Your Focus Determines Your Reality

We spent our first day at Disney World visiting Hollywood Studios. We had many grand plans, but were especially excited for the new Rise of the Resistance ride and Abby and Thomas going through Jedi training to defeat Darth Vader.

We rose bright and early, packed up some snacks, and left the house earlier than anyone else. What we didn't anticipate: Orlando traffic. We sat. We sat. We sat. We sat. We sat. We sat. I checked the GPS obsessively to see our estimated arrival time and kept reassuring Jacob that we were going to make it before the park opened. This was important because the only way to get on Rise of the Resistance is to get a boarding pass, and the only way to get a boarding pass is to be inside the park at opening. For weeks all the boarding passes were gone every day by 8:05.

We made it to the parking lot, but again, did not anticipate all the other things that had to happened. We waited in line to pay for parking. We waited in line to get a parking spot. We unloaded our stroller and cooler and ran. And then we waited in line again for security. And waited. And waited. At 7:55 we decided to send Jacob ahead to the "no bags, no stroller" line by himself, knowing he would get in faster than us. And he did get in, but it was no use. He couldn't get boarding passes because his entire group wasn't with him. We got through security and into the park at 8:10, and all the passes were gone.

That was disappointing, but we didn't have time to feel badly because we had to sign the kids up for Jedi training! We picked up a park map and ran to the Jedi temple, only to see a line that stretched around the block a few times. Uggggghhhhh. Maybe I would have done that except that I wasn't sure the kids were even going to like it. They are pretty scared of Darth Vader. I didn't want to traumatize them on the very first morning of Disney World. 

With both of our top plans disrupted, we were kind-of lost for ideas. We were meeting up with grandparents and cousins later, but we had some time to waste and no idea what we could do. We started wandering and found Star Tours and, luckily, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Eric, and Uncle Philip to ride with. 

That ride was awesome. I loved it. Next we made our way to meeting Minnie and Mickey Mouse, passing a very cool car along the way.

Next we went to the live show of The Little Mermaid. And I don't have any pictures of this, but Abby was pulled out of the audience to talk into the microphone at the beginning and welcome all the guests to the show! That was super cool. She got a special certificate signed by Ariel and Eric, thanking her for her help.

From there we went to the Lightning McQueen show, which I thought was amazing. Lightning McQueen looked so real!!! I don't know how they did that, it was really remarkable.

Then a quick lunch and off to see the sing-along Frozen show. We were able to meet up with almost the whole family, and it was a treat.

This was one of my favorite parts of the day. The actors were hilarious, the entire audience enthusiastically belted along, and Elsa made it snow!!!! It was so magical!

Afterwards we met up with Olaf. The kids loved that.

Jacob snuck off to ride Smuggler's Run on the Millennium Falcon, while I took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast live. It was sensational!!! We all loved it!

So while we were enjoying this...

Jacob waited in line for almost two hours with his brothers and parents. And I am so grateful he did because we did a rider switch on it. That means that after he waited in the full line for it, I was able to go on it with Abby and Thomas, and we didn't have to wait at all, we went straight onto the ride.

So when Beauty and the Beast was over we headed over to Star Wars land, which I LOVED because it is so detailed and well-thought out and you really feel like you have just stepped into the movie.

There are tons of Storm Troopers walking around, and as they pass you they mutter things like, "Rebel scum" at you. It is hilarious. We also saw Chewbacca walking around. Jacob saw Rey, but the rest of us missed her.

Here we are on the Millennium Falcon before the ship took off. Remember this famous place?

The ride was so fun, we all loved it. Afterwards I made the kids take this picture because "I know you don't understand now, but you will thank me someday."

Lydia was also very impressed with Star Wars land.

After Star Wars we visited Toy Story land. We all loved this ride.

We didn't get a picture of it, but Toy Story Mania was an awesome ride, too.

From there we visited the 3-D Muppet Show, and then we got dinner. Jacob and I hurried the kids along because we were anxious to get good seats for the night show, Fantasmic!!!!

None of the rest of Jacob's family stayed for this so I started to wonder if we had made a bad choice and were pushing the kids too much. We gave them a LOT of snacks as we sat there waiting for the show to start, and afterwards I took them all to the bathroom and brushed their teeth while Jacob saved our seats because it was a late show and I wanted them all to fall asleep afterwards.

Abby took a little doze waiting for the show to start.

But then it started and it was amazing!!! I am so glad we stayed! There was Mickey Mouse! There were water projections!!! There were fireworks! There were boats! There was the dragon from Sleeping Beauty, and she set the water on fire! Mickey Mouse fought her and won! And there was just about every Disney character you can imagine wound through the show somehow (this show is the only place we saw Moana all week, and you better believe we were excited to see Moana.)

Things were pretty intense when Maleficent set the water on fire. I snuck a picture of Abby watching, she was very worried.

But then Mickey Mouse won and everything was very exciting and happy.

It was a great show. We left the park that night with two tired children in the stroller and one tired little girl on her Daddy's shoulders. It was a very full, very busy, very wonderful day full of magical memories.

Wings of Anticipation

Time to write about our trip to Disney World. This is going to take an absurd amount of photos and several posts. Sorry in advance.

We left mid-day on Saturday, February 29th. To go to Disney World in the dead of winter was my brilliant idea. It was lovely to have this to look forward to when we were stuck inside and so sick of our house. Sunshine!!!! Magic!!! Dedicated family time!!!! We were all so excited.

Starting out!!!

The first day was pretty easy. We drove six hours to my best friend's house in North Carolina and spent the night there. Everyone was excited about the trip. All signs pointed to good things.

Unfortunately the only picture I took at their house was of our husbands playing video games together.

Our GPS said eight hours of driving the next day. We left at 8:00 a.m. and expected to get in around dinner time. Easy, right? Such hubris! But our confidence was strong for the first few hours.

We stopped mid-day at this amazing playground right off of I-95 in South Carolina. The ground was covered in sand, the sun was strong, and our kids took off their socks and shoes and ran crazy. The other parents, conservatively keeping their children's sweatshirts on, glared at us accusingly.

But it was the perfect place for the kids to get out some energy.

One hour later we were back in the car. We picked up lunch and ate while we drove. Drive, drive, drive, drive. Everyone was still doing...okay.

It was really starting to feel long.

A quick stop for gas, a quick stop for the bathroom, back in the car.

Drive, drive, drive.

And then we stopped to stretch legs at this park in Jacksonville, FL. It was such a pretty park and I wanted to stay longer, but the GPS still said we had hours to go. How is that possible?!?!

We were there for thirty minutes and then gas, bathrooms, back in the car, snack, drive, drive, drive.

Oh, wait!!! We have to stop by Disney World and pick up our physical tickets so we can get into the park earlier tomorrow morning! How do we do that? Research, research, research. Go to Hollywood Studios! Where's that? Re-route GPS. How do we get in? Sweet talk security guard. Drive through the eternally huge parking lot. Where do we park?!?!? No one is routing traffic because it's so late. Drive, drive, drive. Everyone out of the car!!!! Run! Run! Run! Yes, this is Disney World! No, you can't look at anything because we're in a hurry! Run, run, run. Hello! We need to pick up our tickets! Wait, what?!? What do you need? Umm....dig, dig, dig through wallet. Okay, we're good. Tickets, yes, thank you. Everyone run back to the car!!! No, you have to be buckled in. Don't cry, we're going to see Grandma and Grandpa, remember?

Drive, drive, drive. Wait a minute, our house rental isn't actually in Orlando. It's in a suburb. It just added another hour to the drive. Grrrr. Drive, drive, drive. Stuck in traffic. Grrrr.

But finally, FINALLY, blessed day, we finally made it.

Quick, eat! Brush your teeth! Go to the bathroom! Stop crying, we have to get up early in the morning!

Oh for heaven's sake, go read stories with Grandma.

And GOOD NIGHT!

The Remedy

It is crazy to think that just six weeks ago we were visiting the "happiest place on earth". It was an amazing trip - so magical, so joyful, so many lovely memories.

We came home to a world that had changed. We had heard some mentions of the novel coronavirus before we left, but we didn't watch the news that carefully while we were on vacation. By the time we got back, everyone was talking about it. The stores were already out of toilet paper. The schools closed the next day, and that night our church announced that all church gatherings were suspended as well.

Pulling up dead grass, of all things, on one of our last visits to a playground

 It was surreal and weird. I admit that it took me a few days to appreciate the gravity of the situation. At first it seemed like everyone was overreacting. There were weird gray-areas about what was acceptable, about whether we could still get together with our friends and host homeschool art classes like we have all school year.

Things cemented for me a bit on Friday the 13th. I took the kids grocery shopping with me, as I always do, and walked out of the store swearing that I would never take them to the store with me again until this was all over. People were being crazy. I was actually scared about what my children would witness.

Over the days, more and more things closed and canceled and we committed more and more to staying home. We stopped playing at playgrounds. We went on walks and hikes only if knew we could stay six feet away from others and not touch anything that anyone else had touched.

Playing with Thomas' Disney souvenir, a remote control Lightning McQueen

We turned out the lights and brought out the bubble train and the self-driving airplane on the same day because this was the first day of isolation and it felt very long.

The first few days were the most difficult for me. We were used to being out-and-about all day, visiting the library and playgrounds and museums and puppet shows and friends. Being home, all day every day, took some adjusting.

We've been isolating at home for over five weeks now. Overall, we've been okay. Some days are easier than others.

This is what our "new normal" looks like:

School

Of course, we've been schooling at home for the past year anyway, so on the surface this may not seem like a major adjustment. But outside sources of education used to take up a significant part of our days, and all of that is unavailable now. There are no more programs at the library, no more homeschool co-op, no more classes at the nature center, no field trips. I couldn't wrap my head around this at first, but we have since switched to mostly "project based" learning to fill that gap.

Also, after months of grappling with our plans for next year and finally deciding that we were going to return Abby to public school and send Thomas to Ms. Sue's preschool class, I watched the schools close and other parents struggling with the new responsibility of educating their children and felt so grateful that we were already established in this routine. And with so much uncertainty of how long we may in isolation, I went ahead and ordered all of our materials for next year. We may be homeschooling next year - and for years after that - after all.

My kids love school. In truthfulness, they give themselves more work than I give them. Here they are copying down a calendar that I hand-drew and put on our fridge years ago. I would never give them this assignment. I despise copy work. But it's fairly often that they ask for school and I say something like, "No school today! It's Saturday." So they give themselves work to do.

Abby working on her math, Thomas working at the chalkboard. I gave him the word "dim" to sound out and spell on the board. Can you see it?

Reading

I love books and have always loved books, but never in my life have I loved books than I have these last few weeks. At a time when our world has grown so much smaller, it is a blessing to read a book and be transported somewhere else.

Abby has loved Calvin & Hobbes for many months now. It is exciting that she can read so well by herself!

Cooking

Fueled in part by our abundance of free time and in part by how rarely we visit the grocery store, we have been making more and more staples from scratch. We frequently make homemade bread and tortillas now, in addition to the muffins and waffles I was already making weekly.

Grinding wheat!

Playing Outside! 

At first it felt beyond-cruel to me that covid-19 came at the end of winter, when we already had cabin fever and were so tired of being inside. As the weeks have progressed and spring has arrived, it has been easier. We have lots of places to go where we can run and yell and be away from anyone else.

We spend a lot more time in our backyard!

Abby is so close to mastering cartwheels. Her constant practicing has inspired her little brother and sister to try, with hilarious results.

Lydia's Ariel bubble wand, her souvenir from Disney, has been a favorite toy this spring

Our town is windy in the spring! We've flown kites twice.

This is how easy the kites flew on this day. Abby flew hers while lying in the grass.

Hooray for picnic weather!

One day I took the kids for a walk in the woods and we brought home the longest sticks we could find, which we lashed together into a teepee. We planted peas and beans around it. In theory, they will climb up the walls of the teepee and we will have a shady place in our backyard this summer, with a built-in snack. 

Jacob has lead the kids in epic games of Monkey in the Middle

There have been a LOT of long walks around town. And one day I even the kids on my usual three-mile run with Thomas and Lydia in the double-stroller and Abby riding alongside on her bike. She was a trooper!

Lydia with a utility flag. She is definitely two and a real rascal.

Gardening

I have a lot of angst about our food supply chain in current conditions. When every step of the chain relies on people and people are sick/too scared to work, it seems to me that it will take almost nothing for it to collapse. Much of my time the last few weeks has gone to supply our family with several months of food, and that means we have been busy gardening.

The kids are such amazing helpers. In mid-March we pulled out the weeds in our gardening beds. Abby is making a face, but actually, she loved doing this. They both did! And they loved digging up the soil. They've been helping me germinate seeds in the kitchen, and helping me dig out the seeds out of all of our food. I know this sounds crazy, but I figure it is educational if nothing else. In our kitchen currently we have a stash of apple seeds, squash seeds, cantaloupe seeds, and pepper seeds that we set aside after eating those foods. And we've been re-growing food from our kitchen scraps, too, which I always find fascinating.

Tom showing Lydia a worm. Home education at its finest.

We planted blueberry bushes! There are the five tiny bushes in front (the three big ones behind are our rose bushes we planted last year.)

Building

Bless the makers of Legos, wooden blocks, and megablocks. They have entertained us for hours the last few weeks.

And when that gets old, there's always blankets and chairs that can become forts. And there have been a LOT of forts lately.

And let's not forget that there are times when Jacob needs to fix something real in our home, and the kids are always happy to help.

Arts & Crafts

As part of our school unit on the Middle Ages, we built castles out of our recycling materials.

And then painted them.

And, if we ever have time, the kids want to build furniture and sew decorations for them.

The kids spend a lot of time every day drawing/cutting. We have a drawer full of scrap paper that I have cut into smaller sizes, and at the end of every day I find dozens of them all over the house, covered with notes and drawings. These are some of my favorites:

by Abby

by Abby

by Abby

by Thomas. He draws a LOT of music notes.

This is Abby's instructions for how to cook pasta. She explained it to me later: "You put the milk in the pot, boil it, put in the pasta, pour it into the strainer, then eat it." Pretty close!

Celebrating

So far we have celebrated three special days in isolation. They have required some creativity. 

First was St Patrick's Day. I was hoping to get away with not building leprechaun traps this year, but they remembered it from last year and asked to do it again. What's a mom to do? We made traps.

The next morning they were excited to see leprechaun footprints all over their traps and notes left behind saying that they had been trapped and had to use their magic to get out. And apparently leprechauns leave behind rainbow candy when they use their magic. So while that is not as exciting as catching a leprechaun, it makes things okay.

Jacob's birthday came a couple of weeks later. The kids helped me make chocolate chip cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream and we took him kite-flying. It was a good day, even if it was not what I had originally planned.

Breakfast sandwiches!

 Then came Easter. The kids were heart-broken that we couldn't celebrate with Granny and Poppy this year, but the day was filled with fun things and it turned out okay.

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

Our eggs turned out quite nicely this year, eh?

Getting ready to hunt for eggs in the backyard

Not pictured is the virtual egg hunt and egg toss over-the-house that my parents hosted, which my kids loved and talked about for hours. 

And other things that fill a mother's time

While we were stuck at home anyway, it seemed prime time to potty-train Lydia. She was ready for it and has been using a toilet for several months, so I admit I have been surprised at how difficult it has been. She's getting it, just a little slower than I expected. In this way, I am very grateful to be stuck at home. I would be scared to take her anywhere right now.

And my other major task right now is cleaning out our home. I have slowly been working on this for several months, but it is easier to find time these days.

Just a few days ago I sent a package to my nephew who is expecting a baby boy in just a few weeks. He said they were worried to go to the store to buy supplies and I said, "Don't you worry about it, I have you totally covered." And out went a huge box full of clothes and crib sheets and receiving blankets and burp cloths and, actually, my entire supply of cloth diapers. Maybe that was weird, but if toilet paper is so difficult to come by right now, I can only imagine that soon it will be impossible to find disposable diapers.

But before I could let go of those things, I just had to take one very important picture.

My little Tom is not-so-little anymore, but I remember well when he fit into this outfit and his feet were this tiny.

And that pretty much sums up our life the last five weeks. Some things are very different.

Some things are very much the same.

Life is weird and scary and no one knows what the future will look like and whether things will ever be "normal" again. I have never been so grateful for the things that anchor my soul. Everything is going to be okay.