Two Weeks of Quarantine

Yesterday kind of sucked and I took zero pictures and just tried to get through the day. Today, I felt better and actually got some things done that I've been avoiding. I also got in the car and drove to run an errand, so maybe that helped, too.

I guess Fridays are my day to venture to the store.

This time, the stores were almost deserted of people. I had a pretty small list: fresh produce, toilet paper, hand soap, milk, baby wipes, olive oil, butter, cheese, bread, and yeast. There were two packages of toilet paper left at Valli, which I was immensely thankful for!! There was no yeast, baby wipes or hand soap, but I was able to get everything else on the list! Which was exciting! And I didn't cry afterwards!

I stopped at Walgreens to see if maybe they had baby wipes and hand soap and they had both, but only a few left and you could only buy two hand soaps and two wipes (the travel kind). I am hoping to make a Walmart pick up order this week for the non perishable things, if I can snag a pick up time (in all honesty, I haven't checked in a while, due to anxiety). 

When I got home and dropped off all the groceries, I took any children who wanted a car ride with me to my favorite coffee shop, Meg's, for coffee. Meg's is where I go on Wednesdays when my babysitter usually comes. It's also where I go for book club once a month, and I desperately miss both things. I really, really want Meg's to still be up and thriving after all of this, so I've tried to go a couple of times since all of this started to keep supporting them. 

I also surprised the kids with a waffle maker. We'd been talking about getting one for a while (and by we, I mean me) and I thought, well, might as well be during a pandemic. They were truly so thrilled and are excited to make them on Sunday.

Today we made paper hearts to put up in the windows for people to see walking by and as a way of showing support for medical workers. Thomas decorated his hearts with Batman stickers and then screamed like a skinned cat when I tried to tape his up on the windows. He's a giver.

He's helping clean the table here. He would wipe a spot, lick the table, wipe the spot, re-lick the table, etc. (This is why he is not allowed out during the coronavirus time)

Julia's thoughts on scratch paper art:

Tonight, after saying prayers with Vivian, she quietly said to me, "Mommy, being quarantined is hard. I miss my friends." Break my heart.

Of course, it is supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow, but Sunday looks like it should be gorgeous weather, so I am going to declare tomorrow a baking/art/lego day (with some much needed chores thrown in for good measure), so we can all be outside as much as possible on Sunday.

I was thinking today, while I felt energized enough to tackle some things I had ignored or barely tried to do yesterday, that I am really thankful for my people. I'm thankful for Evan and my kids and this home we have where we can be trapped but loved (even when we're at our most unloveable). I'm thankful for our families (who are all in Pekin) who we talk to in some format daily, who are keeping us up to date on how they're doing. I'm thankful for my friends who let me vent, who also keep in contact daily, who have kiddos that are friends with my kiddos and are sending letters, video chatting, calling. I'm thankful for our neighbors, who make sure to wave or holler hello from a socially acceptable distance. This whole thing is so isolating and overwhelming, even in a house full of people. If you don't have space to process it alone or if you have too much space to process it alone and could use more people to share it with, this experience is a real eye opener in being vulnerable. What stresses me out might seem so insignificant to you, but your stresses might seem foreign to me because it wouldn't have occurred to me to be worried about them.

We are made to need people, which makes this shelter-in-place time hard. We're community based and we're being asked to keep away from our communities during this situation. I'm glad there is technology to keep up with everyone, but I CAN NOT WAIT to hug my friends again. I can not wait to plan a trip to the Madison zoo. I can not wait to let my kids roam the neighborhood with their friends again. I can not wait to visit my favorite coffee shop, to go on a proper date with Evan, to roam Target and its dollar aisle. But, most of all, I can't wait to hug our parents again. To hug my grandma. To hug our sisters and our brother in law. To squeeze our nephews and let our kids play with their cousins. To plan family lunches and dinners, roll our eyes at messes the kids have made, try to fit in all the activities my kids love to do in Pekin.