To Remember This Time: Days 12 & 13

When I blogged last night (technically speaking, it was early in the morning on Saturday...and right now, it is early in the morning on Sunday...so does that count as last night or not?) :), I should have mentioned that that blog post came about, thanks to David.  You see, as we were wrapping up the Phase 10 game we played as a family late that night, I had mentioned that I wanted to blog; but by the time the game was done, I was so tired that I knew my energy would be completely gone by the time I got the little ones in bed and could turn my attention to the keyboard.  Rather than letting me go collapse in bed as was my intention, David used his considerable powers of persuasion to convince me to stay up and blog.  Actually, what he really did was tell me, "I'll go down and get you a Vanilla Coke and pour it into a glass with ice for you, so that you can drink that and then blog!"  :)

Which is exactly what happened!  :)

So THANK YOU, David, for your nudge to push through my fatigue and write.  I am very grateful.  (And the Vanilla Coke was delicious.)  :)

Now back to the story...  :)

When Jeff went to Harrisonburg on Monday, March 16, to work in the barbershop there, he went alone since there was no need for the rest of us to go--and in fact, really nothing for us to do there.  At the time, we knew that it might or might not be his last trip to Harrisonburg for quite a while, so I made sure to gather up all the materials we had borrowed from the library and send them along with him so they could all be returned.  I suspected the library would close and would not impose late fines if items were not returned promptly, but I thought it safer to not take any chances and go ahead and get everything back where it belonged.  That was one of those little tasks that eased my mental burden and helped me feel ready to settle in and stay home for the long haul.

As the following Monday, March 23 (Day 12) approached, Jeff deliberated for HOURS, trying to figure out what was the best thing to do--to go and keep his 20 or so appointments there, or to stay at home and prevent the possible spread of germs.  At that point, the governor of Virginia had not issued any rulings about barbershops, so he was certainly allowed to go to Harrisonburg for his normal work day.  But after much deliberation (and after hearing back from a friend of his in the Harrisonburg area who is an ER doctor), Jeff finally decided to not go.  I wasn't going to tell him what to do, but I was relieved when he chose to stay home!

I believe it was actually on that day that the governor held a press conference and announced that he was indeed closing all non-essential businesses...and that means barbershops.  The handwriting on the wall that Jeff had seen a number of weeks prior had come to pass, and he was officially out of work.

And so, we began to settle into our new routine as a family.  A family of eight.  All stuck in a 2,500 square foot house together.

It's a good thing we like each other.

A lot!!  :)

On that Monday, we read some books together and did some school things (our homeschooling can continue without major interruption to it, and I'm grateful for that).  But the big project of the day was an assignment that was motivated by a story in a neat book called Story Starters, but rather than having the kids write an ending to the story, I asked them to decide together how to act out the story and, using David's impressive technical skills, make a video of it!  I absolutely loved watching them work on this project throughout the day, and I was thrilled with the result.  Here it is...  :)

For dinner that evening, we had balsamic chicken (a family favorite, for sure), salad, and yummy Italian bread.  And later that evening, Benjamin had his turn to choose a special activity, and he chose a Scooby Doo movie--which some of the family watched, but not all.  Benjamin didn't mind.  ;-)

Day 12 was a good day.  :)

Tuesday, March 24 (Day 13) was Jeff's first day of not going to work at his regular job here, the barbershop in Pentagon City; and we enjoyed having him home.  I had to laugh though because Jeff kept thinking it was Wednesday and had a terrible time remembering that it was Tuesday!  :)  He asked me several times about the women's midweek service that evening...except midweek is on Wednesday, not Tuesday, so there was no midweek.  :)  Without the regularity of trips to Harrisonburg and work at the shop here, what do we organize our weeks around to keep the days from getting all mixed up?!  :)

The big event of the day really was a big event.  :)  I had been toying with the idea of getting a haircut, but I'm not sure if I had even mentioned it to Jeff.  On that day, however, I asked Jeff out of the blue if he would cut my hair, and he said yes!  I'm no good at estimating measurements, but I think it's accurate to say that he cut off 8-10 inches.  He can correct me if I'm wrong.  ;-)  From having long hair that I almost always wore pinned up (because I HATE having hair in my face) to suddenly having a very short hairstyle was quite a difference, but I was thrilled.  No regrets.  :)

During the rest of the day, we again did some homeschool things; and that evening, we had a dinner of delicious curried lentils and rice, along with fresh veggies, before Jeff's chosen family activity: Ticket to Ride.  David won with an extraordinarily high score of 348, having managed to connect all of his trains in a row and thus earning a huge bonus, as well as completing some mission cards.  Very impressive!

Day 13 was a good day, too.  :)

To Remember This Time: Days 9 & 10 & 11

At this point, a full week had gone by of this strange new way of life, and it was about to get stranger.  Day 9 (Friday, March 20) turned out to be Jeff's last day of work, but we didn't know it quite yet.  At the barbershop he manages, they had been trying hard to stick to the 10-person-or-less limit on gatherings, so with some creative juggling of schedules, he was able to basically keep everyone working some hours that wanted to be working.  But as he looked at the schedule for Saturday, he realized that there were too many barbers scheduled to work, so he decided to take that day off to eliminate the problem.  But back to Friday...

The weather was warm, and I was reminded--as I have been MANY times--how grateful I am that this time of confinement occurred in the spring.  Truly, that has made this burden much lighter.

On Friday, the kids spent quite a bit of time playing outside, including kicking a ball around in the backyard.

That evening, being Friday, was our normal night to host a dinner and Bible study in our home--something we've done ever since we moved here over two years ago.  But of course, we can't do that anymore!  Is it time to take a break and say to our guests, "We'll talk to you when the self-quarantine is over"?  Of course not!!  :)

This was our first evening of using Zoom to connect as a Bibletalk, and our friend Ben set up and hosted the meeting, as well as leading the discussion.  It was great to connect with friends in this way, especially our nearby friend Jessica and her faraway dad Bill (who lives in Hawaii but joined for this Bibletalk!).  There were some difficulties with the technological aspect of things, and certainly if I had to choose, I would much rather have face-to-face interactions than online; but one very real plus of these virtual meetings is the opportunity to connect with those who are geographically far away!

On a regular Bibletalk night when friends come over, they linger and we enjoy the fellowship; but meeting online kept us to a more disciplined schedule so when Bibletalk was over, we actually had time for a game as a family.  It was Tobin's turn to choose, and to reveal his answer, he had us play Hangman.  We guessed it--"Mexican train"--before the person died.  :)  Two rounds of that was a fun way to close out Day 9!

Saturday, March 21 (Day 10) rolled around--Jeff's first Saturday off in a very long time--and we were excited about it.  After being at home for more than a week, the kids and I jumped at the chance to head out on an adventure when Jeff suggested it--all except Josiah, who responsibly stayed at home to get some schoolwork done (because even during a pandemic, his homeschool studies continue).  :)  I was very curious about how many people would be out and about--and honestly, quite taken aback when we pulled into the parking lot of a nearby shopping center for Jeff to run into Little Caesar's pizza to grab a couple of our favorite (cheap!) pepperoni pizzas, and I saw how many cars were in the lot (it looked like a normal day!) and how many people were congregating and clearly not observing social distancing!  I'll admit to feeling some shock and dismay about how casually some people were taking the instructions to separate in order to "flatten the curve," a phrase we've heard countless times by now.  But I couldn't throw too many stones because there WE were in the parking lot, too!  While Jeff waited for our pizza, he stepped into the dollar store to get some sidewalk chalk for a big project I had wanted the kids to do; then after the pizza was ready, we took it and headed to Lake Accotink to enjoy the fresh air and change of scenery in a place where we could still be away from other people.

The air was fresh, all right.  Chilly, as a matter of fact!  Definitely not as warm as the previous day.  We shivered a bit as we ate the pizza (well, I didn't eat any, since the sore throat that had plagued me earlier that week still made the thought of trying to squeeze pizza through it quite horrendous!), and then we walked down to the lake, keeping our distance from the others who were doing the same thing we were.

We avoided the playground and tried not to touch much with our hands.  Some of us, it was admitted later, held our breath when we passed someone on the trail!  But despite the coolness of the air and the slight risk of contamination, it was still a worthwhile outing whose benefits outweighed the risks.

That afternoon at home, Tobin, Shav, Moriah, and Benjamin spent quite a long time using the sidewalk chalk to do a special project on our driveway where passersby could see.  They taped out mosaic shapes with masking tape, then filled in the spaces with colorful chalk, then peeled off the tape to reveal the finished product.  It really turned out beautifully! 

Here is just a sample of the pictures I took to document this project.  I posted many more on Facebook (which is where I do most of my record-keeping).  And I suppose this is as good a time as any to let my blog readers know that if you wish, search for me on Facebook (there aren't any other Davene Fishers, so I'm easy to find!) ;-) and send me a friend request, if we're not already friends.  I'd be glad to add you, if you'd like to connect in that way.  :)

One neat thing about this chalk project was that towards the end, Tobin wrote a message below his sun drawing.  He wrote, "Hi, Fred"--a greeting to our neighbor-around-the-corner Fred who was the first to welcome us to the neighborhood by coming to our house with a tin of delicious cookies when we had first arrived.  Fred and his wife Lynne and their little dog Trouble have been special to us ever since.  :)  Tobin knew that Fred would pass by here as he walks his dog, so the message would be sure to get to him.  :)

A day or two later, Fred called me and left a message telling me how touched he was by the drawings and the greeting...and how he had made sure his wife came with him later that day when they walked the dog so she could see it...and how they had taken pictures of it and sent it to their kids!  :)  He was so grateful.  Simple things can have a huge effect.  

Saturday evenings in the past had been devoted to having our friends Steve, Grace, and Alexis over for dinner and d-time (discipling time--an opportunity for us to talk deeply about how things are going in our marriages, parenting, work, homes, evangelism, individual walk with God, etc.).  Since they couldn't come over, we had a virtual d-time with Steve and Grace; and our kids really missed playing with Alexis because that had been a true highlight of the week for them previously!  On this particular Saturday evening, it was Shav's turn to choose a fun activity, so while Jeff and I talked with Steve and Grace, Shav chose for the kids to watch Toy Story 4.  :) 

Sunday, March 22--Day 11.  It was our second Sunday of staying at home and connecting with our church online rather than in person, and it was beginning to feel a little more normal than the first week had been.  Our friend Ken Chin, who happens to be a tireless servant in the kingdom of God, as well as a wellspring of corny jokes :), as well as a skillful dentist who performed a much-appreciated root canal on me earlier this year, preached the sermon (about standing in the gap) on this day, and did a terrific job.

For lunch, I saw that we had some leftover spaghetti sauce hanging out in the refrigerator, as well as a little pepperoni, also some mozzarella cheese, and (as always) there was pasta downstairs in our pantry area.  That sounded like an Italian skillet casserole to me!  :)  To that, I added a few other things, like fresh mushrooms and garlic (from our friend Brandie) sauteed in plenty of butter.

I'm discovering, as are so many other people, that meal preparation has shifted from "let me choose what I want and go to the store to get it" to "let me see what I have and get creative with what I can make with it."  It's good for us to be stretched in that way from time to time!  :)

Sunday afternoons are my favorite time of the week for a nap.  I don't always get one when life is normal, but this abnormal season means that naps are more plentiful--another pleasant side effect of the current limitations.  I was grateful for a nap on this day--and even more grateful that evening for a fun time of watching the live-action Lion King with all the family together (Moriah's choice of a fun activity).  As is customary on Sunday evenings, we munched on popcorn and apple slices, and also added clementines and summer sausage.

And so, Day 11 slipped pleasantly away.  Hakuna matata, right?  :)

To Remember This Time: Days 6 & 7 & 8

It stopped being fun.

My last post described the pleasant aspects of our newfound situation of self-quarantine, but Day 6 (Tuesday, March 17), Day 7 (Wednesday, March 18), and Day 8 (Thursday, March 19) brought challenges.

Tuesday started fine, with Jeff going to work as normal; and that evening even included a wonderful surprise visit from our friend Brandie!  Jeff had gotten home from work early, and we were in the kitchen preparing our dinner of taco salad when there was a knock on the door.  It was such an unusual sound that it caught us off guard; nobody was coming around to visit in these circumstances!  We were shocked to find Brandie there, but it all made sense when she told us that the restaurant that she works for (which is not too far from our house--"not too far" in northern Virginia terms anyway) was closing because of the virus, and they were allowing their employees to come in and get the food that would otherwise have simply gone to waste.  Brandie had loaded up the backseat of her car with an abundance of fresh produce and wanted to share it with us.  WOW!!!!!

We were so grateful for the food--it felt very much like the hug from God that we received when the Aldi employee just happened to bring out the strawberries when Jeff was shopping on Day 3, except this hug was even bigger!  A sweetly reassuring reminder that God is watching, is aware of our needs even before we are, and has a plan in place to meet them.  We also thoroughly enjoyed our time of visiting with Brandie, standing out in the front yard, talking about anything and everything.  Brandie was definitely a cherished messenger of God to us on this evening!

After that though, things went downhill.

The sore throat I had when I awoke on Monday morning continued to bother me--and in fact, got worse.  By Tuesday night, I was in a significant amount of pain, and that made me extra emotional.  On top of that, I had a misunderstanding with a couple of friends that night, and wasn't able to resolve it until Wednesday.  THAT weighed heavily on my mind and heart.  And besides all of that, I was really missing my parents and feeling anxiety about the future for them.

My daily phone calls with my dad help tremendously, but it's not the same as our old pattern of weekly face-to-face visits, and I was especially missing my mom because of being cut off from her.  Even worse, my dad wasn't even able to go and visit her because of an illness he had had, including a lingering cough.  I realize that with my mom's mental deterioration, she probably doesn't even realize that I haven't been to see her according to my normal pattern, and I'm not even sure if she is able to think about the fact that Dad hasn't come either.  If she does wonder what happened to him that kept him from coming, she's not able to express it.  So I should be grateful for the peaceful, unaware state she is in.  But on Tuesday night, I wasn't.

To be honest, I had some moments last week of letting my thoughts run wild in relation to my parents' health.  As I read about the horrible tragedy in Italy with so many people dying and--what's worse--their families not even being able to be with them during their last days, I worried about what would happen here if my mother would get COVID-19--or get sick with something else.  Would we be allowed to cross the protective barrier and be with her?

I forget which day this conversation occurred, but I was greatly relieved when my dad told me that in end-of-life situations, the nursing home was allowing family members to be with their loved ones.  That soothed my troubled spirit.

At any rate, for a few days last week, my throat pain and other discomforts, plus my fatigue, plus my anxiety about my parents, plus my misunderstanding with a couple friends, plus my feeling like I just wasn't getting anything accomplished because I was too sick and tired to be very productive (for example, I had envisioned having lots and lots of time to read aloud to my kids, one of my all-time favorite activities with them, but as it turned out, my throat hurt so badly I could only croak out one chapter of Little Women, our current read-aloud, before giving up in defeat, and that was discouraging)--well, all of this combined to erase the pleasantness of our confinement at home and make me wallow in the depths of despair.

But busy moms can't wallow for long--or if they do keep wallowing, they have to do it while they're doing other things, like cooking, dishes, laundry, caring for children, etc.  Life didn't stop and let me stay in the pit too long!  ;-)

Wednesday morning (Jeff's normal day off), we had a virtual staff meeting with others from our church, and we scrambled to adjust our thinking and our techniques for how to be a vibrant, effective part of the body of Christ during this time of hardship.  I can't remember for sure, but I probably took a nap Wednesday afternoon.  Our friend Ben brought some bikes to us that afternoon that he had been fixing for our kids--a much-appreciated act of kindness.  The kids have been riding them almost every day since then. That evening, we had a delicious (if I do say so myself) ;-) dinner of pork chops, roasted veggies, and leftover salad.  It was our normal evening for the men in our congregation to meet in DC for a midweek service, but only Jeff went from our household.  There were just a handful of men that met in person; the rest watched online.  The kids and I enjoyed watching the 2011 version of Winnie the Pooh, one of the best movies ever made.  :)  :)

Let me add that, during these more challenging days, I was very grateful for the kids' independence.  Not only are there some school subjects and household tasks they can do on their own, they also were able to play quite a bit outside during this time because the weather was warm and the fresh air was a delight.

On Thursday, I still wasn't feeling well physically (and perhaps it's fair to say, emotionally, too) ;-), but a great thing happened on Thursday: David went for a walk and found toilet paper at two stores very close to our house: H-Mart and CVS!  He bought one package at H-Mart, then two at CVS.  It felt like a sweet little miracle.  :)

That day, Jeff had worked at the barbershop, and that evening, Jeff met with our friend Ben, then went to Walmart and found some stuff, including our favorite Italian bread (another hug from God).  The kids and I were content to stay at home and have Jeff be our ambassador to go out and find provisions.  :)

Thursday evening, I finally was able to pull myself together mentally and prepare a good (not fancy, but healthy and satisfying) meal for the kids: quesadillas, fresh veggies (tomatoes, carrots, celery, snow peas), fresh grapefruit, and smoothies, prompting one of the kids to exclaim that it was his favorite meal!  :)  Realizing that we were almost certainly in this self-quarantine for the long haul and noticing the boredom of David in particular, I let him choose what fun activity the family should do.  When he chose to have us watch The Emperor's New Groove, I had no idea how much I would enjoy it!!  :)  Later that night, I finished the dishes and got to blog again--two things that helped my mental condition.  :)

After being in a funk for a couple days, I felt like I had undergone a reset and was ready to go again.  I'm so thankful the shadowy valleys don't last forever!

To Remember This Time: Days 3 & 4 & 5

If I'm going to keep up at all with this record of our life during this pandemic, I'd better pick up my pace!  So for tonight, let me cover three days: Saturday, March 14; Sunday, March 15, and Monday, March 16. Days 3, 4, & 5 of our new reality.

These were pleasant days.  After the busy time of shopping and preparation I had experienced the previous two days (and the undeniably busy pace of life I had experienced for many, many, MANY days before that!), it was refreshing to be at home and not have to go anywhere.  Besides that, I also became aware of the positive side of the tragedy that was enveloping the world.  We can ALWAYS count our blessings, right?

In particular, I counted...
1. Time with family - such a treasure!  This past year had seen Josiah gone from home much more than ever before; and even though we have been excited and proud of how he's chosen to spend his time (mostly being involved in campus ministry), we had missed him.  Having all the children at home because of this virus was a true delight.
2. More time to plan meals and cook - rather than throwing a meal together last minute, I was taking time to be more thoughtful about it; and as a result, it was more fun (to anticipate, to prepare, and to eat!).
3. The feeling of security that comes from being better stocked with food - we used to do that at the old house, a natural consequence of our lifestyle of gardening, canning, etc.  But since our move in January of 2018, we had become very accustomed (and partly from the necessity of having a smaller house and much less storage space) to shopping for food as we needed it, rather than buying extra to have on hand in case of emergency.  The fact remains though, we LIKE having extra food on hand.  It's a good idea, even if one is not in the middle of a historic epidemic.
4. Good weather - if this had hit our area in the middle of cold winter or when hot summer was in its heyday, it would have been much harder.  The fact that gentle spring was when this change occurred made it easier to deal with--not only because the weather was mild enough that the kids could play outside quite a bit and delay the onset of cabin fever, but also because spring is a time of optimism.  Longer daylight hours, increasing warmth, beautiful blossoms--all these contribute to the hope that bursts forth in the spring--hope that was needed to not give into the fear and uncertainty of these days.

3/14/20 - Tobin, Moriah, and Benjamin decided to each draw this fire truck; and I enjoyed seeing my young artists busy with their task.  :)

On to the specifics...

Saturday, March 14, was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time: our annual women's outreach event hosted by our church.  I was going to play keyboard for a special song to be sung at Women's Day, as well as praying in Hebrew as part of the international prayer that would be part of the festivities.  Even better, I had some dear friends who were planning to come with me.  It was a much-anticipated event--so much so that when my eyes were finally opened to the severity of the crisis around us and the likelihood of major changes coming, I prayed fervently, "Dear God, please help us to at least have Women's Day before everything shuts down!!"

Sadly (but very wisely!), the decision was made on Thursday to cancel our Women's Day--at that point, just two days away!!  I knew it had to be done and was the best decision, but it was certainly disappointing.  As a result, it felt very strange to be sitting at home on Saturday afternoon when I had planned to be at The Bethesdan Hotel for that event!

Another outing which is often part of our Saturdays is David's taekwondo class; but although they were open that day, David made the decision to not attend.  Again, I felt like it was the right decision, but it felt different for sure to miss that.

Jeff did go to work as usual that day; and on his way home, he stopped by Aldi for a few things and got his turn to experience the shortages I had seen the previous two days.  He reported that the shelves were extremely bare.  It just so happened, however, that while he was there, one of the employees was restocking the shelves in the produce section and brought out packages of strawberries...$1.29 a pack...a good price for around here!  Jeff got a whole flat (8 packages), and they were a very special treat--so juicy and delicious.  It felt like a hug from God that Jeff "just happened" to be there when they were brought out!  We sure enjoyed those berries.  :)

Jeff also went by Safeway, the larger and more expensive grocery store that is close to our house and discovered that they had more food there, which was reassuring.  No toilet paper though.  ;-)  Even though we didn't need it, we just always have to check!  :)

That evening, we had delicious, hearty cheeseburger chowder for dinner, along with crackers and plenty of fresh strawberries; and our after-dinner entertainment for Jeff and the older four boys was the game Pente.  Moriah wasn't feeling well, and she actually fell asleep on one of the living room chairs before I roused her and helped her get ready for bed.  At some point in this evening, David said something about being immune; and Benjamin quickly corrected him: "You're not a moon!!"  :)  :)

Sunday, March 15, was unlike any Sunday we had previously had, but it reinforced the definition of church as being the people and not the location--an important lesson to learn!  We listened online as our pastor, LuJack Martinez, preached from his home and live-streamed it to ours and many others, and we gave thanks for technology that connects us when physical distance separates us.

 Afterwards, Jeff made absolutely delicious taquitos for our lunch (seriously, they were SO GOOD).

Then in the afternoon, he and David went out to get a free mattress set they had seen advertised on Craigslist.  We are in the process of converting the bedroom that used to be Tobin and Shav's into an official guest room, and an important step was finding a mattress!  :)  Finding a free one that turned out to be very comfortable was an added blessing.  :)

While they were out, they stopped by Aldi again and discovered that there were still lots of bare shelves, but they managed to get some useful stuff anyway.  We definitely haven't had this much food on hand since we moved here!  :)

That evening, we snacked on our usual Sunday evening "meal" of popcorn, as well as munched on other things.  And we played Settlers of Catan which is a game we love (the variations of how the game can turn out are endless, so we don't get tired of it!) but we have to set aside a few hours for it.  On this night, we had a few hours.  :)  Tobin won.  :)

Late that night, after everyone else was in bed, I got my blog going again--oh, joy!  :)

On Monday, March 16, Jeff went to Harrisonburg by himself.  There was no reason for the rest of us to go: the kids' choir rehearsals with the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir were cancelled, and we couldn't/shouldn't visit any of the people we normally love to spend time with when in Harrisonburg.  My mom's unit at the nursing home, for example, was completely closed off to visitors, so even though I was longing to see her, I wouldn't have been able to even if we had made the trip.  And my dad was fighting off germs and didn't want to share those with us--and as it turned out, I was fighting off germs and didn't want to share them with him!  You see, that morning, I woke up with a sore throat.  For a week and a half or so before that, the kids had been passing around some kind of bug that gave them sore throats/headaches/fatigue, etc.  Nothing too serious, nothing that seemed like it was COVID-19, nothing that necessitated a doctor's visit.  But enough to make them each feel pretty miserable at some point or another.

I had pretty well convinced myself it must be some kind of germ I had had earlier in life and had built up an immunity to because I wasn't getting it, despite my exposure to my sick kids.  But then...  I woke up with a sore throat and realized I wasn't immune to it after all!

And so, as Jeff headed down the road alone to Harrisonburg, the kids and I stayed home, grateful for the chance to sleep in and then jump back into a more normal school routine; we had taken off quite a bit of time the previous week because of their sickness and my preparations.

With Jeff gone, we took it easy meal-wise, enjoying leftovers for lunch (those taquitos were STILL delicious!) and a simple dinner of hotdogs, baked beans, tater tots (which David renamed something cute and unique that I now forget), and fresh grapes.

On this day, I made a conscious decision to reach out to at least one neighbor or friend each day.  Of course, on a normal day, I have contact with more people than that, but I wanted to go beyond the people I regularly connect with and reach out to those that might fall through the cracks of my mind.  On this day, I called our elderly, very kind neighbors Fred & Lynne and got to talk with Lynne for a few minutes before they headed out the door for a doctor's appointment.

I'm learning that in times of uncertainty, it's not just about how much food and other things you can stockpile to preserve yourself; it's also about how many connections you make and deepen that can be a blessing to both you and others.

And speaking of blessing, I feel SO blessed: this time of confinement is much less problematic for us than it is for many, many people.  We have everything we need; and besides the physical provisions, we also have the companionship that so many people are desperately missing.  With so many siblings, my children aren't alone, even if we're cut off from friends we love!

To Remember This Time: Day 2

My two-day streak of blogging came to a halt, thanks to the germs my kids have passed around in the past couple of weeks finally catching up with me.  I have felt exhausted and have suffered from a terrible sore throat--nothing too serious in the light of all the truly serious things happening around us, but disagreeable enough to make me wish for bed at the end of the day, rather than a chair at the computer desk!  Ah well, here I am again.

Friday, March 13, was Day Two of the new way of living based on the impending threat of COVID-19, and it resembled Day One.  Jeff was gone all day at work, and I again felt urgency to prepare for whatever was coming.  I felt like this might be my last day of going out for a while.  As it turns out, I was right.

For a number of weeks, Tobin had been asking to go to Home Depot to get some supplies for a project he was working on, so that was our first stop on this shopping trip; if we were going to be confined for a while, I didn't want his request to be put off for weeks or months longer.

While there, we walked by the aisle where paper products are kept, curious enough about the toilet paper shortage to at least check, but not surprisingly there was none.  I got a package of those strong blue work paper towels though--never know when they might come in handy.  ;-)

 Tobin took his time choosing just the right color of stain for his wooden dowels, and I was reminded of other times when he has been shopping and taken a LONG time making his selection.  :)  It's a good quality to be thoughtful and careful though (and gives the rest of us an opportunity to work on our patience, which truly IS a good thing!).  :)

 At least Moriah and Benjamin had a fun cart to sit in while we waited!  :)

After we finished at Home Depot, we headed to the dollar store because Moriah and Benjamin had been saving up their money to go there and buy some little treats (mostly candy).  :)  Again, I felt like if we didn't do it this day, when would we?  It took the purchasers some time to make their choices; and although I was feeling some sense of urgency to get on to the "serious" shopping I still wanted to accomplish, I tried to still that instinct and just let my little ones enjoy the adventure of it all.  I think I (mostly) succeeded.  ;-)

From there, we headed home to drop off the boys and the purchases, and then Moriah stuck with me while we went to Walmart; she is a faithful companion to whomever is going shopping.  :)  Our experience there wasn't much different than the day before in Aldi--we went all over the store, finding almost everything on our list (no toilet paper though--because of course, we just had to check and see if they had any!) and adding in anything else that seemed like it might be helpful in a self-quarantine situation.  One thing I couldn't find was vitamin C; we had some at home, but I thought it might be a good time to stock up, just in case.  The shelves for vitamin C were absolutely bare, which I actually took as a good sign; the average consumer was thinking about more than just toilet paper--hooray!  :)

There were certainly other bare spots on the shelves, too (not much hand soap, for example, although I did get 2 bottles, and some food sections were wiped out)--certainly nothing like I've ever seen before.  The store was fairly crowded, the mood fairly somber.  People were generally considerate though.  One key difference between the Walmart shopping trip and the Aldi one from the previous day was the check-out experience.  Normally at Walmart, I do self-checkout; but since I had a full cart, I decided to go through a check-out line with a cashier (because it's hard to do self-checkout when there is no empty space in your cart to put the bags after you scan the items, etc.).  The cashier was an older man who seemed to be doing his best, but was very, very slow--a stark contrast to the amazingly fast cashiers at Aldi.  The customer two people in front of me was impatient and gave rather sharp directions to the cashier, which I could understand but which made me feel bad for the employee.  When the lady in front of me turned to me and started to say something in frustration, I tried to quickly lighten the mood; and it seemed to work.  When it was my turn, I made sure to speak kindly and thank the cashier for his help.  What made it worse was that when I was going through the line, there was only ONE checkout line open that was not self-checkout, so all the pressure was on that poor man.  I hope he made it through the day OK!

One last stop before we got home: the gas station.  I filled up the van with gas, then drove in the driveway, feeling like I had done everything I knew to do to prepare.  There was nothing more I could possibly do at that point.

Well, except for carry in the groceries and other supplies, find places for them, cook dinner (waffles with the choice of blueberry sauce, orange sauce, or maple syrup, as well as sausages--a special dinner for sure!), and enjoy the evening with the family.

It was time to hunker down, and I was ready.

To Remember This Time: Day 1

Wednesday, March 11, was our last normal day.

The next day, Thursday, March 12, it was as if I had awoken into a new world, and my activity and focus shifted so drastically I felt as if I would get whiplash.

Jeff went to work as usual, but at some point in the day, he encouraged me to go shopping for food.  And so on a Thursday afternoon when I would normally have been on the campus of George Mason University for a Bible study with a friend, she and I agreed to meet only in cyberspace rather than in person; and then when I realized I needed to brave the craziness to go grocery shopping, I ended up cancelling (which I was disappointed to have to do).

I had heard about the shortages that were beginning to be felt in the stores, but this was my first chance to see it for myself.  Aldi, our favorite grocery store by far here in this area, was my destination.

Not surprisingly, there were no rolls of toilet paper, no packages of napkins, and only one package of paper towels that had already been opened and then discarded on the shelf.  I was grateful I wasn't in urgent need of any of those items!

Moriah was with me, and we walked up and down every aisle, checking off items on my list and also adding things to the cart that weren't on the list but we thought might be helpful in the future.  Our cart was full by the end, but you know, that's not even unusual for us--large(ish) family problems!  Haha!  :)

The mood in the store was sober, to be sure, but we didn't see a single incidence of hostility or rudeness.  People were still considerate to each other, and I made sure to let a customer with a smaller number of items than I had go in front of us and also took a second to speak words of kindness and gratitude to the cashier.  Aldi cashiers are amazing, anyway, but doubly so in such situations.  :)

At home, it took me a while to unpack the groceries and find places for the food; I had to rearrange some things in our refrigerator and freezer to make it all fit.  Then I prepared a simple meal of burritos for diner, which the kids love.  It's not unusual for us to have dinner guests on Thursdays, but even if not for the threat of COVID-19, we wouldn't have done so on this day because the kids had been passing around germs--just a simple sore throat/runny nose/headache kind of thing, not the coronavirus--and Josiah and Moriah were still feeling poorly.

Social distancing--that phrase that we'd never heard of before a few days ago--was beginning.

After dinner, the kids and I stayed up late and watched the movie Mr. Holland's Opus which was fun; and then, even later, after all the kids were in bed, I had the ridiculous but understandable idea to make a super-quick trip to Harrisonburg on Friday.  Why?  Because I had heard that certain supplies might be easier to find there (toilet paper, for example, because even though we had some extra rolls, I wasn't sure we had enough for an extended confinement--I had never really paid attention to the amount of our toilet paper usage before, so I had no idea how to estimate how long our present supply would last!), but even more, so that I could see my parents in person one last time before we all became shut-ins.  

My dad was sick; and although I didn't really think it was COVID-19 (and indeed, it turned out to be the regular flu, even though he had a flu shot last fall), I was still longing to see him and my mother.  I knew an extended separation was coming, and I hadn't even gone to Harrisonburg on the preceding Monday because of a grand plan I had had for the reorganization of our downstairs room, and I needed the time that Monday to work on it.  If I had had any idea of how things would develop, I would have for sure gone to Harrisonburg on March 9 so I could have seen Mom and Dad!  But things were changing so rapidly that literally every day we woke up to a new reality.  How could I have known?

At any rate, Jeff listened compassionately to my desire to go see my parents, but then he wisely persuaded me not to.  Of course he was right.  The incubation period is so long for this virus that I could have been a carrier, and wouldn't I have been devastated if my parents got it from me?  

And so I went to sleep, praying for God to protect my parents and wondering when I would get to see them face to face again.

Day One of the coronavirus radically rearranging my schedule and my life was over.

To Remember This Time: The Beginning

"Where were you when the Challenger disaster occurred?" (I was in elementary school in a small private school; and for our PE class that day, we went to the bowling alley where there were TVs that replayed the news coverage over and over and over, and we watched that explosion dozens of times, it seemed.)

"Where were you on 9/11?" (I was asleep in our apartment in Imperial Beach, California, it only being about 6:30 in the morning; a phone call from my sister-in-law Kim woke Jeff and I up, and we turned on the TV and watched, bewildered and horrified with the rest of the nation, as events unfolded and we tried to comprehend what we were seeing.)

"Where were you when...?"  This is the question we ask each other about these landmark events.

We're living one of these landmark events right now.

I am absolutely sure that in years to come, we will ask each other, "Where were you when the coronavirus hit?"  Or, if we're more scientifically accurate, "...when COVID-19 struck?"  Because as we now know, but didn't a month or two ago, there are any number of coronaviruses.  But there is only one COVID-19.

I've been feeling the urge to return to blogging--at least, occasional blogging--for quite some time, but haven't made it a priority.  Obviously.  ;-)  However, with such a watershed moment in the history of the world occurring now, and with more-than-usual time to sit at a computer and type, the timing is right, and I will strive to capture my personal experience of these historic times.

So, how did it all begin?

I don't remember when I first heard about the new virus which had been discovered in China--probably around the time that friends on Facebook started sharing posts about Dr. Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who had reportedly been the first to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus and who had then caught it himself and died on February 7.  I was saddened to hear about the outbreak and concerned for the people of China who were affected by it, but it seemed far away, and life here went on as normal.

Days, weeks went by.  As we began to hear more and more about this topic--including the official name COVID-19 that was chosen for it--my thoughts and emotions swung wildly from, "The media sure is blowing this out of proportion; I mean, the regular old flu kills more people every year than this does!" to "This is terrifying! I am absolutely in disbelief at what is happening in China, and in Iran, and in Italy, and in..."  Back and forth I went in this pendulum that probably the vast majority of Americans were swinging on with me.

I began to pay more attention to the news.  We started discussing it more often over the dinner table.  I found my jaw regularly dropping to the floor as actions that were previously unimaginable--utterly so--were now actually happening.  To mention just one example, the thought of the entire nation of Italy shutting down and essentially everyone being quarantined was absolutely mind-blowing.  When had such a thing ever occurred before?  The global scope of the disease and the shocking implications were hard to comprehend.  Was this really happening?  Was it a dream?  A movie?  A gross exaggeration by the media?  Could it all be true?  My mind raced.

However, it wasn't until the night of Tuesday, March 10, that things began to get personal.

Jeff came home from work that evening, having cut the hair of a high-ranking military officer whose area of expertise is disaster management; and their conversation had convinced Jeff that the drastic actions being taken by certain regions of China, and by Italy, and by other countries were actually very likely to, at some point, happen in the U.S.  To hear that what was totally unheard of and unbelievable was probably heading our way shifted something in my brain.  I finally woke up and got it.

The next day, Jeff and I went out for breakfast with our good friends, LuJack and Cathi; and not surprisingly, COVID-19 was one topic of our conversation; we tried to talk about future events, but things were changing so quickly, it was hard to plan.  From there, Jeff and I went to a couple of thrift stores, shopping for a dress for a special women's event our church was hosting on Saturday, March 14.  Then that evening, I picked up my friend Uloma, and we went to our women's midweek service where we made final preparations for Women's Day.  When I took Uloma home, and we said goodbye after we talked for quite a while, I had no idea that would be the last in-person social visit I would get to have for...well, for who knows how long?

The next day, a significant shift occurred.  It felt like we woke up in a new world.  Will we ever get the old one back again?