Easter 2020 - Corona update

Easter this year was very different. It was really relaxed but we kept some traditions the same. 

The days leading up were filled with homeschool, great weather and lots of bike rides outside, Google calls with both Sydney's and London's classes. 

We finished week 3 of the lockdown. We have new routines and for the most part we are doing ok. I can't say we are "thriving" but for the most part we are living every day with intention. 

Some days feel very heavy. Mentally and emotionally I go up and down. The days that I can be outside, active - honestly life feels pretty great. On days that are gloomy - it feels like the walls are caving in. 

Honestly, the girls have been doing good - but I know they carry all this in a different way. If we stick to a routine, we can usually go most of the day without tears. London is a tougher case. She wants to spend all day on the iPad. She struggles with school but at the same time does not like help.

Sydney honestly does really well - but she misses playing with friends. We have tried Zoom playdates - but they are not the same. I try to keep them outside but unless I am out there - they won't go. 

Work has been slowing down. Two of my clients are really really down. Basically 90% of their business is gone. Leslie and Pat are actually about the same. We have our Conquer Launch coming up this week - and we have no idea what it will look like. 

In some ways - work is slower which I really need right now. 

On the other hand we are trying to pivot every - all the messaging and all the strategies - and it feels so heavy. 

Some days I feel like I just want to learn something new with this "downtime" and other days I feel like just getting out of bed is too much. 

Tyson has been working more hours ... his company cut salaries for anyone making more than 100K. So it should NOT affect Tyson but his paychecks were less this last time. Still we are grateful we are both bringing in income. 

The church at home has become really nice. We have a nice routine down. The girls no longer whine about it. The spirit can be felt. We have taken part into both fast that the  Prophet has invited us to. Both times it's been really neat. 

For Easter we hid eggs, did church, ate ham, put food in a bag for the missionaries, watched a movie. 

Tyson has been going through his missionary stuff. Hopefull he will be able to minimize the 3 boxes he has. 

*** London has lost her first tooth - she pulled out HERSELF during a bike ride

*** Sydney has now lost 2 teeth in the last month

*** We colored eggs 

*** Tyson and I continue to walk/run/ride bikes when we can

*** Tyson has been going out on Friday mornings (6:30) to get into line to get into Walmart and get food. We are still missing clorox wipes and Bleach but besides that we are doing ok on food. 

Just so I NEVER forget..... April 2, 2020

Just so I NEVER forget..... April 2, 2020

School closures -all students on distance learning.
Self-distancing measures on the rise.
Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
Wear a mask when you leave your house.
Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
No masses, churches are closed.
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from the President. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Government incentives to stay home.
Barely anyone on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Goez Family Call

We had our fist Goez Family Zoom call on Sunday. It was fun and we are hoping to do it again.

Here is the direct Youtube Link -

https://youtu.be/kPtmFIC7ULY

Gerber Covid 19 update #4

I found this article and it expressed SO well how I have been feeling. I wanted to add it here so we can look back to see how life was like.

From school closures to shuttered businesses to mass layoffs to fears of getting sick, every passing hour gives us something new to worry about. In the midst of this madness, many of us are also dealing with employers that expect us to smoothly transition from working in an office to working from home and carry on as if everything is normal.

We can’t.

“Working from home” is not the same as “working from home during a pandemic.” What’s happening right now is unprecedented in modern American history, and it is absolutely, one hundred percent okay to not be fully productive. It is completely normal to be stressed.

If it’s difficult to feel grateful about anything right now, remember that those of us who can work from home are the lucky ones. A lot of people are out of work. A lot more people have to go to work—whether they work in a hospital, a grocery store, or perform one of the many other essential jobs—where they risk getting sick.

But that doesn’t mean this isn’t hard. It’s been a century since the United States has experienced a pandemic of this scope. Never in any of our lifetimes has so much of the world around us been so shut down for so long, and we’ve certainly never lived with so many restrictions on where we can go and what we can do and who we can hug. There’s never been a time when so many of us have been so worried about keeping our loved ones healthy and safe.

We’ve experienced national emergencies before. We’ve worried about dangers posed by factors outside our control. But we have never faced this kind of omnipresent existential threat. It is absolutely pathological to expect people to carry on with work as though nothing is happening.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard that Isaac Newton developed brilliant theories while quarantined from the plague. Shakespeare may have turned to sonnets when the death toll forced the theaters to close.
Good for Newton and Shakespeare. We are not them. For starters, many of us have to handle cooking, cleaning and childcare, while also carrying out the paid work that keeps a roof over our head. We don’t have the luxury of time to come up with a theory of universal gravitation or pen a literary masterpiece.

As much as I would like to use these strange circumstances to focus on my passion projects, I can’t. For starters, I just don’t have the time. (See above.) If you don’t either, all that means is that you live in the real world, like everyone else.

Before you beat yourself up for not being more productive, let’s walk through all of the reasons this is not a normal work from home situation.

Unless you are in a position where you have no extraordinary family obligations, no family members whose health you need to worry about, and no added work pressure due to the cratering economy—and you also possess a superhuman ability to ignore the unceasing barrage of bad news—then you are now dealing with a lot of additional worries and responsibilities.

This is not normal. This is not a typical work from home set-up. Most of us are scraping by, trying to make ends meet while trying to keep everyone around us safe from a deadly, invisible threat.

Right now this means juggling childcare and homeschooling and cooking and cleaning and keeping a lid on your anxiety, all while obsessing over what measures we need to take to stay healthy and, oh yeah, I have a meeting in thirty minutes, but my son just fell and split his lip and is bleeding, and oh my goodness, I just remembered I have a report due tomorrow and I have to find the time to get it done, don’t I? It’s a lot.

Bubbling underneath these already heightened day-to-day worries are others that inspire a deep, screaming terror: You might get sick and die, leaving behind people who depend on you; you might be the unwitting person who infects your grandmother or your cousin who’s recovering from chemotherapy. Every trip out of the house is fraught with danger. Every minor interaction is gilded with ominous import.

This is not “working from home and being more productive because we don’t have to commute.” This is a modern plague. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, tell them how wrong they are, in no uncertain terms. And while you’re at it, remind yourself as well.

Rachel Fairbank

Rachel Fairbank is a freelance science writer based in Texas. When she is not writing, she can be found spending time with her family, or at her local boxing gym.

Gerber Corona Virus Pt.3

Sun Bathing in March - because what ELSE could you be doing? 

Final day before all the parks were officially closed.

We are officially 2 weeks into our new "normal"

This week of school was a little easier. I only did Math, Reading and Writing. I am still having bottles with London. Thankfully her 2 private lesson's have been really well with Elli.

We officially went under a Shelter in Place order but thankfully we have good enough weather that we can be outside and enjoy the sun.

Today we:

Tyson and I slept until 9. Girls played video games for a few hours.
We came up at 10 AM and made breakfast for Tyson and I. Then Tyson worked for a little bit.
I took the girls outside to pull weeds, play soccer and take out garbage.

At 12:30 we started to get our bikes ready. We had been charging the bike for a few days. We then went to Home Depot to pick up Puddy. I stayed outside with the girls while Tyson went in with gloves to shop.

Then we stopped at home to drop things off. Then we were off again to Qudoba to pick up an online order. We walked around the stores and everything was deserted. It was a surreal feeling to be there on a Saturday  and have it all be empty.

Sometimes life DOES feel normal but at times like these you can just feel how different things are.

We picked up the order. Then we headed home. We took another path and this one was very busy with lots of people walking. It was a little freaking to be so close to everyone but we made it through really fast and got back on normal streets.

We came home and ate lunch and we watched survivor.

Then we did Just Dance Now and did 25 minutes of dance party. I talked to my mom for a little bit. Then all 4 of us started filling the nail holes downstairs. This has been 5 years in the making and I am grateful we are finally doing it. The girls lasted about 20 minutes but did really well in filing the whole. We got the hallway done and bathroom. The goal is that next weekend we will get the other 2 bedrooms done. Then we can clean, tape and finally paint.

Next week is General Conference. It will be interesting to see what happens. Tomorrow the Prophet is asking everyone to Fast and Tyson and I are planning on joining.

Corona Update #3.5

We officially went on "lockdown" as of today 3/26/2020

In a lot of ways, we will just do the same things we have done before - but on another level it feels really scary and really heavy. 

It's funny because yesterday we had such an amazing day. It felt normal

- I woke up early thanks to the amazing Sunrise Clock I bought. 

- I went to Pat's house and stopped by Sprouts to buy fruit, milk and eggs (all the normal stuff was sold out at Walmart)

- on the way home I stopped by a carwash and vacuumed my car

- I came home, played with the girls, we swept the garage, we organized things. 

- we raked the yard

- I did some work. At 5 PM tyson got off and joined us outside. We all went on a walk/run/bike to the local park and walked an hour while listening to an awesome podcast. 

- we came home and it was so nice we stayed outside, kicked the soccer ball, walked around the school while the girls "walked their stuffies" on skates. 

- We came inside and put the girls to bed 

- we did a zoom jepordy with the blakelys

So it felt like a great day. The next morning? We went on lockdown and I woke up and cried while I prayed. 

It's all felt like so much. 

So what did I do? I prayed? I started breathing. I got dressed and got going. I went on 2 walks. The girls "pulled" their squishmellows on their skates. 

School went better this morning, then I took London to her Tutor lesson. 

After, I came home and had back to back calls. It's been really tough to have Tyson take over the office. We are actually moving him downstairs so I can have my office back. 

I finally emerged around 4 PM, made the girls ramen noodles for lunch and we went outside to be in good weather. Then we went on another walk. We came home, I put the girls to bed. 

I have been focusing on watching and listening to GOOD things. Things that help me prepare and get my mindset in the right place. 

I have stopped watching the evening news and really staying off social media so I don't have to read everything. 

I have been talking to my mom every day. I have been texting my friends. Poor Sarah Hammond has COVID19.

Today our Prophet announced a worldwide day of fast on Sunday - and we will do it. 

Tyson had a really long day today at work - which is hard since I really need some connection time for the 4 of us, but I know he is just nervous about making sure he has a job now. We all are. 

But we are making it day by day. Trying to have more Faith than Fear. 

We are also rewatching Survivor - starting in season 15 - which is fun since the girls are really getting into it. It's clean, fun and shows fun challenges. 

We through a birthday party for squishmellows ...