First it was the band trip.
Bekah texted from school on Thursday, March 12:
(11:33 a.m.) "Okay so right now all the Cali kids are gathered in the little theater for a meeting."
(11:35 a.m.) "Everyone is talking about how it's coronavirus."
(11:35 a.m.) "Cancelled."
She had been going to school at 6:45 a.m. three days a week to practice with the California band, the group of kids who paid $800 to ride a bus to San Diego and play at SeaWorld and the zoo.
Then Seth came home and announced his work trip to Hoover Dam had also been cancelled.
And Bekah received an email saying her Idaho Falls Youth Symphony rehearsal was cancelled.
Up until that point, coronavirus was a real but distant thing--something that mattered in the global scheme of things, but something that didn't affect our day-to-day life.
Next it was Primary Activities and church.
The Church released a statement the afternoon Rebekah received the bad news about their trip. It called for the immediate temporary suspension of all church gatherings, meetings and activities. The email arrived in my inbox at 5:22 p.m. Miriam and Winnie had a scheduled Primary Activity at 5:30 p.m.
As the member of the Primary presidency over girls' activities, I received a text from one of the leaders: "Hey! Do you think we need to cancel tonight's activity?"
After consulting with Seth (he is the member of the bishopric over Primary), the answer was yes. The Church had specified that ALL gatherings were to be immediately suspended.
Idaho announces it has its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on March 13 in Ada County.
Seth didn't have work on Friday, March 13, and the girls were off of school for district PLC meetings, so we took the two older girls to do baptisms for the dead at the temple. We thought there might be a lot of kids there since there was no school for District 93, but we went straight into the font area and were home about an hour after we had left.
That evening, the Church announced that no proxy temple work would be performed in temples after Saturday, March 14.
Much to Rebekah's dismay, the BYU-Idaho jazz festival (Saturday, March 14) was cancelled.
We had our first at-home church that Sunday, March 15. Bekah, Ana and Miri each accompanied one of the songs on the piano for our meeting. Seth blessed the sacrament. The girls had been assigned a section of the Primary's "Come, Follow Me" lesson to teach.
Then it was school and all school activities.
Despite us staying home for church, no edict had been given by the state to discontinue public schooling, so the girls all went to school on Monday, March 16. Miriam went to GATE. I helped out with the book fair at Fairview and took the final group photo I needed for the yearbook. Bekah had her fencing club party at Bonneville. Ana had her musical rehearsal at Rocky Mountain. Nobody knew it might be the last day the kids would be in school for the 2019-2020 school year. But then the district sent an email to every parent with children attending school. It included this:
"The national and local situation with the COVID-19 outbreak changes rapidly and continually. Today, President Trump announced new guidelines advising people to not gather socially in groups of ten or more. In response to this announcement, we are strongly encouraging parents to keep their children home from school tomorrow. On Wednesday schools will be closed for students."
The girls stayed home with me for the rest of the week, but I ran Bekah and Ana to their schools so they could get their binders, gym clothes and other personal items out of their lockers. Seth was also asked to work from home starting on Tuesday, March 17.
At that time, the district intended to have students return to schools after spring break (March 23-27). But in the meantime, Ana and the 60 other middle school students who had been staying after school until 5:30 every evening had to call off their musical rehearsals. Spring sports were put on hold. No clubs, meetings or gatherings were to be held.
More news from the district: Instead of having students return on March 30, the district said that spring break would be extended through March 31, and students would be strongly encouraged to stay at home and opt in to online learning. Then they had to modify that statement and say that NO students would be allowed back in schools, and EVERYONE would have to participate in "home-centered, school-supported online learning" at least through April 20.
And now it's a statewide stay-home order.
We were staying at Grandma's cabin in Island Park during our originally scheduled spring break when Governor Brad Little issued a statewide stay-home order and signed an extreme emergency declaration. We were already isolated at the cabin, but the order brought the seriousness of this pandemic home.
Rebekah's driving instructor, who had hoped to schedule lessons with her, texts and says he must postpone all driving instruction until the order is lifted.
Idaho reports its first deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, March 26.
Usually we celebrate the girls' birthdays by inviting all the grandparents and all the local cousins, aunts and uncles over for a birthday dinner. We have cake. We open presents. We visit.
Instead, Miriam celebrated her 10th birthday (Friday, March 27) at the cabin with only our immediate family. She opened her presents at the cabin. Seth smashed an oversized candle into a cupcake and lit it so we could sing "Happy Birthday." Miriam chose "Muppets: Most Wanted" for our family movie party that night.
Bonneville county reports its first confirmed case of COVID-19 that same day.
The plumbing in the cabin had developed a clog by the time we were ready to leave on Saturday, so I ran the girls to the nearest gas station to use the bathroom before our drive home while Seth stayed behind to winterize the cabin.
"Don't touch anything you don't have to. Stay six feet away from anybody else in the store. Don't touch your face. Use hand sanitizer before you get back in the car."
For now, that's our life. The girls haven't left our house since getting back from the cabin on Saturday, March 28, besides to pick up scriptures from the seminary building (Rebekah) and to drop off a birthday present to a best friend (Miriam). I went grocery shopping yesterday, then came home and washed my hands thoroughly before putting the food away. Seth and I went to Beehive Federal Credit Union to sign on the mortgage we're taking out for our addition and remodel. We made an appointment, then waited outside the locked doors of the building until someone let us in. We didn't shake hands with the loan officer.
Bekah had a remote piano lesson yesterday. The three younger girls had remote dance lessons. We set the laptop up on a music stand so their teachers could see and hear them.
Tomorrow the girls will start their remote learning with the school district. We have two desktop computers, two laptops, three sets of headphones and one hearing aid streamer ready for their use.
We don't know when we'll go back to school. We don't know when we'll go back to church. We don't know when we'll go back to work. But we're doing our best to follow the state mandate and hopefully slow the spread of the virus until doctors and scientists can work out a way to fight it.
(Borrowing from a meme:) We're not stuck at home. We're safe at home.