Embracing the Holidays

Well 2020 is finally coming to an end …. wow what a ride it has been! I can’t believe that this year is coming to a close and we are about to embark on another trip around the sun. This year has been different on so many levels for all of us. Most of us have a variety of holiday traditions that we love and sadly these traditions will look different this year.

Happy Holidays 2020

• Bring on the packages! We are mailing everything this year and it has been kind of crazy. We are shipping gifts to friends who live in other states and then even to our family who we would normally see in person. I have to think through how to safely package up some tasty treats and drop them off in the mail in the next 2 weeks. I have also ordered 90% of Christmas gifts online this year and haven’t gone into any stores, except for the grocery.

• Rethinking co-worker Christmas gifts. I have been thinking through how to still give some Christmas treats to my co-workers in person, but also Chas’s co-workers who are all remote. I need to come up with some creative packaging and find some boxes to use to mail treats along with Christmas cards. I have ordered some fun 2020 ornaments as well to include for friends.

• Cooking up yummy treats. I am trying to keep some traditions alive like baking Christmas goodies and finding creative ways to get those to people. I think we drop off goodies to our neighbors (while wearing masks) this holiday season.

• Mailing cards to everyone. Since we aren’t able to see very many people this holiday season, we are mailing Christmas cards to everyone! So watch your mailbox from some festive mail.

• Virtual Santa visit. I scheduled a virtual Santa visit in the comfort of our own home for a Saturday morning. I normally am not a big Santa person, but that was something I couldn’t miss out on. Should be a fun way to celebrate the holidays in true 2020 style.

• Holiday crafts at home. I purchased some fun holiday crafts to do with the boys as a fun way to celebrate the holidays as we are spending time at home. Also for part of their Christmas/Birthday gifts they are getting a Kiwi Co subscription, which will be a fun way for them to learn and do some STEAM activities at home.

Hopefully you can find some creative ways to celebrate this holiday season and enjoy this time together as a family. It is definitely different, but hopefully some quiet time and not running around like crazy, will help us all appreciate this time of year and all the blessings in our lives.

Changing Holiday Plans

This holiday season is 100% guaranteed to look different than any other time in our lifetime. That makes me sad, because I love Thanksgiving, Christmas, my children’s birthdays and time with family and friends. Now things look so different and we shouldn’t be doing all those things. I know that is hard to wrap our minds around, but it is necessary.

Living in a pandemic is new for all of us and it has been a long 9 months, but we are here and need to continue to vigilant. I have seen so many news articles addressing the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the Midwest (in and around Indiana, Michigan and Ohio). It has been a hard 2020, but we can’t let down our guard. One of my old co-workers in the NICU in Indianapolis received bilateral lung transplant this fall in Chicago after getting COVID-19 earlier in the summer. Read about her story - CLICK HERE. Unfortunately, another co-worker of mine in Indianapolis, Julie Henricks, lost her fight with COVID-19 the other week. This disease is so horrible, because you don’t know how much viral load you will end up with and how that affect your body. This is NOT like the cold or a flu, but instead much more serious, depending on how much of the virus you are exposed to.

So please, be careful this holiday season. This year is going to be so different from years past and it is going to affect Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. At my work, this graphic is being posted and shared and I wanted to make sure you had access to it, because it really sums up the importance of staying socially distant and changing our plans this year. CLICK HERE for the link to webpage. Read through some of these recommendations, think through your holidays plans and please, make changes if you had planned to do activities that fall in the “less safe” and “unsafe” categories. For my family personally, we are staying at home on Thanksgiving and we have asked our parents, who we originally invited over, to stay at their respective houses. We wanted our family to just stay home this year. We will chat with one another via video chat, but that will just have to do for this year. I work the day before and after Thanksgiving, so we will appreciate our time at home with our boys on Thursday. Our food plans are going to be completely untraditional, but it will be fun. We are going to make tamales, a jicama slaw, homemade guacamole, margaritas and then pumpkin pie for dessert! We are embracing the fact this year is crazy and going to make something new and different.

Be careful this holiday season, stay home, keep your contacts small and practice social distancing. It is hard and I know it makes all of us sad, but the alternative could be devastating and that is not want any of us want.

Toss Those New Year's Resolutions

Do you remember back in January at the beginning of 2020? Remember when you made resolutions for yourself. You were thinking ahead to the year that was about to unfold with so much optimism and eagerly anticipating what the year would bring. Little did we know that our lives would shift and change in ways that we couldn't have imagined. 2020 has been quite the ride and honestly a year that many want to put behind them. We are just over half way through 2020 and I was thinking about what I dreamed this year would hold. For me, I anticipated a big move for our family and a new job and then I imagined what that new job would entail. Our move happened, I started a new job, but I am not doing exactly what I imagined. Starting a new job is a humbling experience, because you have learn how things are done in a new position with new coworkers, but let me tell you how humbling it is when you have to start that new position during a pandemic. Then you find yourself doing tasks you didn’t think you would be asked to do. Now, let me say I am extremely thankful for a job. I am just sharing my experience to let you know that it is ok if you feel extremely disappointed by 2020. If you are thinking back to those hopes and dreams you had at the beginning of year and you feel let down.

Acknowledging those feelings and working through that grief is important. From those hurt feelings, we have two choices - we can continue to be depressed or we can work to pick up the pieces and move forward. I can most assuredly say that 2020 is NOTHING like any of us imagined. We have all experienced challenges, disappointments, grief and had to adjust our expectations. Now how are you going to move forward? What are you going to do with the rest of the year? I am here to encourage you to find some positive aspects of 2020. What are some good things that have happened?

• We have had SO much more family time and that has been fun to see our boys grow up and change.

• We have made some time for some hobbies like disc golf, reading, running and porch sitting.

• We are adjusting our goals and plans to move us forward to where we see ourselves in the future. We are finding projects to pursue at work, considering graduate school, studying for exams and trying to salvage a sense of drive/determination in our work.

What items are on your list of positive things to come from 2020? How are you going to adjust your goals? I am not say you need to set unrealistic expectations. Lots of us are worried and stressed about school and work and that is ok. But what are you going to do to fulfill your sense of purpose and find that joy for the rest of the year? I challenge you to look for the joy and find a way to adjust your expectations. Life is too short to just throw up our hands and give up. Here’s the to rest of 2020 and trying to make the best of rough situations!

Work Life Balance

So how are you holding in there? Life right now continues to be crazy and each day we are just trying to make it through. Get through the work day, try to accomplish little tasks, keep the children alive/entertained and then cooking and cleaning. This has been tough! I feel like we are just getting by and not really rocking any part of life. States are now steps to start re-open, which is great and necessary, but of course makes me nervous about everyone’s health and well-being. This quarantine time has come with economic implications - our family has kept both of our jobs, but my work will not be giving our merit based raises this year. I know that is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to seeing what will happen with jobs and income in the next year. We of course are thankful for our health and being together and having the ability to work from home. That is a blessing!

What have you been doing to stay sane during this time? For our family, we have had to do certain activities during the day and trying to stick with a schedule. We normally have breakfast around 730am and then I have rounds that start at 830am. Then from 9-945am we have our Bible study time, house chores and snacks. Then around 945am I start rounds again that go until lunch (around 1115am). The afternoons include some reading time before nap, then when the boys nap I try to do as much work as possible. In the afternoons we try to walk the dog, fit in a run or some type of play time (inside or outside). Some days go better than others and some days the schedule just falls apart.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because, this is hard! This time in life is hard for all of us. Stick with it and hang in there! You are doing a great job and you should be so proud of making it through today. I found this graphic online and I am so glad that WHO and the CDC are supporting parents during this time. I loved how this graphic talked about giving positive encouragement to your child. I have found myself many times just yelling “no!” or “stop” and I need to remember to say positive things and encourage my boys when they are making good choices.

Hang in there and know that you are not alone. We are all struggling at this whole work, life balance and I know things will continue to be different for all of us for the rest of 2020. Stay strong, find joy in the little things and if you need to hide in your bathroom for 5 minutes of peace and quiet … that is ok too, no judgement!

The Coronavirus Pandemic Struggles

I was laying in bed, thinking about this crazy world we are living in now. I was thinking about my goals. I was thinking about what I want to look back on over the next year and see what I accomplished. I know that sounds deep, but I think I was just grasping for a sense of feeling “normal” again.

This pandemic has affected each of us in so many ways. This is a struggle for everyone around the world as we adjust to what has now become our new “normal.” For my family, things look different because my husband is working from home full time and I am home 3 days a week working. Our children are staying home and no longer attending daycare. We have to find some sense of balance while holding down two full time jobs and then also caring for our children full time. I know that is a blessing to have jobs and I am so thankful for these particular challenges, but each day I go to bed exhausted and wishing I could have been more productive. This feeling … of not being able to do enough … is something that all of us need to let go of. We are in the midst of a pandemic! That means that we all have so much on our plates - trying to balance our job, e-learning for older children, entertaining little ones, cooking all our meals at home, keeping our houses clean and navigating other challenges. We aren’t going to be able to fulfill all of those responsibilities at 110%. We need to adjust our expectations and give ourselves some grace. A kind and wise friend, shared with me that we need to respect the fact that we are living through a traumatic experience. We are having a lot asked of us and that is stressful.

With that being said, I have been trying to think of ways that I can feel productive and also not get burned out. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Things aren’t going to be back to “normal” for a long time and we need to be able to stay sane as the weeks and months go by.

What does this look like for you? What are some things that you can do each day to help you feel happy, productive and proud of the tasks you accomplished?

Make a List

I know that seems cliché, but making a list of what you want to do that day, then check it off when you accomplish those tasks can be extremely rewarding. Now, don’t go crazy and make the list crazy long, but pick 3 things you want to do today. Write those goals down and then start to think through when you can accomplish those things. For example, each day I have been writing down the 3 work related items I NEED to get down and then 3 household things that NEED to happen. That way I feel like I am balancing work and home responsibilities.

Maintain a Schedule

I have small children so I constantly reminded of the importance of a routine! If you have children or not, you can always benefit from a schedule. Take a moment and write out how you want your day to look. Schedule the things into your day that you put on your list. Figure out how you are going accomplish those tasks and then remember to fit in some fun things as well. For my family, I am hanging up a chalk board in our kitchen where we can write down what we are doing that day. I want to pick a different activity each day that we can do together. This will give us all something to look forward to each day. For example, one evening our activity was disc golfing in the back yard. The boys loved it and it was wonderful to just take a break and enjoy the fresh air. I made myself be present in the moment and try to not worry about the dishes. Guess what? I have nowhere else to go. I have plenty of time to get that cleaning done.

Time to Have Fun

Taking time for fun is often overlooked in the midst of our crazy scheduled. Now that issue of a busy calendar has been eliminated, what is standing in the way of you having fun? It can be so easy to just give into being impatient, grouchy or just feeling exhausted and you overlook taking time for yourself. I know for so many working parents, that “me time” you get is when the children are sleeping. For example, I’m staying up later than I should, writing this blog post. I enjoy writing and I miss it. I knew that I needed to take a little time to do something that makes me happy. So here I am typing this blog post, late at night, but I am smiling and I regret nothing!

Find Your Gratitude

Figure out and focus on those things you are thankful for every day. There is so much stress we are under at the moment and you listen to the news and it makes it worse. Try to maintain that positive outlook through focusing on things each day you are grateful for … I am so glad we have jobs. Despite the challenges that come from balancing work and home life, we are earning our paychecks and that is amazing. I am also thankful for Easter candy and enjoying a few treats while stuffing Easter baskets.

Believe me, I am not claiming that I am pro at navigating a pandemic and the stress that brings with it, but I am 100% positive that life is tough right now for everyone. Hopefully you are reminded that you are doing a great job! We are all going through a traumatic and extremely challenging time and that is ok if we aren’t able to give all the things 110%.

Big Changes and a Pandemic

I realized that it has been over a month since I have had the opportunity to write anything on this blog. Our life, everyone’s lives have been crazy in these past several weeks. If you read my last post, we have had some big changes in our lives. We moved, I started a new job, Chas is working from home, children changed daycares and all this amongst a pandemic. Yep, the one thing I didn’t think would happen and the biggest thing I can’t control. This has rocked our world! We are so thankful to both still have jobs, but we are trying to figure out how to take care of two children and then also work. As a Registered Dietitian I am considered essential staff at the hospital. Learning more about how this virus is affecting children. I have colleagues who are adult ICU RDs and working hard to care for these sick adults who have COVID-19. That list of essential staff includes RDs, just like RNs, MDs, RTs, techs and others needing to be at work during the week. I am also training and let me tell you, trying to train and figure that out in during a pandemic is kind of crazy. Waiting on computer access and lots of other things that are just taking awhile. Chas has been working from home, which is wonderful and we are so thankful for his flexible job. We now are having to balance all this with watching both of our kids during the day at home as well.

As a healthcare working, it is stressful to have to go into work. I am obviously not in the front lines (not in the ER and not providing direct, hands on patient care), but I am interacting with people and in a facility where there are sick people. I am thankful and appreciate each and everyone of you who are staying home. That is helpful, because there are lots of people who can’t do that. Those essential employees have to go out and interact with others and working to prevent the spread of this virus is SO important! I know it has been an adjustment for so many of us, but making these changes will help to save so many lives. To those of us who are wearing scrubs, changing in the garage and trying to keep our families at home safe …. you are doing an amazing job! To all my healthcare co-workers, colleagues and friends … you all are phenomenal and keep up the good work. You are doing an important and vital job and I know it can be stressful. Stay strong and we can do this together!