Notes from the Letter N: Safer at Home: Month 1

In this unprecedented time of a global pandemic of COVID-19, I wanted to document my thoughts and some photos to look back on later.

On Friday, March 13, I worked my normal morning hours at the church office and then had lunch with a friend from church. That was the last day that things in my life were "old normal."

A week before, Nashville had the first cases of people testing positive for the Coronavirus and by March 13, the leadership at church had decided that we would not be meeting corporately on Sunday, March 15. Thankfully, the worship team had recorded their rehearsal on Thursday night and Scott recorded his message so that we were able to have a video to watch on Sunday. The Hussung family invited me to come and worship at their house, along with Betsy, Allison and Nathan and Serena Curtis. It was such a sweet time of singing together and hearing Scott's teaching from Romans 8.

Monday, March 16, was the first day we were officially working from home. The first week felt like an extended snow day without any snow. People were buying up lots of groceries and supplies and businesses were trying to decide how to stay open with the social distancing recommendations in place.

I came up with a "Daily List" of things to make sure that I included in my day. I knew I'd have work emails to check on and some other things that I could work on remotely. I wanted to be intentional about checking in with friends and family, tracking my eating as I have been doing and getting some walks outside. I also knew that I needed to keep up with my assignments for my graduate school classes and I wanted to make time for being creative. Some days I didn't check off all of the boxes, but it helped me to stay in some kind of routine.

By the weekend, I was really "over" spending so much time by myself and was ready to get back to normal. On Sunday, March 22, I watched the church worship video alone and cried through the songs. It was a good release of my pent-up emotions and I felt at peace after listening to Scott teach from Ephesians 1. That was also the day that the Nashville Mayor officially put out the "Safer at home" order, asking for residents to stay home as much as possible for 14 days.

From the start of the Coronavirus coming to the U.S., I began to talk to my mom about coming to stay with me. I had concerns about her staying in her independent living apartment building where she had to use the elevators and other common areas. The building management put some guidelines in place and she felt like she would rather stay there, with me helping her get groceries and other necessities.

When the mayor put out the "Safer at home" order, I brought it up again with Mom to let her know that the invitation still stood for her to come to my house. After thinking through it and learning that her building was going to be essentially put on lock-down (as much as it could be with the residents still living independently), she packed up and came over on Monday, March 23. It was a big disruption of her life to come over here, but we knew it would be the best option and would give us both some companionship.

Over the past three weeks, we have settled into our "new normal." We have our breakfast together and then I come upstairs to work for a few hours before lunch. In the afternoons I sometimes have work or school assignments and I try to get outside to walk. I've been going to the grocery store about once a week and we have taken drives to pick up Mom's mail or other quick errands. Dinners are things we cook or sometimes get takeout. Thankfully, we have a good outdoor patio to enjoy when the weather is nice. We both are staying connected with our friends and family.

We had a nice patio lunch with Daniel one day. He wanted to be very careful and not come inside the house, but I actually had a little chore I needed his help with (short mom problem of not being able to reach a clock to change the time). Mom and I stopped by his house for a driveway visit this past Friday and that was fun.

We don't know how long this "safer at home" time is going to last, but I suspect that I'll be reporting back at the end of month 2.

Here are some pics I've taken on my walks and other times so that we can look back later and remember this time.