Day Four (Thursday 3/19): Sometimes I hate technology. Like right now, when I hit a button and my blog post disappeared. I’m sure it’s somewhere, right? Nope - not that I can find. So I’ll start again… Grrr…

I sound as grumpy as my teenager who couldn’t get his videos to upload (because he hadn’t updated the software on his computer - since he usually uses his iPad for school). He needed to edit the videos for an Art project (due tomorrow of course). Nothing like the last minute when you’ve had all week at home to get work done.

Today is the Feast of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of my boys’ high school, so they had the “day off.” Meaning, no scheduled classes and no assignments due (good thing, or he would have had to turn in the challenging-to-make video today). So…what to do?

Edward and I cleaned out the “Bro Cave.” Several years ago, when my two-years-apart boys fought over EVERYTHING, we asked them to come up with a plan to get along better. They presented to us the idea of a Bro Cave (like a Man Cave, but for brothers): a room for gaming. So, we took the couch out of the library and moved in two desks (I liked to think it would become their homework room, but it never did…)
Three hours, three boxes to donate, and two black trash bags later, and the Bro Cave was clean. I mean REALLY clean (because it was REALLY NOT clean). I even taught Edward how to tidy up all those cords with zip ties. Alternative learning. And a life skill.

Tonight my survival moms’ group chat held an online happy hour. We logged into an video conferencing site, poured our beverage of choice, and spent about 90 minutes catching up on some face time, albeit on a screen. We need to do this more often. I miss these women. I have raised my children with them; we have parented all ages together; we have made mistakes and lifted each other up. And now, when we are navigating this new world of seniors and viruses, and quarantines and colleges, we need each other more than ever. It’s not the same as getting together and getting a good hug, but it was good therapy nonetheless.

Monopoly finally ended. Thank goodness. Jamie won. I think we’ll play cards tomorrow.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
Cases in the US: 14,202