It's May

New month, new hope.

Ohio is starting to open up again, slowly.  This makes me happy and wary at the same time.  I'm not one to rush out and do "all the things", but it gives me hope that the end is in sight (at least the end of the constant need to quarantine).  I'm not planning on eating out but I will still order in once in a while.  Churches are supposed to start opening up, at least for daily mass, on May 25.  I will be interested to see how they handle everything.  Some directives were sent to our priests and one of them posted them online but it still leaves room for each parish to do what they feel is best, as long as it agrees with the states mandated guidelines.  I miss church so much.

Patios for restaurants open this week.  That's great except that it's 37 degrees and snowing here in Ohio.  While eating out on a patio would be a dream, right now I'm going to have to take a hard pass.  This weather is just the pits!  I swear that Ohio's weather is still stuck in March when we first quarantined.  Maybe Mother Nature will start opening up again soon too.  I am ready for warm weather.  I almost NEED it at this point.

Salons open up this week!  I already have my hair appointment scheduled for May 23.  My hair stylist is in one of those new "salon loft" type buildings so she has her own room with a door on it.  It will be just her and me...wearing masks...fixing my horrible gray roots.  I haven't heard from my nail salon yet.  That one I'm a little leery of going back too.  Everything is out in the open and I'm just not sure how comfortable I am with that.  So that one I may wait on a little longer.

I'm still planning on doing "pick ups" at the grocery store.  I really miss grocery shopping and picking out my own items.  But it's not the end of the world and we have made this work for 2 months.  I think I can make it work a while longer.

But while I won't be rushing out and partaking of everything, the soft openings give me hope.  I feel like there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

And speaking of "the end", next week is the last week of distance learning.  The kids are surely happy about that.

I Don't Know What Day It Is

I'm not really sure what day this is of the quarantine.  Day 18-19-20?  I just know that we are following the "Stay At Home" order from Governor Mike DeWine and we have been Distance Learning for almost 2 weeks now.  So I think that means we've been social distancing for 18 days but it's all such a blur.

Distance learning is going fine.  I could do better, but we are doing ok.  I set up a schedule for the seven year old today so he's not playing Nintendo Switch for 12 hours a day.  But it's hard.  What else is there to do?  It's sunny and 55 today but it's been cold and rainy the last several days.  Even today, it's so windy that I felt like I was walking through a wind storm on my daily walk.

The daily walk.  The daily walk is my saving grace.  I don't know what I'd do without that little reprieve.  I need that to clear my head and try to keep my stress levels down.  I have to keep reminding myself to "put it in God's hands".  But I do better at some times vs. others.  I'm trying.

The high school has the older boys on a pretty good schedule and I don't really need to do much there.  But I know the separation from friends is very difficult for them.  It's especially difficult because not people are following the social distancing guide lines.  That makes me the "bad" guy because I will not yield on this issue.  I wish I could fix this for them and make it better, but it's out of my hands and clearly in Gods.


Even more difficult then social distancing is keeping them in food.  I do not want to set foot into a grocery store if I don't have to.  I've been trying to use pick up or Instacart delivery.  I don't like the fact that Instacart adds $30-40 dollars to my weekly grocery bill with fees and tips but I really don't like exposing my family to the corona virus either by visiting stores which appear to be packed every day.  We are fine on food and there is no issue there, except that I have to shop weekly and the amount that I'm spending is causing me massive stress.  But these boys can eat!  And I don't know what to do.

I miss church.  I miss mass.  I miss receiving the Eucharist.  We are a little over one week away from Easter and I can't wrap my brain around the fact we will not have Easter Sunday service.  We are watching mass on YouTube, but it's a small consolation.

I'm not even going to touch on the fact that I have a high school senior this year and prom, graduation, even college in the fall are all in jeopardy.

I am thankful that right now, we are all healthy.  We have a safe home, food, and I scored some toilet paper from Amazon the other day.  We have each other (even if a child who shall remain nameless is mad at me right now).  Our extended family seems to be healthy (even if they are putting themselves at risk by not following the social distancing requirements as well as they should be).  I'm thankful that spring is on it's way and not winter.  At least we'll be able to get outside on a regular basis soon enough.  I'm thankful that we have this time together.  It's uninterrupted and that 's what I had wished for (less sports, more family time).

So for right now I'm going to focus on all the positive (and I'm going to stop on-line shopping so much).  I'm asking God to protect all of us and if you are reading this, that includes you.