Figuring Out a New Normal

2020-03-22Us Standard

[Photos from 22 – 31 March 2020, posted online 23 August 2020. We finally brought out the wood staining stuff, and got to work during this gorgeous weekend, me at house #1 and Finnur at house #2.]

It was weird not meeting any friends or family, it was just us for weeks on end. Emma met kids at school, but no such luck for Bjarki. We therefore let Bjarki hang out with 1-2 friends after his schoolwork was done, but that was about all the socialization that was on offer.

We ended up doing a fair number for workouts to let off steam, especially to begin with, but interest waned as the weather improved. Anna claimed the kitchen for epic baking sessions, I went on lots of walks to get out of the house, and scooters and bikes were brought out as the snow finally began melting properly. (55-ish images total)

Sunday 22 March 2020

The big kitchen project of the day was to make sopaipillas. We’d last gotten them when we stayed with Sarah and Augusto, and since there were no friends or family to visit, Anna and Finnur took this challenge head on.
My big project was dismantling this pile of stuff.
It quickly devolved into trying to figure out what to do with lots of random stuff.
Pillow got installed to avoid serious gymnastics injury while the rest of us worked.
Emma’s bedroom approaching tidy.
That was about as far as I got for the day. Not baaaad.
The safety pillows ended up just being a pile of pillows.
Downstairs, sopaipillas were being cooked!
Happy, but tired, cook.
Bjarki about to gobble up his cinnamon-sugar dessert sopaipilla!

Monday 23 March 2020

Work? What work?
Bjarki had gotten permission to go to a band practice. There have only ever been a handful of practices, and he started out on drums, but may be moving to guitar? It’s unclear.
Gymnastics sent out home-exercises. Here Bjarki’s mid-touch-alternate-shoulder-handstand! Oh, and the garage home gym was no more!
Emma practicing her handstand.
Once screen-time started up, it was my turn to sweat.

Wednesday 25 March 2020

Bjarki used my phone to take photos for school of shapes in the environment. (Side-note: I just finished taking this sad table to the recycling center, as all the kids have outgrown it.)
Square? (Also now recycled.)

Thursday 26 March 2020

Yet another school assignment, this one was “count the number of steps from your home to the nearest fire hydrant”.
By 4 pm we had a mini-snow-blizzard on our hands. In late March. Grumble.
Resigned to my winter-y fate.

Friday 27 March 2020

Anna needed to bake, so she decided to make bagels from scratch!
Looking good!
I did not know bagels need to be cooked in liquid before baking in the oven!
My butt was sore again from my lousy chair, so I went for a walk up the hill.
Life in the snow.
Our house isn’t quite that blue in real life, but it sure is blue.
The bagels were ready when I returned, and they were awesome!

Saturday 28 March 2020

We managed to pass a bit of time doing a few workouts.
Bjarki, doing a funky head-to-handstand.
I decided to take Emma out for a teddy-bear-counting walk. Social media had encouraged people to put teddy-bears into windows for kids to find and count.
Super cute!
Emma showing her counting marks.
There were a lot of teddies to be found!
As we walked by the ice-cream shop, we were both hungry for ice-cream so in we went. It felt a little bizarre to accept something from someones hand.
After re-fueling, the walk went on.
At one point, we ran into a classmate of Emma’s (from her small covid-class) and she walked with us for a small circle.
Is the snow leaving?!
After two hours of walking we returned home with a lot of counting marks!
Post-dinner, the scooters came out for tricks!

Sunday 29 March 2020

The street had thawed enough to bring a bike out.
… but just barely!
I went on another podcast-fueled walk.
A couple of high-rises nearby.
A lonely tree.
At home, Emma continued practicing her scooter-jumping.
Eye-shadow by Anna.

Monday 30 March 2020

There are a lot of random shops close to where we live! (This is me on a post-workday-walk.)
This shopping complex was very interesting, covid-wise. The shop in the center is a grocery store, and they could have 100 people inside at any one time. The other two are a sports apparel store, and a gadget store. They could only have 20 people inside, and as a result, there were lines outside those two for about a month.

Tuesday 31 March 2020

Anna in “school”.
I think Emma took this photo of me working.
As an emergency, we played a random game with metal-marbles. There was some disagreement over the rules, but everyone escaped with all limbs intact (not sure about ears though).
That’s a lot of notes!
The scooters made a reappearance after dinner, as the increased sunlight was really beginning to stretch out the usable day.
In the street.
Speeding down again.
Bjarki pulling off a nice jump!
Good times, despite of the weird times. Thus endeth March.