I think a lot about the heroes during this time.  Google has been doing a nice job highlighting them, but I feel like running down the list as well.

• Doctors and nurses.  Of course.  During our two week stay in the hospital with S, we got to interact with a lot of these folks, especially nurses.
• Other people who work at hospitals – janitors, dietitians, electricians, the people who service the ventilators, etc.
• Grocery store workers.  Seriously.  If we had to do without hospitals or grocery stores, we’d obviously forego hospitals.  These people are keeping the world running.
• Restaurant workers.  A lot of people can’t cook.  And getting takeout from our favorite restaurant – where we normally eat in – is a serious highlight of my week.  Too bad you can’t get margaritas!
• Delivery people.
• Techy people working at Amazon, QFC, etc. – the people making the websites that are keeping the world going.
• All other “essential” workers, even if they’re not really essential (like my brother and husband).  They are keeping the economy going.
• Everyone who is following the “stay home” order.

Then there are the un-heroes.  First, the people who bought tens of thousands of masks or things of hand sanitizer.  I honestly feel like they should be imprisoned.  It makes me sick.

Not nearly as evil but still not cool are people who won’t stay home.  Especially people in the “vulnerable” population.  No, you don’t need to have a dinner party with your friends tonight.  No, you don’t need to go out shopping every day even if it’s the highlight of your day, especially if you’re 82 and have other health issues.  You can walk by yourself – you don’t have to walk with your friends.  Spreading out across the street doesn’t really make it ok.   I could rant on this, but I’ll stop.

We have had an excellent week for one simple reason.  The girls are on spring break.  It is so.much.easier. without having to deal with online school.  I do think the online school is good for them, but it is exhausting, and so hard to work Bri’s schedule and S’s schedule into sync.  This week, I was actually able to get S down for a few naps instead of constantly having to hop up to help Bri with this or that, waking S in the process.  I’m kind of dreading going back to the grind next week, but I’m trying to take it one day at a time and not wish my life away.

Running and quilting are great distractions these days.  I’ve just started pushing S in her jogging stroller, and it’s brutally hard, but I think I can get in better shape and make it work.  And I’m approaching completion on two very long quilting projects (my catenary quilt and my farmer’s wife quilt), so that’s giving me a lot of motivation to make progress.  (In reality, I have a long way to go, since I have no idea how I’m going to quilt them, but I prefer not to think about that.)

S is a beautiful, sometimes joyous and also often distraught, five month old.  She’s learning to sit, taking so much interest in the world around her, and loving attention and play time with all of us.  She’s a challenge and a joy.  I am mostly breastfeeding her these days, currently trying to transition from three bottle feeding / pumping sessions a day down to two.  I don’t think we’ll ever get fully away from bottles, pumping and formula supplementation, but it makes my life a lot easier not to have to pump seven times a day, as I did for the first two or three months.  S wakes up once a night, then earlyish in the morning.  B takes her first thing so I can get another hour of sleep.  All in all, my sleep situation is pretty good.  Every two or three days, I have to catch up with a shared nap with S.  That’s another thing that’s way easier with the kids on break.