Extended AGAIN.

Well, it happened again.  After our governor first issued the stay-at-home order in the middle of March, we were told that it would end April 24th.  A week or so later, he announced that it would be extended until May 4th which really wasn't that big of a deal to me as it meant that our children would only be home from school one extra week.  The big bomb was dropped in early April when he announced that all Washington schools would be cancelled through the end of the school year.  As sad as this was for me, there still was the possibility of the stay-at-home order being lifted in time for our children to return to some or all of their after school activities before the school year ended.  This would mean that Ella could return to her weekly ballet class and participate in her studio's large dance recital in June and that Lia could finish off the school year resuming her voice lessons and attending her Girl Scout meetings and that all three children could squeeze in one swim session of swim lessons. However, today our governor dashed all of my hopes for resuming any end-of-the-school year activities by extending our stay-at-order AGAIN until May 31st.  It was just one more blow on top of a hundred blows that have already come previously.  

In addition, our governor laid out a four phase plan that will take place in three week minimum increments.  Each phase lifts a few restrictions at a very slow and cautious pace starting with Phase 1 that only allows for a few things like construction and a some recreational activities like golfing to resume.  As much as I understand why he is doing this, I am frustrated at the glacial pace that he is taking.  I have been effected by what experts are calling "quarantine fatigue."  I am just so tired of all of this.  I am done quarantining.  For the past seven weeks, my family and I have been so good with staying at home and with social distancing.  With the exception of having my parents over once for Ella's birthday party in March and going to my brother's house and my parent's house each one time in April, my family has done nothing with anyone else.  We stay at home at all times with the exception of going on small family outings (usually on our bikes) to places where there are very few people. Besides talking to a neighbor here or there, we have seen no one and haven't done anything with anyone.  No play dates, no get-togethers, no nothing.  Besides leaving the house once or twice a week for a grocery store run or a random errand, we stay home all the time and I am tired of it.  I am so tired of everything on our calendar being cancelled and I just want our old lives back.

Thanks to the extended, stay-at-home order, we have now cancelled everything in May including Logan's baptism that was planned months ago for this Saturday, May 9th, with his cousin and best friend, Trenton, who just turned eight the end of April.  In addition, the wedding of my good friend, Jill, who I have known since college and who was getting married in Oregon the middle of June was just cancelled as well as the week long Girl Scout day camp in July that both Lia and Ella were going to attend together for the first time.  I know that I need to just be grateful for all of the blessings we have in our lives at this time from a steady paycheck to good health, but I just don't feel like focusing on that today.  I am ready to get back to our "normal" lives and it doesn't look like it is going to happen any time soon.  So, once again, I just need a few days to readjust my mental agenda and accept the fact that the change I am hoping for is not going to happen in the near future.

However, in an attempt to focus on the positive at the end of this post, I am including a picture that I took today of Ron and the three older kids painting our playground in the backyard.  We inherited this play set from the previous owner of our first house when we purchased it back in 2008.  It was bought in 2002 and eighteen years later it still looks great thanks to some maintenance we have done over the years.  If it weren't for this quarantine that we are experiencing right now, this playground would not have gotten a new coat of paint right now which it was really in dire need of!