St. Patrick's Day Cancelled

March 17^th (Quarantine Day 2)

{s} It’s not lost on me that today is typically one of my favorite days; St. Patrick’s Day - but there is a somberness to the day.  Life as we know it has forever been changed.  Parades across the world, celebrating Irish roots, have been cancelled along with a smorgasbord of other events (i.e. all sports!). And I typically enjoy my weekly work-from-home (WFH) day, but it’s different today; I already feel disconnected from my fellow co-workers. 

But I’m going to try not to focus on negative things, otherwise this is going to be a very tedious journey.  Instead, I’m going to look for the humor and bright moments – like the Corned Beef Cabbage that will be slow-cooking all day long! 

Mike and I both have our workstations set up; I’m upstairs in the bedroom and he’s snuggled in the sub-basement/recording studio. We congregated in the kitchen around lunchtime; our makeshift ‘break room’ and when the workday was over, we spent some time relaxing in the hot tub. 

Parker decided to snooze a great deal of his day (keep in mind, they are on Spring Break) and when he finally awoke from his slumber, he was itching to toss the baseball around.  Hannah created a schedule for herself that involved some workout routines, a dip in the hot tub too and some serious deep cleaning of her room (she’s now asking to clean out my closet!)

Teegan is spending the day with his mom but will be reunited with us tomorrow. 

We wrapped up the night by watching Contagion, knowing it would be a risky film to watch based on the current situation, but we were up for it.  While the beginning of the movie had great potential, it quickly became a story line that was all over the place and we ended up scratching our heads more out of confusion than being scared into believing this would become our new reality.  Mike rated it 1/5 stars.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings! 

{m} Today started off with my morning dose of media chaos followed by a warm cup of daily CDC updates.  How many cases now?  How close?  Where’s the best place to find toilet paper?  I found myself getting caught up more than I should, so I disconnected and decide to focus on work.  Today was the first day that Sarah and I would both be working from home with all kids in the house.  She had her area upstairs and mine was in the sub-basement.  All I needed was a red stapler and I’d be set!  Actually, despite my Milton from Office Space reference, my area was a nice setup and most importantly, it was cut off from all the chaos of the world, allowing me to focus.

At 11am, I had to leave to run an errand (and getting some fresh air was also nice).  I was about to walk out the door when Sarah asked me a critical question: “Where’s your green?”  Wow, I couldn’t believe it.  It’s not that I had just forgotten to wear green, I had forgotten today was St. Patty’s day all together!  It was a special day we had talked about even the night before—and possibly even that morning…but by 11am, it had slipped its way out of my mind. 

Later that afternoon, there was another press conference discussing the virus updates, stimulus plan, and the overall plan for the next 15 days.  I liked the concept of taking it “15 days” at a time rather than making assumptions about the rest of the spring, summer, etc.  I decided to use the approach when talking to the kids, as well.  However, when you have the state of Kansas already deciding to shut down schools for the rest of the year, that doesn’t help ease their minds!