I am trying a weekly photo journal of my life during this stay-at-home pandemic. The idea is to post on Sundays and include one photo for each day of the week with some text. I may not limit myself to one photo because I have a hard time with rules like that. It seems a perfectly logical thing to do on a family history blog. This is certainly an historic time.

Sunday, 3/29/2020
* The day started with ZOOM Sunday school hour: Resisting Racism. The pastors hosted a short time together at 11. So good to see faces. Emotional for me as prayer requests were named in the chat box.
* Two more bearded iris in bloom as #1 fades.
* ZOOMed afternoon tea with two sisters and dad.
* Phil’s Ice House take out for dinner
* After dinner walk. Chalk art. Christmas display.

 

Tuesday, 3/31/2020
* Ray Benson and Chris Cuomo have COVID-19. The list of musicians and public figures keeps growing.
* Five bearded iris blooms
* Early evening walk and found this chalk art on a fence.

Wednesday, 4/1/2020
* April Fools Day canceled due to Coronavirus Pandemic – except in the newspaper comics.
* Worked on decluttering the kitchen. A big part was sorting/tossing/organizing recipe clippings
* Co-facilitated last session of small group discussion of White Fragility. ZOOM, what else?
* No pic today.

Thursday, 4/2/2020

*We had a lovely ESL class via zoom this morning. Our Asian students are as anxious as we all are because of the pandemic, but they are also carrying the burden and worry of being blamed, targeted, and unsafe. Some no longer go for walks in their neighborhood or would never venture out to the store. This toxic atmosphere started with the president and has been fueled by his continuing use of the term “Chinese Virus.”
* Blessed with an abundance of blooms today. I’ve never had so many at one time before. My husband moved them to this spot and they seem happier here.
* Risked taking a walk between rain showers. Unfortunately, there was lots of loud thunder for the last part of my walk. I walked as fast as I could to get home! The dogs were driving my husband crazy – he was on a conference call for work.
* I enjoy hearing my husband laugh after a hard day of work-at-home. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Last week it was The Kominsky Method.

Since I had no pics for Wednesday, I get to double up for Thursday. Took these before the thunder!  I love all the wonderful things to look at in this yard. Today I noticed the art on the utility box between the sidewalk and the curb.

Friday, 4/3 2020

I wanted to return to Neill-Cochran House to spend more time with the art of Ginger Geyer, but ‘Rona shut down that plan. I was happy to get an email from the museum yesterday with this virtual tour, narrated by the artist. The artist went to seminary, so many of her works incorporate religious themes – sometimes in unexpected ways. In our house, she has been known as “the pie lady” because my daughter has worked with her on her website and the first time they met, she told us about the ceramic pies and other things placed around the artist’s home, looking very real. You can take the tour too! If These Walls Could Talk
* My husband worked 12 hours today with essentially no breaks for meals. His working at home is longer and harder than his usual work day. This is why I am having trouble fitting in my 10 minutes to play piano.
* Stormy afternoon, so I spent a lot of time holding Dreamboat, the scared-of-everything dog.
* Finished puzzle #2

Saturday, 4/4/2020
I spent yesterday making a space to sew in my daughter’s room upstairs because my sewing space is so cluttered, there was no room to sew. I carried a small folding table up the stairs with difficulty, but the sewing machine was too heavy and my husband was working so hard, that the project didn’t get finished. This morning, he was working again, so I used the time to clean up my designated sewing space enough to use it. And washed some fabric and found a pattern for face masks that I plan to use. This one has a pocket for adding a filter and the nurse who posted it said she used an AC filter that is rated high for allergens and also filters out some viruses and bacteria. I hated to do it, but sent my husband to the store to pick it up for me.

That’s all for this week. It has been a week of many ups and downs. Friends in the hospital and hospice, friends with good news from the oncologist, and news, news, news about the virus and that was mostly bad news.

Hang in there! Stay home and stay safe!

Here we are, stuck at home. At least I hope those of us who are “non-essential” are doing our duty to stay in and keep those who must be out as safe as possible. I fall into both the Over 60 and Immunocompromised groups, so I am staying home!

I have not been blogging and am having trouble getting back to it. I thought with some of my time freed up, it would happen. But no. I’ve spent a lot of time the past week learning about and practicing ZOOM, as I suspect many of you have. And too much news and time on social media.

So … as a back door into what I usually share here – family history stories and old photos, I thought I’d try a weekly photo journal of life during this stay-at-home pandemic. The idea is to post on Sundays and include one photo for each day of the week with some text. I may not limit myself to one photo because I have a hard time with rules like that. It seems a perfectly logical thing to do on a family history blog. This is certainly an historic time.

I’ve been taking photos of daily things for a couple of weeks now, so this first entry will cover more than one week, making it extra long. Sorry.

Week of March 8

3/8/2020 I started isolating early because I had a cold. Learning how to make scrumbles for freeform crochet.

3/14 New toys!

Week of March 15

3/16 That new toy above – the hand held steamer? Turns out it has many uses, like cleaning grout. I spent several enjoyable hours cleaning grout on my kitchen island. See the difference? This is how I’m amusing myself.

3/18/2020 COVID-19 de-stress Puzzle #1 This was especially fun for me because the artist is a client of my daughter and she gave her the puzzle to give to me. The artist, Ginger Geyer, works in porcelain and those pies are not real although they look good enough to eat. I got to see her work displayed at the Neill-Cochran House Museum. I wanted to go back and spend more time with her art after doing a tour, but along came a virus and shut everything down. 🙁 I went on the Bus Tour with Shoebox Picnic in February. It was a really interesting way to spend a few hours. https://www.nchmuseum.org/class/if-these-walls-could-talk/

3/19/2020 I’ve been wearing these during the time of physical distancing. Consider yourself hugged.

3/19/2020 Puzzle #2

Also 3/19 Learning to ZOOM

3/21/2020
*Happy 45th Anniversary to us!
*1st grocery delivery
*Tried to host ZOOM meetings with mixed and then frustrating results
*Just when we were about to order take out anniversary dinner there was a downpour, so we ate leftovers

Week of March 22

3/22/2020
* Sprung for “travel” size water purifier and tested our brains to set it up. Happy Anniversary to us and Mother Earth.
* Really enjoyed virtual church this morning! Wonderful way to stay connected, find a place of peace, and be challenged.
* Better ZOOM experience today. Had a “meeting” with a friend and former ESL student. She and her husband are on their boat in a marina on the Canary Islands. I successfully shared a pdf with her and we both drew on the whiteboard!
* Had our anniversary dinner a day late. Takeout from Hencho en Mexico.
* I’ve been so impressed by so many of my friends sewing protective masks/mask covers. I have not participated. I was coughing quite a bit yesterday, no sewing for me until I have no cough. I think yesterday was allergies combined with “old” cold.

3/23/2020
* Pretty much successfully hosted a ZOOM coffee and chat time with a few ESL students. I goofed up something at first and had to send a 2nd invitation, then we did ok.
* watched more ZOOM tutorials
* Caught up on this week’s reading for book discussion of White Fragility on Wednesday.
* Someone brightened up the walk to the mailboxes.

3/24/2020
* Snails. So.many.snails.
* Made spinach soup and deviled eggs. Soup just ok. I may not make it again, but couldn’t let all that spinach go to waste.
* Really warm day.
* Feeling bored this evening for some reason.

Also 3/24: Labs at TX Oncology. Sticker shows I passed inspection to enter. Wore my “Did I wake up in a dystopian novel?” pin for my outing. Not the usual experience. Nearly empty waiting room since no one is allowed to accompany patients. A part-time nurse who worked in the building on 3/13 tested positive for the virus, so the building was shut down yesterday for a deep cleaning. Scary for cancer patients!

3/25/2020 Photo from my backyard in the afternoon.

3/26/2020
Wore my special shirt for ZOOM Book Club. Unfortunately, only another teacher and I attended, but it helped our learning curve anyway. Finally using my sun blocking hat for walks.

Also 3/26/2020
Louisiana iris (I think) in front bed.

3/27/2020 One in bloom. The promise of more to come.

3/28/2020
* Enjoying bearded irises. Two in the back yard; one in the front
* puzzle progress
* Martin ordered me a supply of my favorite tea. Six boxes. I’m set!

Also 3/28/2020 Seems like every time I decide to cook, I’m missing an important ingredient. Today it was broth to make lentil soup (which I tried to make last week and discovered I had no lentils). I remembered I had turkey broth in the freezer from Thanksgiving for the save.

 3/28/2020 again. Took my walk to the mailbox later than usual.

 I think it is a good idea for all of us to keep some kind of journal during this crazy time – our thoughts and feelings as well as the every day life we are living. Maybe our thoughts on how our leaders are leading. Maybe the good things we experience. Maybe tracking what is happening where we live. Maybe how you keep in touch with the grandkids you can’t see right now. The possibilities are almost endless.

I think I will do better at keeping this kind of journal rather than one with a lot of writing, but maybe I’ll keep a personal journal as well. I’m also thinking of blogging a kitchen/food/cooking journal.

Stay well! And journal on!