Word is we're going to be out of school until at least the end of April. That's a minimum of 6 weeks. (THAT'S A LOT.)

We brought our kitchen nook table into the sitting room (by the fire) and bought new coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, and stickers. The younger 3 are loving it. The older two are loving books and YouTube and they're all loving having a patio with a basketball hoop. I'm honestly loving having them home, but granted it's the first week and we've had gorgeous weather so far. Next week it will be cold and rainy and staying home will be old news so it will be quite a bit more challenging for sure.

As of right now we have the lawns mowed, books have been being read, the kids are getting in some schoolwork online (nothing official, just different sites to keep their brains stretched for now) and daily walks off the property have been a fan favorite. The daily outing has been when the Talie drives all the kids up to the school each day at 11am for the free sack lunch (that's also my 7 minutes of quiet for the day).

Jeff is on the school board and has had meetings almost every evening this whole week. They're trying to figure out the schedule (assuming school will resume the end of April as planned) and also figure out how to navigate distance learning for the students in the mean time. I know our kids will feel better once an official plan is in place and it doesn't feel so much like no-man's-land like it does right now. Our calendar is literally EMPTY (and that never happens) so we're all just feeling off a little, but we're doing okay. Everyone always has someone to fight hang out with so that's good too.

I did get to leave the house yesterday with my buddy and we walked 6 1/2 miles in the fresh air and that felt like medicine. It was also wonderful to not hear, "MOM!!!" in that whiny-about-to-tattle tone too. I'll take what I can get this week.

I hope you are all staying sane and employed. I worry (a lot) about the economy and the aftermath (and actually the immediate-math too... is that a thing?) of this that our country will be feeling for a really long time after we're all seemingly back to "normal" but right now I really am concerned for people that have suddenly lost income.

Let me know how I can pray for you - I would love the honor of lifting you up and bringing what you're going through to the feet of the One who can help us all through it.

Hang in there, friends. We really are all in this together!