Well, it’s about 8:00pm on day 5 of the COVID 19 ‘situation’ (?) and the Benedik family has dispersed to separate locations within our home. Brian and I are doing our best to keep morale high, and moods in a good place, but it seems like we are failing. Our college kids are especially unhappy being displaced. Tyler’s senior year of college came to a screeching halt with a lot of unknowns, online classes until the end of the semester, and senior week and commencement ceremonies remain in question. He is our first to graduate college, and it hurts to think that he might not walk in cap and gown to receive his diploma. Caroline is in the same boat with online classes, suspended sorority roles & functions, and she is really missing her social life. Neither one of them were ever good at sitting still, since nursery school they have had to keep moving at all times. Nothing has changed… except now we have them isolated at home, and their freedom is challenged to say the least.
We did not tackle a family project today, it seemed everyone had enough to keep them busy with school work, and Netflix, and chores. We came together at meals, some as a group, some individually and I cleaned the kitchen at least 10x. Does anyone know what the dishwasher is for???? In my mind, it’s really not bad – we have everything we need, we are in our beautiful home, and we have been gifted time. I baked a chocolate cake from scratch, but we have been eating so much no one has any room for dessert, and the cake sits alone on the kitchen table just waiting. There seems to be a lot of waiting, just wondering what comes next in this time of uncertainty.
We had family happy hour on the deck tonight, and Caroline made a kick ass cheese & meat board. We are so lucky that we are having decent weather so we can enjoy the fresh air while we pass the time. It was too early in the day for Brian to have his dancing shoes on, so maybe we’ll get him to do an encore video tomorrow. Unfortunately we did not do ANY exercise at all today. Not a good habit to get into – but we will make a much better effort to get moving daily – we have plenty of time to do so, that’s a given.
It seems there are a lot of families like ours getting used to this, we are sharing tales on social media, texts, and face-time, and trying to keep it together. Some are frantic with worry, some are calm and patient, some are following the CDC & government guidelines as closely as possible. I am not sure what category we fall into, but keeping our family safe and healthy is our main concern. I am grateful for the Reilly girls group chat, and the ongoing humor between my mom and my sisters. We are incredibly blessed that my Mom is being taken care of 24/7 and kept safe and healthy at my sister Donna’s…but how much fun it would be if we were all there!
I am hopeful we have more information and direction from the authorities when we wake up in the morning, and more people continue to “hunker down” like we are to avoid the spread of the virus. Let’s continue to just BE. It is what it is…
xo KB
Finding my way... 