Tuesday, March 17, 2020

The world is a scary, stressful place right now. This COVID-19 virus has been challenging for SO many reasons. It has completely upturned the lives of EVERYONE, there is not one single person in the country that this virus has NOT affected. This social-distancing is somewhat easy for those of us who do it on the regular due to our chronic illnesses, but to do it for at least 3 weeks, with kids, is a completely different story. When I self-quarantine, it’s for a couple days, and I pretty much don’t leave my bed. It’s only, technically, day two of “homeschooling” and let's just say, there’s a reason I NEVER wanted to be a teacher nor have I EVER considered homeschooling. I’m horrible at keeping a routine and I’m not very organized (ask my mom if you don’t believe me). On top of the “homeschooling” I’ve been trying to stay on top of all our medical “stuff” like appointments that need to be cancelled and prescriptions that need renewals and refills. I’ve been put on hold more times than I can count, and have had to listen to the same pitchy “elevator music” over and over, day after day, just trying to get prescriptions renewed and appointments cancelled and if I’m lucky, rescheduled. 

I’ve become the “mean mom” and have had to turn away neighborhood friends, and tell my boys that they can play outside, but NOT with friends, only with each other...let me just say, they can rarely be in the same room without starting some sort of argument/fight, so I’m not surprised they have yet to play TOGETHER outside. I’m lucky enough to live a block away from my parent’s house, so Landon has been spending his time helping my dad and neighbor’s with yard work during the day and keeping busy over there while I try to do some “homeschooling” with Levi. Meanwhile, the stores are still running out of toilet paper, milk, meat, etc. The restaurants and bars have ALL banned customers from dining in, therefore the bars are completely closed but most restaurants are still offering delivery and curbside pick-up. As a parent of a child who is prone to severe, life-threatening respiratory infections and also as someone who happens to fall in the high-risk category due to multiple chronic illnesses, these extreme measures are actually A-OKAY with me. Unfortunately I had 5 very important appointments scheduled during the next 3 weeks and ALL of them have been cancelled, none of them are able to be rescheduled until further notice, so the waiting game continues. I pray that if we ALL work together and keep up the social-distancing as much as humanly possible, that we decrease the severity of this contagious virus that continues to kill and spread like wildfire. Wash your hands. Stay home. Wash your hands. Help those who are vulnerable. Wash your hands. Pray, send positive vibes and just keep hoping that we can contain and stop COVID-19 sooner rather than later. And for the love of all that is good STOP HOARDING TOILET PAPER!!!!

With Love and Hope always,

Sarah aka Hopeful Dreamer