You may be like me and wondering how to pass this quarantine time with our kids. Our blog team has been searching for some ideas that we have listed below. But before we get to that, I wanted to share something that stood out to me. 

 

Much of our Lent study, He is Alive from Becky Kiser, has centered on the book of John.  When I read John 2, I had never considered one certain aspect of the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. At the wedding, the people had prepared all on their own without considering Jesus for help.  It was not until they had exhausted their own resources that Jesus stepped in. (Sure sounds familiar to me…) He waited patiently for the moment of desperation to do his miracle. (Just like He does with us.)

 

You can probably guess why this part of the story jumped out at me. Clearly we’re all feeling a little more desperate these days. So I started pondering this and asking God – what is it you want us to take from this story and apply to our lives?

 

Perhaps the biggest Corona Lesson of all is to lessen our load by calling on Jesus BEFORE we completely run out of our own resources. How can we make Jesus the one we call on first in every situation? I try to make this my lifestyle, but I do see where there are areas I rely on my own strength out of habit instead of Him.  Here’s what happened at that wedding, though: Jesus’ supply of miracle wine was SO MUCH BETTER than theirs. I wonder what would have happened if they would have called on Jesus first?!

 

Right after the miracle of turning water into wine in John 2, Jesus immediately turns the tables over in the temple. He said he would rebuild the temple that took over 45 years in three days.   As I read that, I thought – He can rebuild us so much better than we can in our own strength.  

 

 I don’t know about you, but I feel inundated with ideas and activities to keep our kids entertained and academically on track while we all quarantine. You have asked us for some Survival Ideas on our Instagram & Facebook stories, so we have been pondering just a few resources to share.  Much like the cheap wine versus the fine wine in John 2, we want to encourage you not to let yourself get exhausted by all the freebies and websites floating around for “stuff to do” while staying at home during Corona. 

 

So with all of this in mind, please find just a few survival ideas from our TtT Tribe below.  We are here for you, mamas uniting together to not just survive but actually thrive during this trying time. Let’s help each other not crowd Jesus out of this precious, delicate time. Instead, may we look for the opportunities He gives us right now.

Corona Survival Ideas:

Generic “Just for Fun” Educational Ideas You are probably inundated by ideas, but this short list is curated by Jo, a PK-14 public school certified educator and administrator.

Kindergarten from Home Follow along with Jo and her son as they navigate this whole new world of work-from-home sort-of as a middle school assistant principal but also new SAHM/Kindergarten teacher! We will offer some Facebook Live / Instagram Live Read-alouds just for fun as well.

Art for Kids Hub: Rob and one of his kids give a side by side tutorial of how to draw many things. Their website has a great index where you can find animals, food, cartoons, and so much more.

Cincinnati Zoo Facebook Live video each weekday at 1pm EST featuring a different animal (videos posted to the page later so you can watch anytime).

Harptoons has lots of step by step drawing videos my kids love. Illustrator Steve Harpster also goes live on his Harptoons Publishing Facebook page everyday at 2pm EST to do a step by step drawing presentation. (Videos are posted to his page later so you can watch them anytime.)

One final thought (that I shamelessly stole from Facebook, but it’s wonderful!): Did you know that while in quarantine situations, Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Isaac Newton developed calculus & discovered gravity, Paul wrote part of the New Testament, and John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress?

I pray our kids remember this time with fondness of spending hours with us outside, making crafts, reading, cooking, and seeing humanity being the hands and feet of Jesus. I pray this will be a wake up call to society that the true backbone of our world are workers like teachers, nurses, truck drivers, and hourly employees at restaurants/coffee shops/grocery stores. I pray this will be unifying for the United States much like the wake of 9/11/2001 was for us.

May we use our opportunities for eternal purposes and may we look back and see how God showed you and have us everything we needed.

Comment down below with your own Corona Lessons, encouraging verses, and prayer requests, Mamas.

Air Hugs,
Jo

#Corona2020 #realmomsrealgrace #thingstodo #quarantineactivities #Coronalessons #CallonJesusfirst

I don’t know about you all, but I did NOT plan on giving up THIS much for Lent.  We are in week four of our study, He is Alive from Becky Kiser, and at the same time, COVID-19 has ushered us into social distancing, home school, work at home, eat at home, and in many cases, self quarantine.  . It reminds me of the verse, “Many are our plans, but the Lord directs our steps” (Proverbs 19:21). Okay, Lord — What are You trying to teach us? 

In the past week or so, my world has become much smaller. I have only been to work and home, but at work, there were only a few people there, and the focus was solely serving food.  We did not have church service as usual. My husband went to the store for us once. That was all. I have learned that I have allowed other people’s opinions to crowd my time entirely too much.  Because I have only been around essential people, I have to tell you, Mamas: I do NOT miss a great deal of the folks I have to deal with usually. Not. One. Bit. So, when this is over, I believe God is reminding  me to remember how good it feels to take the weight of their opinions/looks/comments off of my shoulders. 

One thing that struck me from the third week of our study was 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  Did you know Corona means Crown in Spanish? There seems to be a connection here for us. I feel challenged by this verse; instead of focusing on God, I feel like sometimes I am in a contest of who has it worse during the pandemic.  I know I have to work from home while homeschooling, but there are others who are on the front lines in the medical field. I find myself more interested in funny memes than teaching my son his identity in Christ. In that moment, I have to extend grace to myself.  We have done some dinner devotionals at least! 

But, here’s the thing. We can rise above our feelings of defeat with help from each other and the Holy Spirit. We can focus our eyes on the good that is happening.  There have been SO many more instances of bonding with my son than in a typical hustle week. We have done devotions at the dinner table and enjoyed so much laughter and snuggles and quality time outside. Has it been perfect? No. Am I still overwhelmed? Yes. But that verse does not say we have to be perfect or unstressed…it just proclaims we are ROYAL. It’s talking about our identity not our behavior. 

 Lord, I pray Corona helps all of us straighten our crowns as your daughters instead of worrying and hustling at home. So what about you? How has God used the Coronavirus to teach you things about yourself or your motherhood? 

Air hugs, 

Jo

#Coronavirus2020 #truthformoms #straightenyourcrown