Days in Isolation...I've lost count...

This was me at the beginning of spring break....blissfully turning my thoughts away from teaching and grading and towards a plethora of British murder mysteries on Amazon Prime and mindless basting of over 500 Christmas hexies.

Part way through that lovely break, the outside world was poking in on us.  Word came down that our district was going to initiate school closure to flatten the curve of the virus.  So the craft joy went away and our two-teacher family turned our focus on revising our fourth quarter units for online instruction.  Stressful, but do-able once I located on-line sources for  The Crucible and The Lord of the Flies that my students could access.

Our family has decided to take this Colorado order to self-isolate and stay at home super seriously.  I didn't need much prompting since I have such an unpleasant memory of contracting the Noro-virus that hit our school district in November, forcing an early Thanksgiving closure of all the schools in our district.  That illness was just two awful to write about.  Blegh.

Amidst all the crazy disruption to routines, suddenly, there's a bit more time in the day.  My husband and I typically spend 55-65 hours a week on school.  When you add up the commute, the busy lunch "break", the passing time between classes...suddenly there is a chunk of extra time available in the day.  We are no longer immersed in almost chaotic busy-ness.  Sure, we sit near our computers throughout the work day to interact with students online, but it is not the same level of stress.

What to do with this blessing of time?

First, I planted some seeds for an in-door lettuce garden.

We took stock of our pantry ingredients, and I started to pick up some essentials from the grocery store.  Food storage...check.  And toilet paper!  We have enough to get us through without hoarding.

My elderly parents were struggling to find any in their town, but I had a serendipitous moment of knowing someone whose friend was heading their way over the mountains.  Toilet paper delivered!

 I had collected the unclaimed bags of apples left over from our school's food truck delivery and made applesauce.

I finished my blocks for my latest hand-quilting endeavor.  (This is the one I've been working on fifteen minutes a day during my lunch hour at school.  I didn't think I would finish for another year!)

A member of our church who manages a homeless teen shelter asked for some help making cloth backpacks to fill with supplies for some of our less fortunate young people, so I felt like I was able to do a bit of good.  I used Caroline's pattern from the SewCanShe website.

My niece is a nurse in Kentucky who is obviously required to wear a protective mask at all times now.  Apparently, those ear loops cause quite a bit of chafing day in and day out.  So she was wondering if I could make some headbands with buttons to anchor the ear loops.  I cut up some spandex shirts  (since all fabric stores are closed now) and used a store bought headband as a model.  I forgot to take pictures before I sent them her way, so here is one in process.  It was a bit of fabric origami of sorts to hide the seam. 

My husband and I were talking this morning about what we don't miss...

Meetings.  Meetings.  Meetings.

(Although we desperately miss our students and colleagues.)

Fast food.

I have actually had time to cook!  Every meal has been made from scratch.  My husband has lost a few pounds, lucky guy.  (Not me...I've also been baking some tasty treats.  Need to back off on those.)

Driving.

Driving to and from school.  Driving to the kid's lessons after school and staying late to take him home after his track practice.  (The kid is now meeting his instructors through the iPad for virtual violin and piano lessons.  He also meets with his track team through a meeting app each week.  All in the comfort of our living room.)

I definitely don't miss driving to stores for unnecessary spending.

We leave the house once a week at most now to drive around town or take my son to a track for the individualized workouts his coach sends.  I've turned into my kid's secondary coach since he's told me he needs reminders sometimes to get moving.  I try to head out for a walk while he runs, so it's win-win!  Captured this photo during one of his later runs last week...

And, of course, the face masks.  

This was my first successful venture, using a pattern posted on SuzyQuilts for the #1millionmaskchallenge.

It took forever.  Seriously.  Forrrrrrevvvvvvverrrrrrrrr.

And then, boom, boom, boom, another five down.  I love love love batiks, so it was nice to work with this fabric eye candy.  Here's my first batch. 

We have family members in need of masks, so I put these in the mailbox this morning.

I am still working steadily on Katja Marek's The New Hexagon 2 weekly block challenge.

And, today, I figured out how to dye Easter eggs without the dye pack.  I think my favorite one is that muddy brown outlier, haha.  

I realize how blessed we are.  We have food.  We have jobs that we can continue to work from our home.  We are contained in a home with people who love and respect one another.  We are healthy.  Not everyone is so lucky.

Saying a whole lot of prayers for the halt of this virus.