Cards for a Cause: Coronavirus Comeback

March 26, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

Over here in our little insulated corner of the world, where we find ourselves so insanely blessed during a global crisis by family, job security and free healthcare, our hearts have been breaking for those in our little community whose livelihoods have been crushed by a virus that has now shut down their worlds.

We've been praying and brainstorming and texting with friends from the home base we now leave only to hit up grocery stores and toilet paper trucks, even as we read online the stories of our friends and neighbors who've shelved dreams and shuttered doors after 10, 20 and 30 years in our little town.

And that's when our beloved family physician gave us the best idea of all.

"If you want to do something about it, why don't you launch a campaign for locals to buy gift cards to locally owned restaurants and retailers? Even if those cards can't be used right now, they act as a no-interest loan for businesses who are just trying to survive this season."

Practical, Productive Projects for the Over-It Mama

March 23, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

As I've been texting and messaging with other shut-in friends across the country, I'm discovering that, among my friend group, there seems to be four categories of mamas in this Covid-19 crisis: Overwhelmed, Over-worked, Over-joyed and Over it.

The OVERWHELMED mama has transformed overnight from a lunch packer and drop-off line kisser to an instructor, homeschool teacher and professional manager of cooped-up, crazy children. She’s checking teacher emails like her friends are checking retailers for toilet paper trucks, and she feels like in 23.5 hours of attempting to present the information her kids’ school teachers present in six, she will never be able to get through all.the.things.

The OVER-WORKED mama is now playing parent and professional while creatively finding childcare solutions from babysitters who will also agree to administer education to her children OR working from home while managing Zoom calls and zombie children who can somehow focus for six hours on a school day but can’t seem to do anything but request more food now in her home. She’s the now work-from-home professional and the retail clerk and the grocery stocker and the healthcare employee and the toilet paper delivery driver who have become our heroes in this crisis and, with all the demands now on her plate, is just.plain.exhausted.

The OVER-JOYED mama is the one dancing in the streets. She’s the one who loves the kids and loves the crafts and loves all the quality time together. She couldn’t think of a bigger gift than unstructured time and margin, and her children are the ones now hand knitting socks for children’s hospitals and grinding their own wheat for homemade bread. She’s the one we love to hate because, while we’re still figuring out how to open a Google classroom, she’s already turned HER classroom into a one-room schoolhouse and leaped three grades ahead.

Her children are actually graduating at the end of the year.

And the OVER-it mama looks like this.

OVER. IT.

Blazing a New Trail

March 20, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

We bought land with the idea of creating one.

We'd always been meaning to clear one.

But five years into living on the 7 acres that, in this crisis, are our absolute gift from Jesus and this boymom's saving grace, we still had never made time to actually BLAZE one.

A running path around our property.

Until now.

I'm sorry, we're homeschooling and not leaving the house for the next two to 20 weeks of our lives WHAT? 😳

Step 1. Boys, go grab you some shovels.

So for the last few days, we've abandoned math and social studies for some "science" and "health and PE," which has included the digging, raking and redistributing of pinestraw across the property. We've removed bushes and dug up roots, and we've sent little boys on bikes to pound down dirt to make us look like real path clearers instead of just amateur dirt movers.

And yesterday, after even the flu case joined us in his you-still-have-24-hours-left-of-quarantine-inside-your-quarantine-mask, the boys completed something in less than a week that we have all been dreaming about for five years.

Our new .3 mile running path — the one we plan to hit every day of our new corona-cation lives.

And as we brushed off our rakes and took a look at the third-of-a-mile product of four boys who busted booty and worked together (who now believes slave labor is her favorite homeschool tool? 🙋‍♀️), God opened my eyes to the specialness and significance of that moment.

5 Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Make Corona-cation Easier

March 17, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

It’s here.

It’s happened.

That thing that we all thought would feel like an eternal snow day but really just locked most of us at home with tiny humans who are now dependent on us not only for food and shelter but now structure, schedules and education we are supposed to administer like we actually passed math in high school.

Corona-cation.

Up in this home, we are going through groceries like Hobbits and receiving links to educational websites like we’re receiving desperate travel discounts in emails.

Although school is only closed for many of us for two weeks, with new CDC guidance coming out daily, most of us don’t expect our superheroes to return to school for eight weeks, or maybe if Jesus comes first, ever.

WELCOME. For most of us, this is the new norm for the foreseeable future.

Want to make your life as smooth and easy as possible while simultaneously playing parent, teacher and manager of fighting children?

These are five tricks this lazy — I mean, organization-loving — mama learned her first year of homeschooling Superhero 4.

Working from Home When Superheroes Abound

March 16, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

In the face of so many school and business closures and so many employees urged to work from home, professionals are whipping out laptops and logging kitchen counter hours like never before.

And if you’re doing it with sweet superheroes shooting Nerf bullets at your MacBook Pro, let’s just be honest.

This ain’t no easy ride.

As a mama who worked from home for a publishing company for 13 years, most of them while attempting to simultaneously entertain superheroes who believe adult interaction is a curse word, I’ve been in those shoes.

THIS is what I learned, 100 percent through frequent, flailing-around failure, about playing Mama and Professional in one house in one hour.

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