Let me preface this post by saying how grateful we are that we still have income coming in and can afford to buy pretty much the same grocery items we have always purchased. I know so many have been laid off or furloughed and are having to rely on food banks to feed their families. I don't mean for this to be complaining, but a good representation of what meal planning, prep and maintenance was like during the pandemic. OK, maybe it is complaining a little. But know I am complaining with gratitude for food on our table.
I think the most time-consuming thing for me to this point has been dealing with our food. What we need to order, when it can be delivered, which things are out of stock when it ships, adding those things to a new order, and planning ahead because the order can't be delivered for 3-4 days.
Then you have the issue of quarantining non-perishables (first in the garage, now in pockets of the kitchen because the weather has turned warmer). Keeping track of what we have on order but isn't delivered yet, what has arrived but is in food quarantine, and which pile came in what day takes up a lot of time during the day.
And...until this week I've been doing some serious washing and disinfecting of perishables with sturdy enough packaging, or emptying others like meat and produce into their own storage baggie and throwing away the store's, etc... This takes me a long time. I think I've seen enough on reputable sites now, though, that I can safely bring most groceries out of the grocery store bags and put them right in the fridge/freezer without all the disinfecting because the chances of getting the virus this way is very low.
Now that we have dealt with bringing the food inside, next there is meal planning. It takes me a good 2 hours on the weekend to inventory what we have to use up for the week, proteins, fruits and veggies, breads and grains, dairy, and jot down anything else I want to make sure to use up and not throw away. Then I come up with dinners and some lunches to make the most of our grocery dollar and not waste anything. In all honesty this is something I did weekly before all of this started, but I'm even more determined about it now. I also am trying to lower our weekly grocery bill by not stocking pantry items ahead of time, and only buying one type of chip or bread or whatever, not multiple because of people having their favorites.
On one hand it's been really nice to have time to cook so much for my family. I've been able to try some new recipes, and we've been baking something once a week to have for breakfast. Yummmmm. But when it gets to be all three meals, every day for now 6 weeks, it becomes more of a burden. I'm going to have the boys help me more. I've been inspired seeing parents having their kids learn all types of life skills during this thing and it's time for mine to join in. Laundry, more house cleaning, even spring cleaning cleaning, and cooking. It's only fair that since they eat the most in this house that they chip in more.
Do we out at all, you may be asking. We eat out once a week on Saturdays. So far it's always been dinner but I may crack and have to have a La Rueda breakfast soon. We've been good about only going to small, family-owned and local restaurants: Italy Pasta and Pizza, La Rueda, Catfish Sam's, Braums (a chain, but only in the South), Burger Box. We wanted to add Dixie House to this list but they apparently had to close which makes me sad for the employees. We also had our favorite place to get coffee, CoffeeFolk (food trailer) reopen on Thurs - Sun and we've been getting coffees on Fridays and Sundays. They didn't come out and require everyone to wear masks and socially distance, maybe because everyone is outdoors. But I'm sure they just hoped people would fall in line and do the right thing on their own. But sadly, last Friday I drove up and saw a big crowd of college-age guys (7 or 8?) gathered right at the entrance where I would have to walk by to order. None of them wearing masks. Seriously? So I turned around and went home. Their loss. And ours, we LOVE their coffee so much we very rarely went to Starbucks before the pandemic and haven't been once since it started.
When we bring food home we take containers out of the bag in the garage, then I empty the container onto a plate. We heat it up in the microwave for a minute or so. And be sure to immediately throw away all the containers. AND that food always tastes so darn good! I'm a pretty good cook but we can all appreciate restaurant food a little more now.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Pandemic sheltering - random thoughts, week ?, I've lost track
The last time we all walked into a restaurant to eat was March 12th, during Spring break week. We went to try out Game Theory, this very cool restaurant that also has every board game you could ever think of and then some to pick out and play before, during and after eating great food and sipping craft beers. We were in the very early stages of this thing and wondered if we should even be going. But we had a great time and now it seems like a dream. So many things have changed. So many horrible stories have been heard and so many people have died.
The hardest thing about this is the unknown factor. Will it come back if things open up too soon? Will we all have to shelter in place again if the curve starts going up and up? Will summer be like this has been, with very little interaction with anyone in person, everyone online, and we have to hope like crazy we don't get tired of our little circle of loved ones we are stuck in this house and yard with. Will we be able to hug our parents at some point before a vaccine is developed and administered? This one really stings. My mom said to me yesterday that it really isn't fair that she is having to spend any part of her twilight years like this. I told Jav that if we both have to go back to work full time at some point what are we going to do with the boys? They aren't ready to stay by themselves all day and they can't be around Jav's mom. He said that Tita has to make that decision and that she may not care about the consequences so much as she cares about being close to and hugging the boys. It's just an awful, hard, stressful situation with so many huge important decisions we are going to have to make.
The boys are in desperate need of a haircut. DESPERATE. And I am in desperate need of hair color. D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E.
I'm going to do a post to catalog a typical day for me in this thing.
I have three things keeping me sane right now:
1) the dogs
2) Yoga with Adriene (with the dogs surrounding me) every day around 3 (she also deserves her own separate post soon).
3) Soaking up my vitamin D every day around 2 (and yeah you guessed it - the dogs come out with me). I sit in the sun in the backyard and let it wash over me like a summer wave. I have never done this before and something about it is so comforting and healing I can't even explain it. But the last few days I have become way overheated before I'm ready to come in. I'll have to go out in the mornings I guess if it's gonna start getting hot. And then I hear today that studies are being conducted regarding ultraviolet light and how it could fight off the virus. Who knew I had preemptive health and healing superpowers?
There are so many new people we are seeing every night when we venture out for our dog walks (Gabriel rides his bike and Joel his scooter because he had outgrown his bike). People with kids and dogs are literally filling the streets in some places and it's hard to stay six feet apart. A few people have been a little rude about it. But for the most part everyone is very friendly. It's one of the things I hope won't go away even when the threat of the virus does.
Keeping up with food is almost a full time job by itself. The next post I do will be about this.
We finally got to see my parents for a visit in our backyard today and it made me very happy.
I read an article written by a professor arguing for graduating high school seniors to plan to NOT attend whatever college or university they'd been accepted to. Because of how expensive it is - do you really want to set up in a dorm and then have to go back home when this thing riles its ugly head again? Do you really want to take crappy online classes instead of being in a classroom with great banter and conversation? None of this bodes well for Jav's job and that makes me dizzy with anxiety.
The boys and I set up a croquet course yesterday. We've played two games but our grass is too long to have a fair, good match. Playing croquet always reminds me of playing in my grandparents' backyard in the summertime with my brother. I think we will try beanbag toss tomorrow, or Cornhole as it's affectionately called these days.
I am facing the seemingly impossible task of downloading tons of CD music to a portable hard drive to clear up space in both this laptop storage and to get rid of all of our bulky CD's. Impossible to fathom. I bet we have at least 500 CD's. Ugh.
The hardest thing about this is the unknown factor. Will it come back if things open up too soon? Will we all have to shelter in place again if the curve starts going up and up? Will summer be like this has been, with very little interaction with anyone in person, everyone online, and we have to hope like crazy we don't get tired of our little circle of loved ones we are stuck in this house and yard with. Will we be able to hug our parents at some point before a vaccine is developed and administered? This one really stings. My mom said to me yesterday that it really isn't fair that she is having to spend any part of her twilight years like this. I told Jav that if we both have to go back to work full time at some point what are we going to do with the boys? They aren't ready to stay by themselves all day and they can't be around Jav's mom. He said that Tita has to make that decision and that she may not care about the consequences so much as she cares about being close to and hugging the boys. It's just an awful, hard, stressful situation with so many huge important decisions we are going to have to make.
The boys are in desperate need of a haircut. DESPERATE. And I am in desperate need of hair color. D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E.
I'm going to do a post to catalog a typical day for me in this thing.
I have three things keeping me sane right now:
1) the dogs
2) Yoga with Adriene (with the dogs surrounding me) every day around 3 (she also deserves her own separate post soon).
3) Soaking up my vitamin D every day around 2 (and yeah you guessed it - the dogs come out with me). I sit in the sun in the backyard and let it wash over me like a summer wave. I have never done this before and something about it is so comforting and healing I can't even explain it. But the last few days I have become way overheated before I'm ready to come in. I'll have to go out in the mornings I guess if it's gonna start getting hot. And then I hear today that studies are being conducted regarding ultraviolet light and how it could fight off the virus. Who knew I had preemptive health and healing superpowers?
There are so many new people we are seeing every night when we venture out for our dog walks (Gabriel rides his bike and Joel his scooter because he had outgrown his bike). People with kids and dogs are literally filling the streets in some places and it's hard to stay six feet apart. A few people have been a little rude about it. But for the most part everyone is very friendly. It's one of the things I hope won't go away even when the threat of the virus does.
Keeping up with food is almost a full time job by itself. The next post I do will be about this.
We finally got to see my parents for a visit in our backyard today and it made me very happy.
I read an article written by a professor arguing for graduating high school seniors to plan to NOT attend whatever college or university they'd been accepted to. Because of how expensive it is - do you really want to set up in a dorm and then have to go back home when this thing riles its ugly head again? Do you really want to take crappy online classes instead of being in a classroom with great banter and conversation? None of this bodes well for Jav's job and that makes me dizzy with anxiety.
The boys and I set up a croquet course yesterday. We've played two games but our grass is too long to have a fair, good match. Playing croquet always reminds me of playing in my grandparents' backyard in the summertime with my brother. I think we will try beanbag toss tomorrow, or Cornhole as it's affectionately called these days.
I am facing the seemingly impossible task of downloading tons of CD music to a portable hard drive to clear up space in both this laptop storage and to get rid of all of our bulky CD's. Impossible to fathom. I bet we have at least 500 CD's. Ugh.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Pandemic sheltering - school life
So we found out yesterday that students will not go back to their physical schools for the rest of the year. Gabriel's teachers have really not lost a beat. They are all on Google Classroom and every day a different teacher has a Zoom meeting from 3-4. His PE teacher and running club sponsor have both sent multiple workouts that we have ALL been doing. He has email, is supposed to be keeping up with all assignments and when they're due, when his conferences are, when projects are due and emailing teachers if he has problems. This all sounds great except for the fact that Gabriel has turned into full teenage boy within the last 5-6 months. He can't seem to focus on anything. He can't seem to remember anything. He listens to our lectures about giving it his all even though he's not at school and gives us lip service to get us to stop. BUT in his defense it is much harder for them to focus just because they are at home and not at school.
Joel's class hasn't fared as well. His teacher is very experienced but old school and not very computer savvy. In the beginning there was a lot of Youtube watching and reporting on what he watched. Not ideal. That first crazy post-spring break week I stepped in as a good substitute teacher to keep him going at a high level and fill in where I thought there were gaps. But she has assigned a little more each week, so much so that this last week was too much work. Joel also wants more than anything to have a Zoom meeting to see his classmates and teacher. She said she was working on it, but so far nothing. I find this upsetting, especially when I see the PRESCHOOLERS having Zoom meetings. I'm going to really push for the 4th graders to have a meeting if she doesn't make that happen.
It is REALLY hard for me to keep on top of their schoolwork with the stress of work, grocery shopping, grocery ordering, meal planning and meal prep day after day, hour after hour. But Joel does not have email, cannot pick up the phone and call his (rather inaccessible) teacher to ask questions if he doesn't understand something. He HAS to come to me. (Jav is on a ton of calls right now and just doesn't have time to help them). And it feels like he comes to me literally every 10 minutes. Things went a little smoother this week, except for the times that I totally lost it and screamed at them like the scariest banshee in all of Great Britain. Like when Gabriel missed his Zoom meeting with his toughest teacher, even though they are at the same time EVERY DAY.
I have to say, though, that I am heartbroken for the teachers. They love their students and teaching remotely is nothing like being there all day every day. Gabriel will still see his three teachers he has now next year, so that is a little less depressing. But poor Joel will move onto someone else next year, and no more Mrs. San Miguel. She absolutely LOVES this class so I know she is hurting. It's all so very sad.
And I haven't even touched on the kids who had/have problems at home, so school was their safe place to be. Kids who don't have yards and don't have parents at home, or have parents that might be abusive, or don't have enough to eat, and on and on and on. At least they are continuing the school breakfast and lunch programs through this ordeal, but how awful that now many more people have joined that line now that they've been laid off.
If you think about it too much you can get really upset and depressed, as I have many times since this all started. We just keep praying and hoping that things get better quickly.
Joel's class hasn't fared as well. His teacher is very experienced but old school and not very computer savvy. In the beginning there was a lot of Youtube watching and reporting on what he watched. Not ideal. That first crazy post-spring break week I stepped in as a good substitute teacher to keep him going at a high level and fill in where I thought there were gaps. But she has assigned a little more each week, so much so that this last week was too much work. Joel also wants more than anything to have a Zoom meeting to see his classmates and teacher. She said she was working on it, but so far nothing. I find this upsetting, especially when I see the PRESCHOOLERS having Zoom meetings. I'm going to really push for the 4th graders to have a meeting if she doesn't make that happen.
I have to say, though, that I am heartbroken for the teachers. They love their students and teaching remotely is nothing like being there all day every day. Gabriel will still see his three teachers he has now next year, so that is a little less depressing. But poor Joel will move onto someone else next year, and no more Mrs. San Miguel. She absolutely LOVES this class so I know she is hurting. It's all so very sad.
And I haven't even touched on the kids who had/have problems at home, so school was their safe place to be. Kids who don't have yards and don't have parents at home, or have parents that might be abusive, or don't have enough to eat, and on and on and on. At least they are continuing the school breakfast and lunch programs through this ordeal, but how awful that now many more people have joined that line now that they've been laid off.
If you think about it too much you can get really upset and depressed, as I have many times since this all started. We just keep praying and hoping that things get better quickly.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Pandemic sheltering - jobs, or lack thereof?
Since Jav offices on the SMU campus and his work is directly tied to the decisions made there, his transition to working from home has been clear and somewhat organized. He's worked from home before so already has tools in place. They have had to lay off many hourly employees that work in the campus restaurants. But his job hopefully will be ok throughout this crisis, provided students will be coming back to some type of normal university life next August.
My job, however, has been a roller coaster of a stressful ride. When the schools closed for extra weeks, there were meetings about what we would do if someone were to get sick or if the county/state/fed government closed our office as a non-essential business. Ours is a good-ole-boy run industry and we have never been allowed to work from home. But our software guy set up all the salespeople and my boss, Donna, to work from home (Donna can do payroll from home). As the days went by and the news became more and more scary, it was awful to have to be the only one still heading out to work every day. I was told on Thursday 3/19 that we were hopefully going to be working from home starting 3/23.
The owner and son did not go for that plan because very few businesses in our industry had shut down and they didn't want to have to tell customers we were bailing for awhile. ( to say nothing of what it would do to our business for this year). I had quite a freak out moment (that I later regretted) and said that was irresponsible and I didn't understand why more office people couldn't work from home.
They set up split shifts, to avoid having too many people at work at one time. One week on working 3 to 5 days and one week off working from home. (Production still has to go in every day but I think they are splitting up also). I was scheduled to go in 3/24 to do payroll. That was the day Tarrant County issued their Stay At Home Emergency order. Little did we know that our owner and son had other plans - two of our big corporate customers, John Deere and Napa, had sent letters saying that since they were essential, all of their suppliers were under their umbrella and considered essential. But the owners did not tell us that, they just told us we had to keep working and I wasn't having it. The owner said if you weren't comfortable staying you could go home and I said I was heading home. The next day I was told the software guy set me up to work from home and I could come pickup my computer anytime.
At first this was challenging - it required some folks to scan things for me since I didn't have the actual paperwork. But I figured out 3/4 of my job could be done from home without anyone else having to do extra work. The CFO still seemed and seems put out that I demanded to work from home. So I'm sort of expecting the ultimatum that I either have to stick to the on again/off again work schedule or I'll be let go. I had to go in to run expense (utilities /insurance/freight) payments and decided I would go in early from 7 - 8 every morning to scan things I needed and keep the files updated. So now the only thing I am not still doing for my job is backup payroll every other week. I'm considering doing that now. But it depends on the virus, whether it's still considered high risk to venture out or not.
All of this has been so very stressful. My immediate boss has been very agreeable and understanding which I appreciate more than I can say. But her boss is the one that seems angry. I do not want to lose my job right now. So many people have lost theirs and are suffering. But I'm also angry that my owners seem more concerned about making huge corporate customers happy than caring about their employees. They have always been so caring and treated all of us like family I know it's not black and white, and that we can't afford to lose those huge customers and survive as a business. But I'm still sad and disappointed in the way the whole thing was handled.
Just hoping and praying that we both have our jobs at the end of this crazy time.
My job, however, has been a roller coaster of a stressful ride. When the schools closed for extra weeks, there were meetings about what we would do if someone were to get sick or if the county/state/fed government closed our office as a non-essential business. Ours is a good-ole-boy run industry and we have never been allowed to work from home. But our software guy set up all the salespeople and my boss, Donna, to work from home (Donna can do payroll from home). As the days went by and the news became more and more scary, it was awful to have to be the only one still heading out to work every day. I was told on Thursday 3/19 that we were hopefully going to be working from home starting 3/23.
The owner and son did not go for that plan because very few businesses in our industry had shut down and they didn't want to have to tell customers we were bailing for awhile. ( to say nothing of what it would do to our business for this year). I had quite a freak out moment (that I later regretted) and said that was irresponsible and I didn't understand why more office people couldn't work from home.
They set up split shifts, to avoid having too many people at work at one time. One week on working 3 to 5 days and one week off working from home. (Production still has to go in every day but I think they are splitting up also). I was scheduled to go in 3/24 to do payroll. That was the day Tarrant County issued their Stay At Home Emergency order. Little did we know that our owner and son had other plans - two of our big corporate customers, John Deere and Napa, had sent letters saying that since they were essential, all of their suppliers were under their umbrella and considered essential. But the owners did not tell us that, they just told us we had to keep working and I wasn't having it. The owner said if you weren't comfortable staying you could go home and I said I was heading home. The next day I was told the software guy set me up to work from home and I could come pickup my computer anytime.
At first this was challenging - it required some folks to scan things for me since I didn't have the actual paperwork. But I figured out 3/4 of my job could be done from home without anyone else having to do extra work. The CFO still seemed and seems put out that I demanded to work from home. So I'm sort of expecting the ultimatum that I either have to stick to the on again/off again work schedule or I'll be let go. I had to go in to run expense (utilities /insurance/freight) payments and decided I would go in early from 7 - 8 every morning to scan things I needed and keep the files updated. So now the only thing I am not still doing for my job is backup payroll every other week. I'm considering doing that now. But it depends on the virus, whether it's still considered high risk to venture out or not.
All of this has been so very stressful. My immediate boss has been very agreeable and understanding which I appreciate more than I can say. But her boss is the one that seems angry. I do not want to lose my job right now. So many people have lost theirs and are suffering. But I'm also angry that my owners seem more concerned about making huge corporate customers happy than caring about their employees. They have always been so caring and treated all of us like family I know it's not black and white, and that we can't afford to lose those huge customers and survive as a business. But I'm still sad and disappointed in the way the whole thing was handled.
Just hoping and praying that we both have our jobs at the end of this crazy time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)