March 11th was our last day at work at the RSC.
The day before we were told that we would be “testing” a working from home day
on Thursday to see if our system could handle everyone in the building logging
into the VPN and working from home. No one was really sure what was going to
come out of the “testing” working from home day. A few hours into Thursday
working from home we were asked to take a short survey on how working from home
was going. Later Thursday afternoon the decision was made that we were now
working from home until further notice. Unless there was a reason for us to
come back into the building, that was that. We were allowed to come in on
Friday if we needed to grab something. I was a pro at working from home at this
point so I took everything I needed with me. There was no need to go back into
the building for me.
That Friday afternoon March 13th the School
district also said that the kids last day at school would be today! And just
like that, homeschooling started at the drop of a dime along with me working
from home. Not being able to sleep Thursday night because I was so stressed
out, I placed a Vons pick up order for Sunday morning so I knew I would be
covered for food. Honestly the only thing that stressed me out about this
entire thing was the fact that I was going to be at home with the kids for
weeks, maybe months and wanted to make sure I had food they would eat. They are
totally the kids that will stand in front of the fridge or the cabinet full of
food and say there is nothing to eat. They are pretty picky, so I wanted to
make sure we had food in the house that they would eat. I loaded up my cart on
vons.com with ramen, Hawaiian sweet rolls, frozen pizzas and lunchables. As we
went through the weekend I kept telling myself not to worry about shopping
because Sunday morning I was going to pick up everything at Vons curbside. So
as the madness continued in the stores and the shelves were being picked
through and pretty much emptied at that point, I stayed away and waited for
Sunday morning. 30 minutes before my 9am pick up I got a call from Vons saying,
they were out of 90% of what I ordered and there was a line wrapped around the
building to get into Vons this morning. My heart sunk into my chest. I had not
been shopping all weekend because I did my shopping online and was ready to
pick up my order! How could this happen? A part of me was not surprised at all,
with how everyone was being crazy and hoarding everything and anything they
could find. But at the same time, I thought Vons would have gotten my items
together for me before that started. But they did not. So in a panic, I got
dressed and went to Staters down the street. Knowing my kids were going to be
home for a few weeks AT LEAST I grabbed what I could. Pulling into the parking
lot it wasn’t horrible and even in the store people weren’t crazy, but there
were a lot of people. The paper goods isle was wiped completely, the can food
isle had very little, but I was able to get some cans of soup that I knew I
would eat and that the kids would eat if they were hungry. I was able to snag a
few things of ramen, which Alana eats all the time, but people were just
hoarding them because they last and they are non-perishable. I just wanted some
because my kids eat them, not to hoard them “just in case”. There was no milk
and no eggs and very little bread. It was one of the craziest things I had seen
yet. A store with empty shelves. It was like the end of the world movie that
you watched. Spot on.
When I got home from Staters that morning I was stocked up
and ready to take on the world at that point. I knew that I had enough food in
my house to keep us fed for some time so no matter what the world was going to
throw at me, we would be good. It’s amazing how much stress something like that
can make. I knew I would have to go out and get the essentials again at some
point, but if all the stores closed that day and didn’t reopen for months, I
would be able to feed the kids and we would get by! That’s what was stressing
me out the week before. I didn’t sleep, my stress level was through the roof
thinking about it all. But here I was with a full pantry and peace of mind. I
didn’t hoard, I didn’t take away from anyone else needing anything, I just got
enough to give me peace and feed my babes.
Monday came around and I was ready to hit the pavement
running. The kids may not totally understand all that is going on in the world
right now, but I have been determined to make sure their world, the little
bubble that they live in, wasn’t going to be a crazy world. They need
consistency and I need a schedule, so the 3 of us sat down and came up with a
daily schedule that we all agreed upon. There would be school time, defined.
Every hour we would switch activities so that there was not too much of
anything for one day. I wanted to make sure we started the day out right so our
first thing after breakfast has been a walk around the neighborhood. We all
still have to get dressed, brush our teeth, put our shoes on and go out for a
walk. The fresh air, the sun, the quietness of the neighborhood, the birds
chirping, all of that helps to start out our day in a positive way! We walk, we
talk, we say nothing. We look at our neighborhood and we are thankful to be in
a great one! Some of our walks are very quiet and some we talk about our dreams
the night before, or what we are going to do today. Its my favorite part of our
schedule.
As we round back to the house we dive right into school
time. The kids can read their library books for 30 minutes and then have paper
packets of work to do from the school. Which turned into lessons on the
chromebooks the second week. Thank goodness. Alana is a godsend! She just does
her work and her lessons and doesn’t complain about them. Jack on the other
hand is not the biggest fan of doing school work, so somedays it’s a bit more
challenging for us, but when all is said and done, he has been so good. After
school time it’s creative time. The hour can include anything they want to do
that is creative (not on electronics). My cousin, knowing that the kids will be
home, had ordered a bunch of random stuff online ahead of time. Clay, board
games, thins to paint and anything she can think of. I order new coloring
books, new gel pens and a few new puzzles. I figured it would keep us all
occupied for however long we needed to be! The kids love the creative hour.
Alana will either paint or draw, Jack plays with legos or builds something out
of clay. All of this time they are occupying themselves leaves me time to work
from home. Take my calls, do some work and answer my emails. More on working
from home later. Lunch time is at noon and the kids eat something small and
have that hour to do whatever they want. It’s free time for them. That has
included, TV time, playing on the ipad and just vegging out. Jack is pretty
good at calling out our time on the hour. I think he likes the schedule the
best because he knows each hour he can do something different. Some of the
hours are NOT his favorite but he still calls us out on the hour to change! 1pm
is chore time! I made a list of chores in the house the first week and the kids
checked them off all on the first few days. They were pretty intentional about
getting them all done so they could move onto something else. Daily includes
making your bed, picking up the floor in their bedrooms, unloading/loading the
dishwasher and doing their laundry. This has come in handy for the larger
things I wanted to get done, like cleaning up the garage or cleaning out their
closets or under the desk. This week I made Alana vacuum her side of the room
and Jack did his. Both of them learned more of the technique for vacuuming that
I was never really able to teach them before. And yes, there is a technique.
Teaching them these little things I think will be very valuable to them as they
grow into adults. At least, that is my hope for them.
Another hour of school time follows chores (that’s a tough 2
hour block some days). But they only have to do school work for 2 hours a day
which is not bad at all. I honestly don’t think the school is holding them
accountable for any of it at this point and I don’t care if they do or do not.
I want my kids to know that this is our schedule and they still have school
work to do. This is not summer time where they get a break, this is not Spring
Break and this is NOT a time for them to just be lazy and play on electronics
all day. Honestly it gives us all something to do and keeps their mind busy and
learning! The next hour is outside/quiet time. Normally this is our afternoon
walk around the neighborhood. Alana will most likely skate, Jack will scooter.
We have stopped over at Jack’s friend’s house a time or two while they are
outside and Jack and Kai will play basketball and his mom and I will sit and
chat. Nice break from being locked up in the house. This afternoon time has
also been something as simple as us laying out on the lawn reading a book,
coloring and just enjoying the sunshine. We also have been playing a lot of
catch. Being outside on the lawn soaking up the vitamin D has been life
changing for me. The Sun always just makes me happy, and spending the time
outside with the kids has been priceless.
This time outside normally goes longer than our hour
scheduled and it works out great. Sometimes our neighbor that is just getting
off of work will come play catch with us or just come to chat. I love to sit
outside and see all of the families walking by. There are bikes, strollers,
runners, you name it, and everyone is out doing the same lap in our
neighborhood to get out! The other day we wrote with chalk in every square of
our sidewalk we could. Alana came up with her favorite Beatles song lyrics to
write, Jack drew some hearts and sayings like “follow your dreams”. I did a few
inspirational quotes. We wanted to make people smile as they walked by our house.
We drew flowers and hearts and anything positive we could think about! 4pm
starts the electronics hour for them. The kids can veg out on the ipad or old
phone or whatever they want to do for that hour. I am able to catch up on the
days work and button anything up that I needed to do for the day and start to
plan what tomorrows work looks like.
The schedule for me has been a life saver to be honest. It’s
kept the kids on track, it’s kept them doing their work, being creative and
forcing us all to get outside. Even in the rain, we took our umbrellas with us!
Our schedule has worked great for the first two weeks so far! I am super
flexible when we need to be. If I have a call for work or the kids are in the
middle of something fun, I’m not being super strict about it. I am trying to
only do about half of everything on Friday’s. Since I am supposed to be done by
1 on Friday’s anyway, the kids only do 1 school hour and we try to do other
things on Fridays. So far so good. I have to say how fricken proud I am of my
kids. They are totally embracing this and not giving me as much grief as I
thought I was going to have to take. I am super grateful for the two of them
right now.
My boss in the last year has been one of the best bosses I
have had thus far in my career anywhere. He will never read this so it’s ok to
brown nose about him here! He is just in general such a happy and positive
person and has been so amazing through all of the family drama that I have had
going on in the last year, not to mention how awesome he has been through this
working from home time. He put video calls on the calendar every Monday and
Friday to connect with us. Our team is little, it’s just the 4 of us, so it’s
nice to check in a few times a week with them to, a) see their faces and b)
hear their voices. But my boss is always so gracious! Checking in with us
personally, asking about the kids, our lives. He is just so much more than a
boss and I am so grateful to have him during this time. He lives at home with
his fiancé and his two cats and honestly could not be handling his team any
better than he is.
One thing about being quarantined from work, from friends,
from family, has been interesting video conference calls. Most have been on
Teams, but mine have been on Zoom, because I like it better! I have been able
to facetime with JQ and the girls to just see them. I had such a fun happy hour
with Crystal and Sarah, where we all had a few drinks and just sat and chatted
to the computer at each other. Super weird to do, but at the same time it’s
like we were just sitting in a room all together. I will admit, there was no
dancing, which was boring, but maybe a few more drinks it and we could have all
been dancing to the camera. It’s weird because you think because your friends
are safe and they aren’t sick, that we could just all meet up and have a happy
hour in the park or something. But that’s not how, staying at home works and I
know we are all doing our best to do our part and stay home and not meet up. It’s
still really annoying to know that we can’t. I miss my besties and I miss our
sushi nights. What I wouldn’t give for wine and sushi with Crystal and Sarah right
now!
I’ve had a few calls with Ashley, one with Bahar, it’s so
nice to see everyone! I had lunch with my friend from work, Sarah who is
pregnant but she hasn’t told anyone, so it was fun to catch up with her and
just see her face! I kind of love and hate the video calls because it makes me
want to do my hair and look somewhat presentable, but then sometimes I don’t
care and my hair is in a shit bun. Either way, the video calls have been
interesting. BUT, I MISS MY PEEPS.
Speaking of peeps, Easter is going to be hell of weird this
year with no family. Both of my sisters are in AZ and we can’t even go to my
Mother in laws house. Chrissy is going to get a ham and we will make the
baskets and stuff here at the house for the kids. I even got eggs to hide for
them. Sarah said that we can dye eggs together on Saturday, which has been our
tradition for a few years now. All on video of course. Haha. Should be interesting,
will post about it later.
Last week CA, and the school district announced that the
kids will NOT, I repeat, will NOT be returning to school this year. They will
be “distant learning” from here on out. Good God. This means lesson plans
online only. School work done on the computer only and mom has to help and
monitor all of this while I try to work from home and balance this crazy life. I
think Alana is a tad bit sad that she won’t get to “promote” from 6th
grade. But 6th grade isn’t normally that big of a thing so she will
be just fine. I’m honestly feeling so horrible for all the parents and kids
that are seniors in HS this year. For them it means, no senior prom, no senior
ditch days with friends, no graduation. It’s like you worked all of your life
(thus far) to graduate and then you can’t even do that. It’s got to be so heart
breaking for them and their parents. Grateful to have my kids this age during
this crazy year.
With all of this time at home with my kids and all the
special things we get to do together I am a little concerned for reasons
probably most people aren’t. 1, I’ve spend months trying to get them to make
new friends and socialize at their new school because they are the new kids.
Jack especially has had such a hard time and I feel like I’ve worked so hard to
get him new friends this year, to get him ok with getting up and going to
school every day. Getting him to know and respect the teachers… and now this.
It’s like next year for him will be all new again. New teachers, new
everything. I pray that everything that I have done over the last few months to
help him adjust rolls over to 2nd grade, but I’m sure I am dreaming.
Alana has been, just ok, as far as adjusting. She has mentioned lately that the
girls that she hangs out with this year “don’t like her”. Which breaks my Fricken
heart. Yes, all of those girls have bonded with each other since kindergarten
and then she comes along in 6th grade and might feel like the one
left out. But hopefully it doesn’t get any worse now that she won’t be
returning to school this year. The crazy thing is that when she does return to
school she will be in middle school, new friends, new school, all new teachers,
classes. Everything will be totally new anyway so maybe this is what’s best. It’s
not like I get a choice, so it is just what it is. (That was a long #1)
#2 reason I am concerned about things that normal people
probably aren’t is the fact that I am staying home with my kids and spending
pretty much every waking moment with them. Let’s be real, before this I was
dying for Victor to take the kids for a few days at a time so I could have a
break. But then this craziness started and I honestly don’t want them to be
away from me. I don’t want them to be exposed to anything without me. I don’t
want them to be somewhere where I am not. I definitely turned into wanting to
make sure they are ok at ALL times. It’s like something weird (prob just normal
mother instinct?) but it just took me over in a crazy way. Not crazy enough to
have them sleeping in my bed with me or anything crazy like that, but just
wanting to make sure they are home with me so I can feed them and protect them
and make sure no harm comes to them. So where is my concern? At some point this
will all be over, the RSC will open back up and I am going to have to go back
to work and leave them. Leave them with Victor, leave them with Grandma, leave
them at home. Whatever our summer looks like, I am going to have to go back to
work and leave them. It’s been over 3 weeks now and I’m not sure how I am going
to feel when we have to go back to real life. I am going to have major withdrawals
from them and I’m thinking that might be a two way street. Or maybe they will
be thankful for the time apart at some point. But I honestly think we have such
a good thing going right now that they enjoy being here more than they have in the
last year. We will see how all this crazy turns out. It will be so interesting
to read these words in a year from now to know how my life was in these
moments. Never in my life did I think I would be here right now saying that I
want to spend every waking moment with my kids and never let them go anywhere,
cause that’s not me. But this day we live in right now in this moment is weird
and crazy and so unpredictable.
During this quarantine some of my favorite memes have come
out. People have the time to sit and think up funny shit to post and it’s been
great! I don’t normally share or care about them but they have just been so
good lately, posting some here so that they live on forever!
This blog post is going to be LOOONNGGG and it’s going to be
all over the place, but so is the rest of my life, and no one is really reading
this anyway, so who the F cares. About two weeks ago I got an email from work
saying that someone at the RSC that I had come in contact with had the Corona
Virus… meaning, they had it before we left work and they didn’t know they did
and I was in direct contact with them. Honestly scared the crap out of me. The
day before I got that email I was so sure that no one I knew had it and it was
weird. I feel like I know a lot of people and not one person I knew had it? I
said that out loud a few times that day and then, BAM, the next day a co-worker
has it. They never told us who, I assume at some point we will find out, but
maybe not. By the time I got the email it was just one day shy of the 14 day
period and I hadn’t shown any symptoms, so I felt safe after I thought about it
for a minute, but still was kind of a slap in the face after my “I know a lot
of people and no one I know has it”. Here I sit going into week 4 of quarantine
and I’m sure we aren’t seeing the worst of it here in CA yet. So I will just
pray that everyone I know is safe and doesn’t get it.
I wish I could say that I am eating healthy and exercising
with all this extra time that I have, but I am doing the opposite for sure. I
am an emotional eater which is NOT helpful at all by any means. I eat when I am
bored and God knows I’m bored as hell, so it’s been interesting. I pray I don’t
come out of this 300 pounds, but I can’t call that right now. I am getting out
at least twice a day to walk the neighborhood and sometimes I skate with the
kids. I need to start my ass running again, but just haven’t had the drive to
lately. That would help with all this eating I am doing!
This 4th week is Spring break for the kids, so I’m
only working a few days, I’ve promised them no school work for the week and our
schedule is going to change. But I am going to add in some writing time and
some other things so it doesn’t feel like school but it keeps them engaged.
Goals for the next few weeks: Teach the kids how to type (by
covering their fingers) old school techniques. Get more mail out to people to
make them happy. Spend less time on my phone. Run at least twice this next
week.
