Covid Lockdown

Like 98% of the USA and millions of people worldwide, Beanie and I are doing our best amidst the COVID-19 lockdown.

What scary and unprecedented times these are! It is so sad to read about the lives lost and families struggling with losing loved ones, people losing jobs, the economy in the ditch.  The scale of it all is almost unfathomable.

As a germaphobe, I was glad with the decision to close schools initially, and now for the school year. I would not have felt comfortable with Beane going to school in May!

We are taking social distancing very seriously. I have stopped going to stores and am getting groceries and stuff from Tar.get delivered, which I then wipe down. Unfortunately my car battery died on Thurs, so I had to call AAA for a jump and take car (and Beanie) to the shop. But it was empty and we had our masks!

While stuck at home I wanted to document some of the things we have been doing during this lockdown.

1. Since I usually work from home, the decision to have people WFH did not impact me in any way. It was business as usual. I know many of my colleagues who go into our head office are not used to it and were scrambling to get set up at home.
2. While our industry has been affected,  I still have my job, which is something to be thankful for. We have however been asked to take Friday off without Pay until the end of June. Not great, but I think a thoughtful decision by management.
3. Beanie has been showing a lot of interest in cooking and cleaning. In fact, the past three evenings, she has offered to clean the kitchen after dinner. So sweet and she does a great job. I am encouraging her helping around the house. She helped me cook dinner the other day too. As a single Mom, I always worry what if I get sick, especially now, when nobody can really come to help. So, it is important that Beanie can look after herself. She has on occasion made herself lunch (PBJ, milk, fruit etc) if I am on a long call.
4. Getting things done around the house. This has been the silver lining around this whole COVID dark cloud. Being stuck at home, I have been able to use weekends to organize the pantry, clean out the fridge, do small jobs around the house that never get done (eg unclog a drain). We also washed the car, did yard work, etc.
 5. Exercising. My FitBit loves me!! I do 6-7 days of exercise now. Luckily Beanie is old enough to go for walks with me.  She keeps good pace too. As a  result,  we go out walking almost every day since I want her to get outdoors.  I have also downloaded a Yoga app, and do 20 minutes everyday. That has helped me tremendously loosen my legs and hips, but not in term sof stress.

On the flip side:
1. Homeschooling has been a really stress. I work full-time and an very busy at work. I need long blocks of time to be on con calls and its been very stressful trying to teach Beanie as well. Luckily she is smart and can get the concept quickly, but she has a habit as kids do, of coming in to "show me  her work" - sigh!  The last 3 weeks the workload was a lot, but it kept her busy. I figured out to print out her work the night before so we were set up for the following day.
Today we got the email from the school saying that for the rest of the year and they have cut the work in half, even less. So they have only two subjects a day, instead of 5!  Geez, she will be done in 30 min...how am I supposed to work and keep her busy :-(
2. Its been tough having no alone time AT ALL in weeks. I know I am not alone in feeling this way, but maybe folks with spouses can at lease have someone help. I am stressed and frazzled and find myself losing patience. Beanie is very clingy and constantly wants to be around me. She has always been this way so I don't think it has anything to do with the current environment or situation we all find ourselves in.

Of course, none of the above matters when we look at what is going on in the country and world. All the pain and suffering, and stress and worry.

So we plod on, feeling thankful for what we do have.

How are you all coping?