Baby Fawns (Day #60 Phase I)

Wednesday, Day #60 Phase I of Reopening

We request continued prayers for my husband's mother D. She has been sick with COVID-19 for six weeks (now negative, but still sick) and is now out of ICU and recovering at a long-term, acute care facility. She is still on a ventilator with tracheotomy: today she spent much time all smiles sitting up in a chair! The rehabilitation team's next goal is to get her off the ventilator. Praise God!


We did school till lunch time, then played outside in the glorious weather for two hours (during which time I meditatively pruned shrubs), before coming in for Quiet Until Dinner.

Today I appreciated a moment of more mature motherhood (amidst my many continued failings as a mother). I came upon the 2- and 4-year-olds playing with the fully completed collection of quarters from all 50 states and both national mints. This collection was inherited from my grandfather who recently died, so it is sentimental and I want it to stay in order. It turns out that the wee boys have been taking the pages out, putting them back in upside down, and removing the quarters, which were in a pile. Mama could have gotten really upset and raised my voice, but I gathered them close, told them how special this was, and said we were going to put all the quarters back. Each boy got to put in one quarter at a time, alternating back and forth. We made it kind of a quiet, sacred game. By the end, the boys were so happy and promised me they would come and ask me any time they want to look at the special quarters. Grandpa would be pleased.

While I was cooking dinner, David threw a tantrum for about five minutes. Finally I told him that I had something really fun for him to do and I looked around (still not knowing what the fun thing would be) when I spied his Very Special Rock. I grabbed his rock and informed David that the rock's name was Fred, and then I used a ventriloquist voice so that 'Fred' could introduce himself to David, which got him laughing. Then I grabbed a sheet of paper and a marker and said, "Okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to trace Fred!" I traced a circle around the rock and then looked at David. He was thrilled! He thought this was the best thing, so he spent the next thirty minutes of my cooking tracing the rock and coloring it in, using up much paper.

Coloring with Fred the rock

After dinner, the children were playing outside when we were invited by our neighbor to come see the twin baby fawns who had been placed by the deer mama in her back yard. What a joy! We've never seen such a thing live and in person.

Photo credit: my neighbor

Photo credit: my neighbor

Photo credit: my neighbor

Photo credit: my neighbor

Photo credit: my neighbor

Photo credit: my neighbor

Bonus Reading for Posterity:

• Maybe since this author is writing on his private website, his article won't be "disappeared" (censored) like so many others on the subject of facial masks. This author links to numerous legitimate scientific meta-analyses and studies about the usefulness of facial masks against viruses. (Sorry Oregon, your mask is useless (according to the science).)
• Other news from the West Coast! It's been kind of fun watching this stand-off play out. (Elon Wins: California Will Allow Tesla Plant To Reopen With ‘Safety Precautions’.)
• This article is a full month old but I only just read it. The graphics showing the severity of the job losses (even millions of lost jobs ago!) should be chilling. (These Charts Put the Historic U.S. Job Losses in Perspective.)
• Seeing inside a New York City hospital at this time . . . (CORONAVIRUS DIARY: NEW YORK, MAY 12)
• Is this the future of school? (Teachers want kids disinfected at school gates amid fears of enforcing social distancing.)
• Is this the future or air travel? (Future Air Travel: Four-Hour Process, Self Check-In, Disinfection, Immunity Passes.)
• My husband and I have been wondering when the lawsuits will start being filed for what we have been calling almost since the beginning all these "extra-constitutional decrees." Here is the first big response I've seen and I hope to see many more. "Chief Justice Patience Roggensack wrote for the majority that the order equates to an emergency rule that Palm can't enact unilaterally. The order creates criminal penalties that Palm has no authority to create, she added. “Rule-making exists precisely to ensure that kind of controlling, subjective judgement asserted by one unelected official, Palm, is not imposed in Wisconsin,” Roggensack wrote for the majority." (Wisconsin’s Supreme Court strikes down governor's ‘safer at home’ order.)