I distinctly remember a history assignment I had in high school where we were supposed to ask someone we knew how the Great Depression affected them. I asked my only living grandparent, by Grandma Selma, and I remember being surprised at her noting that she and her family were largely unaffected because they lived on a farm and were pretty much self-sufficient.

Since then, I have been aware of some of the bigger moments in history that I have lived through that my own children and grandchildren might one day ask me about. Moments like 9/11. Like, the election of our Nation’s first Black president (Yay! We will always love you, Obama!!). The impeachment but not removal of not one, but two of our White presidents (Clinton and Trump). And now, the Corona virus pandemic.

Looking back, I wish I had done a better job of preserving memories from those historic moments. I wish I had saved some newspapers, or taken some screenshots of the headlines of the day. Or even just written down my thoughts in a diary. So thankfully, with this blog I can finally make a point of documenting how this monumental moment is impacting me and my family.

It’s a little ironic because much like my grandmother during the Great Depression, my current answer (today is March 21, 2020) is that this pandemic hasn’t really had much of an impact on us at all. Not in the earth shattering way that it has for so many others already.

I am a stay at home parent, so we didn’t have to scramble for childcare, and we didn’t have to worry about me losing my job and wonder if we can survive on one income. My husband is a Nurse, so I can say with 100% certainty that he won’t be losing his job anytime soon. With small businesses closing their doors permanently and many hourly workers finding themselves with no paycheck, we know how very lucky we are to be as financially stable as we are. But that certainty comes with a price. My husband is on the front lines in this fight and that comes with the increased risk that he may pay with his life. Or that he might bring the disease home and one of us might pay with ours. Don’t get me wrong, the anxiety about the potential negative outcomes is very real, but I have to focus on where we are today and appreciate all that we currently have. If I don’t, I might go crazy.

Going on a hike and practicing our social distancing

Speaking of going crazy, we are currently under strict orders to practice “social distancing.” We haven’t been given the “shelter in place” order yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. There is only a slight difference, and I won’t get into it here, but let me tell you, social distancing is NOT easy. We are a very social family, and as a stay at home parent, part of our daily routine previously involved getting out of the house to do something that incorporated playing with others. Now, we can’t even hang out with the grandparents or cousins. It’s just not worth the risk. We stopped taking Jojo to daycare even though they have remained open. Again, it’s not worth the risk and we are committed to doing our part to help slow the spread the virus as much as we can. We are so thankful that we have a large backyard and that the weather finally got sunny so we can just be outside in the safety of our own private space. I can’t imagine what it would be like going through this in an apartment or a home with no yard. I sincerely hope that this is illustrating to governments everywhere the dire importance of having accessible outdoor space to everyone with ample room for people to keep a safe distance from one another in times of crisis like this. If there’s one thing that this pandemic has really hammered home is just how privileged my family and I really are. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll rewind a few weeks to when the coronavirus started to show up on my radar.

The first time it felt like this might be a thing that we had to pay attention to was a few weeks after my birthday (which is Feb. 28th). I remember going over to my Aunt’s house for dinner on Friday February 6th. My sister cancelled last minute because she is pregnant with her first child and she was being “paranoid.” We understood. What we didn’t understand, and discussed much, was what the big deal was. All we had were the numbers from China, and the mortality rate didn’t seem all that bad. It seemed like the risk was mostly for elderly people who had existing conditions that compromised their immune system. What did we need to be afraid of? Let’s just all get the virus and let it run its course. Most of us would be fine. I wasn’t worried for myself or my immediate family, but I was worried about my parents and my husband’s parents. Nearly all of them fit into the highest risk category. But it seemed like they could hunker down for a bit and everything would probably be fine. It wasn’t until some graphs came out a few days later explaining what “flattening the curve” meant that we all started to pay attention.

And also Italy. A few days later, there was Italy. News reports came in about how overwhelmed their hospitals were. They were having to resort to wartime triage practices and change how they decided who could be admitted to the ICU or not. The criteria was no longer just about who was the most critical. They now also had to consider who was the most likely to have a beneficial outcome. That calculation sometimes included years left to live. The problem with overwhelming the system is that if a ton of sick people come in all at once, that takes personnel, resources, and beds. Beds that are needed for people who get in a car crash. For people who have a stroke. For people who have cancer that would normally be treatable but now no longer is because we don’t have adequate supplies or beds or personnel to help you. The reports from Italy were very bleak and we all started to get it. So when the greater Seattle area became the nation’s hotbed for the virus, we were willing to comply with the steps that our local government took to help slow the spread of this novel coronavirus.

But even so, I remember last week when they shut down the schools that it seemed drastic. We were supposed to host PEPS that Thursday, March 12th, but we cancelled even though at the time it felt a bit extreme. Fast forward to now and people are coming out of the woodwork criticizing how slow Gov. Inslee was to act on this (even though he was MUCH quicker to react than the federal government.)

It’s odd looking at my personal timeline and realizing that it’s only been about three weeks since this has had any impact on my life. The first week was awareness that it even existed and that it had reached our shores, the second was slight social distancing (and being self-conscious about it because many people didn’t “buy into it” yet), the third being full on lock-down mode. We’re talking, stores are out of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, pasta, beans and bread mode. It’s so strange. It definitely feels like the calm before the storm.

They have setup a temporary field hospital with 200 beds at the Shoreline soccer fields a few blocks from my house. My husband says the hospital is pretty normal still, but that they think it’s going to hit hard within the next two weeks. We are all bracing for impact. Hoping that somehow we aren’t hit. That somehow everyone riding in our car will be safe. But the numbers indicate that it’s unlikely we’ll get to be so lucky. So for now, I need to try and hug my kiddos a little tighter, take in the good moments and really cherish them. Try not to get frustrated at being cooped up and unable to live our normal lives. Try to understand that the new normal might be very different from what we all knew before this outbreak. I can only hope that it alters the political situation for the better. But I’m not convinced that our country will ever really recover from this catastrophe. To be clear, I’m not talking about the virus. I’m talking about our entire system that values money and “freedom” over a government that is able to adequately look after its people. About a country that would vote someone like Trump into office, and then think he is doing a good job handling this terrible crisis. It will be interesting to see what History will have to say about this strange era.

For now, all I can say is stay safe and stay sane everyone. We will get through this.

Having to stay at home means getting lots of projects done! We built a kiddo picnic table to match the full-size one we made to put on our deck last year. We also regularly catch up with our neighbors by yelling from across the street at one another.
Getting ready for our picnic dinner in the back of grandpa’s truck. It was parked in front of our house since we were borrowing it for more project work.
With social distancing keeping us in the house much more, we have been getting creative in finding ways to make getting out of the house exciting. I can’t fully explain how elated my girls were to have a picnic dinner in the truck bed. A good reminder that sometimes it really is the simple things in life that make all the difference.

Here are some interesting links for reference:

https://www.sciencealert.com/dragging-out-the-coronavirus-epidemic-is-important-in-saving-lives

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/