A couple days later when I went to the grocery store, shelves were completely bare and the lines were longer than I had ever seen. People were starting to panic.
Within the following week, schools were shut down, most work places instituted remote-working where possible, toilet paper became an endangered good, and our whole lives seemed to shift immediately.
Our family quickly self-quarantined and stopped going outside except for the ocassional walk around the park to reduce our chance of catching the virus and spreading it to others, flattening the curve. The schools started online learning. I worked from home, long hours every day, as many businesses were impacted and quickly sought creative and innovative solutions to stay afloat. We figured out how to order groceries online, using gloves and disinfectant to wipe them off before bringing in the house. Finding groceries became a new hobby - some items being completely out of stock or ridiculously overpriced (toilet paper, paper towels, santitzer, disinfectant).
Shortly thereafter, our state, California, shut down all non-essential businesses and schools from physically engaging, minimizing risk and asking people to stay at home. Going to the mailbox became a big expedition.
It's now been three weeks of being in the house. There has been good and bad.
The best moments have been being together through all of this. Never in our lives will we all be together like this again as our older boys will soon be living their own lives. They have been hanging out together like they hadn't in years, we've had infinite pajama days, played many games, enjoyed Zoom calls with family to stay in touch, connected with friends, etc. One of my friends even came and dropped off some paper towel rolls when we were low.
It's the most stressful time I've ever experienced with worries about health, the economy, our world, and my family all at once. We've had the biggest surge of unemployment ever. Congress quickly passed a record stimulus bill and has more planned.
This week we learned this week that our country has the most cases of the virus and that the kids will not return to school for the remainder of the year. We've been encouraged to wear masks if we do have to go outdoors. We hear news of people who are sick and are unable to get tests and treatment. The number of cases and deaths is steadily increasing. The scariest thought I've ever had crossed my mind came as I worried about the possibility of losing my job and health insurance and someone in our family getting sick. They could literally die.
At this moment we have no idea how long this will last or what impact it will have. As adults we try to stay strong for our children and be conscious of the stresses they face, while navigating this new normal. We have to find balance in being aware of what's going on but not letting it consume us. Many of us are finding the true importance of relationships in our lives.
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