Businesses across the United States limiting hours or closing completely, colleges forcing students to leave their dorm rooms and return home, schools shutting their doors for weeks, and the federal government encouraging citizens and residents to avoid gatherings of 10 or more people. Oh, and did I mention the national toilet paper shortage? What a strange week this has been, and it’s only Monday!
Going to the grocery store and seeing dozens of empty shelves is a very surreal experience. One of our biggest concerns has been whether we will have enough food and milk for Little Buddy. Mr. Handsome and I can eat beans and rice if we have to, but Little Buddy is at the age where he is a bit picky. And on top of everything, he is teething, so he only eats soft foods.
I am curious to hear how coronavirus has impacted your life. Are you working from home? Trying to keep your kids busy indoors? And most importantly, do you have enough toilet paper?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. During this confusing time, we rejoice that God is still on the throne and still worthy of our praise. Coronavirus did not take Him by surprise. While there is sin and death in our world, God sees the bigger picture and has a plan to redeem and restore. Amidst the chaos, Mr. Handsome and I are grateful to have a loving, ever-present God.
Anonymous
I’m in NJ in the NYC suburbs and everything is pretty much shutdown. I am a teacher and will be teaching online until further notice. My friends are all working from home. Some of my friends are self-employed and will be out of work until this is over. I have several family members over 60 and/or with compromised immune systems, so it’s pretty scary. I’ve barely left the house since Friday afternoon, except to take walks. I’ve noticed a lot more people walking outside than normal. Some positive things (if you can call it that) that I’ve noticed are that people are much more likely to stop and chat and also that everybody waves when they drive by. Between that and the unseasonably warm temperatures, I feel like I’m in the South rather than NJ!
Ellie
Warm weather makes everything just a little better. 🙂 Glad this is happening when the temperatures are rising so we can all enjoy some time outside, rather than be shut indoors.
Ellie
Anonymous
My state has closed schools for two weeks starting today. Restaurants, bars, movie theatres and gyms were closed today st 5:00pm until further notice. Restaurant drive thru, carry out and delivery are still available. My husband bought enough food and supplies to last a few weeks, maybe a month! We are retired, we have no appointments for over a month,so we are staying home and watching the world go by. I have asthma, so I definitely don’t want this virus. I’m trusting god will get us through this.
Ellie
Sounds like you are prepared! Do you have any house projects to do while you stay home?
Jessica
I live in Sweden and it’s pretty much the same over here. People are hoarding, mostly toilet paper, bread and pasta, and the shelves are getting more and more empty in most grocery stores. Employers are encouraging employees to work from home as much as possible. My daily life has not been affected all that much on a personal level (except the empty shelves in the stores), but we will see how things will develop.
Ellie
Thanks for sharing, Jessica. I have been wondering how this is impacting other countries. Are businesses shutting down like they are here? Most of our restaurants are closed, except for drive-through and carry-out.
Ellie
Anonymous
This is your blog and you can say what you want, but telling people that this was not a surprise and that (your) God is going to redeem and restore is cold comfort to those nearly 200,000 world-wide who are known to be sick right now, or the 8,000 who have died, or their loved ones who were not expecting to say goodbye. That’s a strange way for God to show “love,” to infect and kill off people in those numbers. It’s also unfair to infer that “sin” in the world has anything to do with a virus mutating from animals to humans and then running rampant. There is no need to make this any deeper or bigger than what it is – a global pandemic and extreme medical emergency. The real heroes are the medical personnel who are putting their own lives at risk, some of them critically ill themselves now, to try to stop this invisible menace. Give them the credit. You’ll be turning to them if this gets any nearer to you.
Anonymous
God made the world perfect. When man sinned, he was kicked out of the perfect Garden of Eden. Sin brought with it sickness and death. God didn’t choose that. The first humans who had freedom of choice like we do chose not to listen and obey. “But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have every lasting life.” John 3:16. Sin, disease and death will be part of life on earth until the day Jesus returns. Jesus didn’t promise to take our problems away. He did promise to give us peace in the midst of our problems if we trust him. He did take the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross, being buried and rising again three days later. He promised eternal life with him if you believe in him and ask him to come into your heart and save you. In Heaven, there will be no more death, nor sorrow nor tears nor pain!!!!
Anonymous
Not many people I know want to get to Heaven in such an untimely manner as this.
Kay
I believe that God, in love, is allowing people to be afraid so that they will turn to Him! Because where we spend eternity forever is so much more important than our life here on earth.
Anonymous
My mother died 2 yrs ago, and some of the last things she was able to say was describing how bright things were and the beautiful flowers. She also said the birds were singing hallelujah. She said this stuff down here dont mean a hill of beans. I miss her.
Anonymous
Hopefully I can go back to work on the 6th, but now I am enjoying time off. I am not scared of getting the virus, but I am scared of the financial aspect. Since I work in a school cafeteria, our pay is based on federal reimbursement for each child served. I have right at 100 days of paid leave saved, but I don’t know how that works in a situation like this. My 2 daughters are still working. And we have toilet paper!!!
Ellie
Praying that you will enjoy some relaxation and will be able to return to work in April!
Ellie
Vickie
I worked on Sunday at a theme park and it seemed very empty. We are closed until at least the 30th and then we don’t know.
My husband works lyft so he can’t bring in any income. I am very scared and we don’t have any savings and live paycheck to paycheck. We got evicted right before this happened so we are not in a good place at this time.
We have a few meals and I am trying to learn how to cook with only a microwave.
Sorry this so long but I needed to share.
Ellie
Very sorry to hear that, Vickie! I will pray for you and your husband. You might consider reaching out to a local church or food pantry to see if they would be able to provide some assistance.
Ellie
Anonymous
Maybe check to see if your community has a “caremongering” Facebook groups. I’m in Canada so there’s differences between social safety net and services, but I think globally we as humans have the same philosophy – we’re in this together.
Stacey
I believe that the Lord already knew about this and yes he will restore us those who believe in him. We are his children and if we believe in him and trust him he will get us though this trial.. Praying for everyone to be safe and healthy.Lets encourage others as well help those in need if you can.God Bless your family.
Regina
Thank you Ellie for encouraging us whose trust is in the Lord. I’m finding that prayer and spending time in prayer reminds me not to be fearful.
Schools are closed here temporarily including the colleges and universities.
We have toilet paper that we bought before this whole crisis started. I’m a SAHM and my girls are grown up but they are finding things to do while college classes are canceled.
Hubby is retired so he’s been getting involved in his hobby of building model cars.
I’m staying busy with catching up on my reading, sewing and crocheting. I’ve also been trying to catch up on my own blog posts though for some reason today I wrote more posts than I usually do.
An idea for your son for food is homemade baby food. You can make it soft enough for him to eat and freeze it in containers for him.
And I would ignore those who bash you for your faith.( I do!) I appreciate what you wrote. I would be a mess without God in my life. Again it was very encouraging to me.
Ellie
Thank you for your encouraging words, Regina! I always enjoy your comments. And great idea about the baby food. Hope you are able to enjoy some relaxation and time with family during all this.
Ellie
Anonymous
In addition to working exclusively from home, I agreed with my employer on an off-business hours work schedule until date TBD. My son’s daycare is closed and my husband is in one of those “necessary to go to work” professions, and so I am practically the (almost) sole caregiver for my son during a normal day. My new schedule means that I work very early in the morning, during my son’s naptime, and after putting him to bed and into the late evening. Call me crazy but so far, I really love this schedule. Of course I hate what prompted it and hope and pray that everyone stays healthy and safe, but I really love being home with my son more. I do not love the strain and stress on my husband and the community. Please spare a prayer for my husband, who is in a line of work where he is in contact with (potentially) sick people, and has temporarily moved to the spare bedroom/bathroom in the basement of our house to be safe and just in case, so not to expose me and our son.
Ellie
That’s wonderful that you have been able to come up with a schedule that works for you. Praying for your husband. Be sure to thank him for the work he is doing for our society!
Ellie
OhioMama
I’m a stay at home mom so it hasn’t impacted my life too much. They are limiting what we can buy in the stores example you are only allowed to buy 3 cans of baby formula, when I went grocery shopping I picked up two can just to have in case the stores run out of that. I picked a bad time too stop nursing. Our shelves were picked thru pretty good but my church does a food drive so I took advantage of that this month which I don’t do often because we are pretty well off but I need a little extra help this month. My oldest is getting cabin fever and wants to go to the mall and play but I am keeping him home because of what’s going on. My youngest his 9 month check up was cancelled by the doctors I have to call in two weeks to reschedule. The weather has been a little to chilly for us to go out a play hoping that changes soon. None of us do well in cold and wouldn’t be outside for long plus I don’t need them getting sick as it is. Just taking it a day at a time but can’t wait until all this over.
Ellyn
Hi Ellie,
I have young kids too – 3 years old and 9 months old – and food is a concern of mine as well. I just ordered some non perishable “formula” type drinks online for them just in case they need healthy food and stores are limited. Check out Nature’s One or Kate Farms. Both have healthy “formula” for toddlers and kids. Just an idea! 🙂
Ellie
Thanks for the suggestion, Ellyn!
Ellie
B.
I don’t work so I’m home all the time. My grocery store hardly had anything left on the shelf. No toilet paper or paper towels. But I did find d some Paper towels at Walgreens. They were out of cat litter and cat food. I was glad I get my get food and litter from chewy my cat was almost out. I brought kleenex and using that as toilet paper for know so I don’t waste toilet paper. Just throw the kleenex in the trash can not down the toilet.
I’m also I diabetic . I sitting at home watching tv, playing with my cat , Catching up on my christmas movies that I haven’t watch yet from last christnas.
Ellie
Christmas movies are a great idea, B! I didn’t get to watch nearly as many as I had hoped.
Ellie
Anonymous
Ellie: I hope you have enough diapers for little buddy. Here are store was out of diapers and wipes. On of my neighbors was looking for diapers and they were out. I told her to buy depends ( their were lost of those) and put maxi pads in it to keep the baby dry. She said that was a good Idea. She call me today and said it work the baby was dry all night long.
Ellie
Very creative idea!
Marilyn
We are staying indoors. We have ordered our groceries on line. We are taking precautions and washing our hands a lot. Hope Little Buddy’s teething is better. God Bless. Stay well and happy.
Joan,Marion and Marilyn
Jennifer
I am in Georgia, near Augusta, they have cancelled The Masters Golf Tournament, closed all parks, theaters, gyms, nail shops, most daycares, drive thru restaurants only…my oldest is home from college and after Spring Break will go totally online for reminder of semester. He and his roommate split the toilet paper when they came home. I am a teacher- we closed Tuesday. We are doing Teach/Learn from Home until 4/3. We have to maintain office hours and work is digital. I am going to try to stick to a routine. My high school son is keeping up with his work. I especially worry because he is a type 1 diabetic. At the moment we are good on meds and food. My husband is “essential” and is currently working nights. We are just getting started so no boredom yet. Thank you for the reminder that He is almighty. Prayer in numbers can be felt, and he will guide us. May we all take a moment to count our blessings and reach out to those in need.
anon
my dad was in a rehab/alf for a broken hip. they closed access to the vendors 3 weeks ago. unfortunately he fell while in there and is in hospital. they just closed access to the rehab/alf this week. (that’s sad when you realize that more vendors come in and out of there than visitors!) fortunately i am still allowed to go see him in hospital but because he’s in icu i keep my visits brief. (i also have to gown-up each time too and they’re disposable gowns and they really need them and the gloves more than i do so i feel guilty for using them on one hand but on the other, this is my dad so i’m limiting my visits to once a day now. but they let me keep the mask and i can reuse it!)
all schools are closed here until middle of april, if they resume at all. they are doing virtual school but no testing. school usually gets out here in may anyway so obviously all graduations are cancelled. whether it starts back on time early august remains to be seen
all stores must close early. all our 24/7 stores have to close by 11-midnight and regular closing of 9 pm is now 6-7 depending on the store
all bars & restaurants must close early and keep customers at least 6 feet away from each other (i grabbed a bowl of soup after i left the hospital tonight and this restaurant was packed in the parking lot but was the emptiest i’ve ever seen it on the inside- they did a good job of seating & separating people and i of course over tipped because the server deserved it just for being there. oh, and the restaurants that are open dont have condiments out on the tables either anymore, you have to ask for salt & pepper, etc) most department/chain stores are also shortening their hours. some grocery & discount stores offer early morning shopping strictly for the elderly & most medically compromised and will assist them in shopping if needed. libraries stopped all their meetings & activities last week but are just now closing the library itself this week. most church services and movie theaters closed last weekend and the indoor malls are all closing this week. most of the dental offices have closed except for emergencies. is mr handsome doing the same?
my daughter works for a gluten-free deli/cafe and they are only open for pick up and electronic payments. one of their ‘stores’ closed but they elected to keep this one open, for now at least, because they have a high clientele that needs this type of specialty food. one of my sons is a recruiter (he’s infantry) and they closed the recruiting stations here. one because they work directly with the schools and two because they work out in the bars, etc when they arent in the schools! too much public contact for them.
it is definitely not a ghost town around here during the day but i’m really only going to the hospital and using mostly one main road but there’s been plenty of traffic considering so much is closed.
i did have to go back to a store for toilet paper and water when their shipment came in but i was shopping for other people and i did not hoard!! i live smack dab in the middle of hurricane central and i dont think i’ve ever seen the shelves cleared off of so much so quickly. my friend was ‘helping’ open boxes on the pallets looking for gloves (she takes care of her grandma who has cancer) and by the time she was done, they were all gone in a matter of minutes! (now i will admit i bought a package for myself for going to the hospital to see my dad but that was before they isolated him and everyone has to use them)
i’m being pro-active since i have a compromised immune system. i wash my jeans and shoes every other day because i’m in and out of the hospital (and hospitals are for sick people lol). i sanitize the bottom of my purse and my phone case when i do my hands because they are on surfaces in the hospital but other than that, i’m just being smart about where i go and when, using common sense where hygiene is concerned, and not panicking, and that’s all i can do. but in the meantime, while everything is closed, i also want to be productive (meaning i want someone who can physically do it with me lol) and clean out my garage area and get rid of things that arent being used anymore so when one of my sons can help, that’s my plan for their time off too lol. what better time to spring clean than when you have to stay home!
J
We homeschool but also do college dual credit as well as university model class SO college is online, always has been, and our one uni model class is small so we will meet at the teachers house.
I work part time 2-3 days per week in the marketing field and so far where I have gone I have remained within guidelines of the number of people.
As far a food, if I don’t have exactly what I want to eat, I’ll eat what I have before I go hungry. It amazes me that folks crying about bread never considered they probably have ingredients to make their own. Even if you don’t have bacon and eggs for breakfast, eat Mac n cheese! Oh, and how about those fresh vegetables! They’re still there. You won’t starve. Think outside the box folks.
Run out of toilet paper or wipeys use rags and wash them. I haven’t seen a shortage of dish rags and laundry detergent.
Hey maybe that could be a blog post Ellie! Help folks get creative when the stores don’t have what they are used to.
Our local live theater has closed so on Saturday night they will be doing a “drive-in” cabaret style singing. Listen on the radio, what from the car as the performers sing, from a safe distance of one another on the porch of the theater.
Ya’ll it’s not near as bad as it seems.
Blessings,
J
Regina
Hey I like that idea J.
Anonymous
God did not promise that we wouldn’t have problems on this earth. He did promise, however, that he would give us the strength and peace to deal with our problems if we reach out to him. As a widow who lost her husband in a tragic accident, I can tell you that I have been in awe of the unbelievable way God has been there for me, fixing problems large and small for me.
Kay
I know a younger Christian widow who also lost her husband in a tragic accident. It was several years ago, but I know it’s still a struggle for her. I’ll just throw this out there… would you maybe be willing to get in touch with her?
Brooke
Thanks for sharing this Ellie with a calm, but cautious tone and focusing on hope. This disease has affected everyone in a way I’ve never seen in my lifetime, but luckily we have so many resources that have developed in my lifetime as well! People are still able to work, go to school, learn, connect, do exercise, etc.
I suppose the saddest thing is seeing how selfish people can be and how the elderly in my community are suffering. I’m grateful though with how selfless people can be and how communities come together.
I will just continue to pray and care for my family. We are luckily on a farm and pretty prepared.