Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 67: Parenting inside the pandemic
Today is day five. Burke and I have completed three full days of working from home and two full days of full time parenting and all five an exercise of social distancing. My very brief 24 hours in the Washington DC COVID-19 hot zone thrust our family into a determined quarantine. Yeah! Our happy girl ping pongs between the two of us all day long. First she paints for a while. Then watched Frozen 2 with a religious dedication that would make the Pope swoon. Then Play-Doh. Then snuggles and snacks then some frolicking outside in the sunshine. Then coloring and blocks and dinosaurs then Frozen 2 again... because Elsa...and that is all before lunch. Then we repeat this cycle about 3.5 times before the grand finale combo of the nightly bath bomb, the teeth brushing, the book reading, the prayer saying and then bed. Insert exhausted sign here. And peppered throughout are dozens of conference calls and tele-mettings and text threads and email and we have successfully survived five full days of parenting inside this pandemic. Go us!
Five days and we are all still employed. Five days and we are still alive. Five days and we all still love each other. Go us...again! Burke offices in our luxurious unfinished (freezing) basement and my roving temporary office has been at our kitchen counter, our dining room table, our front room couch and in our bed (because let's get real we are all doing this at some point). But today...after trying every possible home office location I determined... okay...maybe demanded a more permanent temporary work space.... because this crazy adventure ain't ending anytime soon.
One if the perks of an unfinished basement is you end up storing a stupidly ridiculous amount of stuff. After Burke finished his work day he unearthed a trusty piece of old IKEA detritus we have held onto for far too long and created a new temporary but feels a little permenant office. Woohoo! We have an office space for me upstairs but our kid can't spend her days climbing the stairs as she pings and pongs between us and let's get real...four year olds are way to curious to have unsupervised free reign and creative control of the main floor. And thus begin the adventure that is Mama's Desk and Sarah Kate's desks in the middle of our living room. Go us, again! This set up will not help us win any home decor awards but it will help us parent and work inside the very real unknown.
What happened next...with Sarah Kate assuming her power at her newly established work at home space is nothing short of magic. Looks like our girl is going places and fast. Four year old die hard Frozen fan today....C level and perhaps cut throat yet bleeding heart advocate executive tomorrow. Poor poor Darth Vader didn't have a chance and his replacement sweet flamingo did not do much better.
Can't wait to see what day six will bring.