NEWS FLASH: The honeymoon period with these stay at home orders has ended.

Our newsfeeds are turning from chalk messages on sidewalks to protests. It’s time to get real, dig deep, and find meaning.

I’ll go first. Here are some thoughts I wrote at the beginning of this crisis (six weeks ago) and my reality check on where we are now.

• Work in shifts. We are all stuck at home so it’s best to discuss now what it will look like to share the load of monitoring the kids before things get too heated.

First I have to give props to my husband because he’s been a trooper through all this. We’ve been able to create a daily schedule that evolves each week. Distance learning is more challenging with my fourth-grader than we had expected. We’re learning the emotional language to talk about things before they get too heated.

• Stock up on art supplies

Sidewalk chalk sure had a moment. We were able to get our hands on some but the novelty has already...