My kids were up early today – 5:00 am, and I found them watching cartoons when I came downstairs around 7:00 am. Our ferret, Blaze, a pandemic pet as many are calling pets purchased during this time at home, apparently woke them up that early. They had a sleepover in my son’s room last night because he wanted his sister to hear what Blaze is like in the morning.
Why is the ferret in my son’s room? Well, that wasn’t our exact plan when we decided to buy our kids a ferret. She was initially located in a room in our basement, but a kitchen pipe bursting and flooding parts of our first floor and leaking into our finished basement have led to a ferret relocation. Fortunately, only one ceiling tile in the ferret’s room was really affected. Her cage did not get the “downpour” that our bar area of our rec room did.
Anyway, so there it is: we bought a pet and have had some water damage in our home. Good times.
At the end of the day and during quiet times in the morning, I think about how the day went. As expected, we did enjoy watching our kid’s baseball and softball games. Our son’s team actually played our nephew’s team, so we ended up visiting with my sister in law and niece. It was nice to see them. To celebrate a victory, coaches treated the team to frozen custard at a local joint. The boys were hungry and had fun hanging out on the patio outside. I did too. We kind of packed the patio area since there were so many of us from the team. I noticed the restaurant employees did not wear masks. Though they did have spacing marks outside the ordering window.
We baked in the hot sun watching my daughter’s game at 1pm. It was in the upper 80’s and humid. We chatted a bit with parents of teammates and sat spread apart along the sidelines. Later that evening, I wondered how many times I talked too closely with someone or passed by another group upon arriving or leaving for a game. Should I be wearing a mask? Should I make my family wear one as we come and go? Do I say something or step back? It’s awkward…I couldn’t have moved into the parking lot at the custard joint to have a conversation.
Second guessing my interactions has become commonplace. We talked about going to church virtually last night instead of going in person since we have been out and about in the community a bit more this week. We’ll watch mass on YouTube sometime today.
We used to never think about things this way.
On a funny note, I posted my sign about participating in the Journal Project. I wrote:
I’m participating in the COVID-19 Journal Project because I want to look back on this time.
My ten year old took my picture with that sign. Later in the day, she added her own line:
I had to laugh…but also agree. Sometimes it does really suck. There’s a lot of things that we miss doing. There is anxiety and questioning about what we are doing. There is still joy. I am still positive and thankful for many things. We are making it work.
go mama o. 