Once upon a time in March 2020, Coronavirus... specifically Covid-19, was popping up around the world and it became clear this highly contagious virus would be hitting the U.S. soon... aka already here but be popping up in documented cases. Jack's teacher sent home this message:

Similarly, at my school we had a big staff meeting where our principal asked each of the teachers to take a few moments and picture what instruction could look like from a distance - teachers at the school, students at home. What programs are the students already used to utilizing in their learning? How could learning objectives still be met? I remember distinctly Matt cautioning that this was still a far-fetched idea - that it would only come about if Nampa looked like a ghost town, with everyone in their homes and no one out on the streets. None of us realized it was absolutely going to happen.

I have screenshots of news headlines and memes about Covid-19, mainly focusing on what it was and tracking as it spread throughout the U.S.

We all quickly learned the necessity of flattening the curve - aka controlling how quickly Coronavirus spreads in our communities so that local resources such as hospitals and medications weren't overtaxed. I remember telling a concerned student at school something I had read - that over the next 2-3 years most everyone would get Covid-19... we just didn't want to get it all at once.

From a religious standpoint, lots to think about here - ways that we had been prepared for a situation like this.

Nampa Costco on March 14th:

Week one of home church... aka back when we thought we were just taking like one Sunday off. Dress code: very relaxed.

Cute boys on Day 1 of what we thought would just be a little longer Spring Break:

Tuesday, March 17th was the first day our schools were closed to students. We met for a staff meeting - so interesting to see us somewhat socially distanced. We talked a lot about the hopeful outcome - out of school that week, regularly scheduled Spring Break the week following, and then back to normal. We talked a lot MORE about the probable outcome - out of school that week, Spring Break, and then online learning for a week or two or three. We talked NOT AT ALL about the actual outcome - that students wouldn't come back to school in person for the rest of the school year.

How I spent the rest of the day.

How my kids spent the day:

Not to make light of things... but this is when things got pretty real to me:

Instagram caption: Social distancing is definitely harder for the cuddlers amongst us, but they’re giving it their best 🤷🏻‍♀️

Took the kids to work with me the next day:

They basically had the best day ever ;).

From the day that I left the kids at home with Clyde to supervise haha:

Insta caption: Yesterday I took the three younger yahoos to work with me. It was... fun. Today I left them home with Clyde. It clearly went well. Good news: I’m officially on Spring Break now so we can allllll stay home together! 🎉🤗🙌🏼🤩🏠🔜🙃🤪👀🤦🏻‍♀️😭

Also the day I happened to be unsupervised at work:

Me, leaving work after not having been dumb:

Epic.

Homeschool... PE? Social studies?

Insta caption: Social distance training- if someone’s within six feet of you in a nerf battle, chances are you’re already a goner. {also a social distancing fail as they let two neighbor kids join in 😅🤷🏻‍♀️}

I almost captioned this something about sibling bonding BUT THEN I REALIZED THAT'S ALSO ME?! No idea the context here but it looks loving.

Insta caption: Super fun morning at the bike park in Eagle- we showed up before most people and peaced out a couple hours later when it started getting busy, bc, social distancing. Only had to bribe one kid to go down a big hill and I didn’t even fulfill the bribe, sooo that’s what you get for trusting me 😅. I’m grateful that we got such good weather on Chuck’s day off and could have an outdoors adventure. We are now excited to get back to our regularly scheduled screen-time heavy homebound life 🚵🏼‍♂️🚲☀️🔜🏠📺📱🖥💻🤩

Scooter time:

We made a coronavirus alliance with Curtises, our germs are their germs and vice versa ;).

Insta caption:

#SocialDistancing pro tip: break out your scooters for the first rides of spring. People tend to give ya a real wide berth when you’re on one of these bad boys 😎🏍🛵. (Unless you’re enjoying a ride with your mum or dad, then Clyde recommends snuggling in close 🤗) *sidenote someday in my life I’ll factor in the windchill and dress appropriately for a March scooter ride. That day was neither yesterday nor today.

Clyde hid so well during hide and seek that it took him sending us a selfie to find him... in the recycling bin:

I started doing some flip grids with students, that was fun:

March 25th, Idaho went into a stay at home order:

Cutest letter came in the mail from Carma's primary teacher:

We celebrated Willy boy's birthday by taking a walk along the greenbelt path in front of our house to pick up lots and lots and lots of trash:

insta caption: Glamour shot! Chuck snapped this particularly stunning portrait of me attempting not to get whacked in the face by a rogue cattail ☀️🌾. Feeling like this is a must-add to my modeling portfolio ...🤩💁🏻‍♀️📸

And then we came home for cake and other birthday merriment:

insta caption: Celebrated this 1️⃣2️⃣ year old all day long today 😍😍. Will.i.am has the best laugh ever and teasing him is quite possibly my favorite hobby and we are the luckiest to have him in our family!

One of Chuck's amazing coworkers posted this haha. Loved sending Chuck out into the post-apocalyptic world every day while the rest of us stayed home!

Random birthday tradition with the day-old cake - give everyone a fork, send them out to the trampoline with the instructions not to come in until it's all gone.

Social distancing is better with stuffies?

Picture and caption from my socials.

Came up with this myself, pretty proud:

Spring Break (both weeks ;) ) ended, and at home learning commenced!

We moved some things around to facilitate some learning spaces... like everything else at this time, it was a steep learning curve!

I switched back and forth between working from the (pretty empty) school and working from home. Because so much of my job is direct student supervision, we got creative with finding ways for me to still connect with students and be productive.

I took these pictures at the crosswalk on the way home one day - right then, it just struck me how empty everything looked - just like the 'ghost town' we thought was such a far fetched idea only two weeks prior.

I guess my kids wanted to make sure I still had fights to break up??

Time for Zoom! Except not Zoom, our school stuck with Microsoft platforms.

So here's everyone on Teams meetings or working on daily assignments!

Aaaand that's how we ended March - feeling super grateful that I could still work, the kids had space to do school, Chuck could still work, and that our family was healthy and together.