Distractions

So we are all stuck at home. According to epidemiologists, we are still 3 weeks away from our peak. We have a road to travel before we get to our new normal, and we are all grieving the life we knew before this.

When I was pregnant with Joey, I read a lot about distraction during the early part of labor. The idea is that the path from early contractions to baby is long, and the less you can focus on them, the better. (This was only true for me with my first baby. The other three arrived so quickly that my midwife wore a catcher's mitt. Not really.)

The process we are going through right now feels a lot like labor, or maybe that's just how I make sense of it. We are still in the early stages. The numbers of sick and dead go up every day, and will continue to do so for a while. We do not know what our world will look like when this is all over, but for now, our job is to stay home and wait, and distract ourselves.

Here is a brief list of the things my family has been doing to keep ourselves occupied during this early stage:

1. I started a neighborhood baking group on Facebook. It began a week or two ago when I realized that I had lots of sourdough starter, and offered to put some on the tailgate of our truck for neighbors who wanted to learn sourdough baking. I gave away nine or ten starters. Then it exploded. It turns out a lot of folks are distracti-baking lately. Is that a word?

2. My kids are reorganizing bookshelves and closets. They like this project a lot less than I do. And we've only lived in our house for five months, so there's not a ton to do, but it's keeping us busy and that's a good thing. The older two are learning a lot about organizing, and have been proudly showing me how they put frequently used objects in the front and rarely used things in the back.

3. Screens. I'm going to be real here. We seriously limit screen time, normally. But this is not normal. Normally we'd be on spring break right now. Our neighborhood would be filled with other kids to play with. We'd be having campfires and inviting friends to stay in our RV and hang out at the beach with us.

We do get outside every single day, rain or shine. But when it's 1:00 and we've done chores and outside time and some semblance of school and had breakfast and lunch? Go crazy, children. Call your friends on Roblox. Build a house in Minecraft. Yes, you can watch a movie on the iPad. We've added 30 day trials of multiple extra channels on the Roku, too. This is not the time (for us) to worry about screen limits.

4. Blogging. Again, here's the reality: it's been hard for me to put together a coherent post lately. Jesse and I went for a walk this morning and I told him that it feels as if I'm standing in a crowded room. All four of our kids are asking me for something, music (of the kind that I cannot ignore) is playing loudly, there's a bad smell in the corner that I should probably do something about, there is something on the stove that might boil over soon, and I hear a dog whining like they're about to go potty on the floor. I have all kinds of ideas and thoughts, but the chaos is overwhelming and it's difficult to communicate them in a way that makes sense. That's okay. The important thing is to write and share, even when it reads as nonsense.

I had a conversation with Faith the other day about the historic significance of this time. She just finished reading Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl. and has been doing some journaling; writing and drawing pictures of her life during this time. One of the things I love about Anne's diary is that she very rarely talks about what is going on outside. What's happening inside is enough, and she recognizes that one day, her stories will be important. Our stories will be important.

What are you doing to distract yourself right now?