So, how’s everyone holding up so far? I’m pretty sure all this extra at-home time with my entire family has quadrupled my workload at home! I’m now, without fail, making 3 meals a day 7 days a week for my family of 7; I’m doing so many dishes my hands are almost constantly in the “pruned” state, and since most of the day my kids are outside in the dirt we’re definitely doing a lot more laundry and giving a lot more baths. So even though our water bill is most assuredly going to go up, we’re putting less gas in our cars now, so it’ll all even out, right?!

If you’d like a couple suggestions for some family fun, I did a “Car-Ride Scavenger Hunt” (click here), which ended up being incredibly fun! We had to find the items on the list by driving around town, and we couldn’t go home for a special treat until we found every single one! We’ve done the Scavenger Hunt twice, and did it in a different area of the city the second time to change it up! It only took us about a half hour to find everything, and the kids didn’t even need their shoes on because we never got out of the car. We did an Indoor Scavenger Hunt, too (click here). Every kid got a basket and whoever brought it back filled with every item got “remote duty” for their afternoon TV show.

You can click HERE for a free color or plain text printable download link to BOTH Scavenger Hunts. Here’s a peek below:

Now…on a personal note… I’ve had to make some adjustments being the fulltime caregiver for our 5-year old with cerebral palsy. Even though I’ve homeschooled Ryden all year and have always been his primary care-giver, before the “shelter” took place he had several therapy appointments weekly, we had a hospital-grade Care Program we could take him to if we needed to do something that couldn’t accommodate his unique needs, he had a Miracle Buddy at church that did one-on-one with him in Sunday School so I could go to service or attend church events, AND we had a respite worker that came to our house at least once a week simply to give me a hand. All those resources are kaput for the time being, so it’s been me, myself and I taking care of Ryden. Oh yea, Neil, too. But mostly me, because Neil’s finally been able to tackle some important house-projects that have desperately needed his handiness since he’s been home more. In addition to all the extra caregiving I’ve had to do, this week Ryden decided he’s not going to take naps anymore (sigh). On the 5thday of being nap-free and not wanting to give mommy a little break, I saw some sleepy signs in him during lunch. I eagerly finished feeding him so he could nap at the same time as our 2-year old, Trey. Somehow, as if it was perfectly preplanned, our 3 big kids got invited to do some yard work at our neighbor’s house, so I was literally going to have a mommy-break completely kid-free that afternoon! I envisioned all that I would do for a whopping 2 hours as I put Ryden & Trey to bed. Lo and behold, Ryden cooperated beautifully and fell asleep within minutes.

Almost skipping, I got myself my afternoon cup of coffee and sat at my computer to get some random stuff done I haven’t been able to get to in days, but my computer wouldn’t turn on. In fact, nothing electrical was working on that whole side of the house. I told my husband and he began working on fixing it, which I knew meant turning off the power to different parts of the house to diagnose the problem. In doing so, the power went off in Ryden’s & Trey’s room, which meant their sound machine went off. Which therefore meant Ryden and Trey heard all the noise coming from outside their room. Which meant they both woke up. My 2-hour mommy-break lasted all of 2 minutes.

I was fuming. Maybe, just maybe, I even wrongfully blamed their awakeness on Neil turning the power off to their room. I got Trey to go back to sleep, I wish I could say the same for Ryden. Boy did I try, too. After giving up, I announced to Neil that I was going to take a 2-hour break anyway, and that he could be the one to meet Ryden’s needs since he was partially at fault for waking him up. (Yes, I later apologized to Neil for my yucky attitude).

Instead of sleeping, Ryden was playing on the floor peacefully with toys while I sat myself back down at the computer to finish what I wanted to get done. Oh yea. Still no power. Neil was hard at work trying to get it working while I racked my brain on what I could do during my self-proclaimed mommy-break since I was (kinda) kid-free. I drank another cup of coffee. I ate chocolate. I swept the back deck. And after 20 minutes I simply couldn’t ignore my Ryden anymore, so I gave him some hugs, moved him, and gave him different toys to play with.

Yes, eventually Neil got the power working. No, I didn’t get the break I wanted, but I know it’ll come at a later time. Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a time and season for everything, and this happens to be a time and a season when my kids, especially Ryden, need me most. The concrete truth about seasons is that they’ll always come to an end or at least change. I need to make sure I’m being excellent and faithful in this strange season while my entire family is home with not many places to go for however long or short it may last. Failing at getting computer work done is not a huge deal in the big picture of life but failing to meet my son’s needs is not something I can do as a God-fearing woman.

I don’t know if you’ve had similar experiences in your own home the last few days when things just aren’t going as smoothly as you anticipated, but chances are, if you own children, you’ve probably encountered some “surprises” that have thrown you off your groove. And that’s ok. The important thing is to make sure we’re focusing on the most important things God’s given us to be excellent in, and I’m assuming for most of us during this particular season, that means meeting the (extra) needs of our family at home. God gives us everything we need to be excellent in the things HE gave us to do and at this time, being Ryden’s fulltime caregiver is what He’s given me to do. So, I will choose joy even during a time of not-many-mommy-breaks, because eventually, this season will end, and I’ll again have all my help back. Let’s put everything we have into serving the extra needs of our family and home while we’re forced to be together. Because even if some of us don’t have the usual help we’re used to receiving from teachers, Sunday School workers, youth pastors, etc, God has always proved He alone is always enough; and no virus, plague or disease can separate us from Him and all that His presence has to offer us. During a time of uncertainty and insecurity in our land and in our neighborhoods, may we all be able to declare…