Self-Isolation Day #8

Friday, Self-Isolation Day #8

I had been inspired by a doctor I saw on video who showed the statistics of how many people are dying of Coronavirus versus dying of everything else on the planet, like car accidents, suicide, heart disease, obesity, cigarette smoke, and many other ailments. He advised worrying much more about what we can actually control and working to reduce those risks. So, I found myself Friday morning jogging laps in our cul-de-sac in the morning pitch dark until the rain became steady enough that I came indoors to finish exercising. One small step for me, but it felt huge!

While jogging, I listened to an inspiring, peace-filling sermon called CoronaVirus: The Divine Interdict. Whether this self-isolation (and likely upcoming shelter-in-place orders and God-only-knows martial law) is truly merited by a once-in-a-century pandemic or whether it is severe overreaction with grave economic consequences, we can practice virtue as Catholics in a number of ways. I recommend this homily!

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Our dear Margaret turned nine on Friday, so, it being Lent, we celebrated on Saturday. After a morning catching up on chores and music practice, I set up some old-fashioned party games and we started our Quarantine Birthday Party!

First, we did a photographic scavenger hunt. Two groups of three siblings were searching to find two different lists of ten items, all hidden around the yard, with instructions to photograph themselves with said items. This was the best game I planned and there was much shrieking and racing around!

Reality: Then there occurred some sibling fights.

Next we played spoon racing. We combined all the different kids together, as well as kids with parents. People could race as often as they wanted. Amazingly, the four-year-old always "won," can you imagine? Eggs fell and smashed, people kept going, and it was great.

Mama did not win.

Mama came in far last.

Four-year-old winning

Reality: Then some other kids began crying.

We moved indoors to play musical chairs but with colored dogs on the floor. After much (reality) tears, we finally got a reasonable game and laughter going.

Reality: We gave up trying to play some picture-drawing game on the white board (cue fighting) and moved straight into Charades.

All but one of the kids had fun. At this point in the party, Dad was letting people win for HOW MUCH JOY THEY EXUDED and not whether they won any of the games. He kept a tally of Joy Points for each kid.

Reality: A new kid ran off crying.

Margaret got to open her gifts (and nobody cried).

art kits

She wants to learn how to make her own yarn from wool.

Then I sent everybody outside to play bubbles so I could cook dinner.

Reality: A child poured out the entire liter bottle of bubbles that should have lasted us months, even while being supervised by others.

Dinner was a hit and, after praying family rosary, we enjoyed a particularly beautiful ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins.

MEANWHILE, and amidst the party, we found a swarm of honey bees!

Chris was setting out his lawn chair to watch the kids blow their party bubbles when he looked up and saw what we were later told was about a four-pound hive of bees which had swarmed, looking for a new home with its new queen.

My dad is a hobbyist beekeeper in California, so I've grown up with bees and sprung into action.

Honeybees are extremely valuable pollinators for our crops (the food we eat!) and I was quite concerned that these bees might swarm into the yard of someone who would ignorantly poison them. Such bees are in their most docile state and have zero interest in stinging anyone at this time.

I hopped online in the midst of cooking Margaret's birthday dinner, looked up our country beekeepers' webpage and began calling beekeepers in my zip code. The third one I called answered the phone and said, "I'll be there in twenty minutes!" I'm telling you, a beekeeper being given an entire swarm of bees--and one this large--is receiving an financially valuable gift. Plus these men and women just love the little flying critters!

Smoking the bees

Catching the bees in a bucket on a pole

Proud beekeepers don't wear gloves.

We really enjoyed the "homeschool lesson" we received from Beekeeper Mark Menzies. He brought us a gift of honey and took the bees with him to give them a happy home.

The Best Day of Her Life

Before bed, the birthday girl said, "This was the best day of my life." While I know that isn't true, I appreciate the sentiment. In light of the coronavirus situation, I am meditating much on how sweet and relaxing a time families can have together when peer attachments are reduced and when the schedule is cleared of racing to and fro to so many commitments. What changes can families make in future times when life resumes some normalcy to continue these benefits? For example, do birthday celebrations always have to include those outside the family? If so, why? In our family, we celebrate with friends only on the big birthdays (e.g., 10, 13 . . .) precisely to insist that our family is "enough."  If a child cannot have an enjoyable time with his siblings and his parents, if he is so peer-attached that he must be with his friends that he already spends at least 30 hours per week with in school, this, to me, is a sorrowful situation. (See Gordon Neufeld's work--totally secular, I believe it is important.)