If you were to chart a graph that measures the frequency of my blog posts in relation to the state of my mental health, you would notice a direct correlation between an increase in posts when my headspace is less than stellar. (It isn’t surprising that I blogged every day while I was a stay-at-home-mom. It’s because I was LOSING IT and oversharing on the internet was the only thing that helped.)
So: hi! I am blogging because I am feeling freaked out about the second wave of Covid-19 that seems to be washing over our province and nation.
The familiar anxieties from this past spring have wormed their way back into the grooves of my brain and the bend of my guts. I am trying to remember to breathe, to ground myself in the moment. But it feels like there are just so many decisions to make all the time, with no clear path to decipher through the fog. Currently we have our three kids in three different schools…three separate cesspools for them to wade into daily and then come home and share their collective germs. I know, apparently schools are “safe” but I just don’t know. Are they??
Look! Here are some pumpkins. Every year we take our sopping, mouldy jack-o-lanterns to the Pumpkin Family, a cute little spot at a bend in the road just down from our house and it always makes me smile. Little rituals like this are keeping me from hyperventilating.
The girls have all been thriving this year at school and their activities and I don’t want to have to pull the plug on all of those good, fun things, but if that’s the safest (while still being semi-reasonable) choice, then I will totally do it.
Look: here’s some child labour! Steve made the girls stock the woodpiles for the winter.
Another nice little distraction is that Avelyn made a batch of these today:
Photo by Smitten Kitchen and recipe here for Christmas Crack(ers). We make ours without the almonds on top. (Because nuts are ew.) Instead I do a little sprinkle of Maldon sea salt on top before I break off a huge hunk to devour. Then I leave my body and hover above the room as I have a transcendent experience triggered by the ecstasy of the Almighty Christmas Cracker.
Then I do it again.
How are you feeling about this freaking pandemic? What are you doing (or not doing) to stay the course and keep on keepin’ on?
3 Comments
I am right with you Amanda. We did not put our kids in school, we are home schooling (and loving it for the most part). Logan is working from home, But I had to return to work. So I am the one going out into the world. And I hate the feeling of being the one to bring home all the germs. My chest is tight and I enjoy a daily stress headache. Ugh.
My kiddo is in school in-person right now, but that ends at Thanksgiving until the second week of 2021. I am glad, I suppose, that we are being “forced” into remote learning? Because, like you, my Covid worries really ramping up. When you said “The familiar anxieties from this past spring have wormed their way back into the grooves of my brain and the bend of my guts. ” — I really felt that.
In Scotland and most of Europe the attitude about in person schooling is totally different – it’s focused on the low risk to kids and most of Europe (unfortunately not us) were back in May. Unlike Canada, all the Scottish kids (I don’t know a single child being home schooled due to Covid) are in school and it does seems to be manageable so I wouldn’t worry about risks unless there was an extremely vulnerable family member (but even then the evidence in Scotland is showing that under 15s are less likely to get and transmit Covid). That’s not because we’re following a low-restriction approach though – it’s the opposite – all indoor visits have been banned again for months and we were only ever allowed restricted visits in the summer. There’s huge hospitality restrictions, business restrictions, (hello week gazillion of home working with no end in sight), travel restrictions, indoor sport restrictions for adults – but school is judged as essential. Hope that helps as a different perspective.
Comments are closed.