Ghost Town

I went on a jog the other morning and was floored at how empty the streets were.  This was before the Japanese prime minister asked everyone to stay home, which just happened.  Normally I see so many people outside this was really bizarre.  Everything in Japan has still be open, not on base but just in town, and I jog on the boardwalk where there are always lots of people.

 Little did I know it was about to rain and I got soaked on my jog.  I'm sure everyone else knew it because the next day all the regulars plus some were out on the boardwalk.  haha

Now that people have been asked to stay home I wonder how much people will actually do it.  It isn't a mandate or anything yet.  All the restaurants and stores are sill open.  We will see I guess.  People who are affiliated with the base, like us, have already been told to only go out for essentials like grocery shopping, so it shouldn't affect us.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Now that everyone in America pretty much has to stay home I get to see my family more than ever.  It is kind of nice.  I think they are feeling the isolation and want to stay connected so we are meeting on zoom for video chats all the time.  I love it.  I've been wanting to do it pretty much since we moved to Japan, but I haven't ever set anything up.  I should have done something about it a long time ago.  But I'm happy now that I get to see everyone through zoom.

My family has been especially into video games.  We've done trivia twice, once just with general questions and once with general conference questions.  It is kind of stressful for me actually because Beatrix and Calista are always climbing all over me and I'm trying to think of the answers and of course Bob has to work so he is not there to help.  But I get to see my family so it is totally worth it.

A few other times we have played jackbox online.  It can be fun too.  My sister started a family group Marco Polo chat so I get to see everyone even more.

 We have been doing weekly video chats with Bob's parents for a while now.  Pretty much since we moved to Japan I think.  They are great because they help us feel connected to them.  And it is especially good for the kids to see their grandparents on a regular basis.

Along with the family chats the kids are doing school online and we are also have online church Sunday school lessons.  I'm starting an institute class online later this week and we even had a Relief Society meeting online.  It's just crazy how connected we can be through the internet!  I wonder how much of this will continue after the virus runs it course.

Staying Home

Bob had a whole Saturday and Sunday off in a row and man did I get a lot done, especially on the Saturday.   It was the first weekend we were told to just stay home so we couldn't go anywhere anyway.  Among other things I was able to give four kids haircuts and sew the girls all dresses.  If felt good to check so many things off my to-do list.  

If you look closely you can see a bottle way up on the ledge up there.  Tucker spent a long time trying to throw it up there.

Most nights while we read scriptures Calilsta walks around and combs everyone's hair.  Sometimes she attempts pony tails, which are painful.  The other night Beatrix started combing people's hair and it was so cute and unexpected.  I love it when babies start to do something new that shows how much they are really watching and learning from us all day long.

 Bob and the kids had a little Mario time.

Calista likes to get ice cream out of the fridge and then take it and lock herself in the the bathroom shower while she eats it and hopes we don't find her.  She has even learned to sit with her back against the door so after we do manage to pick the lock we have to push her out of the way while opening the door.

While they all worked on that is when I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I really don't love sewing, it seems more like a chore that I need to get done sometimes.  I usually get these ideas to make awesome things, then buy the material, and let it sit around forever until I finally get up the energy to work on making it.

The gym is officially closed, which is sad for Bob.  We totally expected it though.  Here he is riding his bike in the house.

 Calista also made a dress with some scraps she found.

 Bob helped the kids make elephant ears.  We all love them.  But every time we eat them people feel sick.  They are just so unhealthy.

 Beatrix got pretty worn out.

Home Church and Virtual Church

We had a little more success with home church last week and I also took more pictures. 

Bob and I were super prepped and ready to go the night before and we also started right when everyone got up.  It made a huge difference.  The house was still clean from the night before and there was no time for kids to argue or for me to get upset at everyone before church. We were better able to have the spirit in our home.  Calista was still crazy, but I think that is unavoidable.

 This is our sacrament set up.

 The kids love to ask everyone to draw a picture about what ever scripture event we are talking about.

Calista insists that it is her turn after each person goes.  She usually talks nonsense or insists we sing Head Shoulder Knees and toes, and then gets mad and really just wants us to watch her sing it alone.

 Penelope is leading the music.

 Leon has been waiting all month to share with the family about Enos from the friend.

 I even got Tucker to take a picture of Bob and I in our church attire.

After we had our family service the kids dispersed.  At 11 our ward had their first digital Sunday school lesson and testimony meeting.  It was pretty cool.  Bob and I sat in our bed and shut the kids out.  They were downstairs playing monopoly. 

It was pretty much the first time ever that we got to go to Sunday school together.  I seriously can't think of a time since college that we both were not teaching during Sunday school.

I wonder how much longer we will have church at home?

Grocery Shopping During a Pandemic

Over the past couple of months things have really changed as far as grocery shopping goes.  We have been asked to shop on base only at the commissary.  We are not allowed to have more than one family member shopping at a time and military ID's are being checked at the door.  I heard someone wasn't even allowed on base and was turned around at the gate because the commissary was at capacity.  I fortunately have not had that problem.

While shopping we have been asked to keep a six foot distance from everyone else.  The next picture shows part of the line to get into the store.  See how nicely spread out we are?  I was just happy we had nice weather today.  I even thought going on a Thursday morning would me less crowds.  Maybe it was, I don't know what it was like on the other days.  But I did have to wait to get in.

The store is only allowing 65 customers inside at a time.

I took a few pictures of what they were out of, but this has changed from week to week.  This particular week there was no spinach but the next week had plenty. 

The toilet paper has been constantly low or out though for a while now.  And I haven't seen hand sanitizer at the store at all since this craziness started a few months ago.

They weren't out of carrots or tomatoes or anything, but I took a picture because I thought they were expensive.

 Anyway, the real problem this week was checking out.

Even with only allowing 65 customers in the store the line was long and very very slow.  As I reached the front I saw only one checker was working and no baggers.  I asked her when it was my turn and she said they are just not showing up.  She thinks it is because of the shelter in place order, even though people know they can still go to work.  I could tell she was going fast and working hard.  I felt bad for her and wanted to jump in and start bagging everyone, but I doubt that would have been allowed.  Besides Bob started working 11:30am to midnight so I really needed to get home and relieve him.

Virtual School

This kids have officially made it through two weeks of virtual school.  It was so hard!  Honestly, way harder than just homeschooling or sending them to public school.  I am impressed that the teachers were able to put this together so quickly, so good job to them!  But it was rough for us at our house.  I think it would have been fine if trying to teach one or two children, but with the six it really felt insane.  

Scarlett and Leon Both had work to do on the computer from their classes and neither of them could do any of it without help.  They had lots of meetings where they got to chat with their class and teachers.  That was pretty cool.  But it is a lot of me trying to find the right links and help everyone at the same time.  The teachers did a good job writing clear directions, but both Scarlett and Leon really needed me to read the directions on what to do for them.  Leon had about an hour of work that he needed help with every day and Scarlett, three hours.  That isn't counting the reading that I like to do with them.  It would have been a breeze if they were just a little bit older.  Tucker did his online class without any help from me and it was great.

My problem with it is that I would end up teaching (or at least facilitating) three science lessons (Tucker and Penelope do it together), where as if we were all just homeschooling it would have been the same lesson for all the kids.  The same goes for history.  I'm debating just having the kids do half of the virtual school and half homeschool.  It was just hard for me to keep up with it all.  I also have a hard time not doing things that I think would be good.  There are just so many resources right now and amazing learning opportunities right from our homes I feel guilty for not teaching the kids everything.

Calista had a grand old time doing whatever she wanted pretty much unsupervised.  The first few hours alone she managed to cut a big chunk out of her hair.

 And get into the chocolate frosting.

 There were a couple things the kids had to take pictures of and send in that way, but mostly everything was done by watching online videos and filling out google docs with their answers.

 Scarlett has been able to meet one on one with her reading teacher and she gave her the assignment to put sticky notes all over the house lableing things with either a, "b," "d," or "p.:

Meanwhile, Tucker and Penelope are doing the same workload they had before but with a lot less help from me. 

 It works ok for Tucker.

But Penelope's lessons are meant to be with me the entire time.  She has barely any work that she just does on her own, so it is difficult.

It is just such a crazy time in the world right now.  I am grateful that the teachers put this virtual schooling together.  So far it has been two weeks, with spring break next week.  After that we will go back to virtual school for an indefinite amount of time.  I'm sure with time we will find our groove and get the hang of it, even if it does mean not doing every assignment that is given.  The second week was starting to go better than the first.  And I am also having Scarlett and Leon learn to type, so once they can do that things will go much smoother.

I also have concerns for how much time kids around the world who are doing this will be spending on the computer.  Hopefully it won't last long and be an issue.  But even already in Scarlett's class kids are meeting unsupervised throughout the day, and the teachers cannot turn off the google meet room, even when they are not in "session".  I'm also concerned about the children that are meeting individually with teachers and their parents are not supervising it.  It just seems like a huge potential problem and opportunity for any creeps out there.

I think virtual school has huge potential.  I really hope this opens up more options and opportunities for homeschool families in the future.   There are online homeschool learning options currently but barely any that use the public school system and I think more and better options are needed.