The Coronavirus Pandemic

The last week has been crazy!  COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019), a respiratory illness that is very contagious, broke out in China in December 2019. From what I understand it is like the flu that goes around every year, but there is no immunization for it.  Like the flu, most people who get it will be fine, but if you are in poor health or a senior citizen it can be deadly.  It started spreading though other countries at a rapid rate and was brought into the U.S.  At first the country seemed divided on how serious it was and what actions should be taken.  It drives me crazy how extreme both sides can be (at least the ones that get the media attention).  The truth is always somewhere in the middle.  The concern is how quickly it can spread and that the hospitals cannot keep up with the number of sick people if it spreads as quickly as it has in other countries.  There have been thousands of deaths from the virus worldwide.  In an effort to stop the spread the government asked everyone to start social distancing and stay home as much as possible.  Schools are canceled and moved to online, church has been cancelled, temples are temporarily closed, restaurants are closing and a lot of people are working from home.  It is a crazy time!

People started getting nervous and buying lots of supplies.  For some reason everyone started buying toilet paper and all of the stores are out.  People started stocking up on toilet paper and water bottles.  Once President Trump declared a state of emergency and announced social distancing the stores started running out of everything.  It is eerie to see so many empty shelves in the store.

 The bright spot in all of this has been the memes.  There are so many funny ones and it's a great way to laugh and stay connected while we are all stuck at home. 

This is one of my favorite ones.  I told the kids that we are making history right now.  Their kids will be reading about this in history books.  I can't wait to say this to my grandkids!

The kids had their last day of school on Friday before they called for a two week closure.  I would guess it's going to be longer than two weeks, but that is what they are starting with.  I've gone back and forth between stressing and thinking staying home seems extreme.  For the most part I have landed on staying home.  I figure if we are going to do this we might as well do it right.  Jonah's friends kept coming over to see if he could hang out and I finally decided that we weren't going to hang out with friends and he was not happy about it.  Caitlyn is dying to hang out with her cousins and Jonah is dying to hang out with his friends and they are both having a hard time with it. 

We had our first church from home on Sunday.  We had permission to administer the sacrament in our home.  At first we were all in our pajamas and just Keith and Jonah were just getting dressed up to take care of the sacrament, but we decided we should all dress up to show our reverence for the ordinance.  It was really neat to have Keith bless the sacrament and Jonah pass it.  We tried to pattern it close to a typical sacrament meeting and it ended up going much better than I expected. 

Sunday was a nice day and we were all feeling restless so we went over to the Parkway.  I didn't think I was too nervous about the social distancing, but I started feeling anxious because there was a lot of people there.

The kids had fun climbing trees.

Jonah was throwing fish crackers and Caitlyn was catching them in her mouth.

Caitlyn is always up for a photo shoot.

She sure is a beauty!

The kids had fun on their scooters and skate board.

All of our activities are canceled so we have had a lot of family time this week.  It has been overwhelming and stressful at times, but there has been some great things too.   This family time really has been a blessing.  We are all a little on edge and grumpy sometimes, but there has been a lot of fun, happy times in the midst of it.  Caitlyn and Jonah have been watching movies together every night.  We have played games, done puzzles and watched movies and laughed together.  I am an introvert, which makes life overwhelming sometimes, but it has made this experience easier. I love the feeling of knowing we are all home and no one is coming over and no one is leaving.  I'm grateful for this family time and for a break from the stress of a busy schedule.  I've been missing the days when my kids were all young and they were all perfectly happy to hang out as a family.  It might not be their choice right now, but I'll soak up the fun family times while I can.