COVID-19 LIFE #3

Today I ventured out to the grocery store!  Originally I was going to wait until next week but logistics are a little harder for me because I need Jon to watch the kids while I go.  My thought was that there would be less people at 10 am on a Friday than anytime on a Saturday or after 5 pm during the week.  So off I went with great fear and trepidation! 

My first stop was at our church....I will confess I liberated some Clorox wipes and spray that I knew were there.  I may have been the one to buy them in the first place I'm not sure but I will compensate the church for them one day!!!!   Thus more fully armed I ended up in the parking lot of Publix.  It wasn't too crowded.  In the van I suited up, got my mask on and the gloves  The mask was a lot more complicated than the ones I've used before and kept sliding off my hair.  It took a bit but I got it stable on my face/hair before I got out.  I certainly didn't want to touch my face once I got in the store.  Just guessing I'd say about 35% of people had gloves on and 20% had on masks.  Usually the folks who had on masks had on gloves too.  Surprisingly the store was pretty stocked.  Fruits and vegetables were full  there was some meat- only two packet of fresh chicken per person was allowed.  There was one lean pork roast that I grabbed up ( that'll make 2 Brunswick stews Sarah's favorite food) There was frozen chicken that was buy 1 get 1 free! 

The paper aisle was quite bare looking so I did not even go down it/  Because of the various advertisements I did go down some of the boxed food aisles and they were quite empty.  There was no instant mashed potatoes but plenty of real potatoes!  It seems like people did not want to work too hard with their cooking!  My plan is not to return until next Friday at the earliest!  But next week I may have to brave Walmart for dog and cat food!!!


I did a little 'dance" trying to get the groceries in my van with some help from a Publix associate.  I wipe down all the drinks bottles I'd bought with a wipe after cleaning my gloves.  Then we loaded the car.  After grocery shopping it was time to buy gas.  Gas is $1.89 a gallon here!  We can not remember the last time it was so low! At the grocery store I"d turned my gloves inside out ( a trick I learned from a nurse) so the clean inside of the hand was now the outer part.  I then laid them on the floorboard of the van.  At the gas station I put on a new pair of gloves to pump the gas and threw away the first pair of gloves along with the second pair after I was done pumping the gas.  Once back in the van I still put on hand sanitizer.  Then once I got home I changed and put my clothes in the laundry machine.  (I did not strip on the porch LOL)

Being out in public as the cornovirus cases continue to raise was scary to me.  It's not that I'm so afraid for my health (although I am starting to have a little concern) but I'm so very afraid to bring it back home to my family!!!!!   My three youngest children are at much higher risk than other children  We will continue to do all we can to keep them safe and well. 

We are going outside daily for 15 minutes of direct sunlight then an hour of swinging in the shade.  Usually in the late afternoon I take Sarah out on the front porch and we sit on the swing together.  She is a snuggle bug and is loving us all being home with no interruptions.  She loves for me to "hold" her, she's getting bigger than my lap!  Or she will sit with her hand in mine, sometimes she'll reach for both hands so she can hold them.  She's so sweet.  Sam does like to sit with us at night and get his back rubbed but during the day he likes to play with toys in his room.  All his toys make noise...lots of noise.  I've learned to tune them out. 

We are watching a lot of TV- I'm rewatching some shows.  I just finished Call The Midwives  I love that show.  I'll probably be judged for this but I'm rewatching The Sopranos.  I love that show too but I do a bit of fast forwarding through some scenes.  I totally relate to that show maybe because Tony and Camilla are middle aged and dealing with their kids!  LOL everyone has issues even mobsters!  Though the years I've been more of a book reader than a movie or TV watcher.  One of the reasons is that I hate commercials and don't like the hassle of DVRs.  So I'm a Netflex HULU Prime Disney HBO girl!  I have NO idea what's on regular TV and never watch it.  Actually I never have watched regular TV but I'm trying to catch up with the rest of y'all now by binge watching at night.  But I still read- and with much chagrin I will admit I'm now a Kindle girl....I've not bought a real book in the past year. One of my best friends started using Kindle before me and I thought it was jsut awful.....oh how the mighty have fallen!   I do the monthly $10 Kindle subscription and believe me I get my money's worth!  Right now I'm reading a bunch of COZY mystery books.  They are very G rated and some even talk about God.  Maybe I'll blog about that experience one day. 

Anyhow stay safe out there and try and enjoy this extra time with your family.  Thankfully all the friends I asked prayer for are getting better, although several  are still on a vent

COVID-19 Life take 2

Although I'm a stay at home mom and homeschool our four youngest, I really am noticing how often I used to run out for food, eating out or pick up, going to meet friends, church, therapy, rides for our son to work and other things, errands etc....  I've not gone out anywhere now for almost a week  The kids have been home now for almost two weeks.  Shad took "a leave form work" before his restaurant shut down and I'm so glad he did.  My plan is to not go out until next Friday (a week from tomorrow) if possible.  The more we stay in the better.  The kids will not be going anywhere for the foreseeable future

Jon is still working but under strict guidelines and they get strict daily.  If he is around anyone he wears gloves and a mask but he mostly works in his office.  When he gets home, he undresses on the porch (good thing we live in the country!)  The clothes go in the laundry and he washes up before putting on clean clothes.  I then clean off any door handle he has touched.  It's not perfect but it's the best we can do.

None of this is new for us.  We've gone through similar things before while others didn't think twice about the flu season.  Life is different when you have special needs kids with health issues.

While this COVID-19 is terrifying - the regular flu season is terrifying to us some years.  This is definitely worse.   Today I saw a video of the hospital in NYC where Steve was born and where I lost the twins.  It is over run by COVID-19 patients.  They are running out of respirators and over crowed.  Many of their staff are now sick.  This is not regular flu season.

Living in Florida we've gone through many weather related issues.  I treated this situation similar to that and did all the basics.  We had our generator serviced and the gas tank filled.  We filled our vehicles up with gas.  We stocked up on food.  I did all the laundry (and continue to keep it up)  There were some things I did differently- I didn't worry too much about water and am not really concerned about losing electricity during this quarantine  time, I did worry that hurricane season is coming and should this last longer, I might not be able to get someone out here to do all those things for us!

We are not eating out at all.  I know folks feel we should all support restaurants but I just can't.  We support them quite nicely during the year but right now I want as few people involved in our food prep as possible.  Yes I know even buying from the store, others have touched things just by putting them on shelves but just think how many more people end up touching food prepared in a restaurant!

So besides cooking, cleaning and doing projects.... we are outside more.  The kids go out and swing every day for an hour.  We also are sitting in the sun for at least 15 minutes a day -their swing set is under some trees.  I figure the more outside time the better.  Yesterday Shad did a photo shoot for Sarah.  We figure we probably won't get Easter pictures this year because even if things get better, I'll probably still keep them home for a little bit longer to be safe.   We would have done shots for Sam but..... I cut his hair last week in order not to take him to a hair salon.... Oh Lord.... at first it looked good, then I thought I'd just trim by his ear a little more.... I cut a swath of hair  and then had to shave his head to match.  He seems to love it, sometimes I come into his room and he's rubbing his bald head quite happily.....


Sarah is so pretty in these pictures

So everyone stay safe and stay home as much as possible!

COVID-19 Life

At this point in my life I don't have any words to say..  We've been dealing with some family issues for a few months.  As well as dealing with  major issues with the little kids' benefits.  Just our personal issues have been almost more than I can bear and I can bear a lot!  But now the whole world is facing a crises... we have a friend on life support and know of several others who are also near death due to the Coronavirus 

Until last weekend I wasn't too terribly worried about it but remember my threshold is rather high.  We treat every flu season with respect.  Just a few years ago I self isolated for 8 weeks for Sam's sake.  He was at high risk and we just decided to stay home with him although he and all the rest of us had gotten the flu shot.  Of course my husband worked but we had (and have) strict rules on how we operate to ensure the least exposure to everyone else.  But now having faces to this new strain of virus makes it even more real & scary.

Facebook has taught me there is some crazy as in cray cray people in the world.  The crazy theories that I've heard makes me think we have closed way too many mental hospitals down!  Chances are you've heard them too...maybe you believe some of them....I don't know. I hope not for your sake.  But the craziness has taken away most of the good things about FB.  I just can't handle another theory or people whining about toilet paper.... WHY WHY WHY are people so obsessed about TP?  That's the biggest mystery to me!

Being raised by a woman who was born in 1899 gives me a different perspective than many have.  She and her siblings (who were still around when I was young) had lived through WWI, the Spanish Flu,  the stock market crash, WWII. Korea War, the Cuban Missile Crises, Vietnam etc.... They were raised in disasters!  Just think by the time she was 41 she'd lived through 4 major world wide disasters! 

Growing up hearing stories relived by my two great aunts and my grandmother made things very real to me.  To be honest I've always thought 'something" would happen to my generation.  I just didn't think THIS would be it. 

Living in Florida we've had to deal with many hurricanes and even flooding last year.  Every situation has taught me more about being prepared for hard times.  I'm by no means a real Prepper -I don't have a BOB (bug out bag) I'd need a bug out U-Haul with all my kids and their various needs.  But I learned from my aunt not to let the cupboards get bare!

Back in 2004 (yes the same year Sam was born) we had FOUR hurricanes back to back  One did not affect our area BUT it affected us as we HAD to be in Miami for Sam during it.  During the time span these four hurricanes were hitting Florida we moved from the house we had been leasing to a trailer at a prison...  We made it through the first 3 alright and somehow we didn't really pay much attention to #4... but that sucker came in like a wrecking ball.... we had damage to our trailer, no electricity for over a week, no phone service, everything in the small town near the prison was closed down no electricity to run the gas pumps....it was HORRIBLE.  We couldn't even leave town for a couple of days because their were trees all over the roads.    Thankfully the Red Cross brought out food and ice those first few days.  We had to sleep in the administrative office of the prison so we could run Sam's machines!  At that point he was on an apnea monitor, oxygen and a suction machine.  We were so unprepared!   I vowed I'd never let that happen again. 

This virus and the far reaching effects of it has shown me that I need to step up my game even more. Probably you are thinking the same thing.  Sometimes it comes to choices.  A few weeks ago when this whole thing was just starting up here in the US, we got a tax refund and instead of spending it on something "fun' for the family like we normally do,  I went and spent about $400 extra on groceries.  Now for a family our size that's not huge but I shop pretty thrifty and got quite a bit for it.  After I did it, I felt a little foolish- it wasn't like my cupboard was bare and at the time no one thought it would become such a problem here.  In fact we laughed about it...we are not laughing now!  And don't worry I wasn't 'hoarding" at that time there was plenty for everyone.  My little spending fling was quickly restocked & didn't make a big difference to the stores.  But it's made the difference for us now-I"m far enough ahead I can limit my exposure in the grocery store until at least next weekend.  In the future, I'm going to stock up more food and other needs while there's no issues going on (so no one can say I'm hoarding)  I'd advise you to do the same.  Unfortunately I'm more concerned about next flu season if this one does anything like the Spanish Flu did- the second go around hit harder.  Hopefully by that time the vaccine will be out and the new viral meds will be in place for anyone who needs them! 

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So what have you been doing to fill your time if your'e home?  We've been doing so many projects it's crazy.  Later this week I'll share some of the things we've been doing.  When I'm stressed I  WORK!   My guess is I'm trying to have some control of the situation and working on a project makes me think I do!  It probably drives my family crazy since some of them have to help me LOL
But at least things get done. 

Please remember my friends & some others we know in your prayers...Phyllis, Duane, Ron, Greg, the Carpenter's and our friend David's orphanage in Haiti along with the orphanage our girls would be in if they were still in Ukraine-there's alot of kids there we care for!  So many needs!!!