I found this post in my drafts from the end of March and I have no idea why I never published it. Anyway, I wrote it in late March when we were just a couple of weeks into our stay at home orders when everything was all still new and scary and we were learning to adjust. Now that Jerry and I are both officially back to work, I thought this would be fun to post as a little lookback at what life was like when we were still quarantined at home. While I realize life is still not “normal,” and we still need to be careful and cautious, things are definitely starting to FEEL normal now that we’re back at work and places are opening back up. So here is the post as I wrote it in March, with my little updates from now in pink.
Ability to work remotely
I’ve been working remotely since March 19, and luckily, it’s been very laid back. No set hours, no set schedule, just do what I can and when. A lot of my work CAN be done remotely because I do all the social media marketing and newsletters for the library, so I’ve been keeping very busy with that. I realize I am lucky to still be working and that I have many tools I can use from home: laptop, Canva, Zoom, Workplace, etc. It’s proven to be somewhat challenging with the kids, but I’m starting to find a groove. I do a lot of my work first thing in the morning.
I returned back to work full time on May 18. We re-opened to the public that day too, and are the only library in the area who is open to the public. Most libraries are doing curbside pickup only. Our hours, services, and check outs are very limited at the moment, but we ARE open! When I first started working from home, I really struggled with it. I wanted to be back at work, and it was hard to do anything with the kids around. After a couple of weeks though, I started really enjoying the freedom and flexibility it provided. All in all though, I’m glad to be back at work and feeling like a productive human being again!
Virtual book clubs at work
I proposed starting up some virtual book clubs when all of this started, and they’ve completely taken off! I did a poll on Facebook where I asked patrons what genres they were most interested in, and then I set up Facebook groups for the most popular ones: mystery, nonfiction, historical fiction, and scifi/fantasy. I’m running the mystery one with my work bestie Karen, and several colleagues who are running the others. My mystery book club is over 50 members so far! Luckily, my library also subscribes to Hoopla, so we chose titles from there so that everyone could read the same book at the same time. We’re reading If You Were Here by Alafair Burke for mystery.
We are continuing to run our virtual book clubs, and have now run three monthly meetings so far! We’re also at 75 members now in our mystery club. Here are the titles we’ve read so far: If You Were Here by Alafair Burke for April, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter for May, The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton for June, and we will be reading If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin for July. We pull a few titles from Hoopla each month and then put them in a poll for members to vote on. My in-person Forever YA book club at work is still on hiatus, sadly, because we are not doing any in-person programming right now.
Still getting paychecks
Jerry is also not working daily at this point, but thank God we are both still getting our normal paychecks for now. The financial situation and economy are particularly nervewracking at this time, but this has eased our minds for the time being. Jerry’s work is basically rotating in workers as needed, and he’s been called in a couple of times so far. I’ve been trying my best to support local businesses during this time, and have been doing curbside pickup for food at a few locally owned places.
We were extremely fortunate in that both of us continued to get our normal paychecks for the entire time we were at home. I worked entirely from home the whole time, while Jerry worked a rotating schedule with a week on, week off, etc. I officially went back full time on March 19, and Jerry officially went back full time on Monday, June 15!
Free meals for the kids
Our school district is offering free lunch and breakfast for kids Monday – Friday since school is closed. They even let me get meals for Holden even though he’s only one, and they send home a ton of food! A few schools are designated as pick up spots and there is a 2 hour time frame that you can go pick up each day. Every day, they send home a breakfast for the next day which is usually cereal, milk, juice, fruit, and some kind of bag of crackers or biscuits. Sometimes they send home a hot breakfast instead of cereal that we bake. Lunch is always a hot lunch choice or a PB&J, veggies, and chocolate milk,. The kids are loving the meals, they’re super balanced, and it’s so much food that the kids are getting multiple meals out of these.
I ended up getting these lunches usually a couple of days a week. They’re still doing them now, so on days that I go in late to work, I’ll usually stop and pick them up before I go in.
Adjusting and enjoying time at home
I really struggled with being home at first. I missed my routine, my coworkers, feeling productive, normalcy! And yet, I’m always telling Jerry I can’t wait until retirement because I’m always so stressed and busy. It didn’t take long for me to adjust to our new, temporary normal, and as an introvert, I’ve started to enjoy my time at home and canceled plans. The kids stress me out a lot on some days, but I’m also grateful for this extra time with them. I try to strike a good balance each day: some productive time and some relaxation time.
Yes, I ended up really enjoying the time at home after I got used to it! Now, I am totally missing the kids, naps, and extra TV and reading time. Sigh.
Staying in touch with / having great coworkers
As I mentioned, it didn’t take long at all for me to miss my coworkers! We’re a small and tight knit group. Luckily, we stay in touch regularly via Workplace, Zoom, Facebook, text, etc. We’ve ALL been helping each other out too. Because I’m the social media person, I’ve been SUPER busy lately since this is the only way patrons can get in touch with us now. I’ve had several coworkers who are helping me create graphics and lists to share on our social media, and even a couple of ladies who are helping me monitor Facebook, messages, comments, etc. I’m lucky to have an amazing group of colleagues.
We continued to all work really well together the whole time we were away, and held weekly meetings via Zoom. I’m glad to be back in the library though, and seeing them in person once again. Sadly, we did suffer from some layoffs of part timers, so things are a lot different right now. Hoping things will get back to a more NORMAL normal soon-ish!
Family and friends helping out
We all miss our families and friends right now, and I’m lucky to have some great ones who have all been supportive of each other, even from a distance. One aunt who owns a cookie company dropped off some amazing cookies on our doorstep. Another aunt dropped off milk. Before we had to close down, I had a coworker who found Holden diapers, and another friend who found pullups for Cal. One friend grabbed us wipes, and another former colleague offered to send us some from Amazon (luckily, we had already gotten some from Christine!). Lastly, my parents who are always the best. My parents have been picking up the kid’s meals sometimes to drop off, and my mom even left some cupcakes and groceries on our steps one day when Cal wanted cupcakes. Everyone is coming together and helping each other out, and that’s the silver lining here.
This was for sure a scary time (especially when groceries were getting scarce at the stores), but everyone really helped each other out, and built such a strong sense of community. While we still have yet to see many of our friends and family members, we are regularly seeing my parents again (obviously… my mom IS babysitting), my Aunt Karin, and my brother’s family. Hopefully we will be able to “reunite” with other friends and family soon too!
And there you have it! Some of the things we were most grateful for during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic!
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