I am really enjoying working out with my friend Olivia via FaceTime!

He said

Not a lot has changed over the week, we obviously are still quarantined and maintaining a heavy focus on doing our damnedest to not leave the house. And when we do, to take all the precautions we can to the nth degree. With my work from home work week filling with regularity, Danielle has stepped up to help get Dad to all of his medical appointments through the week which for the most part has been routine bloodwork. All is going well – albeit slower than what he might want.

With getting Dad to appointments and picking Mom & Dad their supplies from the grocery store, we’ve managed to keep them from getting out in the public and avoid COVID-19 exposure. While I am sure staying in is more challenging for Dad who is used to taking care of these tasks, but I think it has resonated with him on the trips to get bloodwork done when he can see first hand the change to how people are and what precautions are in place and how different the world is right now. Some times we have to remind them but for the most part they understand as much as we’d all love to be out, about and together this is about staying true to the task.

Ontario Parks announced as of this week the closure of parks has been extended through to May 31. We were not surprised by this as right now our perspective is we will likely lose June as well and are doubtful about July even. But, we are really hoping that we won’t lose August and our return to Bon Echo. This weekend was supposed to be our very first trip out in the camper so the nicer weather this weekend was somewhat bittersweet. As time churns on, we recognize this camping season will be different than any other but also hoping that we can get at least one of our week-long planned trips out. We really need that time around the campfire.

One of the things we’ve come to enjoy through this quarantine has been how our musician friends have pivoted in order to stay connected with their fans & friends. Our good friend, Jim Bryson has taken to doing 3-song concerts most weeknights on his Instagram account. Our other good friends Jenn Grant and Dan Ledwell have been hosting Pocket Concerts on Jenn’s Instagram as well. And Emelia’s favourite musician since well… diapers Jill Barber held a Stay at Home Concert today through Side Door Promotions who has really championed this way of getting musicians, music and fans all together at home, apart. It’s been really special to get back some small piece of something that was so important to our lives before all this.

We’re definitely feeling some semblance of getting a routine to all of this which I am sure Danielle will have more to share about, but the feeling is we won’t be upset when we get back to some piece of new normal and we – albeit very slowly – return to life outside of the house. Until then, we’ll keep up the good fight!

She said

Things are more of the same around here, we are trying our best to stay active in isolation, trying to find our new normal in the midst of so much uncertainty.

We have started to make routines around here to blend a balance of homeschooling, staying active and staying connected when you can’t see people face to face. The hardest part for me is seeing Emelia being isolated. We are beyond grateful for technology so Emelia can stay connected with her best friends Anna and Grace as well as her other bestie Olivia. Emelia and Olivia have been working together not only keep each other sane but active. Emelia has loved that they have started making a daily routine of doing workouts via FaceTime as well as time on their trampolines. It has been so amazing for us to see her stay active and connected.

As a family we are making sure we stay active, each day John gets on the rower, we get out for multiple family walks in the day and I have tried to get back into running and now back on the rower. Staying physically active has kept us mentally sane.

The other balance has been still to find the right tools to do proper homeschooling for Emelia. Last week we seem to have found a good system and Emelia has been able to keep up with the demands of school. It has been great for us that she has been able to reconnect with her old tutor and gymnastics coach to walk her though her math. It has been so helpful. Emelia was able to work through a weeks worth of math frustrations in a 90 minute FaceTime class with Jenna. So we are using technology to our benefit and getting her the support she needs. She felt so better about how school was going last week now that we have found a new system. Hopefully this works going forward because it was a lot less stressful trying to balance distance learning for her.

As we wrapped up the week we found out that school will be out for Ontario students until the end of May, it certainly doesn’t feel like the end is in sight anytime soon. We are doing everything we can to do our part to flatten the curve, limiting it to only me going out to stores, only going out for absolute necessities and taking every precaution when I do go out.

Mentally this is exhausting, its isolating but we are getting through this together.