I started NOT looking at social media until at least the afternoon each day.

Makai is always asking us what day number it is. At school they mark off days in the calendar. We set up his calendar at home and he is marking off days with stickers. He also noted his important dates like the day we got Baby Luigi.

Makai’s music neighborhood school, UpBeat Music and Arts started doing free lessons today through Facebook Live.


Facetiming with Grandma B.

I decided to take up cross stitch as a relaxing hobby. I used to do it in my 20s with my mom and aunts. I was excited when my supplies arrived!

Shortly after I took this photo, I tossed a pillow onto the couch and missed. It broke off both leaves.

My favorite neighborhood coffee shop, Perkolator, is closed. I ordered these beans from them, bought a gift certificate and also signed up for a coffee subscription.My favorite neighborhood coffee shop, Perkolator, is closed. I ordered these beans from them, bought a gift certificate and also signed up for a coffee subscription.

Playgrounds are officially closed across the city. It is hard when people don’t follow the rules and then I have to have conversations with Makai about why “those people” can play on the playground but we can’t.

When you thought you ordered 5 sandwich rolls but what you actually get is 5 full loaves of bread. The perils of buying groceries online.

Starting my cross stitch work.

Makai eating breakfast.

The teacher is ready for class today.

Everyone was panicked about buying toilet paper. I saw a tip online about a local Aldi having a ton of toilet paper so I dropped everything and went there.

The grocery store was crazy. No one really knew what to do. I wore winter gloves because I didn’t have plastic gloves. People didn’t wear masks because they were advised not to.

On the way home, I drove past The Florsheim Shoe Co. building on Belmont. I learned that the building has Landmark status and is now a condo building.

Makai doing art on the whiteboard.

When I was doing my mad toilet paper dash through Aldi, I randomly picked up a kringle from Racine, WI.

Sara drew a bunch of pictures for Makai to color!

Beans were just roasted 3 days before and left on my porch!

Dad and Mom are not allowed in the “Idea Cave.”

Makai’s cousin, Noe, in Washington State.

What do you do when you have a ton of bread? Learn to make bread pudding.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is serious about staying in the house. She literally drove around the city telling people to go home.
Almost had a heart attack when this blared through my Bluetooth speaker. Also thank you idiots for ruining the park for everyone.

Makai’s cousin Mahea in Washington state.
Watching Frozen 2. Again.

Science experiments!

   We made it to Friday. Day 13 quarantine. We didn’t finish these drinks. We realized in quarantine that we really are only social drinkers. We really rarely drink at home without other people. We already knew this, but not being able to socialize really emphasized it.

Chocolate chip banana muffins.

Kindergarten Math and 1st Grade Reading. Makai likes these books. From what I’ve been hearing, I’d be surprised if kids go back to school this school year. (Note from the future: they never went back.)

Another virtual piano lesson with Ms. Katie at UpBeat Music and Arts.

This boy has been tracking Chocolate Oreo Volcano day at Culver’s since the beginning of the month, before all this craziness began. Seems like eons ago. Made his week by going through the drive thru and getting his flavor!!

Wishing for warm weather was about all we had to look forward to.

Took advantage of a break in the rain. It’s almost 60 degrees outside and so so quiet. Almost all we could hear were birds chirping.

Being home makes me want to buy things for my home. I need to stop. Need to save money. Who knew if our jobs were secure?

Lori is not playing!

Dallas made Korean meat jun.

Makai was ecstatic about getting to connect with his friends on Messenger for Kids at first. But he grew tired of it fast.

Coronavirus Quarantine Week 0: March 8-14

I’m writing this in hindsight. It was WAY too much to address or document in real time. This was a strange week. At work, we were told mid-week to take our things we’d need to work for a couple weeks and go home. I was having a mental breakdown because Makai was still in school. Corporate America made their employees stay home for safety but we were still expected to have our kids at school!? Makai had one last meet up in a park. He had his last in-person piano lesson on Saturday. I remember running errands that day, thinking that it was our last day to be in public for who knows how long. Groceries were running out of medicine, toilet paper and other foods. We bought a case of water and A LOT of canned soup. No one knew what was going to happen. In Chicago, we got the official order to stay at home starting March 21, but our family started on March 15.

The public was advised to wash their hands often and not to wear masks.

We thought this was something that was going on far away from us. On cruise ships. It might last a couple weeks. All we needed to do was wash our hands good.

There were a lot of jokes about Corona beer.

People started freaking out because a school in Chicago had a case of Coronavirus and closed down.

I started driving to work every day because I was afraid to take the germ-filled Blue Line, which comes out of O’hare INTERNATIONAL Airport.

Kishore gave me this candybar to take home when we were told to leave work. I said I would eat it in case of emergency.

Literally every company you ever interacted with was sending out emails to assure you they were taking everything seriously and taking precautions.


My last view at work.


People at work were sharing this meme.

People were freaking out because the grocery stores were running out of things like…. toilet paper…

medication….

bread….

frozen foods….

bread again.. .but notice that there is plenty of budweiser!

There was a shortage of hand sanitizer.

It seemed to be getting real when leaders of countries and celebrities were being diagnosed.

ALL conferences and work travel were cancelled.

Makai’s last meet up with a friend – Otis.

At Chopin Park with Otis.

Uh. Or conorona divorces.

Dallas said something about this possibly causing us to cancel our April vacation and I thought he was nuts, but he was right. The beginning outbreak was at a retirement home outside Seattle and we were supposed to go visit Jordan, Liz and Mahea and new baby Lilinoe. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out if we could cancel our tickets. In the end Delta let us, without a hitch, but only gave us a credit, not a refund.

Cermak Fresh Market

Checkin’ out the new store!

Produce as far as you can see!

 A lot of rosemary for the price, compared to other stores!

Digital price tags.

Lots of meats. Good prices. We bought this al pastor.

So many different house-made sausages!

On the left, an entire aisle of beans.

A good selection of Polish and Serbian foods.

 Lots of areas you can get freshly prepared food: a grill, a taqueria, pizza, sandwiches, gelato, etc. Also an area to sit and eat.

Dallas grilling the wings and al pastor.

We drove by Cermak Fresh Produce one of the times we looked at the house before we bought it. So, we finally decided to give it a try. Dallas is obsessed! The produce section is massive and the prices are great. The meat department is also huge. We got the al pastor and wings to grill. Tasted amazing. Will be back often!

Instacart

instacart

We’ve used the Instacart service at least ten times now. I can’t say enough good things about it! Basically, you’re hiring a personal shopper to go to local stores and get your groceries. The delivery fee is very low (I paid $3 once) or many times free. I think they work it into the grocery pricing, but not so much that I’ve ever noticed things being way more expensive. Then again, I haven’t been to the supermarket for many months now! In Chicago, they’ll go to Whole Foods, Mariano’s, Jewel, Plum Market, Costco, or Stanley’s. Such a great time saver, especially with a baby!

If you want to give Instacart a try, use this link. You’ll get $10 off and I’ll get $5 off!