Coronavirus. Minnesota. April 13.

We’ve now been on “quarantine” for 2 weeks and 3 days with a new extension until May 4th.

I have a high school senior who is taking this like a champ while she watches event after event get cancelled or postponed. In the big picture, senior events don’t measure up to protecting people’s lives but in the life of a senior, these missed milestones are momentous and sad.

All the kids have adapted well to “distance learning” with the biggest gripe being our snail-paced internet service. For posterity’s sake, I’ll document it here (I’m sure someday we’ll be shocked we even survived with this speed of internet): our internet through CenturyLink provides speeds of “up to 1.5Mbps”, a recent speed test during typical usage showed our speed to be at 0.6ish Mbps. Kinda tough to support 4 kids learning at home on those speeds, but we’re making do! We’ve also recently learned (and upgraded) that we are eligible now for speeds up to 10 Mbps, however our install is indefinitely delayed because “the tech found that the facilities aren’t in place” and there was no timeline when these “facilities” will be in place. Ugh.

We are going through close to 2 gallons of milk a day, which makes me look like a real heel when I go to the store and buy 8 gallons at one time while the gentleman behind me grabs one single 1/2 gallon. I feel like I should wear a sign that proclaims, “I promise I’m not stockpiling! This will barely get us through the week!”. We walked past the toilet paper aisle today and it was about 1/4 stocked and I said “WOW!!! Toilet paper is restocked!!” and Ayla reminded me that it’s barely restocked compared to (to quote my hilarious friend Kate), “The Before Times”. We are going through snacks and food like crazy...4 kids home 24/7 with two of them being ravenous, teenage boys proves to be a challenge with keeping food in the house! (So. Many. Trips. To Walmart. So much for “stay at home”.)

Holy Week came and went, we participated in live-streamed masses and missed our beautiful church and congregation. Easter Mass wrecked me. As I watched our priests and seminarians celebrate mass, I was suddenly overcome with such sadness, such longing to be in church, that the tears just started to flow. I could see the incense wafting up toward Heaven and I couldn’t smell it. My heart broke to have yet another week go by and be unable to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I had a hard time stopping the tears, and afterward told my sweet husband, “It’s just so sad. That’s all I could think about was ‘This is just so sad that we can’t be there.’” I know that “this too shall pass”, and it can’t pass soon enough.

We’ve been enjoying outdoor games (the “Four Wheeler Game”, which is a type of hide-and-seek in which the seeker is on a 4 wheeler and the hiders scurry about our property, trying not to get caught...so much fun and good, active, family time!) and getting a lot of outdoor work down. Paul cut down 5 trees on Saturday and we all pitched in and got them cleaned up in no time!

Paul and I are both blessed to be essential workers, feeling for those whose livelihood had been impacted by all of this.

Other than the last couple of days, our weather has been glorious and spring-like. Today, even Mother Nature has lost her mind...it is snowing and the sun is shining AT THE SAME TIME.

Praying for a swift end, or a speedy process to contain, this virus and allow people to get back to life. Worried for those whose mental health is taking a toll from the isolation and those whose financials are in jeopardy. Thinking of all those who have fought or are fighting the virus personally and praying they recover quickly.

Stay healthy and pray for a rapid process to treat and overcome coronavirus and allow us all to return to live as usual!

To be continued...