On top of the global pandemic we are all living through, we woke up to a 5.7 magnitude earthquake last Wednesday (March 18, 2020). We’ve had more than 200 aftershocks since then but we’ve only felt a few of those. I know my California readers are probably used to this, but it was quite a surprise for us and probably felt a bit more dramatic seeing as how we are all already on edge with everything else that is happening.

We had very little damage, but we had several photo frames jiggled on our walls and a few that fell off some shelves. Two frames were broken, including this one with a framed mountain print from minted.com. The biggest casualty that day was our nerves which definitely were a bit frayed. Many of you know that our son Alex has autism and this was a bit too much for him. Honestly, it was more than I was prepared to handle. I was surprised at how scary it felt. I think as a collective group of humans that what we are all living through right now is extremely difficult on so many levels and I feel like we will soon see it get so much worse. I’m an optimist by nature, but I can also see that these are unprecedented circumstances. It’s certainly a unique experience.

Here are some of the things happening in our life right now:

• We are absolutely staying home as much as possible and physically distancing ourselves from others. This means my husband is working from home when possible. He did have to go into work for a day last week as the leadership in his facility is rotating shifts to give support. He is a scientist and his business is very much impacted and also involved in testing PPE (personal protective equipment) so it is vital that they continue their work. It’s been interesting to have him in the next room conducting business remotely. He usually works 10 hours days already and that has not changed.

• Alex doesn’t mind the social distancing too much, but he doesn’t like feeling trapped in the house and he definitely has a lot more stress right now. We really limit his news intake already and we are trying to be careful to keep him informed, but also happy. I have to give him huge props for how he has been handling all of this.

• My daughter Riley and her husband Ryan live several hours away from us and that has been difficult for all of us. Thankfully, they live about 10 minutes away from Ryan’s family and I’m so grateful for that. His parents are such wonderful people and that is a great blessing in many ways. The economic impact of the virus has already hit them pretty hard. Riley is currently trying to finish up a training program and schooling to become a licensed massage therapist. As you can imagine, a lot of people are not coming in for massages right now (and they shouldn’t be) and she has to have a certain number of clinical hours to graduate.

• We were about 95% moved into our new house when this hit but we still have a few projects that need to be completed by outside contractors. New construction is not always 100% complete when you close the loan. There is usually a “punch list” of items that still need to be worked on. Our dishwasher also quit working and has a bad sump. That is an inconvenience when you are suddenly cooking a lot more than usual. Certainly a small issue in the grand scheme of things. We feel incredibly blessed to be where we are at right now. I had let our food supplies dwindle down to almost nothing before we moved so we wouldn’t have to pack it all up. I’ve been fully stocking our new pantry for the last 2 months and that turned out to be a wonderful thing at this time. I’m so grateful that this all didn’t happen while we were moving. We haven’t been part of the crowd at Costco or panic buying at the grocery store. We have enough to get by for a few weeks, but I am starting to get nervous that it is still so difficult to find many of the basics. I have been using instacart grocery delivery for quite some time already and now it’s a 5 day wait to get groceries delivered and it’s impossible to get all the items on a regular list. I have made almost all of our meals (3 people 3x a day) for the past 10 days. We have ordered 2 meals from local restaurants and went and picked them up curbside. I don’t know how some of the local businesses and restaurants will make it through this. I have ordered a lot of our regular snack items through amazon. I wish I could do an amazon pantry order but they are not doing those right now because they are so low on stock. We have plenty though and I worry so much more about the people who are not in such a fortunate circumstance.

• I stopped by my parents house on Tuesday to give them a few food items. I sat on their front porch steps and they sat on a bench on their front porch. We were probably about 10 feet away from each other and we visited for about an hour. It was warm (but windy) that day so that was possible. A few of their neighbors walked by and chatted with us from the sidewalk. We all had a nice and physically distant social visit. It felt a bit bizarre, but also great to see their faces. I’m going to try and facetime them a few days this week and work on some projects virtually with them. I’m so grateful they have each other right now. My heart aches for those who are going through this all alone.

• I also feel for those families who are having to deal with smaller kids and even teenagers at home. I can’t imagine how stir crazy kids must be at this time and how hard it would be to keep them from playing with their friends. As I’ve been through the homeschooling routine (without much notice), I can also relate to the overwhelming feeling of suddenly having to be in charge of your child’s education.

• We have been planning the trip of a lifetime for the last year and we bought tickets to the Olympics in Japan. My husband served a church mission in Japan and we have always dreamed of visiting as a family. He’s been back twice, but the rest of us have never been. We are pretty sure that won’t be happening but we aren’t focused too much on that right now. Obviously, there are a lot of things worse than a canceled trip. I do feel so bad for the athletes who have spent their whole life preparing for a moment that might not happen now. I really hope they will just postpone it for a year.

• We are lucky that we are not sick and don’t feel sick right now. We’ve been good about distancing ourselves, but with my husband having to go to work the other day, I found myself panicked about all that he was probably exposed to. I feel so stressed for the families of doctors and other health care workers. Also, anyone who is out there on the front lines - like grocery store workers. They are all risking so much to help all of us. That’s why we are staying home as much as possible. We don’t want to contribute to the problem.

• I’m at the stage where when I wake up each day, I think for a minute or two that maybe this isn’t all real. Then I remember that it is and then I read the news and keep telling myself that this can’t be happening. I’ve pretty much broken all of my self-advised rules of not spending all day on social media and obsessing over the news. I know it’s not healthy, but I feel like I need to know what’s going on. I’m going to try to be better about scheduling certain times to check and then leaving other times to recharge. It’s funny that I thought I would be so creative during this time and get so much done. I did pretty well with that until the earthquake hit and then it was like I couldn’t do anything for days. That just illustrates to me that I’m a little maxed out right now mentally and if something else tips the scales, I don’t have the energy to deal with it. Life is still going to go on so I need to make sure I’m ready for that.

How are you coping with all of this? What are your new realities? Where are you at mentally? Physically? Are you alone, or with others? I would encourage you to make some notes about your circumstances right now. It’s great for memory keeping, but even more importantly, it’s a good coping exercise. Stay safe and be well!