Day #295
What a year it's been! Definitely one for the history books. I'd like to say things are getting better in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak but I can't. We are close to the 350,000 mark for deaths in this country alone. It seems like most people around me currently have it or have had it. The months ahead look to be worse than ever.
Our family continues to hunker down and not leave the house very often. It's reminiscent of the spring months when the state was shut down. Summer allowed much of the country to live normally but many doctors were saying the fall and winter months would be some of the darkest days in our history. I think they might be right.
We've stayed healthy so far. The kids have been home doing remote schooling from Thanksgiving until Christmas. The plan is for them to go back to school the beginning of January. The remote learning, as nice of an option that it was, was not working well. Some kids were in school (the majority were) and some kids were home doing remote learning. The remote kids were left behind in general. It was hard to hear the teacher, questions weren't being answered and grades were declining. Back to in person learning they go.
Sean has now been working from home since October 2019. The plan is for him to possibly return to work in person this summer. Of course that will depend on the effectiveness of the newly released vaccine. I know I will take it when it becomes available to my age group. I read that while most people don't die from COVID many are left with reoccurring health problems. The number that stood out for me was that 18% of people that recovered are still having problems. No thanks.
We're in the tenth month of this pandemic and I dare say we've figured out how to make suck a little less:
1. Movies! We've done the Harry Potter marathon and the Die Hard marathon. I signed up for HBO and have slowly made my way through the movies on there.
2. Cards with the family. We played UNO and Skip Bo with Sean and the kids and had a nice evening, will try to make that a weekly occurrence.
3. Buy groceries online. I'm really enjoying just adding my regular groceries to my online cart, setting up a time to pick them up, popping my trunk and I'm on my way. No human interaction. I've been making a list with 14 meals on it and buying groceries for two weeks worth of food. It's saved quite a bit of money and I've been getting more creative with my meals.
4. Online church. I've missed my church community but I won't put them at risk to return to in person worship. The majority of our congregation is 60+ years old and I do worry about them. I'm thankful that the church does recordings of the Sunday services.
5. Take out. We have our favorite restaurants and I do miss eating in them but that is one of the worst places to go right now. I still want to support them so we order our food online or on their app and pick it up and either eat in the car or take it home. Sean and I have had some great dates eating lunch in the car.
6. Video games. We got "the kids" a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. I put that in quotes because I'm the one that wanted it. I love Nintendo games and was super excited to play the new games. Our public library has a ton of Switch games so I've been getting those to play on it. It's a nice way to test a game and see if it's worth paying $60 for.
7. Organizing and cleaning. I'm not sure what has happened to us this year but we've been cleaning and selling stuff that we don't use anymore. We're kind of pack rats so it's been super nice to clear out old stuff. The basement was pretty bad and it's quite usable now. Even made a few bucks too. Win win.
8. Since the movie theaters and most entertainment venues are closed we've tried to find joy in going somewhere....some days it's just a drive into the gas station to get an ice tea. Just getting out of the house is a treat most weeks. We took the kids to the park to stretch our legs and get a fun drink.
