A blog is born!

Good morning:
On day one of this Corona lock down, my 7-year old daughter Grace and I woke up determined to track our schedule that we had so diligently mapped out the day before. We started the day with gusto, eating breakfast and then preparing for our morning walk right on schedule at 8 am sharp. We set out for our walk under intense sunshine and the crisp spring air. I naively thought, "we got this!" Though as we turned the first corner, I heard that familiar diesel sound and thought longingly of the school bus, the same school bus that we had nearly missed so many days before, amid shouting and angst. But today that sound only brought nostalgic memories of smiling children, earnest waves, and excitement over "star of the week", field trips, and class musicals.  And as I looked up, I was instantly pulled away from my reverie, as I knew that sound couldn't be the school bus, but was the sound of a heavy-duty construction vehicle - the one part of daily life in the neighborhood that had yet to shut down.

As we continued walking, Grace asked if we could get a trampoline, and while it broke my heart, I had to say no - my mom brain immediately thinking that our access to hospital care would be limited if any limbs were broken.  She then immediately began to cry and shut down - anguishing how everything fun was cancelled, and I began to cry with her. Then I had an idea - that she and I should start a blog to memorialize these endless days restricted from all of our favorite activities and people.

I asked her what we should call it, and she replied, "stuck in the neighborhood!"

And I am hopeful that in this exercise we will also find joy and memorialize the good times and the bad. My biggest hope is that this will form a record that we can look back and reflect on, and embrace and thank god for the privileged chaos we had lamented before.

If you're in the same boat as us, please join along with us - we'd love to hear other family's joy and struggles as we power through the next months.

Hugs from Virginia!

Now I need to go back and re-write the daily agenda that Grace had angrily erased from the white board.