Same Song, Different Verse

Just over a week ago, our Sunnyside School District announced that hybrid learning was ending, and students would be going back to school in person for five days per week starting on Monday, April 26th. It felt so sudden! I was scared to believe it because every time I have thought I could depend on my kids actually going to school full time over the past year, it has been ripped away from my bosom and left us with one to two days of in-person school and three to four days of at home online learning per week. But this was real. Real school was going to happen for real! 

Then, it happened: COVID-19 found us. We've been carefully following as many guidelines as we could for over a year, including keeping our traveling friends out of our house for two weeks after they got home from each trip (which I hated doing because it felt so rude to tell these sweet kids that they couldn't come into our house). Once Jeff and I were fully vaccinated against Covid, however, we let that post-travel friend quarantine slide. Even if he were exposed to the virus, Jeff would still be able to manage all of his excellent one-man shows at work (he's currently the only French teacher, the only distance running coach, and acting head track coach so if he were sick and/or quarantined  for a few weeks, a whole lot of high school kids would be left hanging). But we were vaccinated, so we relaxed our abrasive self-imposed restrictions. That's when Covid slipped through our door. Jay's neighbor friend (who had just gotten home from a spring break trip to Utah) came over to play on Monday, April 12th. 

On Wednesday afternoon, his mom texted me to say that both she and her son had tested positive for Covid. She felt so bad and was so sorry! I started to feel bad for HER, because she seemed to think that we'd be upset. We were not mad in any way at anyone for exposing us to the virus. It was completely our choice to allow kids into our house. It took a little scrambling to figure out what our plan was going forward, though. The kids had online school for the rest of that week anyways, so nothing crazy or new there. Quarantining had been more or less our status quo for over a year; the only thing that felt different was we didn't let anyone into our house for the rest of the week. 

Rose kept thinking she had a fever, and I took her temperature on Thursday and Friday. No fever. On Saturday Jay said he had a headache, and his nose was a tad stuffy. He had no fever, but he felt tired and took it easy all day. Amber was her usual energetic self. By Sunday, Jay's headache was gone and we seemed to be in the clear. 

We waited the recommended five days after exposure before having the kids tested on Sunday, April 18th at our local free drive-up Covid testing tent at South Hill Park. I figured if they tested negative, all would be well and they could go to school in person on Monday. In order for the kids to attend school, we have to fill out and sign a health attestation form for each kid every day, stating that to our knowledge we had not been in contact with anyone with COVID-19 and don't have any of the long list of symptoms. For the first time all year I couldn't honestly sign that form! Hence my urgency with the Covid test. Also, I selfishly really wanted my two days of home alone time while the kids went to school in person.

The drive-up testing was straightforward. They took down each child's birthday and insurance information. Then we pulled forward into a tent and the PPE-swathed nurse first had each kid blow their nose. One by one, she handed each kid a long Q-tip. They got to swab their own noses, swirling the Q-tip in ten circles inside each nostril. (I did Amber's nose-swirl for her.) The assistant handed us some informational paperwork with directions explaining how to access the results, and then we drove home. We could have our results as early as the next morning!

On Monday morning, I scanned the QR code on the paperwork we were given at the testing center and logged onto the website in search of Covid test results. Both Rose and Amber tested negative, but Jay's test results were still pending. I called the school nurse and asked what to do next, since the girls tested negative but we still hadn't gotten Jay's results back. She said the girls could go to school that day, but if Jay tested positive, his sisters would have to quarantine at home with him. So I drove the girls to their respective schools and kept Jay home.

We refreshed Jay's Covid test page over and over all day, and still had no results by the afternoon. Finally, around 5pm, I refreshed the page yet again. The results were in! In red letters, the site informed us "Your Result: Positive: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Virus detected." NOOOOOO!!!! Even though I didn't know the extent of what we would have to do at that moment, I knew that a positive Covid test was a big deal. It felt like we needed to run up a yellow quarantine flag, Swiss Family Robinson-style, to keep people away. Jay was surprised when I told him he tested positive, but when I told him he had pretty much already gotten over it after his headache on Saturday, he felt marginally better. I sent messages to the teachers, informing them of the situation. I read up on what happens next after a positive Covid test. Jay would have to quarantine for ten days after his symptoms began. It looked like we were in for a lot more solitude and waiting.

I was so overwhelmed after all of this, I NEEDED to talk to someone. Jeff was still at track practice. My mom didn't answer her phone (rare). My older sister had too much residual pandemic angst to make talking to her about my situation a soothing experience. I needed to be soothed! So I called my youngest sister, Mel, even though she was probably still working since she has a super busy intense consulting job. Sweet lifeline Mel answered her phone and listened sympathetically as I unloaded my many burdens into her ear. It helped. She couldn't solve my problems, but she listened and expressed sympathy and it made such a difference. I was way less of an emotional tangle when Jeff finally got home from track practice an hour and a half later. 

Tuesday was a day filled with official phone calls. I was contacted separately by the Covid testing center, two school nurses, and the state health department and pestered with questions about who, what, where, when, why, etc. in regards to Jay's positive test. Amber's school nurse told me that Amber would have to quarantine for at least a week after her brother's positive test. Rose's school nurse informed me that Rose would have to quarantine for ten days after Jay's ten day quarantine, because Jay was officially considered contagious for his entire ten day quarantine. So Rose would need to wait an additional ten days to see if she developed any symptoms. Since I talked with Rose's school nurse second, and Amber's school nurse wasn't as clear on her timeline, I figured that both girls would have to quarantine for the full ten days after Jay's quarantine ended.

I was miserable. Right when school was starting up full-time in person for the first time in over a year, my kids would not be able to go. It will still be another couple of weeks before I find out what it's actually like to have all three kids in school all day every day. Furthermore, there would no longer be the usual daily class Zoom meetings or any other online schooling available. So not only would my kids miss out on the first chance to go to full-time in person school in a year, they would also have NO school at all until their quarantine ended. And we couldn't go anywhere! I felt so trapped and betrayed by the system. I was honest and got my kids tested, and as a result they couldn't go to school for what felt like FOREVER. It took me a day or so to work through all of those negative feelings.

It helped when Amber's nurse called a second time on Wednesday and said that since the kindergarten-only school had younger kids and a lower overall Covid case-total than Rose's school, Amber's quarantine could end the same time Jay's ended. I nearly wept with relief. As much as I adore my fiery energetic Amby, keeping her away from people and under wraps at home for two and a half whole weeks sounded like a shortcut to insanity.

Amber and Jay would "only" miss the first two days of full-time in-person school! Whew! When I told sweet Rose that her quarantine had to last twice as long as her siblings', she nearly broke down and cried. POOR GIRL. "I just want to go to school!" she said with shimmering eyes, her tragic voice breaking. My heart broke right along with her. I got in touch with Rose's awesome, kind, beloved teacher to talk strategy. We concluded that Rose could just take two weeks off of school entirely, since she is ahead in math and doing well in everything else. It helped Rose feel a little better to know that she wouldn't be confined to endless mindless makeup work while she was unable to attend school. 

So here we are, partway through Jay's and Amber's quarantine. We've done church via Zoom for the past two Sundays. No Wednesday night church activities for the kids. Jay had to miss a youth conference yesterday. We did decide to allow the kids to play with their neighbor friends outside if they want to, since everyone in the Scoon Road Crew has basically passed around the same Covid strain to each other. I figure as long as the other parents are fine with it, I am too. So the kids have been doing a whole lot more playing outside than usual, and I have to say, I LOVE IT. My house is peaceful and quiet, and the kids are outside in the gorgeous fresh spring weather, using up all kinds of extra energy. Is that a faint silver lining? 

For the past year, we've been staying home to avoid catching Covid. Now we are staying home to avoid spreading it. Same song, different verse.

Pictures from the first week of quarantine, before the Covid tests:

Amber began a deliciously sloppy mud pie and carefully cultivated it with Rose over two weeks. It grew and grew.

The day after we heard about our neighbors the Andersons having Covid, Jay delivered a gift of macaroni and cheese ingredients. Ian sampled this family mac recipe more than once while Jay was mastering it, and he asked for the recipe. I MEAN, HOW CUTE ARE THEY? Twelve year old boys, exchanging recipes?? Jay made a copy of the recipe a few weeks ago, but Ian forgot to take it home. When Jay said he wanted to go give Ian the recipe, I tossed the ingredients into a bag along with little alpaca-shaped sticky notes of encouragement. I felt a little lame for not just making them the macaroni and cheese, but we were teaching them to fish, not just feeding them for a day! Haha, and the Andersons are good sports and enjoyed our weird gift.

The cheesiest gift bag ever!

One of my goals now that the kids have good bikes is to increase the girls' biking stamina, especially on uneven terrain. With that in mind, I went on a little two mile spin with them one afternoon. They are used to gliding along effortlessly on pavement, so the bumpy rocky canal road was a challenge. 

Even though my mid-ride photography has improved, I really need to stop trying to take pictures while biking. It's going to end badly one of these days, haha.

We rode half a mile up one side of the canal, crossed the bridge, rode back on the other side, and crossed the bridge by our house. We finished our ride on the smooth pathway behind our house to boost morale and end on a positive note.

Family scripture time in the morning sometimes looks like family naptime. They aren't even teenagers yet!

A bike ride pic: Mt. Adams on the horizon, blossoming apple trees on the right. 

I got toe straps for my bike pedals, and they were a shock to the quads. Now every time I pedal, one quad is pushing down on one pedal while the opposite quad is pulling up on the other pedal. My bike-savvy friends and family say This Is The Way, but whew, they didn't mention how hard it would be! My legs are slowly adjusting.

Green is especially exciting in the springtime. I especially love bucolic Cemetery Road.

Pollinator Bees, hard at work, propped up on an apple box.

The girls, hard at work on their massive mud pie.

That large smooth brown ball is pure mud--no fillers. When it dried, Rose picked it up and moved it to the side so the lawn mower could drive through.

Home church!

Home church hair salon--I sacrificed my scalp to keep the peace among the squirrely girls during Zoom sacrament meeting. Rose did a fancy triple braid.

Amber likes to clip on as many bows as possible.

THE NOSE SWIRL Covid test! I only got a picture of Rose during the actual test because it felt weird to take pictures of this weird event.

 

The girls' negative test results

 The screen that haunted Jay and me all day on Monday: "Awaiting result"

Jay's positive test result.

Ok, back to the happy sunny Sunday afternoon before the awful test results came in:

  

After the Covid tests, we went home and played outside in the gorgeous weather. When Jeff got home from church, he joined us.

Amber pedaled up fast and scattered her siblings.

We went to the grassy area out back at the end of the paved pathway to lounge in the shade together.

Amber collected miniature pine cones and threw them at Jay.

Then she carefully plucked off each pinecone scale.

When Jeff arrived, the real fun began.

Everyone cooperated for a grassy family selfie, but Amber couldn't figure out how to get her head into position. We were laughing so hard because she kept scooting her booty against our heads! Finally Jeff got up and helped Amber turn around to lay down.

I've always wanted a picture like this.