Tuesday and Wednesday - March 17th and 18th (and Thursday)

Parks are scattered with people.  All safe distances apart.
On my walk I saw many fathers with children, moms
sitting on their front porch or side garden areas
reading books with their kids.  There are silver linings. 

 Well, we have been busy doing nothing really.  It is a strange reality.  "We are all preparing for something we hope doesn't happen" a good friend said to me.  And it is hard to know if I'm over reacting or under reacting and I vacillate hourly between the two extremes.

Josie's schedule

We are all healthy and relatively happily co-quarantining together.  Marty said the other day it was like our family has been preparing for this for a few years.  First, moving away from all of our friends and family and in a sense closing our borders.  Yes, we could fly back if we wanted to but unless it was a MOMENTOUS event or tragedy we would not have done it.  Then we moved from an apartment to our house.  I really think having to quarantine in Seattle would be much more difficult for me.  Our life here, even though in a more densely populated city is more isolated than when we were in Seattle.  The fact that I wouldn't be able to go to the gym for my daily swim alone would have put me over the edge for sure.

Benjamin's schedule.  Hahaha!!

So, we are doing fine.  I'm trying really hard not to be too lazy with the kids and not to be too strict.  I want them to have some fun out of this if possible or at least some choice and flexibility that wasn't available in the pre-Corona days.
The days continue to be nice and relatively warm. Mogli continues to LOVE the change in our family pace and the amount of time and extra love and walks he is getting.  I am beyond grateful to be living in a house with our own sizable yard, a trampoline that continues to get a lot of bounce time and that even though I would like a bit of variety I'm happy to be stuck with my small family.  As claustrophobic as I might feel with just them to talk to, there really is no one I'd rather be stuck together with.

I picked up Benjamin's
German school work.  His very
sweet teacher left each student a
chocolate and a caramel tea bag. 

Tuesday and Wednesday the kids did some school work and a lot of screen time.  I asked them each to come up with their own schedules.  Yeah, well... Both kids are a bit unrealistic in their extremes.  Josie's looks good but there is no way she will stick to such a strict schedule.  Good for her for setting a good goal.  Benjamin on the other hand, well.  I will have to supplement quite a bit.  Their teachers have been great.  Josie gets emails directly from her teachers so I don't have to be the middle man which is great.  And she is definitely responsible enough that I don't have to check on her.  Benjamin's teachers are sending out just the right amount of work that he can do from home.

One of our better schooling moments from Thursday ;-)

Keeping him focused is another problem and because he loves reading so much he says he will just read for the (my) required 4-5 hours of learning.  He keeps finishing books and instead of being thrilled by his reading speed and interest it stresses me out as I see his stack of "read" books steadily grow taller than his "to read" stack.  I'm really hoping that they open the school library again at some point.

Our friend, Fionnaula, not only
lent us her car but she was prepared
with gloves and disinfectant spray

On Wednesday Marty said OK, let's go back out and load up on groceries.  We had done it the first day that school was canceled for Benjamin - Thursday March 12th. We really did stock up then but I didn't really understand the exercise.  A week ago there were completely full shelves, no gaps other than in the pasta aisles.  Those were pretty bare but still enough. This time, a week later, huge sections were empty.  A lot of produce still available and actually probably no difference at all in the selection or quantity - except there were no potatoes.  The prepacked bread aisle was pretty bare.  The cereal section was very bare.  The rice was nearly gone.  There was no flour, and no T.P.  The craze has hit here now. We really loaded up and I bought things with breakfast, lunch AND dinner in mind this time.  I didn't realize that my largest role and contribution to the whole thing, even bigger than monitoring school work, would be making sure there is food on the table (or at least available)

Benjamin making cinnamon rolls from the left
over pie crusts.  Just the way my mom did.. and hers
did too, apparently. 

breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Every. Single. Day!!
After our large shopping store expedition - we went to the largest shopping store in our area - Kaufland - which is probably just a touch bigger than the Admiral Safeway.  Not big at all by American standards but for Berlin it is HUGE.  So after our big shop we hit a couple specialty stores. Mitte Meer has the tortillas, chips, salsa, refried beans, jarred jalapeños.  Then to the Asia Store for popcorn, 

edamame and black beans.  Asia Markets are one of the very few places you can buy the plain black beans.  When the normal stores have black beans - they often don't, they are in a nasty chili (sweet) sauce.  But the Asia store was out of black beans so I walked down to the Bio Market - Bio means organic.  It is a lot like PCC.  There I found the coveted 6 pack of black beans.
The day was beautiful and 65 degrees.  Later in the day Josie wanted to walk to a dog park to meet a friend who also had a dog.  So we had a nice 30 minute walk there together and then I headed home on my own along a mostly carless bike bath through the forest.  It was really nice.
Thursday was some MAJOR fights with Benjamin over school work.  "No! I DO NOT HAVE TO DO MATH TODAY" Huge fights.  Yelling, screaming, tears.  But we shook it off by the end of the day and made up but it was a bit of a rough day.  I was trying to be super cool about it all but sometimes he can be such a little pain in the ass.  We ended the day on good terms with vows to make Friday a bit better.  Some school work was done, some video games were played, long walks were taken, some jumping in the trampoline happened and some good food was eaten. I don't know if I'm extra inspired to cook because I know that someday soon our food supply might be in jeopardy but the entire family has said "these Corona meals have been GREAT"  The whole family.  That never happens and certainly doesn't happen days on end. It makes me so happy.  Lunch is just so so and breakfast is on your own but I have learned that I need to have lunch out or at least available sometime before 1 pm and dinner on the table by around 6pm. Otherwise we are all on a completely separate and wonky schedule.

Warm enough to break out the Chacos!!