PITTS TRIP'S: the Pittsenbarger identical triplets saga: Corona Madness

CET are exactly 9.5 years old!

Oh how the times have changed my friends! At the start of it I thought it was just like every other years epidemic, Ebola, SARS, Swine, Avian, West Nile etc. Never did I expect to be on "lock down" or "shelter in place" nor had I really ever heard those phrases before. The first big blow for us was when they announced that school was letting out a week before spring break. I thought ok I can deal with this but then soon after it was extended to May 1st (as if they'll even go back by then, I'm not holding my breath).

I was getting prepared to work evenings and weekends because of the whole school situation when I learned of another new term "modified operations," (I work for a hospital). And I guess there are different levels of modified operations, 1-4. Because I'm not as essential worker, at level 1 I was to curtail working as much as possible. If I can work from home I was to do that (I can do maybe 10% of my job from home). I was also not to start anything new so I could decrease my presence in our building. We had a week of this then we went to level 2, which meant to "shut everything down" that could be shut down and only keep going the most essential critical things (which amounts to a task that one person/day can handle, out of dozens of workers). Also we should expect to reach level 3 or 4 soon. The hospital has also been recruiting research assistants, like myself to help with COVID-19 testing which I volunteered to do if they want me. I'm on their list but not sure I'll be drafted but I'm ready, able and willing should they call!

Phil by the way has a very work-from-home friendly job (architect) so he's been home most days and only goes to the office one or two day a week. The kids have been good, I've been keeping them busy. Once I found out they'd be out of school indefinitely I came up with my own curriculum to keep their minds from deteriorating. We do a good 2-3 hours of hard work each day which includes mostly reading and writing assignments. We're also working on memorizing our times tables. I am not a teacher nor would I be a good one if I tried so I think this is sufficient for now. The kids seem challenged and haven't complained too much so I'm happy with that. I also make sure they do chores everyday and get outside as much as possible. The rain has been quite challenging.

It was a rough start for myself, lots of bored over-eating and online impulse-shopping, the sales need to STOP!! My returns pile is out of control. I was able to over come both by reading the endless corona virus articles and watching the endless news updates, yes that's much healthier, ha! I also used to enjoy grocery shopping but a deep sense of dread flows over me every time I need to do it. I was not one of those crazed TP hoarders, which btw I just don't get? You can't eat toilet paper!!! You can always improvise or take a shower! If I had to choose to hoard anything it would be rice and beans, all else would be icing on the cake. Thankfully, I love a full pantry so I always have plenty of my Costco favorites but that only covers some of the basics like soap, peanut butter, fizzy water, rice, coffee, etc. I still need to do weekly shopping trips for our fresh produce, meats, milk, bread and the like. I never know what the grocery store will be out of and it's different every week which makes meal planning impossible! One week all out of meat/seafood/chicken and eggs. So the next week, I plan pasta-centric dinners and guess what they were all out of? Not one single box.

Until next time, survive and take care!

First week of quarantine the weather was fantastic!
Then the rain came back with a vengeance : (

Home school : )

The boys are obsessed with the new show Lego Masters (a reality competition show, it's on Hulu). They watch each episode at least 10 times each. Before the show their giant Lego pile went mostly un-played with. Such a good hobby especially now that we have no where to go, ha!