My Corona

This is MY opinion and only mine. I am not hosting wild parties or running willy nilly through the grocery store touching stuff, but seriously...I’ve got news for y’all. This forced stay-at-home thing is out of control and makes very little sense to me.  I know, I know--it's for the 'greater good' (so they say), but seriously; when examined closely, I'm not sure all of this adds up. 

My son keeps going in and out of the grocery store for work—he’s exposed to hundreds if not thousands of people daily (most of whom are insanely rude, but that’s a different blog.) My husband goes to and from work in retail—exposed to dozens daily. We’ve been on two college campuses moving the twins out and were exposed to more than 100 people moving around in space each time. 

I have been to the grocery store approximately three times per week out of necessity, and I have to stop at multiple locations on each outing because I can't find things we actually need. (They keep limiting me to one gallon of milk, one loaf of bread, and one dozen eggs. That’s ONE breakfast when you are cooking it for seven adults.) (and quit side-eyeing me in the check out line, you jackwagon—a regular grocery shop for my house is $250-300.)

With all of that said, Having one more person come through this house isn’t going to expose us any more than we already are--and I don't care where they've been. Nothing beats the grocery store for quantity of people and exposure to germs. 

And having been through a micro-preemie (Lilly), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (Lynn) and Hodgkin’s lymphoma (Elise), our sanitizer-hand-washing game in Johnsonville is on point. (We keep paper towels in the bathrooms instead of hand towels. Top that.)

(Your hand washing game should be that great ALL of the time, Savages.)

I’ve taken four kids 6 months-to-4 years old (one with a compromised immune system who was strapped to an oxygen tank) for a $400 shop at Walmart by myself. REALLY LISTEN TO ME: Lillian had DAMAGED LUNGS AND WAS ON OXYGEN AND I TOOK HER INTO THE WALMART TO SHOP. Seriously, we have got to chill now.

• I survived an infant in the NICU for four months. 
• That same baby came home on oxygen and heart/breathing monitors for a year. 
• I flew two days after 9/11 into Chicago. 
• I almost died in childbirth. 
• I am married to a man who pastored 20 years. 
• I survived a phone call where my child Tokyo drifted into a pond. 
• I held my daughter through cancer. 
• I have taught high school English a decade (that alone, folks). 
• I have three teen drivers in the same house.

I am not easily given to a spirit of fear. 

Things are going to happen. You cannot be defined by those things. You have to roll forward. I’m not saying this isn’t serious. All of those things I listed were VERY serious. You should socially distance and be clean.  I’m saying we can’t live in a bubble or in a spirit of fear.

And let’s pause this story on Elise for a second. She had Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was put on quarantine with a social distancing regimen for a year. We did NOT stop seeing other humans. We were smart and cautions and made a plan. We homeschooled to avoid the enclosed germ factory of the classroom, but tutors in different topics came to the house daily to teach her. (Those same teachers had been in the school before coming here--they simply washed their hands upon arrival.) She had friends over to watch movies and do puzzles, and play cards. We washed our hands and disinfected religiously. 

We we went to ball games (surrounded by a wall of people who had all had the flu vaccine and were armed with hand sanitizer). We went to the mall (and didn’t touch public things like rails or linger in big crowds).  We ate in restaurants several times. We had friends over and washed hands and Clorox wiped on the way in and out. She wore a mask in public crowd situations. And this was all while her white blood cell count was completely decimated. She literally had no defense against ANY illness. 

I’m not speaking theoretically; I’m speaking from experience. We did it.  And NO ONE was more susceptible to dying from an infection than Elise.  

And let’s keep in mind that we did this...

For a YEAR with Lillian. 

For a YEAR with my mother. 

For a YEAR with Elise. 

I know whereof I speak. 

(Some of y’all are amateurs and it shows. 😬)

With that said, Dinner is at 6:30. 

Your teen is welcome in my home. 

You are welcome too, for that matter. 

Oh, and wash your dadgum hands. 

#iamnotafraidofcircumstance
#washyourhandsandmakegooddecisions

#Idefythebubble 

#IdefiedthebubblewithLillyandElise

#Corona2020