May 28, 2020

COVID ramblings

A collection of random thoughts during quarantine that I could have put individually on social media, but didn't. You're welcome.

I don't get the toilet paper shortages. Were people not using toilet paper before? Does everyone have 100 rolls stockpiled now? Our toilet paper consumption and purchasing patterns have not changed...

Quarantine gave me the opportunity to try some different jobs. I think I am ok as a preschool teacher, but at best I'm a mediocre hairdresser.

Apparently in our normal lives we basically live at the grocery. Did not realize how much we went there until we intentionally tried not to go.

I'm not a big shopper, but I really just want to go to Hobby Lobby and walk around. I don't want to buy anything, but I just want the option of a completely non-essential trip.

Life for working parents is only going to be more difficult after COVID. Will daycares have to reduce the number of kids in attendance? Will daycares refuse to watch kids with runny noses? Sick kids are already the bane of my working parent existence, and I think it's about to get worse.

Quarantine means finally using all the stuff in our freezer: lamp chops and shark meat for dinner at our house. My husband now makes tortilla shells and bread from scratch. This is normal, right?

I never thought I'd say I was tired of wearing jeans. Apparently I don't own enough jeans. I just want to wear dress clothes again!
On the jeans note... it's been a long time since I wore so many jeans. It's made me realize that other than the two maternity jeans I bought in 2015, my next most recent jeans purchase was somewhere between 8-10 years ago. I'm not sure if that means I'm an adult or if that means I need to go shopping.

As a former homeschooler, I think it's so neat how many people scrapped e-learning and bought or created their own curriculum (with teacher approval). After 30 years of hearing people hate on homeschooling, I want to yell "that's the beauty of homeschooling! you get to recognize that different methods work for different kids, and you have flexibility to make an individual plan!" This is why many people homeschool... it's not because they hate socialization. Ok, off my soapbox.

Dr. Eric Yazel should get a Nobel peace prize. And a Pulitzer, I think Facebook counts as journalism now.

You know you're a parent in quarantine when:
-it occurs to you this would be a marvelous time for potty training.
-the fact that you must take solo trips to the grocery (no kids) is not at all terrible. The trips only occur infrequently, but they are still basically a vacation.

During COVID I tend to start emails to clients with 'I hope you are doing ok'. Perhaps that is something I should keep. Compassion for each other's well being matters even when it's not a pandemic.

My 3 year old's comments:
On wearing a mask: "I can't wear a mask. It will cover up my beautiful face!"
When she first got to see my sister after quarantine: "Aunt Rebecca! It's Mia, do you remember me?!"