Sooooooo…there’s this virus.
Somewhere around a month ago, I remember talking with friends and my in-laws and feeling VERY cocky about this “scare”, I am not one to watch the news, take part in ANY kind of fear-mongering, panicking, or rolling around in the drama of what-if scenarios. I have a real life to live and have real questions to answer like “Mom, what’s for dinner”. I don’t have time to participate in any type of far remote possibility that this virus could ever shake up my family’s normalcy. Again, real things like, “where’s my taekwondo uniform and if I find it will it be clean (no)”. Also SPRING BREAK road trip, t-ball, and soccer. Real life happenings were happening and we ain’t got time for no virus.
Ummmmmm. Fast-forward to March 13th, 2020 all Illinois schools under mandatory shutdown until March 30th. oh shit. Then came the Illinois stay at home order on March 21st, then they pushed back school re-openings until April 7th, now the Federal government recommends more social distancing until April 30th. Like many Moms and Dads of small children, we wept and drank. How could we possibly care for our OWN children?!
Then I received a sobering text from a dear woman in my life who is much wiser than me “Honey this country has gotten through so many really terrible things together and we will also get through this. I was 6 years old when our country was sneak attacked by Japan. Food shortages, rationing of sugar, shoes, any type of fats, little meat, and shortages of so many other things. Although I didn’t really understand why the adults were so gloomy, our country came together in so many ways. We developed penicillin to help our wounded soldiers. In the 50’s polio during the summer was feared, iron lungs, paralysis. Our president got it and had paralyzed legs yet he still led this nation and died just a few days before WWII ended”.
So there I was, sitting in my big warm home surrounded by those I loved most feeling ridiculous for feeling sorry for myself that I was missing spring break. How dare anyone ask us to stay INSIDE in the middle of March in Illinois?! It’s literally the color of death outside, 38 degrees, windy and damp. Staying inside is super hard (that’s a joke). My maternal Great-Grandfather was in World War II, my Dad a Vietnam Veteran and all our generation is asked to do is to stay home for a couple weeks (or months?)
It’s just all so nuanced. We aren’t used to ANY disruption of our routines (and TP brands). I may have hinted to the fact that I didn’t initially think of this time at home as a blessing. I would scoff at friends who referred to it as a social distancing “opportunity”. What can I say I am reformed cynic who sometimes relapses. Negativity is built into my Irish DNA and try as I may to change it and be all sunshiney…my face usually gives me away. It took some time but we have found our stride as a family of 5, being a family of 5 under one roof, together, all day long, everyday, together, ya know, just the 5 of us….together.
So, what do we do. We simply do our best. I have a bucket list, and one of mine reads “don’t yell at my family”, usually by 8:30am, I’ve already f’ed that up so I just move on to another item. This will be a blip in our lives, a memorable blip, but just a moment, so I am simply making an effort to do the most with our time at home. I spend some of my day doing things, I wouldn’t have normally done on a weekday like sleeping in til 8 and snuggling with whatever kid is laying next to me for as long as I can. We’ve been eating healthier, working out harder, making friendship bracelets, keeping my instagram stories, playing soccer and basketball, watching family movies, playing board games, facilitating online learning (thank you dedicated teachers!), zooming taekwondo classes, zooming cocktail hour with friends, zooming with kid’s classmates and teachers, doing yard work, helping my Dad, journaling, strategizing business plans, praying, catching up on my Health Coaching classes, playing lava monster, reading both kid books and adult books, playing Mario Bros, riding the Peleton, talking with my husband, braiding my hair and my daughters and her trolls, I am sitting in our sauna for the first time in a decade, eating a lot of egg salad (idk), making homemade pizzas, we’re picking up trash on family walks, making banana bread and weird chocolate avocado bread and sipping hot chocolate as we watch our snowmen melt (yes of course it snowed), doing chores, writing letters, we’re sleeping in box forts (ok I’m not but the kids are), there’s dance parties and just dance on the wii, hiding in the closet, yelling, crying and whining, but there’s also a ton of love and TONS of time that we wouldn’t have otherwise had as just the 5 of us. What a gift. What a blessing. What an opportunity! FOR REAL ya’ll.
There are also things I am not doing like showering and washing my hair. I also wear the same clothes a couple days in a row. Oh, and I’m never wearing jeans ever again, ever.
But, it is okay and it will be okay. Ok?
Obviously it’s not okay for those whose businesses have been affected, lives have been sadly touched or taken from this virus, as my writing is meant to be humorous and of my own point of vantage. No disrespect is meant, ever.
mpoweredstate 