Life in the bubble!

So *some* would think that being under a lock down would give me ample time to put together blog posts. And, admittedly, there were moments that I could've carved out instead of  

• making a Manhattan (a new thing that Lisa and I are seeking to perfect).
• doing a Yoga / treadmill run on the Peleton app (used it before COVID and using it several times daily now.
• watching a beloved 90s movie with J and Lisa (so far: Princess Bride, Mighty Ducks, Back to the Future 1-3, Cool Runnings, to name a few).
• ripping through the Harry Potter series with E (nearly done with book 5).
• enjoying the fruits (or rather veggies and herbs) of the garden that Lisa and the kids have been working on. 

• setting up a FaceTime with friends around the country so that we can all log on and have an epic battle on the Nintendo Switch (Splatoon2, Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8 are favorites, Animal Crossing or Pokemon are another go-to for the kiddos).
• discussing, at-length, the social distancing protocols of the Tooth Fairy, since J lost her first THREE teeth. 
• celebrating birthdays, kinder graduation, Easter, mother's and father's days at a distance.

• having fun with the haircut situation (aka the COVID cut) for all members of the household. 

• taking a dip with the kids in our little above-ground pool (just big enough for the kids to swim a little, and just deep enough that I can sit chest deep & hold a beer -- so basically, the perfect size). 

• bike riding, scoot-ing, and dog walking in endless loops around the block.

We've been largely healthy. I was sick most of March and it might've been COVID, might not've. I never had a fever and there wasn't much testing at the time. No one else in the house got anything more than a runny nose. So who knows. In June, E got a random fever for a few days and did get tested to a negative result, though we still have NO idea how he picked up anything because we've been very, very diligent about social distancing. 

In that same vein and trying to keep the grandparents safe, at the start of the shelter in place (March 16 to be exact), we broke our bubble of 4 off from the family. We survived the last ~3 mo of the school year with distance learning while both of us working full time. Looking back on it now, it's a groundhog's day of a memory...a blur of stress, routine, and getting by hour-by-hour. We lived and breathed by our 4-way schedule, our moments alone on a dog walk or facetime with friends. Like so many families locked together, we faced the inevitable friction knowing that getting working through it was the only option and that there would be another one coming tomorrow or the next day to practice our parenting and spouse-ing again. 

Once summer began, we decided to merge bubbles with the parents and Uncle Brian again. We felt we could be safe and we all needed the interaction with family again. Plus, the endless summer days were going to be hard (to put it lightly) trying to keep kids entertained without 14 hours of daily screen time, if Lisa and I wanted to keep working. 

Linked below is a quick slideshow about what our life looked like from March until June. 

I'll post again soon around what things are like this summer (from J's obsession and talent with Play-doh food, E's love of wild rides on my parent's little jet boat, and the every changing, ever-stressful 2020-21 school year).