Staying Home. 10 Days Later and 10 Things I'm Thinking.

First. By the time I get this post edited it will probably be 12 days since my last post

but Covid19 time has a mind of its own.
I hope you and yours are well.

Second. Cooper thinks sheltering in place is the best thing ever. He's one happy pup. Many friends have said the same thing. Will our pups be depressed when we all suddenly start leaving the house for extended time again? 
My friend says her cat will celebrate. 
That's funny.

No clue about social distance :)

Third. This could make a lot of you feel better. I have seen a lot of posts about working from home, sharing spaces, spouses work stuff all over the kitchen/family room/dining room - wherever. 

I know everyone is happy to be working if they are able but stuff everywhere is annoying. 

Soooo, I share this to cheer everyone up - my husbands company sent him home with a portable office.
 Literally a trailer sitting in the driveway. I kid you not. Until this is over. 

Their work is essential and our house is now a Fed Ex pick up hub among other things. :)

 I would have never thought it possible. Now, it's our new "abnormal." 

(This picture really doesn't do it justice. Haha!)

He's out there all day long doing IDK what! 

He likes the commute. :)))))

Four. I feel that Italians are far more talented while sheltering in place than I could ever be. All of them. From the young children playing Cold Train on violins to Sopranos serenading Rome every night from their apartment balconies. And so much more. 

We've baked muffins. Just sayin'

Very good. Then add Hu Gems (vegan choc chips that are soooo good!) and yum!

Five. I really appreciate the people who have decided to find joy each day no matter what! I'm cleaning out my IG feed and moving on from negative, blame filled accounts. It's liberating. You do this Covid time however you need to (and I'm not judging - cry, rant, be sad, whatever you need for you. And yesterday was a weird day but still I choose upbeat) but I have to move on. There is so much positive, resilient, faith-in-mankind-building action going on that I'm choosing to soak that up. As I mentioned in a previous post - I've been in a similar situation before and there is good to be found along the way. This Covid19 situation comes at almost the end of quite the year for us (see that explanation here) and I know that has definitely affected how I view things moving forward. 

Six. I'm also getting a good laugh from all of the funny memes. I think laughter is good medicine. I've seen people post some major rants and are offended because they feel that people who post these funny things don't have people in high risk categories in their families or aren't taking this seriously or are uninformed. I enjoy the laugh and move on. They are just trying to enjoy a smile or a laugh. I don't think they are being mean. It's just funny. And people have time to think up funny stuff.

And I get this is serious. Believe me. 
My dad is in "lock down" at an assisted living 9 hours away.

My husband is in an essential industry and Mollie is immunocompromised. 

The only place Mollie's been in weeks is the backyard!

He has to come and go. Packages are coming and going. 

So we are living in separate spaces. He has the office in the driveway and uses the master bedroom and bath. He doesn't come in the kitchen 

and has shoes that are for in the house only as he passes through to his spaces.

We wipe down door handles, stair railings, etc that he touches when he comes in the house. 

We have to social distance in our own home. 

But silly, funny things happen because of this and we laugh. 

Watcha gonna do?

Seven. We are cleaning out, getting things done and working in the yard. We have had to use what we have because we can't make 3 Home Depot runs to get what we need mid-project. Some projects work out and some are to the point where the rest happens after Covid19 lockdown ends and we can get the "whatever" we need to move on.  It's okay. Are there a lot of IG worthy pictures to post? Nope. But it's okay. The pace is nice and working with what we have is thrifty and "green."  I keep thinking of "making do" stories that my grandparents (who weathered far worse times in history) used to tell. I think I had lost some of that can-do spirit and I hope this Covid19 learning curve gives me a dose of it!

This is a little area I put together in the backyard using things I had on hand. The table base was in the donate pile pre-Covid. We had the outdoor plywood scrap. Green spraypaint- check. I divided some perennial ferns to fill the elephant planter. The bamboo mirror is a vintage plastic piece I had on the porch. And the lantern was purchased years ago and I added a strand of Christmas lights. 

And one of these days we will use the table for a tray of drinks and snacks when friends hang out at our fire pit again!

Eight. I am surprised at what I realllllllly miss and what I don't. 

How about you? 

There are things that we did/bought/ate/attended (fill in the blank) every week that really weren't as important as I thought.

But there are a couple of things that I do miss and will really enjoy/appreciate when the privilege returns. I hope I remember they are privileges not necessities. 

This meme IS me. If you've been here for my normal content you know it's usually thrifting, painting, and such.

Nine. Technology is amazing, and while often frustrating to amateurs like me, can you imagine this CV19 thing without cell phones and wi-fi and Zoom and FB live? This would have been very different 20 -25 years ago. We would have truly been isolated. And that's just the personal stuff. Technology has saved many lives and allowed people to help our economies as well and so much more. Thank you to the people keeping all that going and making sure things are working for hospitals, our children who are learning online and spouses working from trailers in driveways doing IDK what :)

Ten.

I feel, from personal experience, that we are changed by life events around us that we cannot control. Some, like being isolated due to Covid19 pandemic, are huge and far, far beyond our control. Others are big in our personal lives but don't affect others. I think the way we handle adversity is the same whatever the size it comes in- it's just the way we each deal with things. I try to take things in stride and not become overwhelmed. (This does not mean that I can't have a royally huge, messy meltdown! I can. I do!) But I try to solve issues a bit at a time instead of reacting to the whole, big, imposing issue at once. I think that having faith makes this possible. I hope that when we can be closer than 6 feet again, we will be shoulder to shoulder in our local places of worship. We've learned a little bit about time through this. I hope "I don't have time" to go to church/take my kids to church  isn't heard as much. I think it will be much easier for all of us to move back in to our lives and heal from this if we are sharing our faith instead of placing blame.
 How the children of today deal with world issues as adults will stem from what is modeled today.
Are they going to be grabbing up toilet paper and hoarding things that people in need really need or will they be helpers, encouragers, people who have faith?
That's up to us right now.

We are thankful to be healthy and comfortable at home with food to eat.
We are thankful for everyone who is working hard to help us return to our previous, social lives - truck drivers, doctors, nurses, grocery employees, parents who have kept their kids home, anyone who has done their part, big or small. 

So, that's what I've got right now.
I wish you peace and hope. And comfort.

Staying Home. It's the Little Things.

Staying home. Social distancing. Self-isolating.

Whatever term you want to use we are all (most of us) doing it. 

For some it is not an option and I know many who are working tirelessly right now: medical personnel, first responders, delivery drivers, grocery store employees and more. 

All with vital roles to fill. 

Thank you.

The virus is not good.

 The reason we have to stay home is not good but staying home can be pretty good.

Even if you are an extrovert staying home can be great.

I know this because I have been here before.
More than once. 

It can be done.

When Mollie was young we had to self isolate for a month or more at a time for medical reasons. 

Twice we were on lock down at Christmastime. That was hard. 

Other times we were hanging out at home to stay well pre-op or post-op 

or because she was actually doing okay but there was a lot of "stuff" going around.

It was extra hard because we were the ONLY ones on lockdown. 

The rest of the world was full on. And we were isolated. 

There wasn't as much online - internet was still dial up at a big old desktop (and it wasn't that long ago!)

No Netflix or Hulu and Disney. No Facetime with friends because no Facetime yet!! No Instagram.
We had cable TV. And a VCR (remember that one?)

I share this with you only to say that we did it, we survived it and some of our fondest memories of good times come from those days. We don't really remember the slow movement of time or the bad parts. We remember being together, the fun and or/silly things we did to break up the boredom and what we laughed about. 

And it really was the little things.
There was stress and worry then too, because, you know,
waiting for a child to have major surgery or trying to prevent another hospital stay.

We made ice cream in a baggie. 

We made wax paper and crayon shaving hearts for Valentine's day. Do you remember that craft?? 

Old School but those are the things that are new and fresh for kids if they've never done it. 

We played with shaving cream and food coloring. 

We baked (and talked about fractions without anyone realizing we just had a math class, cooking class, and nutrition lesson all rolled into one!) 

We read and we took naps.

We set the table and did napkin folding. 

We had tea in the afternoon using my grandmother's china cups.

We played with nerf guns in the house.

We dusted. 

We made collages from magazines. 

We tried pitching playing cards into a bowl.

We danced.

We built blanket forts.
She played in the bath tub. She played with a spray bottle full of water.
We used whatever we had to keep us occupied because this was waaaay before Amazon Prime.

 And as Mollie got older and she  needed to do school work then she did it at the time of day she felt most productive. I get that some families need more structure but that worked for us and as long as it got finished I didn't care if it was after lunch and not in the morning because she had slept in. 

Working when you feel productive and not by the clock is what has made some of the greatest companies today so successful!

And we also made plans for things we were going to do when she was well and back to normal activities. We put lists on the fridge and made calendars with drawings and stickers to help her to see when exciting things were coming. We crossed off days.
That taught us to hope and to plan.
To look forward to something in this time of instant gratification is something to be learned.

And almost every day and whatever the weather we dressed accordingly and went outside . Even if it was messy and we only walked around the yard once or played with bubbles on the back porch we went out into the fresh air. If it was nice then we soaked up the sun - warm or cold weather. 

Even 5 minutes on a swing is quite therapeutic. 

So this extended stay in our own homes is possible and can be productive
and even a time to make some happy memories.
I pray you find some joy in each of these days.