Stay-at-Home Day 2

Since I’m writing these in the morning, I suppose they are really a day behind. But here’s a glimpse into life in the Trettel house right now…

1. I get up, check social media, write this blog.
2. Working on updating my website, it’s a slow process, but realized it’s seriously out of date once again.
3. Family gets up.
4. Someone makes breakfast, not likely me.
5. School for the kids, work on cleaning and organizing this place up some for me.
6. Lunch, also not likely fixed by me. LOL
7. The fam works on a project. Yesterday it was finishing up a small section of roof that had a leak.
8. I write, keep up with social media, talk to readers.
9. Take a nap, okay, I didn’t mean to, I just had a little headache and laid down for a minute that happened to turn into 4 hours. Nope, not sick, guess I just needed it.
10. Someone cooks dinner… again, probably not me.
11. After dinner, kids go to bed (not asleep, just off to their little holes in the house) and I read, write, or watch a Netflix movie while James generally plays some game on his phone that he’s highly addicted to.
12. Lights out around midnight… yeah, somewhere in this house there’s still a teen playing video games or watching a movie.

The thing is, this isn’t a new schedule for us because of Covid-19. The changes we’ve encountered through these last few weeks and heading into our “official” lockdown period are simple…. less going out, no activities. Basically it means I’m really struggling to keep up with the days. I’ve lost Tuesday 3 weeks in a row now. I thought we were having Mexican Monday last night when I offered up tacos. Do Tuesdays even exist anymore?!?! Civil Air Patrol is supposed to be on Tuesday nights, and although Bethany is still attending meetings virtual, I am lost.

Tonight we should be heading to church for fellowship and dinner, youth group, Awanas, and sometimes worship team practice. None of that exists right now. These are things that kept my internal calendar rolling pre-Covid-19. Church on Sunday (we do still have that and community groups virtually at least), Mondays were often spent at the library working, Tuesdays CAP, Wednesday church, Thursday volleyball. Now each day just rolls into the next with no rhyme or reason and it’s hard to keep up.

Today is April Fool’s Day, which is honestly one of the best holidays of the year! I love a good prank, but this year…I remembered last night, sent James to the store for an emergency run of cranberry juice and red jello, and then I fell asleep and forgot to make my glasses of “juice” (jello) to serve the kids this morning. I have never not pranked my kids on this day, so reach out and help a mama out on how I can top Covid-19 in prank wars today! (nothing too messy…. I’ll likely be the one stuck cleaning it up)

So quarantine news aside, I’ve had some people reaching out this week asking about William and the Look Alike. Yes, it was supposed to have released 2 weeks ago. I am so sorry. I never miss deadlines, but these aren’t usual times. Between preparing for us to hole up for the next 3 months, moving Roman home from college, adjusting to the change in family dynamics, and the passing of my beloved “money-maker”, may she rest in peace, things just got behind and priorities temporarily changed. I was starting to lose more words than I was writing due to technical failures in her final days, but I’m thrilled to report my new laptop arrived on Monday and she (not yet named) is amazing!!! I’m all moved in now and back to work full-time. I’m hoping to have William out quickly and Hannah later this month as close to on time as possible.

For my PNR readers, this means Westin Force book 1 titled…. (drum roll please)…. RISING STORM…. will push back to a May release, but I should be all caught up by then and back on schedule!

So, in closing, here’s a picture of a box of random health, beauty and wellness stuff. THIS is what happens when I get bored, I buy random stuff. In this case it was a large mystery box of 75+ items that arrived yesterday. It did come with 9 bottles of Christmas themed hand soaps (SCORE!!!) and several packs of cold meds that could come in handy. We’re also now stocked in shower gel, lotion,body scrubs, bath bombs, sun screen, self-tanning lotion/spray, and random other stuff. Oh, and AirWick plugin refills, which would be cool IF we had an actual plugin to use said refills. Thanks Loot Liquidators for adding a little fun to our day. I’m eyeballing a snack and candy mystery box next…. someone take the internet away from me quickly!