life in the time of COVID

Some quick takes from these last six weeks!

• Life update. Just before Notre Dame moved classes online and everything shut down, Chris and I ended two weeks of intense discernment with a decision to move to Washington D.C this summer! Chris accepted an offer from Catholic University of America to do a PhD in Theology and, while I am very sad to leave South Bend, we’re excited for this next adventure! Now is the time for big, bold moves, right? Ha! (That’s Evangeline’s letter to her friend, Joe, saying, “You won’t see me because I am moving. I will send you letters.”) If you have friends in the D.C/Hyattsville area, hit me up, I’m looking for connections! 🙂

• Podcast. I had this idea while I was thinking about how sad I was to be leaving – that I could do a podcast one day with my friend Annie, to keep our friendship going long-distance. When I mentioned it, she was so pumped and got the ball rolling, and here we are, about to record our first episode! Ha! I would still be in the brainstorming phase without her initiative. It’s called Laughs & Littles, and we’ll be talking about anything and everything about mom life – getting into the nitty gritty, because that’s what we always want more of from talks and podcasts! And now with COVID, it feels like a time to try new things. So, stay tuned for more on that!

• Homeschool mornings. We love Evange’s preschool class, and it’s sad she won’t get to finish the year. But she adjusted really well to “school at home,” and the first three weeks were so peaceful, I couldn’t believe it. She never said she missed her friends and seemed so content to be home. We have a loose routine now, mainly, once Chiara takes her morning nap, we have about an hour of focused time. At first, Zelie would do her morning quiet time and I’d have one on one time with Evange, but lately Zelie’s been staying with us. Here are some things we’ve been rotating between that have been fun:
  • Math
    • coin game – “bring me a penny, bring me a quarter, bring me 1 cent, bring me 26 cents, etc”
    • “buying” things
    • worksheets/dry erase workbook
    • patterns, Set, shapes on geo board
  • Writing/Reading
    • writing with bananagram tiles
    • writing letters to pen pals
    • labeling things around the house
    • making a calendar project
    • worksheets/dry-erase workbook
  • Art
    • Thursday is our Art & Prayer Corner day so I try to come up with an art project, or just get out paint and paper.
    • These paper dolls have been a hit
  • Science
    • We have these great children’s encyclopedias from Chris’s mom, and Evange loves reading the World and Space one. She and Zelie say they are going to be astronauts when they grow up.

and then we try to get outside and play until lunch. Zelie usually wanders off and plays with her dolls, which is fine. If we get a warm sunny day, we just do as much outside time as possible.

• Sundays. We made it to Eastertide! Holy Week at home was actually really cool. I always feel a lot of FOMO with littles that I can’t make it to everything, but this year I was drowning in resources for ways to do Holy Week at home! Since then, we’ve been keeping Sundays special by getting dressed up and either watching Mass with Bishop Barron or Mass at the Basilica, but lately we’ve had more success with “home Mass.” Evange likes processing in with a candle, cross, and cloth, and then we do the readings and some prayers and songs. Then we make a big brunch and, after, the girls watch this Children’s Liturgy of the Word that is fantastic. My sister-in-law also wrote up 9 ways to keep Sundays special and it’s a great resource.

• April birthdays. We celebrated Zelie turning 3 on the 10th and Chris turning 30 on the 20th! Zelie requested an ice cream cake (not sure how she even knew about those) and it was delish, especially since I didn’t make it. We had a “party” all day with balloons, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, FaceTiming friends and family, cards and gifts from grandparents, a Lion King viewing, and pizza. And I made a carrot cake for Chris that I was happy to eat all the rest of the week, it was so good.
• Books. Currently reading The Thorn Birds, and I love it and hate it. Love the setting and scope but the relationships are so messed up and I am ANGSTY about it. I didn’t love Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine but I’m glad I finished it. It was very similar to The Cactus, another Reese Witherspoon Book Club book … hm. I really liked A Gentleman in Moscow, and Olive, Again was okay. Then I read The Mercies, about a fishing village in Norway that loses all its men in a storm in 1617, and had to skip over parts when it got to the witch trials. I was reading while nursing in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back asleep, I was so upset. So, not sure I recommend that one. The Water Dancer was really good, though. The magical realism was hard for me to get into at first, but then I enjoyed it.

• Chiara. But speaking of nursing in the middle of the night, that’s down to only once in the very early morning now, and I’m stoked! Sleeeeeep! Chiara, or “The Keek,” is the best, and at such a cute age right now. She’s crawling and cruising around, playing peekaboo, starting to get into everything, and trying to climb the stairs. Can’t believe she’ll be a year old next month. Crazy.

That’s what’s new with us!