It has been 51 days since my last flight and 50 days of sheltering in place with my family. It’s such a bag of crazy around here and it’s hard to articulate what it’s like… Here are the highlights (highs and lows):
- The better weather in MN is so good for my soul. I needed this.
- I’m still working early mornings and Dave afternoons / evenings. My afternoons with the kids have been getting better and better —
- I’ve learned that tethering myself to my phone/work during parenting hours creates an inability to engage completely with the kids. So I plan around important important meetings only — I also hop onto calls where it’s convenient for me (e.g. Leroy is napping well and Viv is coloring, I’ll pop my earpods in and participate in a call).
- Bedtime is the worst. I’m doing that mostly on my own and they have decided to fight it nearly every night. It’s exhausting.
- There are moments of true happiness and I try to hold onto them with all my might. I love this age range (2 yrs and 4 yrs) – and having this time with the littles at this stage of development is something I’ll treasure.
- Work is getting less right now. On top of that, work is busy. So really – that all sucks and is hard to manage.
- With the warmer weather, we were able to move out to our “office space” above the garage. It’s unfinished – but there are no kids there. It helps to “go to work” and get away from the chaos a bit. Viv knows the code to open the garage door so we may change it. 🙂
- I’m trying to start my shift at 6am but see above (re: bedtime). It’s a challenge and I’ve learned to balance the early mornings with a few strategically placed times for work in the afternoons. We also have decided not to accrue any vacation at this time – as in, I’m trying not to dip into my vacation bank, but any hrs I’m earning in this stretch of time, I’m using to just “get by” week my week.
- My right brain obviously hasn’t been utilized well at work because the biggest surprise of this whole thing is how creative I’ve been able to get in the kitchen. I’m really focused on food waste management — getting quantities right so I only have leftovers where I want them. I also am hating the word “leftovers” as I want to reinvent the use of the food in it’s next life — e.g. the side of frizzled chickpeas becomes a crunchy salad topper at lunch; or a crunchy base for a fried egg at breakfast. I’m loving it. At any rate, we’ve thrown away very little and have been well fed — it’s been surprisingly fun.
- One of my coworker’s dad’s has passed of COVID. As well as a teacher for one of my coworker’s kids. The reality of why we are doing this continues to hit closer and closer to home and it is frightening. I try to do the right thing for me and my family and not get overly consumed by the sadness… I’ll keep supporting our community in the small ways I can (donations, curbside pick-up, etc.). I also have a strong desire to help shape how we come out of this thing — hopefully different and better than how we came into it.
- I would like to figure out more exercise and less alcohol as we move forward into days 50-100 of this quarantine. 🙂 I’ll let you know how that goes.
- And finally, we are building the garden out – this is 10 minutes. So really don’t waste your time if it’s not your thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chBUSxXZR84
I hope you all are healthy and finding some mental happiness in this awful scenario.
Up North Urbanite 