My Quarantine Chronicles - Week 1

meet the maker pandemic quarantine chronicles working from home

I have been sending weekly updates to my family and friends since we started social distancing and quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. I include some of the fun activities that we do to keep the kids occupied throughout the week in the midst of working and schooling.

To Share or Not

One of my friends suggested that I share my updates more broadly because she knows a lot of parents that are working from home with kids and are looking for ideas and helps with what to do and how to manage. My first response was "That's a nice idea, but no." I'm a pretty private person, and I work full time, so there's no time for me to blog too.

I've thought about it some more though, and I like the idea of offering help to other parents in this weird moment of history we find ourselves; and I think I can keep it as simple as my family updates so that I don't have to become a part time blogger!

But First

For background I work full time here at Variya as a jewelry artist. My husband is an author and consultant, my oldest son, D is 15 years old in 9th grade and my youngest son A is 3 years old.

So here we go. We're going to travel back in time to 4 weeks ago when we started our quarantine here at Variya House:

Week 1

This week was St Patrick's day and we started off with our usual tradition of Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast. It was A's first time trying them and he didn't really care too much for them. I am big on holiday (and non-holiday) traditions, but the quarantine limited us a bit. Before we isolated I was able to think ahead and picked up potatoes, cabbage and sausage for bangers and mash, so we had our typical Irish dinner, which made D very happy. We are going to do our best to find new things to enjoy as we try to stick with our regular traditions for however long this time in isolation lasts.

There was lots of playing inside and outside. We did some creating, crafting and baking. I try to plan one special activity to do each day.

One great thing we made was chocolate covered pretzels which was of course super exciting for A! These are so easy to throw together and my little one was most happy that he could do most of it. Both boys loved the sweet results. If you'd like to try these see instructions at the bottom of this post. They are so simple I ordered more ingredients to do this again.

We also walked down to a creek we have close by to here and threw rocks into the water, which was great fun! A asks everyday if we are going bye-bye, I can't wait for the weather to stay warm so I can say yes (just to walk or play outside)! Not a lot has changed for D, he's still doing school but misses hanging out with his friends. We did learn he's pretty good at skipping rocks though!

 

Chocolate Covered Pretzels
What you need:
Baking sheet
Bowl
Spoon
Parchment paper (optional but make easy cleanup)
Small pretzels
Melting chocolate (colored is more fun!)
Decorating sprinkles
Instructions:
Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out pretzels in a single layer. Melt chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and continue heating for 30 seconds at a time until fully melted. Drizzle melted chocolate over pretzels. Decorate with sprinkles. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes until chocolate has hardened. 
*Pro tip: if you need your kiddo to do anything (ie: pick up toys, take a nap etc.) now would be a good time to have them do it! Having them do it while they are waiting for their treat is a great incentive, and you can reward them for their good work! You can set a timer too if that helps - our little one loves timers.
Until next week.. stay safe!

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