Meal Plan, Workout Recap, and Quarantine Days 4-6

Hi all.  How are you holding up?

I don't want to spend too long here, because I feel like, after a week where *all* of our communication with the outside world has happened via email, text, or video chat on some kind of device, my brain is just on a bit of overload.  There was a bit more communication than usual required, also, to set up our "new normal" of doing school at home and both M and I working from home.  It was definitely more of a busy/stressful week than we all expected I think, considering school is not in session and all of our activities are cancelled.  With the rapidly changing news about this virus, too, there's a lot to read and keep up with, as I want to make sure we're following all of our governor's regulations regarding social distancing.  So yeah, lots of technology use just to stay afloat in these times.  And lots of lengthy articles and emails to read.  My brain is full.

To be clear, all schools in the state of MA are now mandated to be closed until at least April 7.  Many people, myself included, think the closure will last longer than that, but it's all rumors and conjecture at this point.  All dine-in restaurants and bars have been required by the state to close, and offer take-out food only.  There has been no "shelter in place" mandate as of yet, despite the fact that there have been dramatic increases in the number of COVID-19 cases in MA in the last few days (we're now up to 413 officially), but most people are already doing something like that even without a state mandate.  The Sugar and Spice family is only going out unless it's absolutely essential, for things like groceries.  We take regular walks around our neighborhood and we're doing a family trail walk at a local pond today, but we aren't socializing with any friends, other than via video chat.  Most places of entertainment around where we live, like malls, theaters, bowling etc. have voluntarily closed... so even if we wanted to, we couldn't really do anything like that.  Most families in our community, the ones with which I have been in contact anyway, are staying home in a similar way.

Our school district has not required that kids do any school at home.  This is mostly for reasons of equity, as some students in the district don't have access to computers or devices or even internet.  That may or may not change if the closure is extended-- there has been talk of sending out school-owned devices, and different carriers have offered free internet.  Needless to say it has been a stressful time for M as one of the instructional technology people in our district.  It's uncharted territory for everyone and they're all trying to do their best, but it's still really difficult to get organized and on the same page.

We have taken the approach of doing *some* of the "suggested" schoolwork that has been sent out by our district.  Basically in the last week it has worked out that we do about 1.5-2 hours of school-related activities in the morning for all the girls, then after lunch we have some sort of exercise or outside time, then free time, which has included art/drawing, legos, Wii time, video chatting with friends, or extended outside/bike riding time if it's nice.  M and I trade off squeezing in work when we can.  It worked pretty well this week, all things considered, but again I think both M and I are pretty mentally exhausted right now after managing all of that.

I'm going to try to take the weekend mostly away from technology if I can, other than maybe watching a movie with the kiddos.  I'd like to get back to my Philippa Gregory book that I actually haven't touched since last weekend!  I figured quarantine would mean I'd have tons of time for reading, but that really hasn't been the case this week.  I think now that we've sort of figured out the routine there will be less to manage going forward.  Fingers crossed.

With that, I'll share some pictures of our days in quarantine since my last post, and leave you with my workout recap and meal plan for the week.

Video chats with extended family <3

More chore helpers!

Just Dance on the Wii for P.E. time on rainy days :)

J has loved all the work that her preschool teacher has sent home for her to do! (and also likes making goofy faces...)

Counting our dolls!

The girls built this model of New York City (we have the Chrysler Building, the Met, Central Park, the Starlight Diner, and the Empire State Building).  I never blogged about it, but we visited all of those places last summer!  Anyways, after it was all built this picture of the real NYC came across our ChromeCast slideshow.  Cool!

Friday night Chinese takeout and Back to the Future III on a Friday night, to celebrate having survived our first week of quarantine.

Candy Land, of course!

Here's the workout recap:

Friday, 3/13: 5.01 miles outside, 9'38" pace. This was a scheduled teacher work day and the girls were all home, but they ended up canceling the teacher PD so M was home too, and I was able to do an afternoon run in the warm sunshine, no early morning flashlight needed!

Saturday, 3/14: rest day

Sunday, 3/15: 6.3 miles outside, 9'50" pace

Monday, 3/16: 5.01 miles outside, 9'24" pace (It must have been a very restful weekend, because that's a pretty fast pace for me on a day after a longer run... the legs felt great!  Beautiful weather helps.)

Tuesday, 3/17: back to this tried and true Fitness Blender upper body workout

Wednesday, 3/18: early morning run outside, 5.01 miles, 9'52" pace

Thursday, 3/19: this Fitness Blender abs workout, I have done it before but never with the extra weights as suggested, and wow did it torch my obliques!!

Lastly, the meal plan!

Suppers

Saturday: homemade nachos and cole slaw

Sunday: mac and cheese, salad

Monday: subs, chips, strawberries

Tuesday: leftovers

Wednesday: chicken noodle casserole

Thursday: MYO pizza, "rabbit food" veggies and dip

Friday: leftovers

Lunches

bagels for kids

sub leftovers

canned soups

shakes and smoothies

kale salads

Breakfasts

cereal/granola

oatmeal

eggs

homemade waffles from freezer

popovers?

Snacks

hippeas

snap peas

made good bars

tortilla chips and salsa

oyster crackers and cheese

fresh fruits: apples, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, watermelon

fresh veggies: cucumber, carrots, sweet peppers

peach and pear cups

applesauce

brownies

yogurt quick bread

Enjoy the weekend everyone, and we send you our best wishes for your health, happiness and sanity :)