CoVid-19 A Journal – April 14, 2020

And its another day in the house. It’s the same every day. Sigh.

Dorothy had a break down yesterday and it broke my heart. I was downstairs and she was upstairs with her dad in the office. I heard her shout, “I just want to be at school. I don’t want to be around you all the time!” Then she burst into tears. I ran upstairs to hold her. I couldn’t agree more with her. We are so tired of this. All of us. We are surviving but we miss the freedom of being out of the house. Being with friends. Doing anything not together. We all love each other and are really getting along so well, but we are needing a break from each other too.

I keep wondering when things will “open” back up again. When we can go to a store for fun. When we can go to a public park. When we can go to the library again. When we can get a hair cut (James and Max’s hair is getting pretty wild). Trump claims he wants us to open up soon and fast but that seems foolish and unsafe to me (and to the medical community). So to make our spirits go up we talk every day as a family about all the places we want to go to and things we want to do when this all passes. We chat about LEGOland, Great Wolf Lodge, Cedar Point, visiting my family in Illinois. Things that put us in close proximity to other people… I am hoping we get to be in social settings this summer. I really hope so.

Will life ever be the same again? Probably not. I will most likely always worry about not having enough toilet paper. I will probably always have frozen loafs of bread, extra canned and boxed goods. I will have extra hand soaps. Will I always have the threat of a global pandemic in the background of my daily thoughts?

James and I are still doing puzzles. Kids are still Zoom (video app) with their teachers. I cook some days, but we prefer to order out. I think it also has to do with the chance to be out of the house and drive something that is really appealing.

I now school the kids everyday. We are getting into a groove now so that is making them fight it less. I try to get organized on Sundays and set up my plan for the week. Dorothy’s getting far less difficult work than Max. This has to be the public vs private standards. Max has a research project to do and to make a Google PowerPoint presentation on Jackson Pollack the artist. In kindergarten…..kindergarten. I started to have a panic attack while watching the 20 min video from his teacher. I then told James this is something I am punting to him. I cannot manage this project, not mentally at least. He agreed, of course.

The internet connection keeps dropping. It is not a connectivity issue, its a DNS issue. James talked to our provider on the phone today. Obviously we know more than the guy on the phone.  I hope this resolves fast because when the internet drops we cannot get the school work done and that is super annoying. I aim to get all the schoolwork done before lunch. It happens some days and other it does not.

My weekly and monthly bible studies are now via conference call. It was interesting to be on the phone at my own home instead of at someones home. I miss my friends. I miss seeing them face to face. I am very grateful we have the technology to stay in touch. Facetime, Zoom, Google chats, Marco Polo and other apps help keep us all connected and able to “see” each other.

This past Sunday was Easter. We stayed inside all day. I did eggs and baskets and the kids were very happy and appreciative of their new soils. We dyed 2 dozen eggs and played with their new toys. It was a very nice slow paced Easter. While I missed seeing my family and doing the traditions which we always do on Easter Sunday, I was happy to relax and not worry about driving all over the place trying to see different families. I ended up ordering from Boston Market. It was actually really good and using paper plates made it the best to clean up afterword.

Our babysitters live in our neighborhood and are the sweetest girls ever. They hid Easter eggs in their yard and baskets for my kids! We tried to social distance but ended up standing closer than 6 feet at times. We never touched and were outside… This was the first interaction my kids had with someone outside of our home in over a month. My kids have not left our home/neighborhood in a month. Over a month. This special outing and out pouring of love was beyond amazing. We are so blessed to have such a great family in our lives.

Going to stores and public places is very different. Very different. Giant Eagle now has one way exits and entry doors. You have to go in one place and go out the other side. There are signs and tape on the floor showing where the 6 foot distances are. The deli counter now has a small table next to it. You no longer can reach over the counter and grab your bag of sliced turkey breast. You have to allow them to place the bag on the table and then you can walk up to the table and get your items. There are arrows showing which was is the “in” way to and aisle and which is the “wrong way”. No one was paying attention to those signs and that flustered me. I am trying to practice the correct social distancing which was put in place and others seem to not care. Some people are now wearing homemade masks. I made myself a mask from a pair of old Lularoe leggings. It works well for me for the time being.

Some people, like my brother and sister-in-law, are cleaning their groceries that get delivered. They just had a new baby (CJ) and are doing all the extra measures to keep safe from the virus. They put the bags on large towels. They wipe every items down and take anything out of the box or container that they can. Literally washing their cans and  boxes. This is the world we are living in.

Most days we all are on your cell phones and iPads. Clicking around on apps and websites. People are making Meme’s (images with words) and sharing them. I will post a few of my favorites here.