So what have we and most of the world been up to in the last 33 days...
Wash your hands! Stay home! Everything is canceled! Slow the spread. Flatten the curve. Don’t touch your face. Wear a mask when you have to go in public. Wipe down frequently touched surfaces in your home daily with Clorox wipes. Clean your groceries and things entering your home. Lysol the mail and let it sit for 24 hours before opening it. Procure the necessary essentials which means hunt for hard to find toilet paper and spend 5 times your normal grocery budget on HEB, Target and Walmart curbside pick ups that you have to schedule a week in advance. Check on your friends and family to see if they have what they need and help fill in where you can. Get take out occasionally to keep restaurants alive.
Don’t be in groups larger then 10 people. Social Distance which means stay 6 feet away from anyone you are not quarantined with. Have church at home. Work from home. Do “Distance Learning” which is a combination of online school and zoom calls with amazing teachers from home. Either make masks or have friends or a Nana who do. Be SO thankful for those on the front lines and pray, pray, pray for all healthcare workers, first responders, grocery store workers, delivery workers, truck drivers, etc.
Pay attention to your mental health. Get outside every day. Get some exercise. Keep a routine. Get enough sleep and vitamin C. Laugh at all the crazy meme’s. Wave at strangers. Smile as much as possible. Stay connected with those you love. Zoom call, face time, text, group chat, email, social media it up! Miss your people like never before and miss them some more. Miss your activities, being able to go on adventures and eat in restaurants. Miss your lives but be flexible, adapt, love your people, do your part, count your blessings, pray and pray some more.
If you are one of the three Kikuchi girls who are lucky to quarantine together and with Nana then you do all of that and more! Here is just some of the examples of the more...
The first week of quarantine was an extended spring break. The second week we tried to do some basic homeschooling which was mostly reading and math time each day. The third week and beyond has been legit “distance learning” set up by Klein ISD. It has definitely been an adjustment but we are thankful for the teachers who are working their booty’s off and figuring this out as we go. At times it’s been overwhelming and at other times we’ve been thankful for something to work on. At this point it’s all about being prepared for 6th grade and staying connected to our teachers and classmates. Both girls love their zoom meetings and seeing their teachers and friends! I’ve even enjoyed my staff meeting zoom calls and all the info and support our administration has provided! And thankfully I still have a paying job! What a huge blessing!
Keagan spends 3-4 hours on school each day which includes 30 mins reading and 30 mins of dyslexia intervention. She is pretty self motivated and works very hard but does need redirection sometimes and help with her dyslexia accommodations each day. She really likes the weekly charts I make her to keep on track and talking thru what she is working on with me. She definitely takes advantage of our flexible seating homeschool and does her work here, there and everywhere!
Riley does an hour to two everyday and 100 percent needs my help with her school work. She is always thrilled to work and absolutely loves her morning meeting zoom call three times a week. I am also trying to keep up with her speech therapy assignments, occupational therapy activities and adaptive PE assignments each week. It adds up but is good for all of us.
We all miss DPAC like crazy! The first week of quarantine was supposed to be tech week and performances for our Shrek Jr productions which were unfortunately but obviously postponed. We are really really hoping we will still be able to perform it. But the show must go on! We have already started our next production of Suessical the Musical thru zoom meetings. Keagan was cast as Jojo which is one of the leads and Riley will be the cutest Who I ever did see!
Also for DPAC the girls are participating in the Footlight Project which means they were assigned to diverse small groups to work on a duet for Keagan and a quartet for Riley where she will dress up as a mermaid and dance. Keagan recorded herself singing the official DPAC themed song which will be combined with tons of other DPACers current and past from the three DPAC locations to make one recording. And for the first few weeks of quarantine we made almost daily videos in response to the daily theme/prompt that Mrs Shea gave for DPAC social media posts. We had a ton of fun making these videos and they kept us busy and our creative juices flowing! A few of them Keagan even put together with friends each coordinating it from their separate homes.
We have definitely made efforts to stay connected with the people we love because we need it now more then ever! We have a weekly Ginn family zoom meeting on Sunday’s that's always entertaining! I’ve had zoom calls with friends from work, lots of FaceTime with Fosters and Frenchs, and tons of texting and Marco Polos with friends. Keagan has done lots of group texting on her iPad, FaceTime with friends, calling her dad and google slides with DPAC friends. The only people we have had over were Addie when she came into town at the beginning of the quarantine(love that girl) and the Allred’s who have brought us the sacrament. We have done porch drop offs to friends. We have said hi to friends from the street safely in our car and had friends at our house doing the same. Today we met Mrs Heather and Calli in the Klein High parking lot to sit 10 feet apart but to have a chance to talk. One day we saw the Flores family when driving by their street and ended up helping them save baby Jessica that fell down the drain. We’ve seen friends and neighbors on our neighborhood walks, and even had a super fun “Just Dance” challenge game night with the Frenchs over face time! Now that was a blast! And we’ve spent more time at home with Nana then ever before it seems.
For sanity purposes we have tried hard to get outside everyday! We have gone on tons of walks all over our neighborhood including visiting our awesome neighborhood encouraging sign collection. We’ve been on several hikes in remote areas where we knew we wouldn’t see a lot of people, done lots of sidewalk chalk, bubbles and playing outside. One day we had a water balloon fight and played with the hose for way too long. One day we took Keagans bike and Riley’s scooter to the Klein high parking lot to ride around in a different spot. One day we did a currently popular chalk art piece on the fence. Just yesterday our thoughtful neighbor RoxAnne brought us new side walk chalk so we made an encouraging message on the driveway- High School Musical lyrics for the win!
When we haven’t been able to go for walks and/or play outside we have tried to stay active and busy. We’ve done a whole lot of kids tabata videos and we tried kid yoga but the girls did not like it. We’ve played tag, wrestled and even done some family Tik Tok videos that Keags has taught us eventhough none of us have Tik Tok! When we start going stir crazy we drive, which means we have driven a ton! We just drive around exploring a little and either playing the question game, watching a movie in the back (Frozen 2 and Cool Runnings lately) and blasting music and singing at the top of our lungs! One of our best nights was after a really tough day and we took a late night one hour drive where we sang Taylor Swift at the top of our lungs the entire time! And I can neither confirm or deny that we have done some serious donuts in the church parking lot!
We’ve cooked, cleaned and cuddled a lot! I repeat, a lot! And when I say we’ve cooked a lot, unfortunately that means we’ve eaten way too much too! We finally tried pancake art and some new recipes (only some are keepers). We have had too many late night ramen snacks. We have wiped down every surface in this house with Clorox wipes a million times and organized lots of spaces that really needed it. Nana paid the girls to clean out the sewing room and the pantry which afforded Riley to buy a new watch and Keags to buy her new cherished Van’s. And thankfully we’ve gotten in a whole lot of cuddles!
Y’all we have played! I’m talking dress up, tea parties, restaurant, and nail salon which was my favorite! We have played SO many board games, our favorite being the new Pictionary Air! We melted crayons and had challenges like eat this weird food or mystery item in a box. We have had entirely way too much screen time too! Keagan has fallen in love with the Ohana Adventure, The Shumway Show and Brooklyn and Bailey on YouTube. We totally binge watched 3 seasons of Free Reign on Netflix with Nana, have fallen in love with Ultimate Champions on BYUTv, rented the new Trolls movie On Demand and of course Survivor!
We have pranked each other, scared each other and laughed a lot! On April Fools day I went mean and convinced Keagan she was going to have to repeat 5th grade. She covered my car with notes and hung a paper in my closet to scare me that was her face smooshed against the copier. Riley hid in the playroom and called my cell phone from the house phone with help from her sister. And man have we laughed and been as sarcastic as ever.
There have been times that we have gotten more then a little crazy! Normally it’s been out of delerium or exhausting boredom but it usually ended up well! There was the time the girls covered parts of their body with concealer make up and had a hard time getting it off in the shower. We’ve been caught doing some of the randomest and weirdest things- way more then pictured here! Riley has been obsessed with playing with the blow dryer and Keags sings, sings, sings all day! And then there was the night we turned the ottoman into a tennis court, paper plates into racquets and small balloons into tennis balls!
We have made a ton of really great fun memories to be honest. One will definitely be the night we put together and filmed our very own circus act of tricks! Oh my gosh we are quite the team! And last night was probably one of the most fun things we’ve done while on quarantine! Miss Taryn dropped 100 glow sticks and tape off on our porch and the Frenchs invited us to a glow people totally epic dance party over face time! Oh my gosh it was so fun! We taped all the glow sticks to eachother, turned off the lights, cranked up the music over face time and danced and laughed our hearts out! It was amazing! And FYI the Frenchs stick figures were way cooler then ours! We also had a really great Easter/Holy Week that I previously blogged about already.
But let me make myself VERY clear, it has NOT been all sunshine and rainbows! It’s easy to take pictures and post about all the highs but there have been plenty of lows too. Frustration with being quarantined has bubbled over and out for all of us many times! We have had tears, arguments and yelling from each one of us. The girls have fought and I haven’t responded beautifully. I have needed a little time to myself and haven’t asked for it nicely. Ugggggggg to the many Riley tantrums and Keagan pouts. Riley is in a destructive phase and has completely trashed the play room too many times. She has also figured out how to lock doors and repeatedly locks herself in the bathroom or Nanas room to then trash those rooms. Oh and she can get on Nana’s bed now and tries to jump on it which totally terrifies me because a fall for her would not be pretty and with a pandemic going on we can not go to the ER right now! Keagan has had big emotions and worries about missing her friends, DPAC and school! She is very worried if they cancel the rest of the school year that she will never see her friends again. Some days her tween sassyness and irritation sneaks up on us! We have all had seasonal allergies that make this more fun! Keagan broke out in hives one day and some days like today Riley has sneezed the whole day long! Poor thing!! And I am SO sick of cleaning the kitchen 47 times a day! And it’s just hard to never EVER be alone the entire time the children are awake, all day every day!
There are seriously tough days, we’ve all had meltdowns and had to vent to each other, friends and Nana. But I am super proud of us because we have over all done a great job of staying positive. We seriously have SO SO many blessings to be thankful for! So we have been able to count those blessings and hold onto that! We have been privileged to participate in two world wide fasts and a light the night chance to spread love and hope with luminaries out front. Monday’s seem to be extra hard for me so the girls made me the absolute sweetest card this Monday! And all the fun we’ve had has kept smiles on our faces! Nana keeps us informed of what the news is saying so that the girls don’t have to see the gorey details and we have stayed pretty busy. I’m SO blessed with these two tiny humans of mine and we have been able to support each other and love each other in this time!
Keagan has said several times that she knows Heavenly Father is in control and that He must have a reason for all of this. I love her faith and hope that as everything has changed we take the chance to refocus our priorities to become closer to Him and each other. We have definitely made a valiant effort over here! Keagan has also asked several times when this will be over and we can go back to normal life. Right now we only have stay home orders and school is only canceled thru April. But I really have no idea when this will be over and even what life will look like when it supposedly is! I really don’t know much about that but I know the Lord is in charge and that meanwhile we SO are blessed! For now, no one knows when quarantine 2020 will end but for now we are not stuck at home but safe at home instead and we are thankful for that!
