Month: March 2020

One week

It’s been one week since we are officially confined home. The weather is gorgeous. The sun is shining. It is a bit cold though.

Shopping

We don’t have to go far to shop. There is a supermarket a few hundred metres from our building. But we don’t want to go too often. So our shopping today required a bit of planning.

We have enough provisions to last for a week at least, but we needed some meat and a few other things to complement our meals. Usually, if we need something we simply go out. We also do one big shopping on the Internet once a week. But at the moment we try to avoid going out all the time.

Esther and I went out together so that we could bring back more stuff: milk, meat, yogourt…

The shop was quiet, with no queues. We usually come across friends or neighbours and a quick shop can take a long time. But didn’t see anyone we knew today, and people don’t take time to chat anyway. There’s a strange feeling. People shop quietly, rushing through as quickly as possible.

Prayer meeting

The prayer meeting was online once again. It works quite well but we need to get used to it. More people logged in than last week. Soe have troubles connecting.

Tried to use some slides with prayer points but the system crashed after a while.

Everyone is doing well. One member may have covid-19 but is only experiencing very light symptoms so far.

Homeschooling

On Monday 23rd March, we started our second week of homeschooling. We never really thought about homeschooling. Some of our friends in the UK and one of the church families here have homeschooled or are homeschooling. I respect their choice. I also understand some of their reasons for doing it. But we chose to send our children to the local school.

There are daily challenges. Getting the children to get down to work is not a problem. They do it happily every morning. Jean-Baptiste works on a small desk in our bedroom. Maxime is studying on the table in the dining room and Benjamin on a camping table in the living room. Clémence has some work to do but navigates around several places.

One of the challenges is trying to help them all at the same time. Benjamin (8), needs the most attention and help. But sometimes Maxime and Jean-Baptiste also need help. And they usually all come at the same time. Then Clémence decides she knows better than her mum what she is supposed to do and starts crying loudly.

We are in touch with the teachers on a regular basis. They send homework regularly. Clémence received a video from her teacher to all the children yesterday morning. Maxime had a videoconference with one of his teachers and classmates yesterday afternoon. Jean-Baptiste will have one later today.

But overall I am finding it fun so far. It may be different in a few weeks time.

News

We are trying to wean ourselves from listening to the news or reading too much. There’s not much new happening anyway: more people die each day. More and more people get sick. Some people are flouting the lockdown and going out when they shouldn’t.

Welcome to the club UK

At last, the UK government has understood that giving strong advice is not enough. So Mr Johnson decided the put the country in lockdown. It means “stay at home”, “don’t go out”. Hopefully, he has been clear enough.

UK friends, if you still think you can go out for a long walk in the countryside to get some fresh air, I can’t help you. Stay home, read those unread books lying on your shelves, do some exercise in your garden…

Our 5th day of confinement was Sunday. For obvious reasons, we didn’t go to church today. But the church came to us.

After a short time of family worship, we organized a videoconference with the church, using Google Meet. It worked great. About 20 devices were connected, about 30 people maybe. Some had problems with sound or webcams. But overall, most families were able to share their news. It was good to see so many of the folks. Everyone is fine. Several of us still have to work.

I was able to share a few words from Psalm 46. I recorded it later and it will be put on the church website for those who couldn’t attend.

After lunch, we had a lazy afternoon, watching a movie together after a nap. We had an early night because there was school at home the next day.

Day 5 went smoothly. No early morning run today. But instead some step ups, 240m height gain in about 30 minutes. In the afternoon, I went for a quick run around the block, 5k, 30 minutes again.

I also did a bit of reading for Sunday’s meditation. I will speak on Psalm 46. Interestingly, when God says “Be still, and know that I am God”, He is not speaking to the Israëlites but to the nations. In essence, he is telling the nations to stop on their track and consider who He is. Let’s make the most of this opportunity to stop for a while and recentre our lives.

Esther went out for a quick shop. I couldn’t find flour on Friday and we needed cereals for breakfast.

No work for the children today as it is Saturday. Instead, we watched a film as a family. It was a classic: “Coming to America” with Eddy Murphy. It was fun.