I’ve had a few requests for a blog post this week and wow, it’s nice to be wanted! I specifically haven’t been writing because two weeks ago I started a draft that was just a big old whine of . . . well, here you go:
The weekend is exactly the same as any other day in these Times of Corona. If I were wise I would stay off all social media because I get annoyed when I see things like “day 11 of lockdown. Going crazy.” And then posting photos of themselves wandering in the woods or on an isolated beach. It’s completely unreasonable and based in envy and discontent. And I’m . . .
And then I stopped myself because none of that matters. And who am I to be complaining? So what if things started kicking off here at the end of February and we’re 6 or 7 weeks into the disruption while other people are only on week 3? Big fat deal. If we are playing the “who has it worse?” game, I would certainly lose. Boo hoo, I’m stuck in my big house with more than one computer per person, multiple TVs, plenty of food, exercise equipment, and a husband who is still employed and working from home.
So what does our lockdown/quarantine look like? For starters, we are all home, all the time. I think Josh went to the grocery store a week ago. Oh, and Caleb went to the grocery store to get whole wheat flour to bake bread. But maybe that was the week before. The days blur one into another. And Carter walks the dog up and down the street every now and then when I remind him. Other than that . . . we are inside Bayt Chartier 24/7
We are all up late every single night as our Chartier Plan for Success went out the window during week one of quarantine. Also gone are most limits on gaming/screentime. Basically if I ask them to help clean up an area of the house, they are supposed to do that without complaining, other than that they are staring at screens until their eyes bleed. I don’t really care because what else is there to do? Caleb even built a computer this past week so now all 3 of them are on and yelling at each other to “go here!” “No! over there!” in whatever game they are playing at the moment. Caleb and Camille are on Fortnight with their California cousins and Carter plays some sort of shooting game like Call of Duty with his friends.
Putting it together 
it works!
With no set bedtime we end up going to bed whenever Josh and I decide that Camille has been up late enough. Usually by 11. Any earlier than that and she spends the next 2 hours texting us from her ipad:
Then we go to bed, watch something on the computer and hopefully I fall asleep by 1am? Usually Camille wanders in once or twice because we are out of Good Day Chocolates and can’t get them here so that’s 2 strikes against us. Josh is usually asleep before me, but he also has to get up for work phone calls and meetings most mornings. The boys get to stay up and play as long as they can get themselves up for school by 9am. So far I think Caleb has only slept through class once.
It might sound like I’m abdicating my parenting responsibility and I might be, but no one wants to be micromanaged when we have to be together 24/7. I’ve decided that school is their job and helping to keep the house clean is their other job and as long as they can accomplish those things and not irritate me by fighting over technology, then it can be a free for all.
In the Win Win Win category, gaming/computers without limits means that no one wants to talk to me all day long so I can craft to my heart’s content. A week ago I got a bag of scrap fabric from a friend and have been creating this quilt ever since. This project was brought to you by all 8 seasons of Monk, my strained lower back muscles, and my poor abused thumb and forefinger (from pushing and pulling the needle through layers of fabric). There’s a reason Josh used to joke about my sweatshop, because once I get on a roll, I don’t stop and time passes without me even noticing.
sorting scraps 
all pieced by hand 
next step — embroidery
As far as lockdown goes, it’s been my most contented week yet. I felt productive, creative, and inspired. It probably also helped that sewing and streaming TV kept me off of Facebook, Instagram, and Mumsnet (a British forum that I find endlessly entertaining). No chance to compare anyone else’s life with mine and no consuming other people’s complaints meant I was free to enjoy my own life in a vacuum.
Pandemic: The Cure — we haven’t found a cure yet
The one thing we’re doing that I’m proud of is Forced Family Fun every evening. We started this about 2 weeks ago when I became worried that we were going to go days at a time without speaking to the kids — other than when they show up in the kitchen for food. I told them that we were doing a mandatory hour of togetherness and they voted for games. I don’t do games. They got me.
I can confirm that the end of the world is near since I’m now playing board games every night: We did a 3 night run of Stranger Things Monopoly, then moved on to Carcassonne (Gold Rush and Winter), Pandemic: The Cure, 7 Wonders, Exploding Kittens and Sushi-Go. I won’t complain about Carcassonne and I might actually secretly enjoy it.
It’s now almost midnight and Camille is gaming away with her brother, cousin, and uncle with no sign of being ready to stop. We have church tomorrow at 10 and I had to wake them up for it last week . . . I better set my alarm for 9:15 so I can get vaguely camera ready. We meet for online church and then we “host” a fellowship group immediately after the livestream where we catch up with various people, talk about the sermon, and share prayer requests.
All in all, the Chartiers are surviving and maybe even thriving in quarantine. The one outlier is Zeki, our cat, who is royally irritated that we are home all the time and invading his space. So he has taken to angry peeing on Camille’s comforter. Most likely because she loves him so much and wants to carry him around all the time, lock him in her room with her, and contain him like her prisoner. I was joking that she was like Kathy Bates in Misery and the poor cat was going to be loved to death, and I guess the cat felt the same and started retaliating. Bless, just what we need, to be trapped with an angry wizzing cat. Stay tuned to see how this saga unfolds.