Also Easter Weekend

My kids, bless them, still love a good Easter Egg Hunt. They planned our Sunday so that they would find their eggs at 10 am, and then be inside for church by 11. Victoria isn't leaving the house except to put her greenwaste on the balcony, so she didn't participate this year.

I went out at 9:30 to hide the candy.

David doesn't love chocolate, so I always try to find something sour or gummy for him. These cute little bunny eggs were perfect for hiding things that didn't come in wrappers.

 The only pictures I remembered to take of them hunting were of them coming down the stairs. Maybe we'll have to reenact this!

I did find this egg from last year - I hid the eggs last year and went in the house to get the kids. And in the meantime the squirrels came and stole a bunch of stuff (a box of kinder eggs, and this plastic egg!) They didn't eat the Kinder Eggs, but they did manage to hide this, eat through the plastic and get whatever was hidden inside! This year I was smarter and waited outside so I could yell at any pests who tried to steal our candy!!

Then I made cookie dough (which Andrew baked for me because I hate that part). He's been making these Betty Crocker Chocolate chip cookies. For the salt he uses coarse sea salt so they're deliciously sweet and salty. Elisabeth has been making mini egg cookies which were surprisingly flavourless. So I wondered if we put the mini eggs in Andrew's chocolate chip cookies what that would be like.

Turns out they're insanely delicious! Luckily we froze most of them so we have treats for a while yet!

Easter Weekend

I made the mistake of working quite a bit of overtime over Christmas and counting on being able to take off some ProD days with my kids early in 2020. That didn't happen, so by the time Spring Break rolled around, I was REALLY ready for a break.

Of course, COVID19 hit our area the same time as Spring Break did, so I didn't end up getting to take my vacation time then either.

So Easter weekend I determined I would not do any work and just enjoy the time off.

The last couple weekends for me have involved ripping out old, rotting garden beds; dealing with blackberry canes that have overgrown the rotten garden beds (we left them last summer so we could reap the bountiful harvest); and then pressure washing and cleaning up outside. Finally this weekend I was able to finish off the pressure washing and start hauling dirt.

I ordered 4 planters from Riverbend Planters and had them delivered as well as a big bag of veggie dirt from Burnco and a bunch of seeds from MacKenzie seeds and seed potatoes from Potters. In the age of Covid I'm really finding which companies support online shopping and home delivery or parking lot pick up. It's not something I really loved pre-covid but I love it now.

Here's what I planted:

I had planned on putting bush beans here, but I've read that beans and potatoes don't love each other, so I will likely be trying somewhere else. Because they're bush beans, I think I can plant them in containers. I was also going to put sunflower behind the corn because they pair well. But they don't pair well with potatoes (d'oh!) so I'll have to figure out where the sunflowers are going. I ripped out all my flowers from this bed so we would have the extra square footage for the potatoes and corn - with the exception of my peony plant and the lupin - oh and the vine you see there.

Every year I put red and white geraniums in this barrel. You're not really Swiss if you don't plant geraniums.

 This planter is on my balcony right outside the kitchen so I can grab the lettuce easily. I figure this is one crop I'll need to access frequently!

I have a garden plan - and once the peas are done, I'll put something else here - but I don't have my plan here to see what's going in next!

You can see I picked up some tomato plants (cherry and beefsteak). It's not quite warm enough overnight to put them outside yet, but my laundry room gets good sun, so they'll stay here for a while. In the little greenhouses I have two kinds of tomatoes (roma and cherry); butternut squash and 3 kinds of peppers (banana, mini bell and normal bell).

I'm planning to pick up a few more things once veggie plants are more available. I haven't had much luck growing squash from seed, so I'll probably buy some plants. As well I want more herbs (especially parsley - I need to make tabuleh!) so those will go in planters with the tomatoes or on their own. I'm planning on growing all the tomatoes and peppers in containers on the balcony. They did really well there in the past.

Finally! Andrew also built me some screens for growing squash horizontally.

What you don't see is that the animals already were in my planters so I had to cover them all with stiff netting. Hopefully I'll be able to order some flimsier netting that I can drape and lift as the plants grow, but for now this stuff is stapled on the boxes to keep raccoons, squirrels, crows and deer from eating my veggies!!

There are a lot of really funny memes out celebrating what life is like right now.

March 13. We made fun of that week. There was a full moon, Friday the 13th, a pandemic and snow in the forecast. It was also the last day of normal life - spring break started on the 14th and that was the day most of us officially started what they called 'social isolating'. A lot of people decided we need to call it physical isolation because we need to intentionally connect even though we can't do it physically.

Anyway, that was a soft start into it. At that point, we were still allowed to gather in groups of 50 or less. Most churches had already decided to move services online and though we went shopping for a new washer and dryer (ours conveniently died and all the money I've been saving for years to either buy a camera or a couch, I haven't decided which I need more) went towards appliances. A little side note here. I really resent how it's always my money that pays these things. I spent my Christmas money buying clothes for people who are not me, but who's clothes had worn out. Those same people hid their own Christmas money in a secret account. Anyway, I guess I need to deal with my resentment because there are no other options.

By the time our appliances were delivered on Tuesday, things had already changed again and we were being told not to go places we didn't need to, and that while we could still go for walks outside, we should avoid groups larger than ten.

I'd already asked Andrew not to go into TWU to work. Out of our compound, we have one person in each family who is considered high risk. Andrew's that person in our family. I decided that I would do the shopping and venturing out. At this point we were still hanging out with each other on the compound, but not seeing anyone else.

Thursday I had to go into work to grab some things I needed to work from home. I'd worked at the office on Monday to process payroll, and then it became evident that we in Central Office wouldn't get a spring break after all. Although we'd taken a lot of our things home so that we could work from home, I decided I needed more. I stayed for a Hangouts meeting - over 30 of us participated in - and then told my bosses that I wouldn't be back until Covid was done.

At this point, people were pretty sure we wouldn't be coming back from spring break, but we weren't sure if we might be back in May. I started googling Spanish Flu and saw that it took 2 years for the world to come back from that pandemic and started steeling myself for 2 years of this.

From the beginning, my Chinese homestays, Victoria and Larry, schooled me on how to act. Don't go out unless you have to, and when you do, ALWAYS wear a mask. Then a friend of mine shared a video that showed us how to bring your groceries in the house. My new practice became shopping alone and in the middle of the day instead of at night. For one thing, grocery stores have new, condensed hours. The first hour is for seniors and the immunocompromised. I always wear a mask in the stores, even though most others (like 98%) don't. I sanitize my hands frequently and don't ever touch your face!

When I get home, I unload everything into the garage. I have a table set up with one side sanitized. Each item is unpacked, I wash my hands, then each item is sanitized and placed on the clean side of the table. If it can stay in the garage for a few days, we leave it there - no one really knows how long Covid survives but if we can avoid bringing it in the house we do. Then, once everything is sanitized, the kids bring it inside. When I'm done, I strip and shower and wash my hair. Considering how low on stock the stores are, I often have to visit three or four places to get everything we need, so this entire process takes four or five hours. No more running to the store for the one item we're missing for dinner. If we don't have it, we do without or find something else.

Church, school and work are all online now. That transition was actually a lot smoother than it could have been. I'm so impressed with the school my kids go to and with my kids for how adaptable they are.

So that's life in a nutshell. Things are quite different. A lot of stores have line ups now, as they try to limit the number of people inside and make sure we can all keep our distance from each other. As one of the only people in a mask, I try to smile at people more and communicate with my body language that I'm not scared or scary. We spend a lot of time in our yard and I'm hoping that will continue. Not so much time with the rest of my family even though we all live here, but I am seeing mum more. I haven't found yet that I have a lot of extra time, except on weekends. And I've been filling my weekends with projects so far, so that's good. A lot of people are complaining about being bored or scared. Andrew and I are both blessed enough still to have our jobs. So though I feel a great deal of sorrow, I'm not scared anymore. The first week was hard. I had a lot of sleepless nights, bad dreams and anxiety. But I learned a lot when I was off work in 2018 and I've used those tools now.

The other biggest change, which isn't just here, I've seen it documented on the news, is how much wildlife is enjoying the humans being gone. Deer in particular seem to be popping up everywhere (Italy, not just our backyard). Any time you go outside the birds are having a blast. So much noise and fun being had. There have been news reports about pods of whales where there aren't usually whales, and waterways clearing up, less air pollution (which on sunny days I'm sure we can see farther). So interesting. I wish we could keep that aspect of things!

Final note for today. In two years I've had a nervous breakdown. Been off work for 5+ months. Quit my job, started a new one, learned that, switched jobs and learned an entire new one. Been really sick, had my homestays graduate, welcomed new homestays, said goodbye to a homestay, lost relatives....I can't believe how calm I am. I can only attribute that to God. His peace really does pass all understanding.

Life in the time of Corona

Someone suggested that we encourage our children to keep journals during this time since it's a time that school children will learn about one day in history. My kids aren't journal keepers so I thought I would write about it instead.

Here's something I've seen posted on Facebook, that people are using to pop up in their memories and remind us of what life was like right now. I'm going to share it here:

Gas prices at a record low (between $.78-1.04/litre).

Self-distancing measures on a rise. 

Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other. 

Limited number of people inside stores, therefore lineups outside the store doors. 

Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.

Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.

Entire sports seasons cancelled.

Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.

Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.

No masses, churches are closed.

Schools are all closed. 

No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.

Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.

We are to distance from each other. 

Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers. 

Shortage of respirators for the critically ill. 

Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer, no flour, no sugar, baked beans, canned goods, frozen produce...

Shelves are bare. 

Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE. 

Government closes the border to all non essential travel, calls Canadians home and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days. 

Fines are established for breaking the rules. 

Ford sets fines for those price-gauging others. 

Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients. 

Press conferences daily from both Prime Minister Trudeau, the premiers and health ministers

Government incentives to stay home. 

Barely anyone in the street or on the roads. 

People wearing masks and gloves outside (though it's driving me insane that here in Langley some people are still going to the grocery store as entire families). 

Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.

Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

1,000,000 applications for Employment Insurance as people go without work.

They say it started in Wuhan, China at a seafood market. Hundreds of thousands affected, dead, dying, critically ill.

Many recovered. 

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

I plan on blogging this a bit more later. Here are some pictures from the day David and I escaped the house.

And went for a walk along the beach. It was lovely.

 Then I socially distanced myself from my family. I miss them.