A month. Really, since I’m writing this later than I intended, it’s actually been more like 32 days of lockdown. More than a month since our kids have left the property. Wow.

I will preface this, as usual, with a message for our friends and family: we are healthy, we are safe, we have everything we need. Adding: thank you all so much for checking in, and I’m sorry I’ve been so slow to reply to messages these days. I’m trying to get better about it.

I’ve been meaning to update sooner, but to be really honest, it has been difficult to find the motivation to write. However, I’m sitting on my balcony with a cup of coffee and a rare bit of solitude, so here goes nothing!

(Cue one of my children showing up to ask me to arbitrate a dispute like “who gets to be the murderer” in a game they want to play. Yes, that is an actual fight they’ve had recently).

On the news-y front, there isn’t a ton to update here. Every day at 6 p.m. we check to see the official death/new cases count out of Italy (a morbid ritual we’ve gotten into) and search for signs things are improving. At the moment, it’s hard to say. The number of deaths have fallen from the peak for several days in a row, but when you are talking about another 600+ people dead every single day, it is hard to feel encouraged. Numbers of new cases seem to be up and down. We are hoping those numbers continue to fall, but I think that I need to accept that it will not be a sudden drop off in cases as I secretly have hoped.

Lockdown is expected to be extended until at least May 3 here, with rumblings that it will go on in some reduced form for much longer. At the base, and now in all of Italy, you may no longer be out in public without a mask. For the most part, the Sicilians I’ve seen have almost all been wearing masks since the beginning anyway, but now it is official. The new mask requirement for the base started earlier this week. I’ve been so impressed by the great number of people on base who have been making up big batches of these masks and leaving them for anyone to come grab. Love to see people helping each other during these crazy times!

What we’ve learned so far: Observations from lockdown

1. We have to have things we “have” to do. While doing the e-learning stuff was a bit rocky for the first couple days as we figured it out, I have come to be glad we have it. As a group, we do not do well if we don’t have some kind of a “plan” for the day. I kind of knew this about myself, but holy cow is it ever true for the kids as well. Any day where we don’t have things to do, we all turn into absolute grouch monsters. The kids watch too much TV or play too many video games, which for whatever weird reason INVARIABLY leads to them deciding to fight all damn day. If I don’t have things to do, I get into a shitty mood, which makes me way less capable of dealing with the constant bickering. Then the sound of us all arguing gets to Chris, who ends up longing to be at work rather than in the other room listening to us all be cranky at each other.

   

On days we do have things to do, on the other hand? Honestly, it is such a difference that it is hard to even describe. I have no idea why doing school work or projects in the mornings makes them so much more capable of playing nicely together in the afternoon and evening, but is just freaking does. Having a sense of “crossing things off my list” also gives me a sense of accomplishment, which I honestly need. Especially as I am also not working at the moment because my freelance clients have taken all their work in-house.

This week was spring break for the kids, so I was very worried about what we’d do to stay sane. At the suggestion of one of my friends, we decided to do a “theme” for each day and various activities. It worked really well every day except Thursday when, after a bad night with the baby and a lack of planning on my part, we didn’t really do many of “Portugal” themed things. Unsurprisingly, Thursday sucked. Real bad. We got back on track yesterday though, and consequently it was a dramatically better day.

School starts Monday and I am SO RELIEVED.

2. It’s all jammies all the time over here. Having a “routine” does NOT extend to getting dressed, however. Owen, who has bizarrely shunned pajama days at school in the past, has declared that when they go back to school he wants to make EVERY DAY pajama day. I suspect he’ll change his mind about the fleece jammie pants when it is 100 degrees out, but in the meantime I’m all about it. Ha!

3. Exercise is crucial. Another discovery — every single one of us is a jerk if we don’t get some exercise. Preferably in the fresh air (which mostly means the balcony, since we aren’t allowed to walk outside our property. I’m so jealous of all of you in the States who have been going hiking). I started with my balcony walking as a way to get a bit of solitude, but now it is freaking ESSENTIAL to my mental health. We’ve had a lot of bad storms in recent weeks, some of which were so torrential that we couldn’t even walk on our covered balcony because of how slippery the tiles got. On those days, we all felt terrible. The kids are now required to do 30 minutes of activity as a bare minimum, and I definitely see a difference in them too.

4. The kids still like us. Ha! I guess what I mean to say is, while I know they miss their friends they really seem to be enjoying the opportunity to have more one-on-one time with us. While I’m SO READY for life to get back to normal, I do love the talks and snuggles we’ve had recently.

Every time they talk though, I realize how many of our verbal tics they’ve picked up. Whoops. I guess I should be glad they aren’t dropping f-bombs (yet)?

5. WE EAT SO MUCH. If there is one thing that is driving me a little bit crazy (audience: only one?) it is the absolute unending relentlessness of the dishes/cooking cycle. How is it possible for five people to eat this much? How is it possible to do so many dishes and yet ALWAYS HAVE A SINK FULL OF DISHES?

We did finally order pizza from this one local place that delivers starting at 6 p.m. (!!!) and it was a very nice change. We haven’t ordered much because not a lot delivers here and we tend to eat a LOT earlier than restaurants usually deliver. This pizza wasn’t my absolute favorite, but the owner spoke flawless English over the phone, it got here in probably 35 minutes and it was cheap. So, I imagine we’ll be having it again.

6. The low-budget carriers are a bunch of bastards. I won’t get into a whole big thing about my hours of efforts to try and get refunds for our cancelled flights to Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Lisbon, but it has been a mess. At this point, I’ve settled on vouchers since they’ve deliberately made it impossible to go through the process to get the cash refunds we are entitled to. Here’s hoping these airlines don’t fold before we get to use them, as Chris predicts.

It’s been weird not only not going anywhere, but not knowing when it will be possible to plan future trips. We did move one of our Bordeaux flights to be a flight to Lyon at Christmas time, but beyond that we are just waiting and seeing. At this point, I might start planning stuff for Summer 2021, just to scratch that itch. Ha!

7. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I would have thought that we’d have an excessive amount of free time now, but go figure — there still isn’t enough time to get everything done that I mean to. And when there is free time, I’m too damn tired. Oh well! 

Tell me: how are things by you? How are you occupying your time? 

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

I would like to note that Chris’ preferred title for this post — just so you know — is HIGHWAY TO THE RED ZOOOOOOOONE. I told him it only works if you can hear him singing it to the tune of “Danger Zone,” so it ended up on the chopping block. 

Greetings from our apartment in Sicily, which I have left just once since last Wednesday. Let me start off by saying how much we appreciate the many messages that we’ve received from family and friends alike. To answer the questions we are getting most frequently: We are fine. We have plenty of supplies — Chris stocked up on essentials weeks ago, and things are still available at grocery stores and the base commissary. While Italy has the biggest outbreak of the virus outside of China, we are living in the area of the country that seems to have the fewest cases thus far. (Knock on wood). We are healthy. We are not panicking.

That said, we are taking the lockdown seriously over here.

It’s been a strange week. Up until last Sunday, the COVID-19 issue had been somewhat in the background here. While we’d hear concerning things about what was going on in the hardest-hit areas of northern Italy, for a while the most that seemed to change down here was base cashiers and gate guards beginning to wear gloves when they handled documents. At that point, our biggest concern was whether our flights to Amsterdam — where we were scheduled to meet friends for a long weekend trip — would get cancelled.

And then things changed quickly. After declaring first a lockdown specifically of the affected northern counties, last Sunday night I started getting bunches of messages from friends letting me know that the Red Zone had been extended to all of Italy. For a day or two, it was a sort of “milder” lockdown, where restaurants and bars were allowed to be open between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., as long as patrons kept a distance of 1 meter between them. That quickly changed, and now essentially the entire populace is under strict lockdown until April 3. Here’s some of what’s going on:

–We are not to leave our homes unless it is to go to work, to the doctor or to get groceries. If you do need to go get groceries, only one person per family can go. Anyone leaving the house needs to carry a sort of travel declaration form that includes your name, address and where you are going. There is a 6 p.m. curfew. The Italian police can fine you or even arrest you for being out when you aren’t supposed to. So far, I only know one person personally whose been stopped for leaving her house; a friend was stopped twice on her way to the bakery for bread.

–Everything is closed except hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and (apparently) pet stores. This means that almost everything on base — library, gym, food court, movie theater, bowling alley, etc. — is likewise closed, with the exception of the commissary and the Navy Exchange. In town, grocery stores are open but the number of people allowed in is strictly controlled, in an effort to maintain social distancing. I have not made an attempt to go out in town, but I heard from friends that there were extremely long lines outside stores on Monday as facilities implemented a “one in, one out” policy for shopping.

–Chris is still going to work. For now. However, he’s been encouraged to telework as much as is possible and has been able to do so for one day so far. A lot of what he does requires him to be onsite, however. Those who are remaining at his workplace are being hyper vigilant about keeping their distance from one another.

-The kids are out of school until at least April 13. All Italian schools, universities, day cares and other such facilities are closed. We believe the base school was actually the last in all of Italy to close, but as of Wednesday it is shut down. Lockdown ends April 3, but spring break starts immediately after so they won’t return until after Easter at best. Luckily, the teachers here are working hard to get e-learning up and running and our first day of that (Friday) went pretty well.

-We aren’t leaving the island until at least May. Obviously, flights to and from Italy are almost entirely cancelled until April 3 (exceptions for essential movements, of course). On top of that DOD has banned both military and civilian employees from leaving for 60 days, so we won’t be able to go anywhere until at least May 12. All PCS moves, either to or from here, are cancelled, so many people are in a bit of limbo. All work travel is obviously also cancelled, so Chris does not expect to go to a training in the U.S. in May as planned.

You may ask, “Isn’t this an over-reaction?”

No. We don’t think so by any means. Is it inconvenient? Hell yeah! I honestly can’t remember the last time we spent this much time inside. Even after Lochlan was born, we still went out as a family, and people could come to visit us. As anyone who knows me can tell you, being stuck in the house for much more than a day and I start getting a little stir-crazy.

But we believe that staying in the house for the next few weeks isn’t just our legal responsibility, it is our moral one. 

It would be easy to write COVID-19 off as “no big deal” because honestly, even if we get it, in all likelihood we’ll be fine. None of us are in the demographic that seems to be most affected by it so far, though I do worry about Lochlan since our little dude has already battled a few respiratory infections in his life. However, we could unknowingly pass the virus on to untold numbers of people, many of whom are bound to be in a heightened risk group. Italy has one of the oldest populations of any country in the world, and culturally it is extremely common for older people to live with their children and grandkids. In northern Italy, hospitals are already struggling to keep up with the numbers of people coming in with the virus and in some cases, hard choices are being made. There are so only so many ventilators in any given facility, so how does one decide which patient in need gets one? If this thing spreads as widely in southern Italy — which is much poorer than the north — it will be ugly.

You can read more about that on your own; if your Facebook is anything like mine, I’m sure it is full of articles about this issue. But before I step off my soap box, I will just encourage you all, wherever you are, to take this seriously.

But on to more about us! How have we been spending our time?

Mostly by making messes, ha! Just kidding. The kids are really doing better than I expected thus far — honestly, I think I’m the one having the hardest time with not being able to leave! Friday was our first day of online school, and it went pretty well (with a few small hiccups). Owen and Fiona have been having fun inventing new games together, which is sweet to see. Lochlan loves having his big brother and sister around all day to entertain him, and is also helping out by taking good morning naps.

We are also playing with a lot of old toys and science kits and games we haven’t touched in a while. In our non-lockdown world, we usually spend most weekday days rushing around dealing with school, sports, homework, dinner, etc., then weekends tend to involve birthday parties or events with friends or more sports. On vacations, we are almost always rushing around seeing things. Perhaps we’ll eventually consider this enforced idleness a nice break? Time will tell.

For my part, I’m taking breaks by walking around our balcony. It encircles our entire apartment, so I just walk an endless loop like a hamster on a wheel. I’m listening to David Sedaris’s new book, Calypso, which is laugh-out-loud funny, so I generally look like a crazy lady walking in circles, cackling like a witch. I’m sure it is a good look.

On the travel front

Obviously, our vacation plans are the least important thing right now. But, as this is a travel blog, I’ll give you the update all the same. Both our spring break trip to Bordeaux and Lisbon, and our planned long weekend in Amsterdam with my friend April and her family have been cancelled. I’m bumming pretty hard about these because both have been in the works since at least 2018, at least in principle, and hours of research went into planning it all out. I’m hoping we can reschedule some of this, but at this point it feels like we need to wait and see what happens.

On the refund front, it’s been a bit rocky. We were able to get almost everything back on our rental house in the Netherlands (whew!) after a phone call to AirBnB, and allegedly I’m getting a refund from RyanAir for our cancelled flights (but it hasn’t shown up in my account yet …). However, we used points to pay for several parts of both trips and trying to get that figured out is a bit of a mess since the Chase travel lines are overwhelmed. I will keep at it them.

We have a trip planned for this summer with my parents and my brothers and sister, and I’m SO SO SO hoping we are able to go ahead with that. It feels like it took a near miracle to get everyone agreed on a time and location (the south of France and Provence) — not to mention SO MANY HOURS OF RESEARCHING — so if that has to be cancelled, there will be quite a few tears. But again, I do appreciate that this is definitely a very minor concern compared to everything else going on right now.

So, that’s the update! I apologize for how long it took me to get this up, but I do appreciate everyone’s concern. Everyone, please stay healthy (and stay home!).

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Life in Italy’s Red Zone so far first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Life in Italy’s Red Zone so far appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.