Days 1-21... What to do when all you have is time?

It has been an interesting 21 days in the lives of the Batter Bunch - that's for sure! On Saturday, March 15th we made the decision to move our business 100% online, lock the doors of our office in Hauppauge and hunker down here in PJV.  The transition - while scary at first - was oddly seamless! We have the most incredible people on our team who "flow like water" and our business has not skipped a beat. We had a record month with recruiting and building and helping a ton of families make better financial decisions. I've no doubt this way of doing business - virtually - will be a game changer for our team, everything happens in double time when you no longer have to commute to an office!

On Friday 3/14 as I dropped Ben and his best buddy off at school for early band practice, I had a feeling in my gut the state of NY was ready to shut the physical schools down and go online as well.  I suggested to Ben and Sam to grab anything in their desks and cubbies that was really important to them and bring it home in their backpacks for the weekend. The teachers must have caught my vibe as all the schools sent the kids home with books and calculators and chromebooks, etc to transition to online learning.

3/16 Monday and 3/17 Tuesday were spent with the kids transitioning to online learning. Then the district had the brilliant idea to STOP, regroup, call 3/16 - 3/20 "snow days" that we did not use, and the following week 3/23 - 3/27 "Spring break" (moving up the already scheduled break a few weeks.) This was a truly great idea in my humble opinion... it gave the kids a chance to process the idea of quarantine and social distancing without the pressure of completing school work.

On Monday 3/30 we jumped in full force with online learning ready and focused to find a schedule. That being said, the workload is a joke - both kiddos are done in minutes and spend their time doing other stuff.

What other stuff?

Well, we are absolutely blessed with a giant yard with space to do many things. As it is Spring the weather is touch and go... On the good days we "require" outdoor PE. Their favorite PE activity seems to be our trampoline. It's their go-to when I say OUTSIDE TIME!

They / We have also FINALLY spent significant time on the fancy basketball court that we put in two years ago and barely used. YAAAYYY!!

We try and take walks around the neighborhood daily. We hit the beach the first week shut in. As much as they main complain about getting out and moving, they always come inside with a better attitude = fresh air soothes the soul.

We have been cooking up a storm rediscovering old favorite recipes and trying new ones out. I dusted off the bread maker and have been making fresh bread every few days...

While there is a whole lot of screen time happening... I'm not going to torture myself about it. Em spends a lot of time chatting with friends via FaceTime and Ben plays video games with his buddies over the web. It's a connection we find beyond valuable. Thank god for the internet. :)