It has officially been three weeks that my family and I have been strict about our social distancing. As of one week ago, the U.S. became the #1 country in the world for number of reported cases. As of yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee extended the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order for another month. As the cases climb worldwide, and the death toll gets steadily larger, most people are on board with these strict measures. Everyone understands the need to flatten the curve, and the need to get a vaccine in order for people to feel safe living with this virus among us. What we don’t feel safe about, however, is what life “after the virus” is going to look like. Aside from the loss of lives as a result of Covid-19, we are also dealing with extreme loss of livlihoods. Everyone is worried about the economy, and nobody has an answer for how to keep it from crashing. There is real fear about a second Great Depression that may come as a result of all this. Again, what has been made abundantly clear for me is that my family and I are incredibly privilaged. We have families who could help support us if anything happened. As a nurse, Jon has a job that will always be in need. Almost nothing has changed for us through this strange time. We know we are lucky. We just hope we can keep that luck on our side when the expected spike in cases hits (likely sometime in the next few weeks). Until then, I will just try to keep being grateful and documenting my thoughts and observations about living through this pandemic.

Here are the the things that come to mind about how life has changed in the last month:

  • When shopping at any grocery store, there are certain aisles that are almost always empty. Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pasta, dry beans, rice, flour, yeast.
  • I wear dish washing gloves when I go grocery shopping now. I bring hand sanitizer with me. I use bleach spray on the gloves when I get done with shopping and then spray/wipe down all the things we purchased.
  • There is a major PPE shortage in hospitals around the country. Here is an article about the situation in LA for reference. We keep hearing that hospitals are not prepared for the expected surge in Covid-19 patients. People are sewing masks and donating them to hospitals because the government hasn’t been able to fix the supply chain issue. Private companies are stepping up, but government hasn’t mandated it or stepped in to create a centralized response.
  • People are hanging Christmas lights up to spread cheer during these uncertain times.
  • Another fun community mood booster is scavenger hunts. People are putting teddy bears in windows so families can sing or read the story about going on a bear hunt while looking for them in windows of houses as people are out on walks around the neighborhood. Another show of solidarity I’ve heard about is hanging hearts in the windows.
We have a giant Olaf setup in our window : )
The stuffies in our window to help spread some cheer.
  • We are getting sooooooo many yard projects done! I have been able to scavenge a ton of paving stones and bricks so have been working to get them all setup as quickly as possible. Our yard is going to look amazing when this quarantine is finally lifted, lol!
  • A load of bricks I picked up that was thankfully just down the hill from our house.
  • Cleaning the mortar off the bricks.
  • These will keep me busy for a while!
  • Jon helping build the raspberry trellis
  • Jon built a beautiful picnic table for our kiddos
  • Testing it out
  • Planting potatoes with the kiddos. Going to see how they do in pots this year. We also planted some in the ground since we know that works ; )
  • Putting the soil into our new planter boxes
  • Everyone helping unload the dirt
  • Enjoying the new picnic table!
Here are some of the projects we have been working on during our social distancing!
A few of the brick laying projects in progress. We just built these planter boxes too!
  • We have the radio on all the time now, tuned to NPR. It’s nice to get regular updates on the state of the pandemic.
  • On 3/26 there was a movement going around to make noise at 8pm to show support for essential workers.
  • It’s been really hard that we can’t let Jojo and Phoebe play when they see each other on the street. They don’t understand or respect the rule, but it’s so important that they stay apart right now. Often we will all be walking outside around the same time, or will walk by one another’s houses and they immediately want to play.
  • After a month of social distancing, we are craving time with other people and have started doing a LOT more FaceTime chats with people. My parents don’t have iPhones so we just got What’sApp a few days ago and started video chatting with them. Last night, our PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) group had a Zoom happy hour. It’s been really nice getting to feel a little connected again.
  • There have been some awesome memes and twitter posts. I’ll do an entire post of my favorites just so I’ll always be able to find them. Here’s one that is very fitting for me ; )
My garden before self quarantine vs my garden after self ...
  • A prediction that there will be a baby boom or a divorce tsunami in the aftermath of this pandemic. Corona Divorce – vs. Coronababies.
  • I think it would be a really challenging time to be pregnant. I’ve heard that many patients are not having in person appointments. I can’t imagine how that would be for first time pregnancy. Meanwhile, my sister is pregnant for the first time. My heart goes out to her. My cousin is pregnant too and is considering a home birth – apparently there is going to be a wave of at-home births and doulas are booked solid. I’ve heard stories about women delivering in this current setting that not allowed to have their husband in the room or have any visitors. Aside from the challenge of what is likely a more stressful delivery, there is the added challenge of not really being able to have much help. My friend just had a baby and her parents were supposed to come help for two weeks, but now can’t even come see her or the new baby. She was also looking forward to having a relaxing maternity leave with just her and her new daughter, but daycare is closed so now she has to try and entertain her toddler and deal with new kiddo all by herself. It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just VERY different and more stressful than what her original expectation had been.
  • Share plants and Buy Nothing have had to ask people to only post ISOs if they are really in need. No gifting unless it’s to help someone in need.
  • Term “Boomer remover” is a thing
  • My husband and I were talking about how our lifestyle didn’t really change that much. Since I stay home and Jon is a nurse, we see each other all the time anyway. And the fact that our kids aren’t in school means we were used to having to entertain them all the time anyway. And they aren’t old enough for us to have to worry about teaching them anything. Most people aren’t used to being around one another as much as we are. We are lucky at how little this has impacted us so far.
  • We hear that the first two weeks in April are going to be when the slam is going to hit for WA.
  • Monday, March 23rd Gov. Jay Inslee issued original Stay Home, Stay Healthy order. This was WA’s version of “shelter in place.” Basically, people weren’t being serious enough about social distancing, so now it is enforceable by law. Originally this was supposed to last for two weeks, but has now been extended through the month of April. There have been mixed reviews about whether Inslee has been doing a good job. Many criticize how many companies were on the list of “essential business” and allowed to stay open. My take on that is his office is trying to minimize impact on the economy, but still keep as many people home as possible. Others have complained that he has been too slow to act, saying that he should’ve been more like California and issued a “Shelter in Place” order as soon as the virus hit Washington. My response to that is compare his response to that of the President. Inslee has been ahead every step of the way, and has been working with scientists rather than being offended by their advice. Initially, if a school found out there had been an infected person on campus, certain school districts closed that school for two weeks and we all thought they were crazy. When entire school districts shut down for social distancing measures we all thought it was a bit much. My point is, it often takes a while for people to understand the gravity of the situation. The Leader’s job is to take measures to ensure the safety of the public, but also make sure the public can still function. I guess I could write an entire post on this, so I’ll stop here with my opinion that Gov. Inslee is doing a wonderful job.
  • Social distancing is working! https://news.yahoo.com/flattening-the-curve-on-coronavirus-what-california-and-washington-can-teach-the-world-130405639.html

Interesting Links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/02/coronavirus-latest-news/

https://www.geekwire.com/2020/uw-medicine-sets-tents-prepare-surge-patients-covid-19-outbreak/

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/surge-of-coronavirus-patients-expected-as-officials-marshal-emergency-supplies-health-workers-test-positive/