The Harvey Family: Spring {2020}

This spring was unlike any other we could've imagined. On the evening of March 12th (a Thursday), Chris called me and asked if I had heard that school was likely going to be closing soon to slow the spread of Covid-19. I had heard a little bit about but didn't have any idea how quickly things would escalate. I was in the middle of cooking dinner that evening, so I turned off the burners, and got the kids in the car as quickly as we could, and made our way over to the grocery store to stock up on everything we could. Somewhere during that time we got notice that school wouldn't be open on Friday either and that everyone was going into full on crisis mode at the stores. Toilet paper and a few other paper goods were completely sold out just about everywhere (and this lasted for months!). We loaded up our cart with as much meat and canned goods as we could find since things were clearing off the shelves so fast. It was like an episode of Super Market Sweep that everyone was doing at the same time. Kroger was pretty good with trying to limit food staples like milk, bread, meats, and waters so that everyone could at least get some. We ended up waiting in huge lines that took almost an hour to get through. That would be the last time we went to the store without masks on though.

That weekend we learned that we would be doing remote school for a few weeks to help "flatten the curve" and reduce the number of people that would be hospitalized with the virus. As the weeks went on, the remote learning mandate was extended until we finally got word that we wouldn't be returning to in-person school for the remainder of the year. Before official school assignments were organized, we decided to do some of our own learning which included the boys choosing their own topics in math that they wanted to learn, and then doing worksheets that we found online. Blake really liked this!

We heard that they libraries would be shutting down as well, so we headed over to our favorite West Chester Library and stocked up on as many books as we could carry. Brett wanted all the Berenstain Bears books available, and Blake found a bunch of Weird But True fact books. We added a few minutes of reading time into our daily schedule too which was nice.

We did a really good job of doing our part to stay socially distanced and quarantine as required. We stayed home for over 2 months, only leaving to visit parks (which had all the playground equipment roped off) and I started limiting my grocery store trips to once every 2 weeks. We stuffed more food in our fridge and freezer than I thought possible, and started doing a lot more meal planning. In the end, I'm not sure we saved much money with all the planning, but it was nice to have everything planned out and we also started transitioning to where everyone eats the same dinner, not grown-up meals and kid meals.

Photos:

Brett making a "stained glass" heart for a Valentine's decoration.

Brett opening presents for his birthday.

For his birthday cake this year he wanted a specific type of Pokeball called a Moon ball.

Since we were doing remote learning during Brett's birthday, the school had a bus designated to visit kids at home on their birthday. They showed up (in the rain) and sang Happy Birthday and gave Brett some balloons. It was really sweet.