My Abe

My Abe is 8 years old, 8 years plus 2 months.

You know how the old saying goes: time flies!

He had a fantastic birthday party this year, a Nerf-ing party with a handful of his closest friends. We were very fortunate that the virus fear, panic, and hysteria began after his celebration.

My 8 year old loves Nerf, loves Lego, and loves dogs and cats. He spends his days making his sister laugh or scolding her for getting a hold of his toys or the remote or for scaling something in the house that she shouldn't be climbing. He's outside A LOT, digging holes, playing with sticks, riding his bike. Kid gets a lot of sun. He loves his Grandma! His favorite thing in the world is spending time with his cousins. He's incredibly athletic but has less than zero desire to be involved with sports (we try often to change his mind).

All those years ago, when I posted the announcement here that our baby Abe was going to make his appearance into the world I could only dream of these days, days when he would be a good big brother, an athletic energetic big kid, a great helper around the home. These days were nowhere on my radar back then, days where he'd spend hours writing notes and mailing them out to people he misses because of this nonsense; when he'd work on "the corona-virus is over" party decorations for a party he's planning on his own day after day after day.

My Abe is growing up.

 

Walks, toilet paper, hazard pay, murder, and appreciation

WELL, things have gotten worse. Hooray!

A relative passed last week. No visitations. No funeral. Nothing. This whole thing is so... His very elderly wife is now in the hospital with the virus. AND two other very close relatives of ours have now been highly exposed to the virus as they had been attending to the relative who is now being hospitalized after the passing of her husband. There really are no words. It was brought into the home by health care workers, not that you can really blame anyone as far as this crazy, unheard of, wildfire is concerned. Now it's just a waiting game; a hoping and praying and keeping our heads up waiting game.
(We have not been exposed to any of those individuals, as we've been following all of the darn rules. To clarify we are not actually concerned for ourselves. I've been following the data. I've been looking at the numbers. We're very healthy and our chance of getting incredibly ill from this virus is incredibly minimal, however, my husband and I both working in direct contact with hundreds/ thousands of individuals, we don't want to carry any of these nasty germs to anyone we know)

So now I will do my regular thing, what I'm prone to always doing when I visit blogland. I will attempt to list good things, to talk myself out of going completely batty. I will look at the good in the world, or at least the good that's directly outside my window.

1.) My current mental state, and the anxiousness of Party pup, has encouraged me to take regular long brisk walks everyday. Sometimes I take the kiddos, sometimes it's just me and the pup, but boy oh boy have I gotten the miles in. I walked about 20 miles last week alone.  Not only is this fantastic for my health but my son has been getting extra exercise. He probably got 8 to 10 miles in last week. My dog is getting good exposure to walking on his leash and working his energy out. We've all been getting a good deal of sun exposure (Vitamin D) and fresh air. Win. Win. Win!

2.) I get to supply toilet paper to my loved ones. This is weird right? But in all honesty our store has toilet paper in stock just about every day, generally it's only on the shelf for 30 to 90 minutes and then we're out of stock until the next shipment arrives. I have taken a break early in the morning on several occasions to purchase a package of toilet paper for people close to me who are in need. In what universe would one ever think it'd be a gesture of kindness to supply a friend or family member with toilet paper? Well folks, it's the year 2020 and giving people toilet paper has been one of the highlights of my life.

3.) In reality I am home almost no more than I had ever been, aside from when I used to take the kids for an outing or run to my moms for a few hours, my time home is virtually the same. I don't have all this extra time for hobbies and tasks and sprucing up the house and yard (which honestly I envy others a little in this regard) but my husband and I are getting a sort of hazard pay. They're calling it thank-you pay but lets be honest, its hazard pay. Our store has given everyone the opportunity to take a voluntary leave of absence, to stay safe, to stay healthy, and on many accounts to get away from the madness. You cannot legally collect unemployment on the leave but at least you can shelter in place without any repercussions to your employment. We've both opted out of the leave and in doing so we get to endure the crazy every day, BUT we have extra income now too. So, in a long winded complaining sort of way that's my "little bit of good" point three. Hazard pay.

4.) My husband and I haven't murdered each other yet. I'll just leave that there.

5.) In my heart of hearts I think I will have a greater appreciation for many things when this is over. I like taking my kiddos to the playground but I truly believe we'll go a bit more often after all of this. If you started out with me on this blog journey you know that I DO NOT stock up on anything. It's just not a part of me. I think I will have some extra items in our pantry from now on. Not a lot. I am far from a hoarder but at least two weeks worth of non perishable items and some batteries. I'd say that's a good lesson to have learned. I truly hope to schedule a few extra visits each year with friends and relatives that I don't see often. We hardly visit my dad which in reality would only take a little extra effort to remedy. You know how you have friends that live so close by but you see them maybe once a year? I think I'll make more of an effort.

That concludes my random brainstorm for this gorgeously sunny Sunday in May.
We've already had our morning two mile walk and will most likely get a second one in this evening. One step at a time. One day at a time. This too shall pass.