COVID-19 Chronicles 2020: Everything Has Gotten REAL

When COVID-19 hit Louisiana, it spread like a wildfire.  It seemed as if overnight, cases were doubling.  In an attempt to "flatten the curve" and not completely overwhelm our healthcare system, we have been ordered to "stay in place" until April 12th.  All non-essential businesses have been closed, restaurants are operating on a take out or delivery only basis, schools are closed, most businesses have ordered employees to work from home.  We have been asked to grocery shop on a weekly basis only.  We are creating a whole new normal here, even if it is temporary.

I'll be honest, when the Governor announced the closing of schools for weeks, that was the first moment a real sense of fear washed over me.  I had been feeling pretty safe all along, knowing that I was personally trying to minimize outings and watching for signs of illness in those around me.  But seeing the schools close for several weeks, made me realized this thing was spreading so fast that this seemed like the only way to slow the spread.  The move to shut down our state has been and will be devastating for our Louisiana families and businesses.

This entire experience has been an emotional, mental and physically challenging one for us all.  In all of this, it is important that we extend a little grace to ourselves.  We will not be able to be great at all of the new tasks we are juggling.  That's okay.  Many of us are working from home, while teaching our children and trying to keep our families entertained.  We're cooking, cleaning and working on projects previously put on the back burner.  In all this, I have been trying to take advantage of this slower pace of life.  The commutes are gone, the extracurricular activities have been halted.  It seems many of the distractions have been eliminated for the time being.

Particularly for our family, one of the hardest things to deal with during this "stay in" period has been the Little Mister's birthday.  We had to postpone his party and explain to him that no one was allowed to come over to the house for his birthday.  His first question was, "Is my birthday cancelled?"  Immediately I had to choke back the tears when he asked that question.  We told him it would be just the four of us and we would make sure he still had a special day. 

His birthday was earlier this week and we did just as we said we would do.  He wore his birthday crown, sent home by his teacher, and was able to log onto Zoom and see some of his classmates.  Our family and his friends sent him videos and FaceTimed him.  We made his favorite food...pizza.  I made him a cake, which I will feature later here on the blog.  We used Zoom to create a meeting when so our family and friends could sing "Happy Birthday" to him at the same time.  We did everything we could to make his day special.  It seemed to work well because he kept saying he had a great day.

Although this is a stressful and uncertain time for many of us, I am determined to look at the positives in this situation.  We are getting to spend lots of family time over the next few weeks.  No matter how challenging it may be, I am still grateful.  I am also using this time to tackle some projects I have been meaning to do.  Hopefully I will be able to blog more.  I have resolved to make this "stay in place" work well for me and our family.  I'll let you know how it goes...