Corona Diary #1

- April 04, 2020

(Written March 23, 2020 so this is completely out of date,
but I wanted to get it documented and I will update soon.)

Rejoice in our confident hope.

Be patient in trouble,

And keep on praying.

Romans 12:12

Well, the world has gone crazy. I cannot keep up with how quickly circumstances change these days. And who could have imagined this life even 3 weeks ago?

Here's our situation: I'm working from home for the forseeable future (I've been quarantined since Saturday, March 14). My Vanderbilt doctors are managing patients/prescriptions with phone calls so I didn't go to the cancer clinic 2 weeks ago and I won't go in April either. Brian's school district is out until May 4 so he's not driving a bus. Church is online only for the next several weeks (we're evaluating week to week). The kids are homeschooling for 2 weeks; spring break is next week. We don't know what to expect after spring break. Camden and Rory have HIGH expectations that life will return to normal after spring break, but I think a more realistic expectation is that they will continue homeschooling.

The Lewis House is managing the quarantine this way:

My enneagram 1 is strong, so we have a whiteboard hanging in our kitchen/dining area that changes daily. My kids have always loved a schedule so they actually enjoy the whiteboard. Since we may be in this for the long haul, a routine seemed important.

The whiteboard even includes our daily menu down to the snacks for each day. We are stocked up on eggs, butter, half and half, cheese, pasta, ice cream and Oreos. And several pounds of coffee. You know, the important stuff. It feels important to provide variety in our meals since the days are so similar and menu planning helps me with variety. We've baked a couple of times, eaten more than our fair share of ice cream, but I'm also serving fruits and veggies "to keep us from getting scurvy" as I tell the kids. ;)

In case you need book and TV recommendations, here are a few things I've consumed recently:

-Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (I read this start to finish in one day if that gives you any indication of how I felt about it)

-The Choice by Edith Eger (difficult but inspiring read about the Holocaust)

-The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (I do not recommend; this was like a YA horror book)

-American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (I know there was controversy surrounding this book, but I couldn't stop reading; it was a great story.)

-Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (I'm not sure reading a book about a world pandemic that killed off nearly the entire population was the right choice for this month.)

-Hulu documentary on Hilary Clinton. I found this fascinating on many levels, regardless of your political views.

-Anne with an E on Netflix. So much darker than the original Anne of Green Gables movies as it shows the reality of an orphan back in the early 1900s.

-QB: Beyond the Lights. Camden, Brian, and I have been watching this docu-series that follows high school seniors who are committed to D1 football schools. Season #1 was good; season #2 not so much but season #3 is looking up.

-Secretariat movie on Disney+. Horses and horse racing were my absolute favorite thing as a middle schooler so this was right up my alley. To this day, I cry my way through a Kentucky Derby, Preakness, or Belmont Stakes.

My plan is to post Instagram pictures on Instagram daily in order to document this time. If I didn't make myself choose to find entertainment through these days, there's a real danger of falling into a funk.

Untitled