Our world

Catching up

I haven’t posted in quite a while.  It seems silly to try to catch you up on our little world but at the same time, skipping it seems weird as well.  So…  Long story short…  Doing the entire outside of the house was a lot and I needed a small break.  When I was ready to jump back in, my day job had other plans.  It was one of the best seasons I’ve had in a while and there wasn’t a lot of time to fix up my house.  Basically, life happened.  We’ve all been there.  Am I right?  Oh yeah, and we got a puppy.  More about her later.

Things have changed

I arrogantly assumed the day would come where I could pick up where I left off and tell you all about the other things I’ve done around the house.  Oh how I wish I was writing that post instead of this one.  It seems our world changed overnight.  

We are dealing with a worldwide pandemic.  Social distancing is what we’re all talking about.   The universities are studying online.  Restaurants and bars are closed.  More closures are coming.  If you aren’t in Ohio, please drop a comment and tell me what’s happening where you are.  It’s amazing how different it is from state to state.

We could all get caught up in the details of what’s closed and what’s not or what social distancing means to each of us.  Really, though, there’s more important things on my mind.

Change

Every day, things are changing.  There’s a little more fear, more closures and less freedom.  Each day has a piece of bad news; each day feels like a week. It’s exhausting.

Even the mundane task of grocery shopping is different.  While Andy and I usually go to the grocery store every day or two, I made the novel decision to shop for a few weeks of groceries “in case” we had to stay home for a bit.  I’m grateful I went when I did; I managed to avoid the great toilet paper famine.  My fear must’ve hit a tad earlier than most because the day after I fear shopped, the store’s shelves were bare.  Sadly, I have to admit that being prepared is a change in this house.  We usually operate in fire drill mode which is incredibly ironic right now.

Feels like we’re living in a science fiction movie.  Surely, any minute, Tom Hanks will show up with the antidote and save the day.  Sadly, my favorite actor and his lovely wife are in Australia battling a case of COVID-19, the enemy we’re all fighting.  That was definitely not in my script.

My moment

An hour or so ago, I had my moment.  You know the one, the fall apart moment.  Tears flowed.  Fear took over.  Grief happened.  More tears.  It was inevitable.  I could certainly play perfect blogger and pretend I’m 100% okay but as always, I promise to keep things real.

While I’m doubtful it was my only moment, it was the first.  Maybe it’s the moment I’ll remember years from now.  Even with 9/11, I never thought the world would be scary for my kids.  I thought the fear was in our country’s rear view mirror.

Truly, arrogantly, and naively, I thought my kids would live in a better world than I did.  I believed with my whole heart that they’d live in a world with more kindness, more understanding, more inclusion, and less fear than I did. It is devastating that I was wrong.   

My kids

I’ve got 3 kids.  One son, works for a police department and no matter what happens, he will work.  It goes without saying I’m proud but the pressure is immense.  My daughter will turn sweet 16 in the middle of a pandemic.  I’d rather it be about a party and a pretty dress, a cute boy and time with her best friends.  My second son is a high school senior.  All the big memories associated with senior year that will be affected.  I have PTSD just thinking about it all.  They probably do, too.

All I can do is love them with every piece of me and try to talk them through things that I can’t comprehend myself.  We are all floundering; we are all scared but most importantly, we are ALL in this together—not just as families but as a community–as a nation.

What can we do?

As a DIYer, I am all about “doing”.  In this mess, I’m looking to find some control, to find some action to take to make things better. My family is doing its part and staying home except to get groceries or take care of work.  Every evening, I’m using my Clorox wipes on every surface I can imagine.  During the day, I’m trying to keep the dogs entertained while my husband works from home.  Working out a schedule for the kids to follow will be helpful.  Again, that’s new to us, fire drill mode and all.  

Many of us are wondering what actions we can take to make things better.  Do your best.  Put as much kindness, patience and understanding as you can into the world.  Stay home.  Practice hygge to the extreme.  Take care of yourself.  Channel your inner germaphobe and clean the things you touch the most including your remotes and cell phone.  Most importantly, throw good, healing thoughts into the world because we all need them now more than ever.