Certainly the last month has been different. COVID-19 has shut down everything in its path, and many families are doing their best to adjust to the “new normal.” I can only imagine the difficulties some households are facing with not knowing whether or not mom and dad will continue to get paid, or if they will even have a job tomorrow. That is terrible.
I wonder what, if anything will change after this is over? Will there be another “new normal,” or will things go back to how they were before? None of us knows the answer to those questions, but I still wonder. For our family, not much changed. We have homeschooled for twelve years, we raise a lot of our own food here on the farm and we cook every day in our kitchen. Most weeks we eat three meals a day together around the kitchen table. I work for the fire department, so we never close. We usually eat out at a local restaurant on Fridays, which we have tried to continue doing even if it is take-out. The hardest part has been not going to church, and for our kids, not seeing their friends. My hope is that during this time, people will take time to examine their lives, and see what really is important. There are many things that we can live without, things that are just filler, and maybe this pandemic will reveal those things. I encourage everyone to take an honest look at their lifestyle before and during this shut down.
I’ve heard many families are planting gardens for the first time, and some are buying laying hens so they’ll have their own eggs (our local feed/garden store has been very busy, as well as the hardware store). Why are they just doing this now? I guess they didn’t have time before, and maybe that’s part of the problem. All those things that kept us so busy before, are they really worth it? Or is it the simple things in life, like family meals around the kitchen table, and planting your own backyard garden, that are really important. It’s ok to be busy, just be busy with the right things.
Just my thoughts. I’d love to hear what you think.