You may have noticed that right after school started last September, I kind of vanished from this blog. While it’s been an amazing several months and we are all doing quite well, I do regret the radio silence. It turns out that moving to a new place, switching to a new school, and starting your youngest in junior kindergarten while simultaneously introducing your eldest to French immersion makes for quite a time management challenge.
Of course, right now, literally everyone on the planet is facing some much more significant challenges as we all react to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust to this dynamic situation. Suddenly phrases we’d never heard before, like “social distancing” and “self-isolation” are becoming a part of everyday life. Some of us are facing huge lifestyle changes we may never have expected, like surviving unemployment or suddenly adapting to homeschooling. Most importantly, whatever conditions we find ourselves in and where we may be, we all have a new shared goal…to flatten the curve.
Here’s a video I’ve been sharing around that explains, briefly and in simple language, why that’s so important:
In the coming weeks and months, just like you, I’ll be spending a lot more of my days cooped up inside than our usual springtime routine. Even with my spouse busy at area hospitals and our kids learning from home, I have a feeling I’m going to need to make time for a creative outlet like this blog more than ever. So look forward to more stories soon: about life north of the border, our immigrant experience, and our path to citizenship.
So far, our family’s coronavirus adventures have been fortunately tame, and we are extremely grateful for that given “mommy’s” constant odds of exposure. We stayed home for March Break, and at varying points throughout the month all four of us came down with some pretty annoying flu-like symptoms. We had our first practice run for a full blown infection response as we hunkered down in the townhouse for a week straight, with the doc home from work, and us all awaiting her test results. Both her initial test and re-test (as per protocol for health care workers) proved negative, though, so it’s possible our coughs and fevers were just the result of an average cold or a vaccine-weakened seasonal flu.
Our biggest adjustment at this point is that I’m going to need to adapt my urbanite, on-demand grocery shopping preferences to a more weekly/monthly suburban pattern of meal planning. Like many folks, we’ve ordered a chest freezer for the garage that should be here soon. We’ve also run into a bit of a resource crunch trying to effectively homeschool two kiddos of significantly different age levels, and theoretically an Amazon van will be dropping off a second refurbished iPad and pair of headphones this afternoon. It’s not just for the them though…I need to seriously bone up on my français (hooray for Duolingo). Our local hospital is getting some new resources too, erecting a tented expansion into its parking lot with a hundred new beds of capacity while emergency and intensive care are reorganized indoors. We’ll doubtlessly have some stories from the front lines in coming weeks as well.
In the meantime, best wishes to everyone as we all face these interesting times together. I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay safe, stay connected, and stay informed…and I will try to occasionally share useful information from here. Good luck, and remember to wash your hands!
This Ontarian Life 