Pandemic: Poor Personality

Blah. 

That about sums up my general disposition for the past two months. Although life was monotonous from March to June, we had the hectic fun of online schooling! We had a schedule! We had daily tasks to accomplish and a reason to get out of bed! Since the first week of June, when school ended for the summer, Pandemic life went downhill for me and I haven't really been able to pull myself out of this slump. 

I have been taking our Shelter In Place extremely seriously since the beginning. The first few months were pretty okay. The extra time at home gave me more time with the kids, lots of opportunities to be involved in their educations, more time to plan and cook yummy meals for dinner. The past two months have been different because I feel so terribly drained. The kids play A LOT of Minecraft, they watch a lot of YouTube videos of other people playing Minecraft (something I NEVER allowed prior to Pandemic Life), and they generally spend way more time on screens than normal. Emma is still reading a ton and Liam will get sucked into LEGO building and playing, but we are all sitting around a ton more than we were even a few months ago. As the Mom and enforcer of rules, I know a large part of the blame for our sedentary lifestyle goes to me. 

There are many ways we could enrich our days while at home. We could do crafts, science experiments, baking projects, and all kinds of hands-on activities. However, as the adult at home, it falls to me to motivate myself and the kids, set up, teach, lead, guide, and enforce clean up for all of those projects. I don't have the mental or emotional capacity for that right now. For the past week I haven't even have the attention span to read a book, and that is a very sad thing. Despite being a complete zombie myself, I usually try to plan an outing in nature once a week. Those adventures involve getting people moving first thing in the morning, which is a fight. Then, once out among the birds, fresh air, and trees, the older child complains of boredom and just wants to go home. Really? Really Child?!!? THIS is boring? I give up! One good routine that has stuck with us since the beginning is to take a neighborhood walk every day. We even got Pokemon Go for the first time ever to make our walks less monotonous! This morning the kids and I committed to jogging around our block instead of just walking, so we'll see how that goes. 

There are some good changes in the past two months. Our county has relaxed some restrictions despite rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. We now have a friend "Social Bubble" and a standing weekly outdoor playdate that gives the kids a chance to play with two other kids and me a chance to chat with one of my best friends face to face, or should I say, mask to mask. The easing of restrictions has also allowed for outdoor sports, so Liam gets to attend a very small outdoor martial arts class once a week at a park. I am extremely grateful that our library is providing curbside pick up now, because the public library is one of the greatest loves of my life. Even as my town has eased restrictions on things like outdoor dining and non-essential stores reopening, I haven't participated in those activities. I still order ahead for pick up and take out when it comes to supporting local shops and restaurants. 

I don't really know the point of this entry other than to document the way things are right now. As of today, Alameda County reports a total of 11,909 and my city is up to 519 cumulative COVID-19 cases. Life is strange and full of drudgery and I am emotionally and physically tired all the time. 

I am actually looking forward to online distance schooling starting in exactly three weeks because it will bring us some much needed structure. Ugh.