Monthly Archives: March 2020

Random 5 Friday ~ Soup, Social Distancing & Life Lessons

Posted on March 27, 2020 by emjayandthem

It’s Friday, the first Friday of our “stay-at-home” COVID-19 order. I hope this finds you all safe & well ~ Here are my random 5 for today~

1 ) Being home is fine with me & Hubbs ~ we are both more introverted than not and home is our happy place. He’s wandering around, suffering from sports-withdrawal and is our resident news hawk. Reading is my escape. When it all gets too much, and it does, I turn off the 24/7 coverage and jump head-first into a book.

Lesson: both of us being home full-time has been a good practice run for retirement.

2 ) It’s been a week since I got sick, and 10 days for Hubbs. We’re still coughing and appetites are slowly returning. We’ve noshed on soups and omelettes, fruit and coffee. Beef noodle vegetable was on the lunch menu yesterday and, because I come from a family of 7, I made enough for us, neighbors + some to freeze. 🙂

Lesson: Yeah I could pare it back but neighbors are happy and the freezer is stocked. All good.

3 ) I feel for the parents, home now full-time with kids, while worrying about safety, finances, job security, etc. I say build a fort, play a board game, draw pictures, and cook together. Let them get bored, it’s OK. Kids don’t need to learn a new language or master advanced math right now, they just need you.

Lesson: Do what you need to do & keep a sense of humor – for the best parent tweets about Social Distancing click here .

4 ) Benefits of staying home:

It takes me no time at all to get ready for work 🙂
- I’m working longer hours and on back-to-back calls
  - Cough cough
No need to pack a lunch, I’m only 15 steps from the kitchen and the cook’s pretty good 🙂
- Trying to avoid the “Quarantine 15”
Lesson ~
- I love being home, I still enjoy working, and I miss being able to go out when I want
  - The lesson for me is that there’s always a lesson in there (Thanks Mom)

5 ) It’s a crazy, scary surreal time. We’ll get through it. After all, many of us grew up using this:

Lesson – we are a (mostly) hearty bunch and a strong nation ~It might take a while but we’ll come back from this.

So how are you holding up?

Categories: Attitude, Blogging, Confidence at any age, Determination, Faith, Family, Food, Growth, Home, Humor, Life, Life Lessons, News, Opinion, Personal, Random observations, Relationships, Thoughts | Tags: Books, comfort, COVID-19, food, grateful, humor, lessons, news, pandemic, random 5, rest, retirement, self-care, shelter-in-place, soup | 19 Comments

Control your controllable(s)

Posted on March 22, 2020 by emjayandthem

Crazy times we’re in ~ and that’s the understatement of the year! New buzz words pepper our vocabulary ~

Quarantine
Self-isolate
Mitigate spread
Prepare, prepare , prepare

COVID-19. Pandemic. Confusion. Fear.

We are tucked in, with Hubbs battling a viral bug and me not far behind. We’re on the mend and thankful for a stocked pantry with enough paper products for a while ~ no hoarding here.

Self-care is foremost including:

Hand-washing and cleaning
Fluids and plenty of rest
- Slept 11 hours Friday and took a 2 hour nap Saturday
  - As Mom would say, “You must have needed it”
Reading, reading and reading
Turning off news after a while, usually in evenings.
- It’s hard to sleep after all that.
- Updates bring more anxiety
Moving around and stretching
Laundry, washing jammies and sweatpants and blankies, because that’s what we’re using most
Cooking a little, enjoying eggs, fruit, tea and toast

Sending good thoughts to all ~ We’re thankful our boys & their girls and all of our littles are well and at home.

Yep, we’re doing our best to “control our controllables” – and praying for patience for all ~

So ~ how are you doing? Be safe and please stay home!

Categories: Attitude, Faith, Family, fear, Home, Life, Love, News, Opinion, Personal, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tags: anxiety, being home, coping, COVID-19, home, pandemic, quarantine, Reading, self-care, stress | 4 Comments

Random 5 Saturday ~ Birthdays, Rinks and COVID19

Posted on March 7, 2020 by emjayandthem

It’s Saturday, the sun is shining and it’s time for 5 randoms from my world. Ready? Set? Go!

1 ) Celebrating oldest boy’s birthday later today ~ which called for some home-made baking straight out of Mommacita’s kitchen. My blueberry-loving boy gets a blueberry/peach cobbler and the rest will enjoy a Triple Chocolate “Rink” Cake (good enough to take to the rink, a nod to the winter home of my childhood). That sheen on the cake? That’s from butter in the homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. Margarine is never gonna give you that sheen ~ Love baked in every bite!

Blueberry Peach Cobbler

Triple Chocolate “Rink” Cake

Indeed it is

2 ) Speaking of the Rink .. it remains the H E A R T of my prairie home. Talking with my sister last night she filled me in on the “Spa Spiel” happening this weekend – a 3 day curling bonspiel, with 16 teams, ages ranging from grade school to seniors. (** Winning team gets a trip to the local hot springs Spa**) The rink kitchen will be humming with volunteers frying onions for “rink burgers,” serving up homemade pie, homemade soup and homemade buns, all donated from area residents. Those not curling will be visiting, skating, playing cards, eating pie and enjoying what’s likely to be the last winter “hurrah” for the real ice of that small-town prairie rink. Spring will come and the ice will go – it’s just the way it’s always been.

I remember coming in to warm up, after skating for hours, and finding enough change for an ice cold-coke or Sprite out of this cooler. We’d pull our drink out of the frosty water, wipe it off with the rag that’d been there forever, and enjoy, our cheeks burning as they warmed. It is not possible to craft a better childhood and I’m so glad to hear those prairie traditions continue!

the old Coca-Cola chest …

3 ) Signs of Spring are everywhere – but March came in like a Lamb. We all know what that means!

Roar !

4 ) Woke up to emails from airlines that I have upcoming business trip tickets with ~ and assurances about clean air and cabin cleaning…. No CoVid19 around here yet but the FLU (which kills thousands every year) has been rampant, with many schools having to close for a week at a time. NoroVirus, Influenza A and H1N1 are all in play – blah. Between us, I’ve got a feeling my corporate conferences are about to be scrapped. And that’s OK by me.