Quarantined

We all know that 2019 ended like garbage and 2020 didn't start out quite right for our family. With recurrent breast infections, missing out on the kids' Christmas dance recital, falling behind in school and sicknesssicknesssickness, we had hoped that the New Year would bring new joy. Then the car accident happened. And another breast infection for me. And then March came. What could possibly be worse than what had already happened?!?!?! Well, I'll tell you:

A respiratory pandemic.

These days are even more whacky than normal. March of 2020 started out with a worldwide pandemic. The coronavirus, COVID-19, hit our area hard. Here, in Michigan, our governor shut it allllll down the second week of March. Too many deaths in such a short time. The kids finished out what would be their last week of dance for the year and we met with our tax accountant, Wes. As we were driving home from finishing up our taxes, Matt and I looked at each other and breathed deep. We had just received notice that the Catholic Churches would be closed until April. Quarantine began that night. Stay Home-Stay Safe (the 2020 Quarantine) was a time to remember. Matt was told to work from home, the greatest blessing to our family during this time. He would start off in his “office” in the closet every morning, taking meetings and doing design work in a tiny space. It was only temporary, we said. He’d be back to work soon. We only left our home to pick up groceries. But even groceries were scarce. As people began to realize how awful this virus truly was, panic ensued. For some strange reason, the panic induced people to buy scads of toilet paper and every bottle of acetaminophen, Lysol and all paper products that were ever made. The government encouraged everyone to stock up and purchase two weeks of all groceries and medicine, to reduce the number of times we would need to leave home. We couldn’t even get one week’s worth of groceries. There was no meat to be found. No eggs. No milk. Bread was bought out. By the second week of quarantine, we had condiments and ONE solitary yogurt in our fridge.  What began as a measure of safety quickly became the scariest thing I have lived through…up until June…but more on that later. We initially believed that the quarantine would only last a few weeks and that we’d be back together at Church for Easter Sunday. We were very, very wrong. Things got even worse. Matt and I lost a good deal of weight. The children had pasta with butter for each meal. We couldn’t find fruits or vegetables or snacks. Neither Matt nor I wanted to set foot in a store, but Kroger stopped accepting pick-up orders because they were booked a solid week out. This meant that I would have to order our groceries for the next week as I was picking up our order for the current week. The third week into quarantine, at 9p, I looked out the front door as I was closing the shades for the night. Our ENTIRE porch was filled with groceries. My brother Matt had sent his Instacart Shopper to make a run for us. It was enough food to fill our whole pantry, both fridges and freezers, and fruits enough to overflow the counter bowl. I cried as I Lysoled each package as it came into the house. Things were different now. We would need to change the way we did things. I registered for Instacart the next week. No more in-store shopping for us. Mary and Art Zion sent food through the mail and UPS. My parents tried to find and send healthy snacks through Amazon. It was quite a time. 

Lulu put in her first hard day's minute's work.

 And she began walking.

 We've  had LOTS of family time.

Cleaning suddenly became of utmost importance. Everyone chipped in.