It’s hard to believe it’s been three weeks since I’ve started working from home thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak in our city. We are now at over 1,000 confirmed cases and over 50 deaths in our state alone. If you aren’t taking this seriously yet, it’s time to do so.
I had to actually check and confirm the date before publishing this post, because the days feel completely off-kilter and I have no idea what day of the week it is unless I check the calendar. To be honest, it’s hard to believe it’s been three weeks already. At the same time, it’s odd to look back at photos from a month ago and realize how different life was.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. Apparently, as of today, I’ve been working from home for three weeks already. When this began, I just said that we would keep the kiddo home for two days and then see how things played out. Now, three weeks later, he hasn’t been at preschool a single day for the month of March.
I feel extremely lucky that I can work at home with a five year old in tow, but it certainly hasn’t been easy. I’ve been working long hours – and his face has been showing up on too many work video conferences – but we’re making it work. Not everyone can work from home, though, so I very much appreciate that I can, as frustrating as it can be much of the time.
2. We’ve been eating a ton of meals at home since I’ve been working at home. Along with that, I’ve done a really good job of eating vegetarian or vegan pretty much every breakfast and lunch during this quarantine lite. That often means coffee and a protein bar for breakfast and cereal or leftovers or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, but it’s been cheap and easy and meat free.
3. At the same time, we have been ordering take out and delivery a couple times a week, well more than average. We will definitely be blowing past our goal of no more than $1,000 a month on food and drink.
Our restaurants have been suffering in a big way, and I started up a Facebook group to support our local businesses. As a result, we have been purposefully blowing our food budget to support them. It’s been super tasty, though I have to admit that it feels pretty odd to be virtuous in spending a bunch of money on take out. So is real life right now.
4. Moriah checked in with me to see if I wanted to have a FaceTime chat because she knows I’m an extreme extrovert and am in dire need of people time. Unsurprisingly, she was absolutely right. I miss people.
She and I only got a few snippets of conversation in, but that’s because she offered to virtually babysit my kiddo. They had a good time hanging out and playing legos (virtually), and I got some uninterrupted work done. I am so thankful for my community right now.
5. My neighbor’s birthday was on Thursday, and on a whim I asked if she wanted to have a mini celebration in our front yards – from a social distance, of course.
She said yes, and we ended up having five different households come out and send some time drinking wine and enjoying the sunshine “together” – from at least six feet apart. We’ve all been craving community, and it was pretty dang wonderful to get to hang out, even in the limited fashion that is possible right now.
Exercise Update
Just like last week, I’ve taken a decent walk or two every day this week. I haven’t done it yet, but I think I will hop on the treadmill soon for an easy five or ten minute run to see how it goes on my heel.
How are things where you are at? What positives have you seen while hunkering down at home? Tell me the good.