Self-Isolation Day #9

Laetare Sunday, Self-Isolation Day #9

Jogged for the second time! Worked on what I can control!

We are not decorate-the-car kind of people, but today we (by whom I mean Mary, 11) decorated it for Laetare Sunday, which is the Sunday of muted joy during Lent. It brought a smile to our faces and we hoped maybe to other Catholics who would see it.

Our priest hosted an unusual kind of Mass and Communion service, so I attended with the older kids while Chris kept the wee ones home (rather than think they would sit reverently and still in a car for an hour when they had no clue what was going on). Our pastor said Mass indoors without any parishioners and had it live streaming onto Facebook. The parishioners stayed inside their cars at all times and watched it streaming on our devices. Then at the time of Holy Communion, three priests donning face masks came out and took up stations at three tents. Seminarians ushered out only one car at a time so there would be no mingling crowds in the parking lot. We were able to receive Communion and the priest disinfected his hands in between each family group.

Our little parish made the news.

Photo of another family courtesy of S.B. on Facebook

Photo of our family courtesy of M.C.

We spent the afternoon mostly playing outdoors, boosting our spirits with cool breezes and sunshine. I did my homeschooling lesson planning for the week, graded papers, printed out our new lists, and gathered necessary books.

In the evening, I had the great privilege of attending my meeting for the Confraternity of Catholic Homeschooling Mothers which occurs every two months . . . via Zoom meeting online! Nine of us ladies attended and the topic of the meeting which naturally came next in the guidebook could not have been more beautifully coordinated by God, as it was all about the value of women coming home from the workplace to be with their children, something occurring in an overwhelming crisis situation nationally right now. I think we were all buoyed by godly discussion, laughter, and prayer together.

We pray for mothers thrust into the home in these circumstances: most of us chose this life in a planned way. We started with just one baby. We worked up over the years, only one baby at a time, learning how to sacrifice of our time and have patience with the little people . . . for years before we added school into the mix. And then the school in the beginning is very minor, just Kindergarten, so easy! It is years more of practice before school is multiple grades and becoming serious. Meanwhile, we've been working on establishing routines and discipline all those years to accommodate all of us being at home together all the time. These mothers who are suddenly home with their children are experiencing this change in a totally traumatic and unprepared way and I certainly know our prayer group last night felt much sympathy and wanted to offer help to those families.