Life of the Quarantined: Week 1

This is a look back on our first week of quarantine starting over 3 weeks ago.  The first week wasn't too out-of-the-ordinary for us.  The kids hadn't started getting restless, my husband was still working, and it was homeschool and keep-the-kids-alive as usual for us.  With added anxiety,  And with new shutdowns and restrictions daily.

Quarantine Day 1:
I spent the day naively believing that nothing more would be shut down and this all would only last 2 weeks.
My husband went out to get groceries and discovered the run on everything, especially toilet paper.

Quarantine Day 2:
I heard that the libraries might be closing down and took my kids out to the what was probably the last story time in the state, where my daughter wiped her snot all over the library table and I freaked out sanitizing it because I was sure people would think I was purposely spreading COVID-19.  I had my oldest get 2-3 weeks of reading material at the library so we were stocked until they opened again.
My daughter's runny nose developed into a cough and then a fever later in the day.  Of course she doesn't have it.  My sister had told me that kids medicines were becoming scarce at stores in the city and weren't available to order from Target or Amazon.  Walmarts announced they were shortening their hours.  If all 4 get sick there's no way we have enough meds.  I freaked out and went out at 11 PM to stock up on meds while they're still available and get some of the last acetaminophen in-stock.  They didn't have the yellow-dye-free stuff my son needs so we'll have to make due with what we have at home for him.  I also got someone else's snot all over my sleeve from the shelf and thoroughly sanitized myself.  I picked up a few other things, completely forgetting to see if we need diapers (we did).

Quarantine Day 3:
No church.  Tried to get used to having nowhere to go.
My second oldest son developed a runny nose, cough, and a fever.  What is going on?  My kids never get coughs.  Do they have it?????
I realized we'll need diapers.  I was sure Walmart will be out because they were out of everything else.  Amazon was out.  Fortunately, we found a bunch leftover from my daughter in the loft.  They should last until I can get my order from Target.

Quarantine Days 4 and 5:
We started what we thought we be an almost-normal be a normal week for us, with the exception of not having any evening activities and my husband driving all over the tri-county area looking for toilet paper and diapers.
My oldest was pretty anxious about the whole thing so we had some talks about it.  He also developed cough.  What?!  He never gets sick!  
I found out my diaper shipment won't be coming for over a week later than planned.

Quarantine Day 6:
KMs quarantined birthday.  Not a huge deal for a toddler, but we had to tell the kids we won't be able to go to the bounce house like we usually do for birthdays.
Kids were all better except for running noses.  Did they have it?

(Sidenote: I talked to my pediatrician sister later about their sickness and she said it was very unlikely they had coronavirus.)


Quarantine Day 7:
We got this social distancing thing down.  (And I realized I should start making sure to take pictures to document this hopefully once-in-a-lifetime experience.)

My husband does the opposite of social distancing, traveling to 5 stores in 2 counties to finally find toilet paper and diapers.  We are good on both for several weeks.

Quarantine

Quarantine.

That's something they did like a hundred years ago right?  That's only in those public health books I used to like to read right? We're way too advanced a society to ever need to quarantine.

Welcome to 2020, people.

I keep telling my children this is what they're going to tell their children and grandchildren about.  This is their "walk to school 6 miles uphill both ways in a blizzard with only rock to eat for lunch" story.

This is momentous history.

So I felt I should document some of it.  So, first, let's start with a day-by-day play-by play.  This will be kind of an outline that I will expland on later.

(Also, please don't judge my lack of news knowledge for the past 3 months.  My mom used to say she didn't know what happened in the world in the 80s because that's when she was raising babies.  I didn't doubt her, but I totally get that now.  Plus, we don't watch TV and I don't usually read news because it's all so biased.)

-sometime in January -
My husband, knowing that I have been in hormone fog for months, told me, "I don't know if you've heard about this but there's a really bad virus in China."  It will never effect us.  That's China, this is America.  And I wentback to snuggling my baby.

-a few days later -
My husband told my seven-year-old son about something he read about a hospital in China being constructed in some short amount of time.  I tried to act like I know something about it, but really I had been to foggy to think about looking up the virus in China, even though that's the kind of thing that interests me.

-a Sunday in January -
My seven-year-old reported in Sunday School the kids were talking about a country they won't let you leave.  I laughed because I remember kids saying stuff like that about China at that age.  And then my husband said that it's true about China right now.  Oh, yeah, I should probably look that up.

-all through February -
I went about my life thinking that the mysterious virus from China is keeping itself and it's problems over there.  I usually don't read much news because I'm skeptical that anyone is telling the truth.  I heard a few things about coronavirus being on cruise ships and around the world, but didn't think much of it.  Looking back, I wish I had kept up on it all, but I was still so foggy and focused on raising and educating my kids I didn't think much of it.

- March 8-ish
My husband mentioned that high school basketball state championships will be played without an audience due to coronavirus.  Huh?  Really?  

-early March -
My sister mentioned she's working from home in a trial to make sure it will work in case they all have to for COVID-19.  I was so confused about it.  That's kind of drastic isn't it?

-March 12 -
I heard the term "social distancing" for the first time.

-March 13 -
My sister texted me and says, "I don't know if you've been following the coronavirus stuff but they'll probably close schools for the next 2 weeks and I'll be working from home.  They've canceled all after school activities until the end of March." Seriously?
And that's when I finally woke up and started following all of this and reading everything I could on it.

At first I didn't think it would effect us much, after all we homeschool and are home most of the day. 

-March 14 -
All schools in Ohio closed for 3 weeks.  Gatherings were limited.  Soccer was canceled.  Story times were canceled.
My husband tried to get groceries while everyone is out panic-buying.
We tried to explain all this to our kids without getting my anxiety-prone seven-year-old too worried.

-March 13 -
Church is canceled and would be online.  My son's church club was canceled.  Soccer season was postponed until after April 15.
We tell the kids in what will become a daily disappointment update.

-March 14 -
We went to what was probably the last story time in the state for a while.

-March 15 -
Restaurants are closed to dining in.  Not a huge deal, my kids can't eat at restaurants anyway.  But things were getting scary.

-March 16 -
More things were closed.  Voting the next day is canceled, then not canceled, then canceled again.

-March 17 -
Even more things were closed.  We heard my the major automobile manufacturer my husband's factory supplies would not be running production the next week.

-March 19 -
We started looking at the possibility of the state "locking down" and my husband not working for awhile.

-March 21 -
We squeezed in a small (<10 persons) birthday gathering the day before the state orders a lockdown.

-March 22 -
No church again.
State ordered a lockdown.  My husband is considered non-essential and would not be working for at least 2 weeks.
People panic-buy everything from stores again.

-March 23 -
My husband fortunately was able to find milk.  He came home from work early and would be home the next 2 weeks.


And now we settle in for the long haul of not going anywhere, not knowing when we'll be allowed to go anywhere.  I've been compulsively reading everything I can and over-analyzing stats, discussing everything with my sister and my best friend who lives several states away, alternating between terrified it will come to my family and convinced it's all a conspiracy theory and every thought in between.

Next time I'll tell about how my kids are keeping themselves busy.

A Coherent Thought

I had a coherent thought the other day.
I don’t even remember what it was because I was so shocked by it and then it flitted away almost as quickly as it came.

After a year and a half of grief, anxiety, a whole bunch of hormones, and about 15 months almost straight of being pregnant and I don’t even remember what it’s like to think clearly. But I’m ready to start working on getting back to a resemblance of my old self.

I’ve been told several times by well-meaning people that “these things happen for a reason.”  I have a whole list of thoughts on that I’ll save for a different time and place but I’ve come to realize that I need to make this “reason” happen. I’m not quite sure what that looks like yet but I have an idea.

I’m hoping to get back to writing more again.  I’ve found it so hard to write the past year and half, not wanting to share how I was feeling but also feeling like it was wrong to post something light-hearted.  

I want to start to share some deeper thoughts (if I’m ever brave enough to put myself out there that much) but want to keep this a fun place to share about my kids’ antics, so to see a different side of my life see:  www.sunflowersandmorningglories.blogspot.com

I'm considering starting to post our adventures on instagram (coming way late to that party I know) but we'll see.  I don't like posting many pictures of my kids.

To see the slowest work-in-progress of a food intolerance blog ever see: mspichef.home.blog