Snapshot of our Covid life

My dining table goes from looking like this...

to this as I sew masks and work on online schoolwork and Zoom meetings.

Kitchen table becomes art and craft/John schoolwork area

Social distancing 6-ft separation is lesson #1 for Will when we start homeschooling when the public schools all close.

Sidewalk chalk becomes our a hot commodity and everyone in the neighborhood is showing off their artistic skills. We see whole families every night walking together and playing together outside.

We make bread regularly to avoid the stores.

And cookies. Because cookies.

Because we got rid of all our food storage when we moved to Texas Peter goes out in the middle of all this on a Saturday and is able to score this. I was really impressed. He is the hunter/gatherer.

His budget was $500. He spent $499.97.

Lines to get into grocery stores

Empty shelves where toilet paper, pasta, oil, milk, peanut butter, butter, bread, and eggs used to be. 

But evidently a surplus of ice cream. 

Peter and I decided this must be because freezer space is precious right now.

Where once water was sold out Costco has filled the whole space where the toilet paper used to be with it.

Will and I play games. And he watches too much TV and spends too much time on the computer... but we try. 
We really try.

We buy random things off Amazon to keep Will entertained.

And Will and I spend a lot of time at the park as he rides his bike up and down the cement water collection area while I blast the Pokemon theme song and Old Town Road from Sonic on my phone. (As people walk by. Wondering what I am doing.)

And Will picks me lots of flowers.

The house gets really clean when my spring break gets extended by a week. 

Then messy again because we are all here 24/7 and my school started back up online.

 Which is a blessing in that I don't have to get showered up, drive to school, sit in 4 hour long classes, drive to clinicals at 5am, horn in on my neighbor with my crap on my desk, and take exams without my watch on. And the view is better. 
But I also have to do all of the regular work at home with kids. All. The. Time. Because Peter is really busy doing tax work and Sarah is not technically supposed to be babysitting Will because of social distancing. Even though I use her once in while anyway when I get desperate. 

 We find fun tutorials online to help us do artistic things...

which unfortunately Will tires of too quickly.

But we drive to Walmart anyway and spend $120 on art supplies. And maybe some chocolate. They were not thrilled to wear masks.

And the hospital I work out suddenly stops letting visitors in on April 29th, while I'm on my shift. 

I watch a Covid patient dying through the glass and have my first shift where a person I was caring for died after I left. I watch nurses gowning up to enter Covid rooms with a "doficer." or a person who is in charge of watching their every move in taking on and off their PPE with a 3 page long checklist every time they come in and out. I count 9 IV pumps outside of one patient's room, where they run the lines into the room in long tubing so they can change the multiple bags hanging over without having to enter it again and again. The whole hospital is in anticipation of a flood of patients, which so far, thanks the heavens hasn't happened yet, and so a lot of the prepared areas sit empty.

Peter and I debate a lot about whether or not all of this shutting down of businesses is worth it. I don't know if anyone can say right now. While I am seeing what I'm seeing at the hospital he is talking to clients all day who are losing their businesses, or having to lay off all their employees about how to navigate the application for federal funding. I feel a lot of concern for the people in my ward and wonder how many will be able to get through this time and still have their homes or businesses at the other end of this--and of course right now we don't have any idea where that end might be. We talk about what we can do to help. 

We think about our grandbaby that is due any day and wonder when we will be able to see him. Nathaniel is the only one allowed to see her in the hospital, and we are grateful they aren't in New York where they wouldn't even allow that. We wonder about what will happen with our other married children's jobs and if they have a place to fall if they need it. I spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook looking at Covid memes and funny home videos quarantined families are making when I should be studying and we spend too much time watching the news or reading it online. 

I wonder if I'll be able to return to clinicals next semester, or what will happen at all next semester really. I have to get ready for this test on Tuesday but I am struggling to muddle through all the things fighting for my attention to discipline myself. For now I need to go to bed. I have a clinical Zoom meeting at 9am. But I'm glad I found the time to do this. I've really wanted to record some of this for the future and my kids miss my blog.