The Cooks

I'm stealing my terminology from Kumail Nanjani and Emily Gordon, whose podcast during the early days of quarantine was a great lifeline for me. No one quite knew what to call the pandemic life back in March, as "Coronavirus" didn't quite get to it and "Quarantine" wasn't technically accurate. "The Weirds" felt just right as a way to describe the "something is coming and we're trying to stay out of its way and it's affecting every element of our lives" feeling. I look back on this time a little fondly, as it meant a lot of together-time that we don't have in a typical school/work year, and we were enjoying the novelty of all the cancelled plans and new hobbies and coming spring.

This would turn out to be an understatement...

First of many backyard happy hours.

First of many baking projects.

First Zoom church. (This is the children's sermon.)

First of many hikes.

First of my many, many lists, this time on our new chalkboard/ductwork hider

Picking up Jenna's school device. As messy as it was, the kids' schools were really set up well to ensure all kids had access to a device at home, loaded up with the programs they needed.

First Zoom Youth Group for Jackson (they do lots of scavenger hunts)

Getting set up for virtual school

FaceTime clarinet lessons

Fort building on a school day while they awaited assignments. I'm not sure why the fog machine is out...

First day of online classes. It was a bumpy ride those first few weeks, as we all tried to navigate unfamiliar platforms and unclear expectations. The teachers were saints through all this, trying to keep calm and carry on while their entire systems and plans were in disarray.

I don't know how she works like this, but it seemed to go fine for her!

First of many, many nights of takeout and TV.

Zoom book club.

Neigborhood Little Free Library stuffed to the gills as we all purged our houses. (It would later empty out again as the public libraries closed and we needed reading material...)

Exploring Richmond Hill Park, one of many local sites we'd never gotten around to seeing.

The kids' creativity was through the roof in these early days. Sooo many videos and comic books produced in March and April. Jenna's here, checking our names against the guest list for the premiere of their first "Todd the Alien" video.

We count our blessings every day, realizing how rare it is for siblings to get along as well as they do.

The renovation wrapped up RIGHT before the shutdown, which was amazing timing. We took on a few touch-ups ourselves, like painting the storm windows.

Our favorite bakery started doing late-night deliveries, and we have enjoyed Saturday night macarons for many weekends.

Our contribution to the neighborhood "bear hunt" (where neighbors all put bear in their windows for stir-crazy kids to "hunt" on their neighborhood walks).

I thought this was rich, coming from my daughter who has almost every day of her life interrupted one of my own online meetings.

We won a local pizza place's Harry Potter Virtual Costume Contest with Jackson's "Nearly Headless Nick" costume.

There's a different American Girl vignette somewhere in the house most days.

Nerf gun war with the neighbors, complete with life vests and bike helmets, of course.

The painters' ladders were part of our lives for quite a while. They did eventually come back for them.

First socially distanced neighborhood commission meeting. Funny to think we were already sick of Zoom after 2 weeks.

Went for a family run. (This was the before picture. The after was much sweatier.)

Lots of sweet chalk drawings in the early Weirds.

Also lots of yard projects. Here are the boys, digging up a spot for a new fire pit.

Finished project. (We found the metal tubing on the side of the road and Brian was inspired. Jenna pretended she didn't know us when we pulled over to fish it into the car.)

Soooo much baking.

First birthday car parade.

Old firepit=new fairy garden.

These guys were already overdue for a haircut pre-Weirds, so we knew some serious hair situations were ahead of us.

A new tradition for me and Jenna is an Earthling Coffee run. (With caffeine-free goodies for her.)

Boy in a yoga mat.

I helped plan this wonderful lady's 50th birthday at Zillicoah Brewing. (Narrator: This would turn out to be the last pre-pandemic social gathering of our friends, though we didn't know it at the time.)