"How are you holding up?" is the question I ask most of friends/family/patients these days amidst our quarantine.
I actually think I passed fairly quickly through the Kübler-Ross stages of grief and have been at "acceptance" for over a week now. (It was a busy birth week (seven in seven days), which also took my mind off of worrying about COVID a bit because I was just doing my job which is intense enough.)
Don't get me wrong-- "acceptance" that this will be our new normal, at least for weeks-months and intermittently for much of the next year (or more) is not easy. It's been a totally rainy weekend and kids haven't even been able to go out and play or ride bikes like we've been able to do on sunny days (neither has even set foot outside). Nevertheless, our struggles pale in comparison to those of other less fortunate families, and I count our blessings every day. Kids actually seem quite content to stay indoors and annoy us parents (even turning down a chance to go for a fresh-air walk yesterday in a tiny break from the rain. Go figure. As I write this, they have been entirely indoors for 40 hours and counting!).
Workflows at the office and hospital continue to evolve rapidly. We've become believers in and adopters for "masks 4all" as there appears to be good evidence that community mask-wearing can prevent spread of COVID-19 particularly from asymptomatic people and CDC just got on board. Some protection is most definitely better than nothing. Humboldt County's COVID-19 count is up to about 40, and we have taken to wearing surgical masks and face shields for in-person patient interactions, which is clunky and obtrusive but more safe, I guess.
I have had several local crafty friends offer to sew us healthcare workers masks (at this time, we are not *out* of PPE, but we haven't been hit hard yet). I have taken them up on the offers, so I have a handful of lovely local masks for community wear and wear "around and in" the back office, as well as back-up for if/when our clinics and hospitals run out of surgical masks and N95 respirators (some have a pocket for a filter). Bless these friends and their ingenuity/resourcefulness/time/thoughtfulness.
handwashed and hanging to dry
This weekend, we've
- made forts
- cleaned the house (Iver was even into scrubbing toilets!)
- colored/drawn many pictures
- read a million books
- FaceTimed with family
- had dance parties
- made some progress in the potty-training department (no poop on doors this weekend and lots of successful peeing in the potty!)
- done puzzles
- baked banana bread
- made homemade sushi for dinner, with a plan for pizza tonight
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multitasking!
When the humans are mostly inside, the deer come out to play (I also saw a fox for the first time on the way to the hospital!)
Although keeping the kids occupied (and our house not totally destroyed) is hard on a daily basis, I'm trying hard to think positively and to reframe things to try to make the most of these togetherness moments rather than just trying to grit it out in survival mode. Pastor John Pavlovitz writes (about just waiting and hoping for our "regular" lives to start again") in his piece "Don't Quarantine Yourself from Life", "...b
One day at a time. Many moments at a time.
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