Self Quarantine Day 11: Quarantine Food

I definitely saw the food situation going differently when the topic of social distancing and self quarantining first started getting tossed around here. I had visions of home cooked meals every night and tasty, healthy lunches every day. The reality has been vastly different.

For starters, The Hubs has been working late a lot so with the exception of when he cooked last Sunday for date night, I’ve only cooked a real dinner once this week. I was lucky enough to have my Mom feed me one night so that was nice. (Thanks Mom!) Often when my husband works late his Mom feeds him dinner because he knows that after a certain hour I’m not cooking anything. I guess that’s one of the perks of working with your parents.

Since I’m not cooking dinner, there are no leftovers for lunch. The girls eat hotdogs, cheese, fruit, crackers, pasta, and a smorgasbord of other foods for lunch. By the time I’m done getting them to eat I’m so over it that I’ve fallen into eating pretty much the same thing every day. I was smart enough to buy some pimento cheese, chicken salad, and crackers the other day and it’s keeping me alive. Sometimes for lunch and dinner. On the upside, working from home with the girls here has me eating lunch before 2 which was practically unheard of when I was working in the office. Also, I love pimento cheese so it’s hard to go wrong there. Should I eat healthier? Probably. Is it damn tasty? Yep!

The only meal I’ve been rocking is breakfast. We’ve had smoothies, yogurt with berries, eggs, egg sandwiches, toast and fruit, grits, and pancakes. The pancakes were, admittedly, a bit of a disastrous mistake but the girls and I loved them. Most important meal of the day right? Right! Winning!

Maybe by the time this is all over I’ll have my crap together meal wise but I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. There’s a pandemic on and I’ve got work to do and kids to raise. Perfect meals can wait. Until then we’ll just try to spend more time outside taking walks and playing on their swing set. Maybe it will help me work off all those cheese calories.

Self Quarantine Day 10: Best Part of the Day

Back when I was in high school my Mom decided that we were going to try and eat dinner as a family. Not long after we realized that dinner conversation tended towards the negative. At some point she decided that she’d had enough and “best part of the day” was born. We do it at every family dinner and everyone must participate, even visiting friends/family. Back when I traveled for work I’d call in for it. Sometimes my brother FaceTimes and participates from wherever he is in the world. Somehow, talking about the best part of our day while sharing a tasty meal with people that I love makes even the crappiest of days seem better.

I started this blog post writing about the crappy parts of my day and realized that I was being negative and dramatic in a world that’s already doing enough of that on its own. Overall, it was a great day and it’s important that I take the time to appreciate that. I want the best parts of my day to win, not the garbage.

I actually had a couple of best parts of my day so here they are, in no particular order.

1) While on a conference call, I got to plant some wildflower seeds in the yard with The Conqueror and The Hun. Now, plant is a rather loose term here. We basically sprinkled the seeds then threw some dirt on top and then watered it. Still fun and hopefully we’ll see some flowers eventually.

2) I unintentionally taught the girls to say “YASS QUEEN!” It’s stupid, I know, but I say it all the time and it’s super adorable coming out of their grinning faces.

3) I got to flex some creative muscles at work. When you can’t let visitors into the building so that children can learn through play, you have to find new ways to share the play. My supervisor tasked my assistant and I with coming up with some ideas for kits that we could sell while we’re closed. We’ll see how our ideas go over. Regardless, it was really fun to be able to do something creative again.

4) I spent time looking back at my notes from the early days of the museum and was blown away by what I found. It’s easy sometimes when you work for a start up to forget the obstacles that you’ve overcome. Today I read through my notes and remembered past workers, past ideas, and some of the fire I had when we first started.

So that’s my day. How was yours? What was the best part of your day?

Self Quarantine Day 9: Crazy Choices After Midnight

I think I’m going a little loopy. I’m chalking it up to lack of social interaction. I’m an extreme extrovert apparently. Not talking to humans in the flesh is crappy. All phone and no face to face makes Diana a dreary girl. (Don’t worry, I don’t think we have an axe and there’s definitely no hedge maze here.)

Let me give you an example of my crazy. Last night at midnight I decided to try out a free sample Beach Body workout. Midnight. I couldn’t sleep. It felt like a good idea at the time. My lovely friend who is a Beach Body coach is amazing and so encouraging. We’ve known each other forever and I trust her judgement so I had to try it and see what it was all about.

For context, I haven’t worked out in months. MONTHS. And even when I did work out it was a 15 minute workout at most. I’m in awful shape. Like get winded going up the stairs out of shape. Thus, I should have read the description of the workout I chose before doing it. But it was midnight so screw it. YOLO! (Or whatever it is the kids say nowadays. I wouldn’t know because the only people I see now are my family.)

Let me tell you, this workout video wasn’t screwing around. I was trying to follow along with the chick they had showing the modified (aka “for those who aren’t in great shape”) workout and I still nearly died. I didn’t know I could sweat that much in 20 minutes. On top of that because it wasn’t well thought out I tried to workout braless and nearly gave myself black eyes. Women like me should not be hopping around with no bra. It’s a dangerous game. I nearly passed out on my floor.

My after workout picture to prove to The Hubs that I did it.

It feels like even less of a good idea now. My legs are a big giant ball of ouch as is my abdomen. I will say this, it DID feel nice to do something physical last night. Next time I’ll be sure to stretch, wear a bra, and not try to push so hard. I made sure to stay in comfy clothes today and drink lots of water.

On the plus side, my chairs dried and turned out great. So now I have a pretty place to park my sore ass. Live and learn. *shrugs* I think tonight I’ll make some banana bread if I’m still awake at midnight. That’s better suited to my skill set.

Self Quarantine Day 8: Woooh Buddy!

Alright so today is a big anniversary date in our family. It’s a bitter sweet and emotional day for me. Today makes two years since we brought The Conqueror home from the NICU but it also makes two years since my Pop left this world behind. Pop was a great man and we all miss him so much. I wrote about his advice last year and still do my best to live by his words of wisdom. Beyond that, it was an emotional roller coaster.

Almost as soon as I woke up I got a message from my friend Irene in Ecuador. I thought we had it bad here but she let me know about how things were going there. People in her city are ignoring the government’s order to self quarantine and social distance and the virus is spreading fast. Neighbors are still playing soccer in the streets and having parties. There are 700 people in her city alone with the virus and now they’ve run out of tests, gloves, and surgical masks. It was a rude awakening. I’m over here fussing about my kids but at least we’re all healthy. She and her family are all quarantining themselves in an effort to stay healthy. It made me appreciate how good we have it here and how sheltered I am from the world.

Things chilled out a little after that thankfully. My cousin came over to help with the Twins so I could actually get some work done. She was a huge help and even helped the girls to finger paint. They actually napped today and everything!

Being able to focus on my work was great because it took my mind off of everything. It was hard not to miss my team though as I dug through my files and worked on my projects. I work with such wonderful people, especially the team who works for me. Being shut down has put them out of work temporarily and I have zero control of the situation. The best I can do for them at this point is to make sure that when our doors open again we’re all ready to hit the ground running. We’ve done our best to keep the lines of communication open and make sure everyone knows that we care about them. I try to stay positive but it can be taxing.

In the midst of all the work, I had a distraction of scarier sort. The Hubs came inside from digging a drainage trench in the backyard (that’s a story for another day) and told me to come outside to see something. When I got out there he pointed to the side of our house and told me that a four foot snake had just gone behind the siding under our carport. Talk about freaky! I don’t like snakes and I sure as hell don’t want them IN MY WALLS! After much googling and asking around we decided that there wasn’t anything we could really do. It looked to be a very large garden snake and was in the wall closest to my husbands tool storage room. Our hope is that it leaves peacefully and doesn’t end up in the actual house. With all the yard work The Hubs has been doing we figure we may have unintentionally destroyed his hiding place or dug up some tasty treats for him. He was subbing himself when my husband walked up and scared him so he went into the walls. I’m doing my best not to think about it.

After that craziness I quickly shot to the opposite end of the spectrum when I found out that my cousin’s tumor was benign. Since it was found I’d been doing my best to stay calm but when I heard the good news all that suppressed fear melted away and I had a good cry. It was the best news I’ve heard in weeks and I’m so thankful for it.

Soon after I found myself in uncharted territory. The Twins were asleep. I was done with work for the day. I was in an awesome mood and miraculously had some energy. Did I do chores? No! Did I clock back in and do some more work so I wouldn’t have to work longer later in the week? No! (I definitely thought about it though.) I decided to treat myself to a creative project and a completed task. I spray painted my three metal chairs that live in the back yard. If you don’t look too closely they look incredible. Haha! Spray painting is not my strong suit for sure. My hands, feet, face, and hair were a sickly speckled blue when I was finished. The good news is it turns out you can take spray paint over spray off of your skin with Clinique make up remover and a rough washcloth. It’s definitely becoming a highly valued member of my bathroom cabinet. Especially after the sharpie incident the other day.

It felt so amazing to accomplish something with such a visible result. By the time I finished I was tired and even managed to get a little nap in before The Twins woke up. Now they’re up past their bedtime but we’re snuggling and watching Frozen II in our big living room chair.

All in all, the day turned out to be a great one. We made art, celebrated good health amidst a sea of illness, and had snuggle time. I hope that you guys had things to celebrate today too.

Self Quarantine Day 7: Takin Care of Business

I managed to get an uninterrupted day of work in today and it was glorious. My mother-in-law watched the Twins so I could get some work done. I even got to go up to work and rescue my desk plants before they died of neglect. The girls got to play all day. The Hubs worked on the yard some more. It felt amazing to get something done and I know The Hubs feels the same way.

I realized today when I brought more files home that working at the kitchen table just wasn’t going to cut it. We have an office type space in the house but we don’t use it. I feel isolated in there and it’s become a landing space for all of the things we need for our various hobbies. A bunch of acoustic guitars, tons of markers and crayons and paint, fabric, and instruction book, and pretty much anything else you could think of lives there. It’s a total mess. Today I took it on and cleaned it up and made it into an area where I can work while the girls play without wrecking the rest of the house. Another win for the day.

Despite enjoying the kids being gone for a little bit we were all happy to see each other when I picked them up. Yes, I need breaks sometimes, but I also love my snuggles every night and it is pretty great to get to spend more of them now. Of course, as soon as they got home they wanted to go in the backyard and swing. So we sat outside and watched the sky turn pink and the sun go down.

Today, all was right with the world. These are the days that keep me going.

Self Quarantine Days 5 & 6: Silver Linings & Quarantine Dates

Since I didn’t have work this weekend I tried to pretend that everything was normal. I failed a bit. It’s hard to pretend that everything is normal when you can’t go anywhere other than your in-laws shop, an empty shelved Walmart, and your back yard. Thanks to some help from my in-laws though, I was able to get a little peace. The Hubs and I even got to have our March date night.

What did we do for our date you ask? Yard work! Hours of it! I climbed on the roof and pressure washed it and cleaned out the gutters. He cut the grass and used the weed eater (weed eated sounds wrong lol). He even pressure washed the drive way. I haven’t felt this accomplished since quarantine started. I’m exhausted physically and mentally in the best ways that only working outside can give you. I’m taking a minute to soak in the tub and write to you all while The Hubs makes dinner. (Another rare treat to get excited about.)

Having time to think and some time away from the kids has helped me to reset my mindset. I’m usually a super optimistic person and can often shake a funk after a day or two but last week was hard for so many reasons. There is a ton of stress and anxiety going around. People are without jobs. Things are only going to get worse financially, physically, and mentally for pretty much everyone on the globe.

As ugly as this pandemic is, there are still amazing things happening out there. My Mom and other women who sew are hard at work making masks for medical professionals in the area. Two of my Ya-Yas are working hard to get people back in good health. Parents are getting to spend so much time with their kids that they are tired of them haha! (Myself included.) Talk about a luxury. We spend so much time wishing we had more time to do yard work, to play with our kids, and to slow the hell down. Now we have no choice but to do those things.

Now is the time though to show our humanity. Now is the time to slow the hell down and watch the sunset. Or have an hour long conversation with your neighbor of four years that you’ve only spoken to in passing before. (We stayed 6 feet apart don’t worry.) Now is the time to snuggle up with your babies and watch Frozen without scrolling through Facebook. It’s the time to help out others however you can even if that’s just a text to let them know you’re thinking of them. If we choose to let it, this time in our lives will bring about change for good in our hearts.

So tell me, what’s your silver lining? What is giving you joy during this ugly time?

Self Quarantine Day 4: Venturing Out

We’ve all gotten very emotional. The reality of the situation is really sinking in and this extrovert is missing interacting with adults. The Hubs is here and wonderful but he’s still working (thank God) so it’s mostly me and the twins with the exception of work calls. The Twins are tired of each other.

We left the house and went to my in-laws shop to let the girls run around. I felt like I’d been freed from jail when I got to go to the grocery store without the Twins. It was sobering to see so many empty shelves though. No eggs, no biscuits, no bread flour, no loaf pans, no bread, few pull-ups in the size we need. I bought a few grocery items but spent the girls birthday money on things to keep them entertained and moving.

I bought them bath crayons, pipe cleaners, pompoms, finger paint, construction paper, new cups, tennis balls, giant bouncy balls, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and more. Hopefully these will keep them engaged long enough for me to get some work done next week.

Their schedules are so messed up despite my attempts that I don’t know how it’s ever going to get back to normal. Right now they are playing instead of sleeping and it’s almost 10:00pm. They normally go to bed at 8:30pm. I love my children but they aren’t giving me any breaks. From the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed they want me right there next to them and giving them all of my attention. The moment I turn my attention away the wildness ramps up.

It’s good to know that I’m not the only one though. The girls’ teacher started a group text and all of the other Mom’s in class were talking about how insane their kids are being too. We’re all in similar boats here. It gives me strength to know that it’s not just me on the verge of losing my mind.

As I always say, this too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.

Self Quarantine Log Day 3: Veggie Fatigue, Hell Cats, and Important Calls

Today was the hardest day by far. The girls are tired of each other and I’m just plain tired. I’m not cut out to work from home while watching two toddlers. They’re not great at spending all day sharing Mommy with each other and her work. The entire family has had enough of my healthy cooking too.

So when I heard that the stores were selling out of everything but produce I decided to stock up on fruits and veggies and make some healthy meals. I made a giant pot of cabbage soup and some noodles with veggies. Folks, do you know what cabbage soup does? It gives you gas. You know what it does when you eat it a couple days in a row? It makes you lose weight and your ration of toilet paper very quickly. The veggie noodles aren’t much better. The Hubs is over it. The kids are refusing to eat anything healthy at this point because they’re so used to the less healthy food at daycare. I’m the only one eating the cabbage soup and noodles anymore because, despite the tummy trouble it causes, it’s damn tasty. At the rate I’m going I’ll be bikini ready by next week. All joking aside, next quarantine I’ll be sure to buy more junk food. We’re definitely experiencing veggie fatigue. I’d bite someone for a Snickers bar or a giant bowl of Ramen from my favorite local place right now. I could, of course, go to the store to get one but venturing out for a candy bar seems unnecessary and frivolous.

No more veggies Mommy! She clearly wasn’t into the Gerber meal with veggies that I heated up for dinner.

Beyond the noise of soup farts, the house has been a giant ball of sound. The girls are fighting non-stop. Screaming, eye gouging, slapping, and hair pulling all happened over and over again today. I’ve changed their name to the Hell Cats. It was starting to look like the opening fight scene from Gangs of New York in here for a minute. There were fights over baby wipes and mud. Tears shed over grilled cheese. Fists were thrown over a place in Mommy’s lap. Our schedule from day 1 is out the window. They didn’t nap till 5:30 despite my attempts. We went outside three times today to play and they got into EVERYTHING. They climbed all over me during a conference call. Chaos reigns.

Exploring the back yard and talking to our pal Vader.

The highlight of our day was hands down talking to my team. I called my part time staff to check in today. It’s a crazy, scary time and I don’t have many answers for them, but I wanted to check on everyone. The best part of being a manager is the people. Working from home makes me miss my people something awful. So I called everyone. Well, we called everyone. My little bad coworkers chimes in with hellos, good-byes, and random babble and arguments while I called. It helped lighten the mood. By the time I’d talked to everyone I felt a renewed sense of purpose. It’s good to have reminders of why we love our jobs even if they appear under crappy circumstances.

Today could have been better, but I’m proud of us for surviving each other and not going completely insane….or dying from too much fiber.

Self Quarantine Log Day 2: 5 Lessons Learned

Jesus it’s only been two days but it feels like eternity. Technically I haven’t worked in-office since Friday and had the day off Monday so maybe that’s what is making it feel like longer. Today didn’t run as smoothly as our day did yesterday. There were plenty of lessons learned but here are my top 5.

1) Fix breakfasts and lunches the night before or at the very least decide what you’ll make. I waste time trying to figure out what to feed myself and these tiny humans and end up settling on finger foods which I’m now starting to run low on. It’s time to get creative and figure out a new plan. Also, I just want to eat junk food all day because all of the healthy stuff takes preparation, something I can’t stop for because I’m on the clock. So it’s either starve, clock out, eat garbage and feel terrible, or eat up our supply of healthy snacks in week one. Ugh. Tonight we plan!

2) Webinars go well with breakfast. The Twins are so sleepy at breakfast that I can get some things done while they are being quiet. Unfortunately this morning they also painted the table with yogurt so maybe this one isn’t 100% effective.

3) If you want to be productive, change out of your PJ’s. If I’d stayed in my PJ’s all day it would have been all too easy to fall into the temptation of saying, “I’ll clock out now and take a break then work some more later.” I know myself and that would have turned into, “Oh crap I didn’t make 40 hours this week and now I have to use PTO.” On top of that, it adds another layer of normalcy to my life. When work is done, I get to change into my PJ’s just like a regular day.

4) Crayola crayons will wash off of walls and can leave marks on faces. The Conqueror was back at it again with her coloring today. This time I was treated to a patch of the dining room wall being colored purple along with having a toddler with purple war paint…eh war crayon? Soap and water did the trick this time.

5) Do something completely unrelated to work after you clock out. I was so tense by the end of my work day that I was short tempered with the kids, the dogs, and myself. So we went outside and the girls played on the swings. At first I started listening to an Audiobook because it’s part of my regular routine but it felt too much like work so I switched to music. We started grooving and when the rain started we stayed out to play in it. It was a little cold but worth it.

Self Quarantine Log Day 1

We’re wrapping up Day 1 of Corona Daycare here in the Mom Van. So far we’re virus free and still sane (at least as sane as we’ll ever be). I’m blessed to be able to work from home but I’ve also got the Twins with me. I’ve decided to log daily and hopefully share some of the adventure with you guys.

I’ve adapted their daycare schedule to match the tools we have and aligned my work schedule to match up. For instance, when they are eating breakfast I’m checking emails. When they have outside time I’m listening to Business talks as I push their swings. Coloring for Twins means data analysis for Mommy.

Things went well until nap time when The Conqueror flat out refused to go to sleep. So while she babbled in her bed I used my phone to research webinars that I can take to learn more about the database we use at work. There were a couple of screaming fits today but overall I feel like we did pretty well.

We’re blessed to have a swing set and kids who are easily amused so today wasn’t so bad. I haven’t gotten as inventive as some of my friends yet. One made a basket into a basketball goal for her kiddos in their garage. Another set up an inflatable pool in the living room and filled it with pillows. Working at a children’s museum based on learning through play makes getting creative a little easier though so that will help when the time comes.

Our one mishap for the day was a real learning experience. The Twins took the whole “wear green” thing a little too seriously and The Conqueror colored on her face with a green permanent marker. Fortunately, I have a little bit of knowledge from a past career on solvents and oils and the like and remembered that oil based makeup remover would take it off. I got a good belly laugh out of it and snapped a picture for posterity before cleaning her up.

Thanks for riding this out with us here in the Mom Van. I look forward to sharing this time with you. Stay safe my friends and let me know what you’re doing to keep yourself sane and your kids entertained during your quarantine!