The Beach Family Blog: May 2020

Well, Week 11 of quarantine proved to be a busy one in the news and we kept just as busy at home... It rained here again most of the week (including a few tornado watches), so we stayed in and played a lot of games, watched movies, baked a lot, did more puzzles, kept up with online learning, and even learned how to French braid hair! When the sun finally came out on the weekend, we decided to start getting out a bit with our close friends and went to their farm for the evening for a pizza dinner, a dip in the pool, feeding the horses and even dirt bike rides for Brian!

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In the news, a lot happened this week:

1. The US topped the death count from Coronavirus at over 100,000.

2. Trump targeted social media companies after twitter marked one of his tweets as possibly untrue.

3. South Korea started locking down again as coronavirus cases jumped back up.

4. The Boston Marathon was cancelled for the first time ever.

5. The South is gearing up for a "worse-than-normal" hurricane season this year.

6. George Floyd's death in Minnesota has given a rise again to the "Black Lives Matter" campaign, and we have seen protests, riots, store closings and curfews all over the country.

7. NASA and the Space X program successfully launched its first manned shuttle since 2011.

Whew... what a week it's been!

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We've played A LOT of family games this week, and started out with "Chronicles of Crime." It turns out we were actually pretty good detectives this time!

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Our new easy & fun family card game is "Garbage"...

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I was so excited that Abby was willing to learn cribbage for me! With a lot of Facetime calls to Ryan to clarify the rules, and one round later, I'm not sure she loved it as much as I do, so I guess I'll have to try to teach Brian next... It made me feel like I was back in Maine again!

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Spoons is always a favorite too...

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And Abby's gotten great at playing gin rummy!

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I know I'm borrowing this meme from last week, but it seems appropriate as I've been very busy experimenting with my sourdough starter... I made fresh hamburger buns, English muffins, sourdough blueberry muffins, and even threw in a batch of granola for the week.

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As the numbers in the US overall seem to be going down, NC still seems to be struggling... I hope we figure this all out!

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Sadly, even with the numbers on the decline in the country as a whole, we have surpassed 100,000 deaths...

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It's no wonder after 11 weeks of lockdown that people are having a hard time adjusting to a new normal, and figuring out how to come back out into the world again, especially when this virus isn't going away anytime soon...

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This guy is doing a better job adjusting this week, and is rocking remote learning... This week was focused on geometry, and even I had to google some things he was learning! I had no idea a square was also a rectangle...?!?!?! I really hope he can go back to school next year, because apparently I'm not qualified to even teach 2nd grade!

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I don't get into political stuff on purpose, so I'm not going to put my opinion out there on this, but Trump is targeting social media companies this week since Twitter labeled some of his tweets were "potentially misleading", and apparently he doesn't like to be called out as wrong... I'll just leave that one there...

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There is still a lot of speculation and not a lot of answers about what schools will look like in the fall, but I heard that one of our area magnet schools just announced they will be doing only remote learning next year. We're praying things change soon so all the schools don't have to remain closed.

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One big factor in deciding that will be based on when the next "wave" of coronavirus will be arriving... and apparently it may be hitting right around the time we have to decide about schools!

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Sadly, the virus is even stopping the Boston marathon from being held for the first time ever...

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Not all of the news we see is serious and depressing... some of it is quite useful: Like how often you should change your pajamas! Glad I know that now...

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We're still seeing those clever people dealing with social distancing, and this week it comes from Burger King and their massive sombrero crowns!

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But we should all be wearing our sombreros as well as our masks!

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South Korea, which was known for being one of the first countries to reopen, is now closing down again after a spike in cases. Even schools are following suit, and I'm just praying that this isn't a sign of things to come for us...

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As if the virus wasn't enough, (and the murder hornets from a few weeks ago), we are now being told that we need to start preparing for a rougher than normal hurricane season here. It's going to be hard to stock up and be prepared when we still can't find most of what we need in the stores!

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The worst news of the week came from Minnesota and the death of George Floyd. There is so much sadness & hate in our world, and this awful tragedy was most certainly no exception. Following his death, we have seen so many protests, some more peaceful than others, destructive rioting, closing of stores for security concerns, and curfews set up all around the country to try and keep control of the public's outrage.

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Most companies have been coming out with statements against the issue of racism in our country. It has been moving to see people standing up in solidarity, and I only hope we can begin to see real change in people's hearts and actions.

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With all that has been going on, this does pretty much sum up how we all feel... Thank you Megan for the great meme!

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Puzzle # (?????) has been finished!

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Movie day in the basement was fun, and I even started learning to french braid and fish tail braid hair! I'll have to practice on Emily next since Abby's hair is SO thick!

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Our latest maps, as well as what states are declining, staying the same & increasing in their virus cases: Good job NY, but NC has a long way to go...

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With the sad news week, we were excited to watch the successful launch of Space X's new manned shuttle to the space station in almost 10 years. It was very cool to watch history happening!

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We finished our week out with a trip to our good friend's farmhouse where we enjoyed a pizza dinner, a night of swimming, feeding the horses in the barn & "getting out into the world" a bit! We might be slow movers in our social distaning rules, but we're getting there...

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