In early March, MetroTex’s first step, like many companies, was to cancel all in-person events, classes and meetings until April 30^th. That policy was in place for about two weeks when the World Health Organization started referring to the situation as the “Coronavirus Pandemic”. By St. Patrick’s Day, all three levels of government began implementing shelter-in-place orders. Businesses deemed “non-essential” were ordered to shut down, and employees were encouraged to work from home. The order was originally in place for two weeks. We’re about a month in at this point and have at least two weeks left.

At first, I thought people (including my fiancé) were overreacting. I literally laughed out loud when I got to the lake and realized Sam bought nonperishable groceries, like boxed pasta that we never eat. He’s laughing now because in our first weeks, we ate all of that and then some. Grocery stores and places like pharmacies and home improvement stores are essential businesses so they are open. We have ordered groceries online and picked them up. Per usual, Amazon comes to our house about every other day. 

We have tried to stay home and stay away from people as much as possible. There are currently orders in place that require Dallas County residents to wear cloth masks if they are out in public. We’re spending most of our time at the lake, which is Henderson County, but we’ve still made and worn masks and gloves the few times we’ve been out.

I have personally LOVED this time at home, which is so not like me! We are very blessed that our income has not been affected and that our families are healthy. I was worried about getting bored and antsy, but we have kept ourselves occupied with house projects.

PS one thing that did upset me was that the pics in my last post didn’t upload. It’s fixed!

I am trying to soak in every second of this shelter-in-place time before the craziness of life and daily grind at the office start back up. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to!

Living Life Virtually: video conferencing is everyone's new way to work and play. The lake house has not had Wi-Fi until this week! This is HUGE! High speed internet was never an option here, but a new company is going house to house to install it. The timing is mere coincidence with the WFH orders. Since we've been at the lake, we work offline, and when we need to send an email or jump on a conference call, we turn on our hot spots. For the times that we’ve needed extended Wi-Fi coverage, we drive around the corner to Rick and Sue’s, sit in their driveway and “borrow” their internet. Everyone asks if they know we’re out there… yes, we have permission to go there whenever we need to! 

The orders to pause life has provided us the unique opportunity to connect more with friends and family. We have a standing Zoom call with Sam’s family every Tuesday night, and the extended Dodge family had a video meet-and-greet on Easter. My fam also had a call with the whole gang – Mimi and Papa included! We’ve played trivia with Sam’s high school friends twice. So fun! We’ve watched church, including Easter service, every week. On Fridays, I speak to our new members at work. Since it’s a presentation, I’ve become quite good at setting up my news-reporter-like, in-home studio. For a time in college, I really wanted to be a local news anchor so this setup makes me feel like I’m fulfilling one of my old dreams. Ha!