There are now 16 reasons to go outside (I think)

I don't have a dog, but I'll be walking my kids everyday.

We are down to 16 government allowed reasons to leave our home in the state of New South Wales. Evidently this is part of the Stage 3 restrictions and let's be honest, this is all starting to get pretty confusing (because as I'm writing I'm wondering was there a new announcement maybe today that I missed?). One thing I know for sure is I'm about to find every possible opportunity to exercise outside in the coming months (and if my kids are good I'll bring them too).

Thankfully we've been in this stage for around a week now and (I don't think) it has changed so I've had some time to get my head wrapped around what I'm probably allowed to do and what I might get fined for. And we should probably get used to it because it's looking like these restrictions are here to stay for around three months. Although every country seems to have a different model, a different approach, a slightly different experience playing out, only the test of time will tell us which way to contain and eliminate or slowly spread this virus was best. Maybe these restrictions will become more severe, maybe they will ease, we will wait and see.

So what are the 16 reasons we can leave home right now? Here you go...

Slowly the world is closing

1. Work (if you can't work remotely)
2. School
3. Shop for food or essentials
4. Seek medical care
5. Exercise
6. To avoid injury, illness or escape risk of harm
7. To deal with emergencies
8. Access childcare
9. Provide care or assistance to another
10. Attend a wedding (max 5 people) or funeral (max 10 people)
11. Move to a new residence
12. Donate blood
13. Undertake legal obligations
14. Access social services
15. Continue care arrangements for children who live between households
16. For ministers to provide pastoral care in a place of worship

And if we do leave home we are told, at most, we can meet with one other person from outside our family (socially distanced of course). So far, I don't think we've really broken the rules, at least not blatantly, but let's be honest I'm not entirely sure either, especially as the rules are slightly different from state to state, country to country.

So this past weekend, well knowing that such an outing might be restricted by next weekend, we went for a day outside to a beautiful spot 45 minutes north of Sydney called Bobbin Head in the Kui-ring-gai Chase National Park. We walked on some gorgeous trails, rode bikes in empty parking lots, threw a frisbee, and went fishing. We also set out the picnic rug for a few minutes to eat lunch, I don't think that was technically allowed, but aren't we allowed food outside while we exercise? Also, we were fishing for leisure, we weren't fishing to feed ourselves, so that too might have got us in trouble. And if we were in Queensland from the sounds of it we likely could have earned ourselves a fine by driving that far to exercise as it might have been deemed unnecessary. Evidently we can still golf here in New South Wales, but not in other states. See what I mean? 

Over dinner recently we had a chat about how, just like the fires that Australia endured as we rang in the new decade, this pandemic is nothing new to the world. While still rare, frightening and overwhelming, the world has witnessed such things before. I started to say how every human has moments like this that they experience and remember forever either on a personal or greater shared community level. Emma you asked me about other big moments I remembered and my first thought was of course 9/11, then the Great Recession in the late 2000's, the Syrian refugee crisis, Gulf war, Oklahoma City Bombing, and the Challenger Explosion (but I was too young to actually remember).

But then it struck me that for the most part (aside from the recession really) these were moments in time events, and ones that I was largely removed from or relatively not impacted by. They still changed the world in ways that eventually trickled down to facets of my life, but I did not directly experience the actual events. So this pandemic is actually quite different. We are all impacted. We all either know someone who is sick, someone on the front lines, or we are trying to do our part by staying home. But in saying that, I also feel it important to acknowledge, that as for now, our family is not directly impacted. Our lives are changing and we are forced to abide by ever-evolving rules but currently we are just sitting in the wings as casual observers. We are waiting for the moment when we might get called in to play something more than the understudy (in whatever form that might take), and hoping we don't, but at the same time feeling completely useless if we don't. Our staying home still just doesn't compare to stories like Anne Frank.

Just a few months ago we started a brand new decade. That's big, not just a new year, but a new decade. Just like the start of every year for the past 7 or 8 I realized that many of my routines would be new and it would take time to adjust and make them my normal. We had just hit our stride in March. We made it through the record-breaking fire season and increased time indoors from the high levels of smoke pollution that lingered throughout Sydney for several months. Emma you started year 2, Morgan you started preschool, Charley you even started a day a week in childcare. I was looking forward to what this year would bring for me personally, hopeful I could strike a balance either with a new part time job, maybe starting my own business, or who knows what, but I was going to have time to actually think about it.

And now this, its only the beginning of April and I already don't know, will 2020 be cancelled? Is this socially isolated life all we will know? Will our vision decline from all this screen time, will zoom become the newest verb in our vocabulary, will all forms of travel be more or less banned for the rest of the year? We don't know how this will end or when it will end and that is no doubt the scariest part for most all of us. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a long distance girl, but even this is taking me a lot to wrap my head around. Run 42km, walk 100km, fine. Stay at home, don't travel, don't see your friends, don't go to work, school, anything if you can avoid it, for an indefinite period of time, I just don't know.

A friend passed along this beautiful song the other day called You Already Know and it gave me some peace. God knows and he has a plan, he sees us and he hears us, we can still call out to him and he will answer. While I see others going to incredible precautionary levels, I see the fear. No, I don't want to be sick, I want to be careful, I want to be smart, and I don't want to spread this disease like wildfire, but I don't want to live my life controlled by a virus that appears uncontrollable. Besides, I have three beautiful girls to spend all day every day with, and my life is pretty close to capacity just trying to break into this new normal routine that none of us saw coming when we started this year.

Simultaneous crafting, online exercising, video calling in one space minus one kid. This is our new normal.

Raising you (my children) in a global pandemic

Love you three but not those future wrinkles
you will give me during this pandemic.

I started this blog for all of you (my little people that is). I wanted you to have a place to get a glimpse of the adventures of your childhood. Let's be honest, I'm pretty terrible at keeping up with it anymore these days. 

But now. This. A global pandemic. They say you will ask me questions about this when you're older. They say I should blog about something like this. They say you will want to know what it was REALLY like to live through a pandemic that brought the world to its knees, isolating us all while simultaneously bringing us together in a way that only a wartime experience might be able to do. They say you will want to know how did we possibly survive, a family of five, in a two bedroom unit with limited opportunities to get outside. The jury is still out on the answer to that question...

You most likely will remember very little of it, I'm just praying what memories you have are fond memories. Memories of silly games, creative learning, time as a family, exploring nature (for as long as we are allowed). But let's be honest we're still in the early days now as we sit in Australia watching this virus make its way across the world like The Wave does in a baseball stadium. Waiting for it to really hit hard here. School and most of our regularly scheduled activities have really only been closed (and moved to online programming) for around a week. It was challenging last week as we learned our new normal, an influx of communications, and no doubt will continue to be challenging this second week. Maybe by week three we will hit our stride of this new normal.

You each are aware of these changes at different levels. Emma you understand it pretty well, but thankfully you also have perhaps the most "routine" still at your fingertips with an amazing online curriculum (thank you teachers at Neutral Bay Public), ability to write and facetime your friends, and curl up with a book when you want to forget about your troubles. Morgan, my heart hurts a little more for you as you understand your normal routine, that you've worked so hard to learn this year, is gone, but you don't fully understand why, other than this hard to say "coronavirus" word. And Charley, well even the littlest person can feel the change too, but let's be honest you still run around with the same reckless abandon most days, just with fewer of your friends and perhaps a mildly safer terrain at home. Yet, however small, your level of awareness, I still see you expressing the pain of this change.

I could start my positive outlook list now, all the great things that we should be happy for in this pandemic season... extra time together, daddy being home more (all the time), the safe place that is our home, daddy being home so he can help me cook dinner (and lunch), the extra cleaning and organizing we can get done at home, the goggle wearing and swimming lessons that will now take place in the bathtub, the craft extravaganza already taking place on my kitchen table (which will now become collateral damage), less concern about who you will get lice from next, this list can go on and on.

But we're also going to spend some time grieving now. The trip to the US to see family and friends for the first time in 15 months gone (I'm still not going to tell you about the planned trip to Disney), all of our "normal" activities gone, no playdates, a new, different, online church, no longer being able to buy more than two tubes of toothpaste at a time (really? I don't know if I should feel glad or sad that these is also an unknown toothpaste buying frenzy, or is there something I'm missing? we're a family of five with different toothpaste needs how do I prove this to the cashier?), this list can also go on and on.

None of us know how or when this will end. None of us know what it is going to look on the other side. None of us know if we will lose loved ones, lose incomes, lose our mental health, or lose our own life. So for now, I'm going to pray for all of us, but especially for the three of you. Unfortunately aside from staying home there strangely isn't much else we can do right now. So I'm going to pray that you won't fear, pray that you will be adaptable, pray that you will show me a whole lot of grace, and of course pray that we and our loved ones stay well. 

I heard a great quote today during our online sermon from our senior minister, unfortunately I missed who said it, "What will you become as you wait?" I wonder what each of you will become as we wait. I wonder how this will forever change you. I never imagined this is how we would start a new decade. I never imagined I would have three kids living in a small apartment under likely soon to be quarantined rules. I never imagined the weight of being a parent and making the "right" decisions for you would become even more difficult than they already were. So let's be strong and courageous in this wait together.