Pandemic update

Things continue to change by the minute here and we went from a halfway normal life to nothing being normal is a span of a few days. Monday I went to work and again warned my team about social distancing and being aware of the seriousness of what is happening worldwide.  We postponed meetings and started a lot more texting, emailing and phone calls rather than in person contact.  By mid-morning on Monday, my boss informed me that we would be sending people home with computers to more effectively social distance ourselves from each other.  By 4:30 Monday afternoon, I was packing up my desktop computer and monitors and necessary files in order to work from home for an undetermined period of time.

D had already been working from home for week and had commandeered our office in the basement so I set up shop in our living room using a utility table we bought to use for gatherings at home.  Declan usually has a small play area in the living room that had to be relocated to the basement for the time being. Here's my current "work from home" setup.

Tuesday morning I started work similar to the same way I work when I'm in the office.  Throughout the day, I was notified that more of my staff and my boss had also been ordered to work from home and they would all start the transition over the next few days.  Of course, we still need people in the office so only half of my team would be working offsite.
I really have been productive working from home. It is way different considering I'm so used to interacting with my employees, other departments and management in person but I'm finding ways to make this work.  I know for sure I'm home for at least one more week but we'll see what our Executive Management team decides beyond that.

Even with D and I working at home, we tried to keep Declan's schedule the same as it has been. He loves school and we want him to be able to interact with his friends and teachers, so we kept him enrolled.  We found out Thursday afternoon that school would be closing for an indefinite amount of time starting this Monday. I love my son dearly but being a toddler now that I have to keep eyes on him 99.9% of the time and he doesn't know to sit in one place for longer than 1 minute, so we've had to figure what we're going to do to keep him busy at home until the pandemic subsides. I'm so lucky we've got my mom as she's offered to watch him for us.  My mom has also been quarantined at home so we feel safe having her come out and watch him until everything gets back to somewhat normal.

Our lives have truly changed over the past few weeks.  I never thought I'd be one to use home delivery for much of anything and now we've found ourselves using Instacart to buy our groceries and using the occasional drive through for a quick meal out.  Last night D and I had date night in and played Uno once we got Declan to bed.  Unfortunately for me, I lost 5 out of 6 games even after Dustin said he didn't even remember how to play when we started. *eyeroll*

The one positive side of all of this is that we've been able to lessen the "go go go" and finally can take a minute to enjoy the calmer side of life.  I don't know what to expect when we're finally out of self-quarantine mode but my hope is that we can still enjoy some down time now and again.

Hope everyone is staying safe and remember to wash your hands!

Quarantine and Self-Distancing

Who would have thought we'd be in lock down mode at this point of 2020? Definitely not me and honestly this is all a bit frightening as this pandemic grows.

As of right now, both my job and D's have not shut down but we don't know what to expect over the next week as the surrounding cities and counties have enacted "stay home" orders.  Unfortunately for us with both of our positions in the transportation industry, trucking to be specific, we are considered essential and will probably continue pushing through each day until given orders to stay put.  Thankfully through all of this, Declan's preschool has not shut down but they have put strict precautions into place to keep everyone there safe in the meantime.  I will say the "mom guilt" is setting in and I just want to be able to be with him and protect him throughout all of this unknown but I am grateful that his preschool is trying to keep a sense of normalcy for him and the other kiddos still attending.

Before we started focusing on quarantining, we had a pretty busy weekend schedule.  Declan started swim lessons at the end of February (now on hold) and we found out he wasn't as thrilled with the pool as he is with the bathtub.  He had 3 lessons before it shut down and finally by week 3, he seemed to be getting the hang of it and only cried for a few minutes rather than during the entire 40 minute class.  My guess is that we will start over once life gets back to normal and hopefully he will do better the second time and like swimming in the pool this summer.

We've also been trying to lend a hand to my mom and Michael as they continue to build their house out by us.  Taping, mudding and sanding drywall and lending a hand wherever needed so that they can get moved out here sooner.  We are looking forward to when they are just a few miles from us, which hopefully will be a few months from now.

With everything else cancelled and limited options for going out as the weather has not cooperated, we've spent a lot of time home in the basement playing hockey, driving Declan around in his cozy coupe and "fixing" everything with Declan's tool bench and tools.

Hopefully everyone will listen to the guidelines set by the officials and we can get back to normal soon enough. Stay safe out there!