Adjusting to a new normal

It's been about a week since I last posted and so much has changed since then. Frankly it's all a bit overwhelming and it's easy to get lost in all the news reports and information being thrown at us. My thoughts here may not be very cohesive or strung together perfectly, but that definitely sums up my how my brain feels these days.

Okay, not an exact figure, but about two weeks ago there were only 20-30 cases of the virus in the US. Last night when we went to bed there had been 4,500 new cases, just yesterday! Every day there have been new announcements from federal and state levels of what is allowed. The current stat is 16,315 cases in the US with 220 deaths. The numbers are skyrocketing!

School: Was cancelled for one week, but is now cancelled until April 3rd (at the earliest, some cities have already cancelled for the rest of the school year). Distance learning is the new term when it comes to schooling. All teachers came back to the school and were given about a day and a half to re-format their classes so things can be done online. Google classroom and Zoom are their new friends. The kids will start their new learning on Monday and have the week to complete the assignments and get them turned in by the following Monday. Anyone who doesn't have internet access can pick up a paper packet from the school on Mondays and when they turn it in the next Monday they go home with the new packet. I'm curious to see what this will actually be like and how much time will be taken up with various video conferences with teachers, playing tests for band, and google classroom assignments.

The kids were particularly excited that the state standardized testing was canceled

Work: For me that obviously means I cannot substitute teach or accompany. For Dan his travel has been banned for the next two months. He is not allowed to take leave or travel anywhere in the US or internationally. This makes it nearly impossible to do his recruiting job, and it was a busy time of the year for applicants. But as colleges are meeting online as well, the level interest will likely wane for a bit anyways. Dan was going in to work on base for a few days, but now his brigade is tele-working, AKA working from home. As I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of people are now working from home and their kids are home and life is just super different. It's hard to stay focused and get things done when there are lots of distractions.

Life: Everything has been cancelled. Literally everything. The government has gone from not allowing gatherings of 500+ people, to 100, to 50 and now 10. So at first that meant no broadway shows, concerts, conferences, etc. But now it really is only grocery stores and hospitals that are functioning at full capacity. All restaurants and bars are closed, with only to-go or curbside meal options left. All gyms are closed. Any places of business that might have more than 10 people have limited their hours or closed. Movie theaters are closed! It really is quite remarkable to see how much everything has changed little by little. Things that really should be quite shocking are now just part of the new normal. There something new every day as we try to limit contact. Social Distancing is what they're calling it. Nobody is having anyone over at their house. Everyone is staying home and attempting to slow the spread of the virus so we don't overwhelm our hospitals. The newest big restriction is that the ENTIRE state of California is on lockdown. Yikes. It seems like once one state or city does something that eventually it will happen to us.

Church: We already knew that church was no longer having gatherings at the buildings and we were to do our own family service. There have been a few more changes even since that huge announcement. They've changed temple worship to only living ordinances, and even then there are restrictions on where you can schedule those. They really don't want people traveling for weddings and such. General conference was already going to not be attended by the general public, but they've scaled it down even farther to heed to the limit of 10 people by only having the speakers and people who pray be present for the live broadcast. Even the choir pieces have been pre-recorded. It will be different for sure, but a lot of people are looking forward to a spiritual boost during these uncertain times.  We held our first sunday family service and it was really nice. Each boy played a hymn, i gave a lesson and we worked together to come up with a family schedule.

Our new normal (until we need another new normal): We decided that our family need some structure to all this home time we were about to have. If you know me at all you know that this is not my typical jam. I hate planning every minute and feeling like I'm being held to some arbitrary schedule just because society says I need to. I'm terrible at doing things consistently and often feel a sense of relief when I break with routine. However, with all of us being home all the time, I knew if we just 'went with the flow', that a whole lot of Netflix and nothing would get done. I knew I'd find myself resentful of the laziness and angry. So in order to head that off we came up with a loose schedule that has served us very well this week.

We will need to adjust it starting on Monday now that they'll have more school work, but it has really helped everyone feel some purpose and accomplishment throughout the day. We even exercised every morning as a family, which i think is super awesome. We need to stay active, and now that all of our usual means of physical activity are no longer available we gotta do something. We even got our bikes all fixed up, because guess what? The outdoors aren't off limits... yet! (hopefully never. I have a friend in Italy and they aren't allowed outdoors :(

Dan leads our morning exercise routines!

Grocery shopping has been interesting too. Some cities and states are dealing with a lot of people hoarding supplies, and we are among them. It definitely adds another level of complexity to the issue when you can't consistently find the essentials. Especially if we're all going to be home all the time, there's a lot of cooking that's going to be happening. (And can I add, i've had to run my dishwasher like 3x more than usual this week?) I took a few pictures of my one venture out to the grocery store this week. It was a madhouse. Guess what? There is absolutely no need for this. There's no break in the supply chain (yet) and all of the grocery store warehouses are fully stocked. But people are hoarding and that creates a ripple effect of others hoarding once they finally can get their hands on an item. Ugh. So unnecessary. I put in a curbside order last Sunday that I can pick up on Monday, and I'm curious if that will work to help avoid long lines and crowds and get the items I need for the week. Fingers crossed!

No eggs

Where's all the produce?!

My long line- about 45 minutes

Police support for crowd control 

This is hard you guys. Sometimes I have really good moments where I'm glad to have my family around, I see them doing things they would not have done otherwise because of how busy life gets. Then other times I'm overwhelmed by the statistics of the virus and it seems so awful. It's scary. It's out of our control. I get frustrated by being home all the time and not always knowing how to fill the time. I get impatient with the kids and my brain feels fuzzy a lot, so I'm working on finding more things for me to do other than help everyone else find things to do. We can really only take it one day at a time, and those days are feeling like eternities.  There's talk of this virus taking 6 months, and I've even heard 18 months for us to recover. This is one for the history books for sure. Yes there are lots of positives and I feel particularly blessed that the struggles our family is having are very minor compared to a lot of people. We aren't hurting for money, we have food, shelter, health, and are safe. I really worry for those that are in abusive homes and now they are home all the time. I worry for those who have to continue working and come in contact with those who may have the virus. I worry for those military families who are stuck in between duty stations without their stuff for who knows how long. I worry for older members of our family that are more susceptible to catching the virus (but the stats aren't looking so good for other age groups in the USA either!). Our family has very little to worry about and for that I feel thankful. And if I'm gonna be stuck with people for months on end, they're the ones I'd choose to be with.

a

Alex had a Zoom meeting with the Deacon's quorum on Sunday

And a FaceTime piano lesson on Thursday

Taking a walk outside with Alex- the bluebonnets are wonderful to see right now

Lots of Guitar Hero and puppy snuggles. I'm sure Carson loves having us home all the time

My mom sent me some puzzles they were done with. Sweet! New project!

Stay safe, informed, positive and home, y'all!