COVID-19 Week 2 starting 22 March 2020

We started this week on the Sunday with the first ever online church from St James Croydon.  It was great, but getting to this point was a little anxious.  All the week before Sally and Mark had been telling the dubious kids that by Friday all the schools would start to shut. We are certain that we had made the right decision about opting out of school and youth group.  By Friday of the previous week The Archbishop of Sydney had announced that all churches in Sydney would shut down.  No church, no youth group.  Churches madly scrambled to get online services ready for Sunday, which so many of them did well.  So we enjoyed church together on the couch.  We missed actually being with other people, but we had a great chat afterwards about Jesus calming the storm, and that God is in control.

 By the end of church no announcement had been made about closing schools, but then during the day the Premier of NSW, Gladys Berijiklian announced that there would be sever lockdowns in the week to come, but that while schools would remain open, an announcement would be made on Monday morning about it.  As the first reports started coming out, Sally and Mark went down to the food market at Flower Power to get some food to top up our supplies to be ready for whatever came next.
Kate did a great job of cleaning up the pantry so we had it all neat and tidy for our future locked up lives.  Kate is amazing in that she cleans in a crisis.  Keep that girl close by!

The new week started and the Premier announced that everyone should keep kids at home if at all possible by Tuesday.  Cafes and restaurants were closed and many shops just couldn't stay open.  Many people lost their jobs this week.  it was so sad to see.
We ended up being one day wrong about schools shutting down.  Victoria completely shut its schools, but NSW left the option open for emergency workers etc.  The girls had assessments so had to go into school on Monday morning- but after that- freedom baby!  Well, freedom to be at home.
Now the full on challenge of keeping the kids educated and entertained kicked in.  The schools did a great job of adapting at short notice.
We stole the idea of printing off a daily newspaper from Aunty Kristen.  Each day there was a puzzle, some news, a song of the day and more, and each day a different person would produce the paper.

At the end of the day we would play the game of the day, prayer the prayers and talk about life that week.  In many ways it was a really bonding time.  We were all at home, we were playing games together and mostly happy. Twister one night, 10 days in africa another.  Make your own rules Uno was a favourite with Kate making everyone silent when she got the chance to make the rules.

During the rest of the week the kids settled into their schooling and Sally worked well from home.  Each day the kids had to exercise, play their music and get their school work done. Music lessons were all remote and no waterpolo trainings at night. Sally wrote some great resources for the Rule of Law while Mark worked really hard on Ambulance welfare plans (and having "interesting" negotiations with staff psychologists), Psychology study, research and working for Uniting.
On Thursday night Dad took Kate out for a driving lesson and to get some groceries.  At 8:15pm the roads were almost deserted.  Here is the harbour bridge with only a couple of cars on it, instead of the full Thursday night commuters and shoppers.  All the supermarkets had shut early (by 8pm) as well.  I think all the staff were just exhausted.  Woolworths announced they would put an extra 20,000 employees on to help with the load of all the extra people bulk buying, and buying food because all the restaurants were closed.  It was great to hear of the new jobs as during the week we saw scene on the news of huge queues outside Centrelink seeking welfare payments because they had lost their jobs with all the shut downs.

Sal went to her 2nd ever St James Biblestudy- online!
By the end of the week all aged care facilities were in almost complete lockdown with now relatives allowed to visit, and temperature checks for all staff as they came in.  The oldies were all becoming quite sad.
When Friday rolled around we had our classic "Happy hour" with mocktails for the kids, bubbly for the adults and an Asian food feast. Kate made a great dessert.. C is for Corona Choc Ripple Cake.

At the end of week two we gave our assessment of how it went.  It seems that average was as good as it got. We will aim for better in week three of social isolation.