Week 1: Coronavirus Quarantine

I am sure you would agree that life is pretty crazy and uncertain right now. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would live through something like we are all living through right now with the Covid-19 pandemic.

To be honest, when I first heard about this virus I shrugged it off as a case of the flu. I tend not to panic about stuff like this especially because the part of Indiana that I live in seems to be full of religious end-of-times survivalists. When the panic at the grocery stores began I just rolled my eyes and figured that the hysteria would die down and life would resume to semi-normal. Ha! How wrong I was.

I still feel that hoarding items is ridiculous and maddening because it doesn't allow for everyone to have access to basic necessities. My house has what it needs, but I imagine that there are many out there who don't because someone has a room full of toilet paper, soup, cleaning products, pasta, pasta sauce, etc...in his/her house. I still plan on  grocery shopping for two weeks of groceries at a time as I have been doing for the last couple of months. In terms of food, nothing is changing in terms of how I procure it. I wish other people felt the same way. I feel that times like these can bring out the worst of humanity (and the best too) and I am seeing it in full force in the bare grocery store aisles.

I am thankful for the suppliers (and those who work for them) that are ramping up production to bring more product to the stores so that everyone can (eventually) have access to them. I am hoping that very shortly the food hysteria will die down and we can all return to the days where we can buy the groceries we need without having to worry about whether the products will be on the shelves.

I am also immensely thankful for the grocery store employees that have to deal with the public right now. I cannot even imagine the bs they have to deal with during these uncertain times. They could probably write volumes on the good and the bad this whole situation has brought out of humanity.

As for our own family, Sarah is home from school until at least May 1st. Her spring break was extended from one week to two weeks, but other than that she will be participating in e-learning. This first week has gone off pretty well academically. Emotionally, she is not happy to be home. Getting out of the house is good for her. If I am being completely honest, it is a nice break for me too. As much as I love having her home with the other kids, the amount of emotional energy I spend on her when she is home is pretty high; the break I get when she is gone at school allows me to recharge.

We are still trying to find our new routine. I imagine that it will take a little bit longer as Bob comes home on Monday and will be working from home as well for the foreseeable future. It is going to get real interesting real quick around here. I have to believe that a lot of other families out there are in the same boat as we are.