{SQT} Friday, Self-Isolation Day #42

Friday, Self-Isolation Day #42

We request continued prayers for my husband's mother D. She has been sick with COVID-19 for a month (now negative, but still sick), alone in the hospital for nearly that long, and is now on her second stretch of being on a ventilator in order to give her lungs support for longer while they heal.

Our school day began with our twice-monthly No Sweat Nature Study, this week learning about riparian zones. My big 13-year-old missed participating because he was beginning his 10-week landscaping job taking care of a neighbor's property! (Mama is pleased.)

Fantastic spontaneous picture by 4-3/4-year-old!

Watercolor paintings of riparian zones--and "a cool monster truck"--drying

CHORES 

I've tried a new chore arrangement and I can report after one week a significant improvement. I find about twice a year, chores are slipping, Mama is doing too much for everybody, and we need to figure out the better arrangement for the latest ages and stages of children. For the last couple of years, once weekly I rotated the kitchen chores such that, for example, one child washed dishes for one week about once per month. In reality, I end up washing at least three of four, but sometimes all, of the loads of dishes per day. Meanwhile, the kids were not getting routine practice at washing dishes well and every time it was a child's week to wash dishes, it was seen with dread because three weeks in a row, the kid had no dishes to wash.

Now we are trying a non-rotating assignment: the 9-year-old washes all the breakfast dishes daily, the 13-year-old washes all the lunch dishes daily, and the 11-year-old washes all the dinner dishes daily. Also, I taught the 11- and 13-year-olds how to wash pots and now require that, too. There are two other zones in the kitchen which rotate through the three as well. It sounded rather complicated to me, but it's basically stable: all one kid has to know is his assignment for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and that will stay the same.

As a result, through an entire week, I've only washed a few stray dishes! The children have cleaned the other zones as well. This has been so appreciated and I've expressed my gratitude to them for their cooperation.

Our Friday ended with take-and-bake pizza, a family walk and bike ride, and the "Ticket to Ride" board game . . . and ice cream, it ended with ice cream for Mom and Dad--but don't tell the kids!

Bonus Reading for Posterity:

• "New antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2 are providing better estimates of the mortality rate of COVID-19. Prior to serology testing, the prevalence of novel-coronavirus infection was calculated to be only 0.26% in the US with a mortality rate of 5.60%. Serology tests, however, now show the infection prevalence to be far higher with a calculated mortality rate of about 0.18%. With age-selective quarantining in combination with widespread testing, telemedicine consultations and early treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc, the mortality rate could be reduced to 0.03%. By instituting these measures, the projected number of deaths moving forward could be fewer than the number of deaths in the flu season of 2017-2018." A two-step strategy to reopen America.
• This press conference is well worth watching for an hour! These two doctors from California very calmly and professionally discuss statistics and how disease spreads, why this lockdown is ineffectual, and that the current recommendations are actually harmful, both because of businesses being destroyed, many other illnesses and violence occurring as a result of the lockdown, and the lowered immune systems that are resulting of people staying at home. Current Quarantine Approach Wrong Based on Science | Dr Erickson & Dr Massihi
• This article is a few days old but is a good reminder of the evils of Communism at the beginning of this whole tale of woe. China's disappeared: At least one is dead and the rest haven't been heard from in months, so why isn't the world asking what happened to the brave souls who dared to speak up about the coronavirus outbreak after Beijing lied to the world?
• And in a plain weird and interesting piece . . . just as the media is twisting the meaning behind Trump's stumbling of words regarding disinfectant and UV lights today, we can hearken back to when Trump was outright blamed for the death of a man who supposedly voluntarily consumed fish tank cleaner "because Trump recommended it." It looks like this may have been a case of murder, plain and simple--but not by our president! Time will tell. Man Who Died Ingesting Fish Tank Cleaner Remembered as Intelligent, Levelheaded Engineer