I've found myself wishing that I could read my grandparent's and great-grandparent's journals about the trials they went through. I've not been very good at keeping a journal myself lately, but I finally remembered a way that I kept a "journal" when my babies were born. I printed off a calendar and wrote little things that happened on it. I did that for April and May of 2020.
Here are some pictures of life from our view.
In December 2019 my sweet daughter made this Stress Reliever Kit complete with pictures to look at, fun textures to touch, and encouraging happy thoughts. I appreciated her thoughtfulness as we navigated the holiday season while my husband was laid off. In January and February of 2020 life was less stressful, but BAM, the pandemic hit ant this Stress Reliever Kit has once again been in use.
The lack of toilet paper at the stores was dramatic. Pasta, canned foods, and my favorite stress food HotTamales candies were hard to find. Apparently many of you have the same favorite candy! Purchase limits and signs on the floor of the stores soon appeared. Sometimes pretend I am playing Pac Man as I am weaving in and out of shoppers and mostly following one way signs in the aisles. I'll be happy when shopping and all of the supply chain bottle necks can return to a more normal state. We haven't been able to get everything we want when we want it, but we've been blessed to have our needs met.
Here's what we did when we couldn't find toilet paper in the stores. We bought industrial sized rolls and tied them up. It worked.
We did a 1000 piece puzzle as a family in April.
We were able to buy a new car with our tax return. The DMV was open, but only for drive thru service. My wait was five hours! Yup, five hours. Google said it was "Not too busy." Google didn't understand that all of the people there had to wait in line in their car in three lanes, not inside the building with more than a dozen workers helping. I was able to teach a piano lesson via Zoom during my wait though. Yea for technology.
I work at an elementary school. When it was announced that school was going to be online for the rest of the year the district also decided to do the planned demolition of our building early. So I was able to help pack and prepare for the move. The PTA gave us these toilet paper teacher appreciation gifts. I loved it.
I had mixed emotions seeing our school building being demolished. We're getting a new school which will be ready for school in the fall (fingers crossed), but it was sad to not be able to celebrate the end of this school year with the students and the community.
Speaking of school. My kids are not fans of online school, and neither am I really. I sure do appreciate my kids teachers. Photos of my daughter's work filled up my phone and got emailed to her amazing teacher.
I appreciate the hopeful painted rocks and even a banner in the trees I've seen as we cheer each other on from a distance. We lost a member of our extended family to Covid, which is hard.
Here's a quote that has given me hope through all of this.
"When we have conquered this—and we will—may we be equally committed to freeing the world from the virus of hunger, freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty. May we hope for schools where students are taught—not terrified they will be shot—and for the gift of personal dignity for every child of God, unmarred by any form of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice." Jeffrey R. Holland, April 2020
