Good Things Friday (56)
March 13, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. I have put in the last orders for refills on all of Seamus’s meds so that we’re good for about 2 months on his medications and food. It’s so much money, and I’m so grateful that we are able to foot the bill, but we are digging a bit into savings.
2. I had my first brain appointment and we dug deep into some painful issues right away. Damn if it wasn’t also really good for me. I felt light for the first time in … I do not remember. It lasted a few days. It also left me with about a thousand more questions than I have answers to but that wasn’t entirely unanticipated.
3. I’m grateful that I decided to skip lump sum investing this year and to make a small weekly purchase on a set day of the week. With the stock market doing the dance its dance, I would be struggling to figure out what to do and when to buy and how much to buy. But a set schedule that I just execute? I can handle that.
Challenges this week: The spread of COVID-19, and the terrible way the US government is handling it, is really unsettling.
4. I’m working on focusing on the things I can control, like food. I’m looking at planning for treats and meals in case of self quarantine or actual illness. Like these keto sugar free donuts. There’s also my list of a mix of new and old recipes that I need to make in large batches for eating now AND for freezing for later. I’m hoping we can stage just one big grocery run this week and not have to go again for another couple weeks to reduce our social exposure.
5. We’re also talking about when to pull JB from regular activities (daycare, swim). There aren’t many cases here, many parents who have help have already pulled their kids and reduced the exposure for the remaining kids, so now we are working to make plans to keep JB engaged and learning at home when it’s our turn to take them out.
6. After 3 rounds of medications and 4 lab tests at $200 a pop, Seamus is FINALLY cleared of infection!!! HUZZAH.
7. I’ve got some hoarded Target gift cards for our essentials that I just dug into to send a big box of supplies to my baby relative working their butt off as a healthcare provider. They are in one of the frontline roles of treating people and I wanted to ease their day to day burden a little since they’re on their own and working all hours of the day and night. Thank goodness for hoarding gift cards.
8. I got to thinking about kids in school and college right now. If this pandemic had hit when I was a kid or in college like this one is hitting now, we couldn’t have made rent, paid for gas, groceries, or utilities. We were once so incredibly precarious. It’s a minor miracle that I made it through college without more than a major medical mystery hanging over my head. I wish there was a way to see the students who are scrambling to survive because of this and give them a helping hand.
I’m building up our supply of ready-to-eat and easy-prep meals, instead of just ingredients – because if I am the one who gets sick first/worst, not much cooking will happen. Our regular emergency supplies were tailored for earthquakes, storms, and power outages, not pandemics. I’m also buying craft supplies to keep the kids busy and figuring out supplies for house projects because hey, may as well take care of some Honey-Do tasks while we’re stuck AT home!
Coronavirus is in our area so my husband and I are leaning towards quarantining ourselves for 2+ weeks just to be responsible citizens. But our family members are not that cautious yet – which is frustrating because THEY are the high-risk people we are most concerned about protecting!
Oh that IS frustrating! That seems to be the common theme among everyone I know – the elders and more at risk people in our lives are refusing to see that they are at higher risk and therefore take precautions.
TwC’s preschool is closing for the next two weeks and maybe more depending on how widespread COVID-19 may get. Since my in-laws are already taking care of BwC I’ll just take some vacation time from work since we’re not busy and help watch over both of them. Luckily, the preschool will provide homework packets so he will have something to do during that time.
We’re gonna stock up on food from Trader Joe’s and Costco. The lines are going to be long especially at Costco so it’s going to be an adventure doing grocery shopping but if we can get the food and supplies we need from there, we hope we won’t go back grocery shopping for another couple of weeks at least.
I’m glad you’re able to shift to working from home. I hope the lines start to die down as people self isolate.
Our work is closed for the next month, so we are trying to juggle having both of us work remotely. We’re not set up for it at all, but we’ll get there. And then yesterday, the schools closed for a month. Wow. That’s going to make the previously precariously juggling even more challenging.
We’re planning to hack it for a week, so we can get some medical appointments (not Covid related) out of the way & then head to our vacation house. We’ll be in a much less dense location, but also will have additional help & support from my parents, who can take the boys for a few days at a stretch.
We made a big donation today, to help the many people who are struggling.
We went to Costco, and M waited for an hour+ to get into the store. Trader Joes & the grocery store had tons of empty shelves & the line to pay was over 30 minutes in both. Nuts.
Stay safe & healthy!
The Costco and Trader Joe’s errands took four hours this week! It’s just massively out of whack but I know people are scared and I know we ourselves are trying to avoid having to venture back out again if we can so stocking up early seems to be the way to go. I wonder what it’ll look like in a week. Best of luck with your stay at the vacation house!
Thanks for making that donation, I hope everyone among us who can will do the same. We’ll make our donations to the homeless shelter early this year because I’m sure they need it more than ever.