Weekends have no meaning

In normal life, on a weekend, we would probably do a bunch of stuff. We might go to the zoo or the science museum. We might take the kids to the playground. We might do crafts or elaborate cooking projects. Occasionally we might clean the house.

These days weekends are just another day of waiting. We can't really take the kids anywhere. The general sense of malaise that has taken root is preventing any of us from getting excited about projects around the house - not to mention that I'm still more or less useless because of the crutches.

Leaving the house makes me very anxious. My wife tells me that it's important to get outside, but right now home is the only place that feels safe to me. Thankfully there isn't really anywhere we could go anyway. We've been taking the kids outside to run around in the backyard or the driveway when we can.

I tried to get the kids excited about baking cookies today, but they refused. (That's right, it's gotten so bad that the kids refuse to bake cookies!) Mercifully they are playing more or less nicely with each other right now, so it is all fine, and it gives me a few minutes to write this post.

My wife is exhausted all the time from work, from doing all the housework (normally we would share housework, and normally we would have our cleaners come once a week, but right now it is all falling on her, which is far more than one person should have to handle), and from wrangling the kids. She's taking a well-deserved nap right now.

One nice thing we did is my cousin arranged a virtual get-together with a lot of the extended family over Google Meets last night. The technology isn't very good, so it was tough to really see or hear anyone, but it was still nice to have a little bit of connection. We are going to try something similar for the seder this week, but we'll hopefully use Zoom which seems to work a bit better.

Mostly though it feels like treading water. We are doing our best to keep ourselves, and the people who rely on us, afloat. It is hard work and exhausting. I suspect almost everyone feels this way right now, particularly folks with restless kids. Weekends are not rejuvenating anymore, they are just another exhausting day, marking the time while we wait for the elusive light at the end of this very long tunnel.