April (still COVID-19 free) report

Well, I am pleased to say that to date, Bragg Family South has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic as well as can be expected.  Hope has used her "craftiness" to fashion some washable cloth masks from some fabric she had on hand--my choice of pattern was obvious!--and she has adapted our front office space to fit her needs for telework:

I am fortunate enough to still be able to work at my office on the UAM campus, which is virtually deserted of students, staff, and faculty.  I have worked some at home, but am usually in my quiet office every day.  I have taken advantage of my lack of work and personal travel to get some cleaning done around the home place...While the picture below may not seem like it, my shed is MUCH cleaner and more organized now than it was just weeks ago:

The kids have been doing their schoolwork at home, as best they can.  Kenny was actually graduated part-way through the term, as he only had about 6 weeks of courses left.  Beth and Stephen have done their take-home work, and for the most part they are not doing much else.  Beth continued to recover from her knee surgery, including physical therapy, and we both donned masks the other week for her follow-up visit with her surgeon:

We are trying to make Easter weekend as normal as possible today...so last night we colored Easter eggs:

I made a local Southern treat for breakfast this morning--buttermilk biscuits with chocolate gravy:

Chocolate gravy is kind of a local thing, and we hadn't tried it before...  It was okay, but I think we all agreed that we likely venison sausage gravy better on homemade biscuits!  We are finding our meals over the past month have been generally more substantive--with the extra time on our hands, we are doing more complicated recipes.  I've done a lot more baking, and will continue to do so.  We've also been trying to get take-home meals from some of the local restaurants we like, just to hopefully help keep them in business during these tough times.  But not today!  Today, Hope's making a large traditional Easter dinner, so we'll be enjoying that for a while this week!

Another part of our weekly "normalcy" effort is going to church--via the internet!  Today's Easter service was courtesy of the National Basilica by Washington, D.C.:

Even the cats get to join us--although the picture below makes it look like our little tabby Draco is getting a demon expelled from him!

We have watched a lot of movies, documentaries, and done some more low-tech entertainments, such as putting puzzles together:

Beth has also taken a shine to doing this paint-by-number, which I bet she has spent at least 12 hours working on!

So, we are retaining our sanity through this first month of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to do our part to keep our family--and others--happy and healthy!

Stay safe, everyone, and stay at home as much as possible!