Corona what..........

In college being able to afford a Corona over a Keystone Light beer was an exciting evening. Now I am hearing the word Corona every day and the first image that pops into my head is an ice-cold Corona bottle and a beach scene - definitely NOT a virus! Who named this thing anyways? I could look that up, but why bother! I guess during this crazy time we are getting to experience in history, the momentary first thoughts of beer and beach is something I should hold onto.

There are movies about this kind of thing happening in the world. I would have never in all my life would have every thought that the world as a whole would be experiencing the same thing all together all at the same time. The only other thing that I can think of that the whole world sort of collectively experiences is the Olympic Games. I admit, I live in a tiny bubble where my daily thoughts revolve around my jam packed schedule of school, homework, sports, health, husband, work, grandparents and extended family, with the occasional hang out with friends and the rare occasion of time for myself doing something special for me. I never would have ever imagined that our day to day life would so drastically be affected by something called Corona, Coronavirus, Covid-19, etc. I am not making light of the situation by calling it by the name of a beer. I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea that the whole world together is being challenged by a virus that somehow came from people in China eating bats and it somehow mutated and now is a worldwide pandemic virus that will potentially affect most people in the world whether by directly getting infected or by knowing someone who gets infected. The thought still challenges my mind. 

  

And as we stay at home, we are challenged now to figure out a new normal, even if for a short time in the big picture of our lives. The time we spend at home will be short when you think about our lives. But what to do during this time, how to manage our minutes, how to motivate ourselves to use the time wisely. And if you have kids, oh how it would be so much easier to just let them do whatever they want, play games endlessly, and eat whatever they want. But of course, we won't do that, so we have resorted to white boards with schedules, homework assignments needing to be checked, workouts to be had, eating schedules to follow, and bedtimes to adhere to on a daily basis. I don't know if we do this for our sanity or for a sense of control. For me it is definitely both because with no other activities outside the house I am challenged to control something, to have some sort of a schedule, to follow something day to day. How can my Google calendar be so empty!

                                   My Schedule NOW .............   My schedule 6 weeks ago

   
  

So, what am I doing.......well, I am figuring it out as I go along. I got prepared for this whole thing. I bought everything I needed. I menu planned for one month and have all the food needed for that to happen. I have all the cleaning products need. I have washed my hands and cloroxed the house so much my hands are sandpaper. I have become super chef making new recipes. I have become hockey and athletic trainer trying to keep these 3 hockey player kids in shape because at some point we will exit our cave here and enter right back into hockey world and tryouts and they want to be ready. I am purging the house before our upcoming move and have gotten through almost the entire house except the three big rooms: my office, my kitchen and the garage. Those are big areas and will take one week a piece – good I have something to do for 3 more weeks. The rest of my time I play referee between three kids, I hang out with my hubby a bit while he works East Coast hours in his office coming out for coffee breaks and meals. I stress over the fact that my dining room has turned into the Lego Master Show workshop where daily the kids come up with building themes and work hours on building Legos. I thought we were done with Legos, but boy was I wrong. Now the 1 million Legos that were all sorted by color and nicely boxed for an eternal storage in our upcoming basement in our new home has made it to my dining room table. I guess I have to be happy about the fact that they are quiet some of the time working in there. Kids have discovered the show The Amazing Race and I am binge watching Grey’s Anatomy (how did I miss this show, 15 seasons, I am hooked!)

My biggest challenge is my newfound sense of time and what I like to do......I see this as an opportunity to discover what it is I like to do for myself and with my time. And the answer is I HAVE NO IDEA!! A big part of me is wrapped around my kids and their activities and that will always be the case. But I know that at some point that will end, or they won't need me anymore when they are driving themselves to practice, etc. I am pretty efficient with life and have most of the things I need to manage in life pretty worked out. I am good at organizing life, cooking, cleaning, running a smooth household, being there for most people in my life, etc. But when it comes to me and myself, I falter big time. So as I sit here writing this post I am wondering what are the things I like to do, what things do I want to accomplish yet in life because life is long, what do I need to fix, what things do I want to learn and discover. With time all things are possible. So, I think, I am thinking and wondering.

The Thinker Statue by Rodin - one of my favorites, in Paris

I used to blog every summer and used it as a way to write down our summer experiences which were so fun. I loved being creative, writing, sharing. I never really did it during school year because I didn’t have the time. Well now I have the time. So maybe I will post. I am not going to post how many rolls of toilet paper I have or what my day to day schedule looks like - boring. But I do have things I can share. People always ask me how I do a lot of the things I do, so maybe I will share those. Who knows how this will all play out? We could be in our home caves for a while or a short period of time. I don’t know and I also don’t want to think about it. I look at the silver lining. All year I focus on the fact that I want more one on one time with my husband and kids. Now I have it. I was brought up with family dinner every night. And during the school year and hockey season I make sure that happens every chance we can get. Now I get family dinner every night and I love it. I am amazed at how quickly they eat, but I am grateful for the time together.

So those are my thoughts today. And I am only focusing on today. My calendar is empty, so time to relax, hang out, enjoy the time together, share a few thoughts and live on!!! Keep Calm….and Live On!!!  - did you know that the "Keep Calm"....phrases are my absolute favorite....I have coffee cups, water bottles, little signs all over my house - definitely my life motto!! So very appropriate for today and going forward!!

Hugs from me always

Val