Sunday, Day #64 Phase I of Reopening
We request continued prayers for my husband's mother D. She is recovering, now in a long-term, acute care facility, from COVID-19 and hasn't been home in seven weeks. D. is off the ventilator and sitting up. Next goal: learn how to speak with her temporary tracheotomy. Praise God!
And right when I thought we were going to sit down to a morning repast, I was presented with two little boys who had decided it would be fun to draw with coal dust from our outdoor fire pit. Baths ensued . . . well, one regular bath and one sponge bath since David's cast still prevents him from submersion!
After Mass and Mama taking a nap (insomnia till 1:00 a.m. followed by the fourth morning in a row of toddler waking at 4:30 a.m.), the family swam for the second day of the season. My duties entail preparing the lemonade and reading my James Herriot while I standby with towels.
David understands that he won't be allowed to swim until the doctor removes his cast and he was pretty brave about the disappointment . . .
. . . but he was definitely happier when his siblings armed him with a water gun to shoot at them so he could be involved in the fun!
On Sunday nights, the grading is done, completed school work filed or tossed away, and my school lists (even light summer school lists!) are ready, attached to their color-coded clipboards, and laid out in age order at their standard spot on the table. The lists will sit there all week but will slowly become piles of books, papers, snail mail letters from friends which need reply, and so forth. What this table looks like by Friday afternoon is very different!
Joseph (7) has been begging to learn how to play violin, so I am allowing/encouraging Margaret (9) to teach him what she knows using a tiny, old violin we own. As in any subject, one learns at a whole new level by teaching! Joseph learned how to play Suzuki's Twinkle Twinkle this week and getting out his violin to play is the first thing he has done each morning, before several more sessions during the day. I took the below photos without his knowing of him playing outside and his eyes were closed as he was lost in emotion.
Bright and early while Chris and I were cooking our nice Sunday breakfast, some of the children made a seesaw in the woods.
And right when I thought we were going to sit down to a morning repast, I was presented with two little boys who had decided it would be fun to draw with coal dust from our outdoor fire pit. Baths ensued . . . well, one regular bath and one sponge bath since David's cast still prevents him from submersion!
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| I didn't even raise my voice at this mess. |
After Mass and Mama taking a nap (insomnia till 1:00 a.m. followed by the fourth morning in a row of toddler waking at 4:30 a.m.), the family swam for the second day of the season. My duties entail preparing the lemonade and reading my James Herriot while I standby with towels.
David understands that he won't be allowed to swim until the doctor removes his cast and he was pretty brave about the disappointment . . .
. . . but he was definitely happier when his siblings armed him with a water gun to shoot at them so he could be involved in the fun!
On Sunday nights, the grading is done, completed school work filed or tossed away, and my school lists (even light summer school lists!) are ready, attached to their color-coded clipboards, and laid out in age order at their standard spot on the table. The lists will sit there all week but will slowly become piles of books, papers, snail mail letters from friends which need reply, and so forth. What this table looks like by Friday afternoon is very different!
Bonus Reading for Posterity:
I obtained the below chart of Influenza-Like Illnesses (ILIs) from the CDC website.
Scroll down to ILINet till you see this chart:
Click here to watch a 10-minute clip of Dr. Birx (starting around the 2:30 mark) explaining this graph (when it was a few weeks ago and the red line was declining but not even as far as now). We have just completed Week 20 of the year and we are way below baseline for ILIs. Most cases of influenza symptoms are never tested for by doctors, but they are counted as ILIs. COVID-19 is also an ILI and gets lumped into these statistics.
The first peak of the season around Week 50 of 2019 (mid-December) was Influenza B and the second peak around Week 6 of this year (mid-February) was Influenza A. The third peak--which you will note is LOWER than the first two peaks--is COVID and it occurred in Week 12 (the very end of March when everything was getting crazy in our world). COVID as a virus has been circulating in the U.S. since December or January (and morticians have gone back and checked corpses from then to discover some who died of it), but it did not gain momentum until March.
COVID has followed the same spike and peak that ILIs follow and which certain epidemiologists were saying would happen regardless of lockdowns, and that seems to have proven true. So, we as a nation are now far below baseline for ILIs, we are past influenza season, and COVID cases are lower than ever before.
- Our neighboring state Georgia continues doing great after opening! (Georgia Coronavirus Update: State Defies Expectations Even After Ending Lockdown.)
- Unlike Mecklenburg County where we live, Durham County has chosen to enact stricter lockdowns that the state is requiring. (Durham leaving stay-at-home order in place indefinitely.)
- It's so tough sifting through COVID statistics, as yet another state is proving. (State's coronavirus death toll drops significantly after officials make major criteria change.)
- Great questions to ponder here . . . Why Can’t Everyone Else Go Free While You Remain in Quarantine?
Color coded clipboards make me happy. It's the little things. :)
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