Confession time:   Wow.  I know it's been a hot minute or twenty thousand since I've posted. I actually wrote the below draft in March of 2020, thinking I would pick up my blog again - but I never got it posted ... forgot I'd even written it. The honest truth is that this last few years has been a roller coaster for my household and family and I never gave thought one to this blog - very little to my camera and even less about writing poetry or anything other than grocery lists, birthday/condolences/thinking of you cards for loved ones we've lost or have been missing.  Lots of life has happened as you might have guessed from your own experiences.  We'd like to think that somehow things just stop or slow down for others if we're not around, right?  But, nah.  It just keeps right on going.  But something came up today that made me wonder if my blog was even still here ... or if it had been "purged" for non-active status.  And here I am - and it is.  So maybe I'll just try again.  I'll park this post here now to remind me of what the "beginning" of the pandemic felt like - and then I'll fill in more from the missing months. Here goes:

March 24, 2020

Right now we're in the midst of  a national crisis.  Coronavirus.  Our world has been hurling toward upside-down for a long time and it just may have succeeded with this latest development.  I'll not even address the conspiracy theories leading to it other than to say, hmmmmmm ... wow.  Lots there.

I'm seriously wanting to build a bunker and hustle all my loved ones inside to wait for the world to heal itself.  Ala Brendon Frasier in the movie "Blast From the Past".  OTOH:  what an amazing time to be alive and a FORCE for what we believe in! 

Hub and I are currently head of household - comprised of  our daughter and her two sons ... Zachary,18 and so looking forward to graduation, and Lukas, 10 looking forward to Middle School.  Both are being cheated of milestones and memories that they've dreamed of all their lives.  And, vicariously, so have we.  At the moment kids are "indefinitely" out of school with talk of "remote learning" on the horizon. Lukas left early from spring break for a school trip never guessing he'd not be going back.  Zachary is wondering about Senior Prom - and finals - and graduation, and how this might affect college admissions. Both are badly missing the friends they never hugged goodbye.

Some family members' jobs have already been affected and we are angsty about it, too.  We're watching our 401K savings for retirement as well as SUPPORT for this extended family household of five dissipate.  Hub is just on the verge of retirement, but we weren't ready yet.  Health issues within the household and other grown children make this virus thing an even more scary challenge.  We have compromised loved ones (heart, diabetes, cancer, lung) to protect and support - very hard to achieve from a distance and with shrinking resources!  The fear is real.  But so must be the FAITH - and the faith needs to be BIGGER!

So... onward and upward!  We've been plugging in the lesson plans for "distance learning" but we're also doing impromptu cooking lessons with the 11 yo ... First one up "Quesadillas".  It was a huge success.