How are your stay-at-home days going? I can’t lie, y’all. A month into this Corona life and I’m seriously starting to feel like I’m under house arrest more days than not. Our restrictions here were extended into May, which I thought would and should happen, but without a specific end date in sight I feel afloat in some surreal limbo life. I don’t do limbo well! That being said, I’m learning to control what I can, accept some things that I can’t and take out the rest on my refrigerator. Good thing we aren’t closing in on bathing suit season. Ugh!
Last week was the worst! Winter decided to remind us here in the Midwest that she will not make a hasty exit until she is good and ready. After spending several beautiful and productive days outside, we were forced to spend Easter and most of the following days indoors. Seriously girls, in week three I was channeling the soul of Betty Crocker with all my homemade meal prepping, spring gardening and perkiness. In week four, the spirit of Homer Simpson consumed me! The day after Easter I woke up to cold drizzle, a dead baby chick and a super sour attitude. Last week, dinner consisted of chicken chunks, frozen pizza and Eggo waffles. Oh the shame of it all. . .
Finally, this weekend ushered in warmer weather and the sun shone again on The Three-Acre Wood (I have never been so thankful for three acres in my entire life). I did the masked “drop and shop” with the help of my husband for veggies and flowers (they’re essential, you know), did a bit of scrapbooking since I wasn’t playing teacher all weekend and jumped back into the homemadeness of it all in the kitchen. I tried my hand at some Italian meatballs, to which my son said was the best meal of his life. Not bad for coming off a sour Homer spell.
Yet, we are still under disheartening containment for the near future. The garage functions as the decontamination station, we are quickly running out of disinfectant wipes (and cannot purchase them in stores, online or from manufacturers) and I have to suit up for biological warfare every time I visit the grocery store [I actually watched a man floss his teeth on the way into my supermarket the other day. Gross!]; but we are learning how to handle cope with most of it (some days better than others). The office closet is a makeshift pantry, my nine-year-old only child makes my heart ache when he cries about missing his friends and I would give almost anything to sit down in front of a warm basket of tortilla chips placed on the table by a happy faced waiter.
Still, we have had our brighter moments. I’ve learned how to Zoom at zero miles per hour, homeschooling has reminded me that I really do enjoy teaching, we still have an income and our health, we discovered how to play three-man Battleship, we ultimately gave into a full subscription to Disney Plus, and oh how well we have eaten!
I know many of you have been at this a lot longer than we have, and I also know many of you are living with it in much smaller spaces, with a lot fewer resources and with far better success. Kudos to everyone, be you in a Betty or a Homer moment of coping. Stay the course on homemade meatball Monday, keep on trucking for too much TV Tuesday and do what ya gotta do on frozen buffet Friday. This will eventually run its course, and you will come out the other side!