Not to make light of all the horrible things that are happening because of this virus that has changed all of our lives, some in big ways and for others not quite so big, but annoying or disappointing.
So many things have been cancelled including all the wonderful events of the senior year for so many high-schoolers. I have one great granddaughter who is going through this disappointment, though her family has figured out lots of ways to make the passing days fun.
For me, it’s been one writing event after another. I truly miss my writing friends.
Today, my hubby and I, along with my 2nd daughter who drives for us, had plans to drive to Murrieta to visit our eldest daughter and her husband. We do this once a year.
While we were there, we would have spent time with two of my grandkids’ families, four great-grands including the girl who is missing the fun of the senior year. I was also supposed to go visit her brother’s freshman English class to talk about writing. I went to his 3rd grade class year’s ago.
Our plan was to visit new restaurants and some of our favorites. We always picked a movie to go see in the theater. Another highlight was for all the females in the family to go to an escape room, which we’ve done three previous years. Our choice for this year was a Wizard of Oz themed room. Hopefully, we can get together later on. (In the photo above is all of us who participated last year, 3 daughters, a grand-daughter, and two great-grands and me.)
This is all so minor for what so many are going through. I have one grandson who delivers groceries to the markets and he’s working many long hours. I have two grandsons in law-enforcement, and two granddaughters who are nurses. I’m praying for them to stay safe. Many of my relatives are not working at all because of the crisis.
It is a difficult time for everyone. And a question for you authors who are sheltering in place–are you doing more writing or less? For me, it’s spurts, some days I do a lot, others, not so much.
Marilyn
Ladies of Mystery 
I hope your family stays well. Your story is the story of so many families. As for the writing question, yes. I’m making real progress on the current project, though it took a couple of weeks to get my focus.
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Missing out on such a large family gathering must be very hard, Marilyn. We can only hope this pandemic ends soon. I worry about those who have lost their jobs, and those, like your relatives, who are on the front lines, still working and trying to help others while worrying about their own families. My husband and I are both working at home on our various projects (photography for him and writing for me), but I too miss friends and family. Hope you and your family stay well, and all this is over soon.
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Two of our family members lost their jobs at least for now. One is in the oil industry. I spend a lot of time taking care of my hubby too because he doesn’t quite understand what’s going on.
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Good post, Marilyn. I’m still plugging away with my daily writing, marketing, and promoting. For me, in the middle of nowhere, my life has changed little other than the writing events I’ve had cancelled. One daughter lives down the road and we see them often. Our other daughter and her family also live semi-remote and we see them now and then. The one family member we should see the most, hubby’s mother, lives in a county with covid reports, so we have stayed away and she has stayed at home other than to go to the doctor and trip to the grocery store.
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Patyjag, we live in the foothills and get to see our relatives who live with us or close by, but I have a lot of those who I’d like to see who aren’t close. I feel sorry for those in nursing homes.
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Oh, Marilyn, I truly feel your pain. Every family event you’ve mentioned sounds so wonderful and shows a family deeply committed to one another. I’m sure that commitment and love will see you through this almost sci-fi like situation, as I hope it does for all of us. As for me, I tend to write in spurts these days, as well. Gone is any routine. Other than sheltering-in-place, nothing has any routine for me at all. I decided to do a daily blog about all of this, too, and am on day 41. http://heatherhavenstories.com/sheltering-in-place-day-41/ Can you believe it? It eats up a lot of my concentration and time, but for some reason, it is important to me. I wish you well, dear friend, and hope that you will find some small compensation in any of the social media videos around, such as Zoom. Right now, that’s the only way we can almost connect in person. Stay safe.
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We do live in an interesting time period, don’t wee. Thanks for commenting, Heather.
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I am having issues with my hip, so I am not as motivated to write. Having said that, I still write – every day!
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Bonnie, good for you writing every day!
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Thank you!
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Hi, Marilynn.
I find that I am not quite as consistently motivated to write as I used to be. I just wrote a couple chapters for book three of my series, but I hadn’t written anything for almost three weeks. Part of it was adopting a new dog, spending some time doing spring cleaning- both inside and out- and talking much more with family and friends. As my daughter-in-law reminded me when we spoke at length last week, it was the week we were supposed to be visiting her and our son in California. I understand the disappointments; still, am trying to stay positive. Some days it’s easier than others.
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I am in California and though we probably could’ve gone ahead and driven to our daughter’s all the rest stops are closed along with all the restaurants which means no bathrooms except at gas stations. It would have been a big pain. Plus my husband has a hard time understanding why everything is closed. Praying this will be over soon–though I think some things are changed forever.
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I thought I might do some cleaning but it isn’t happening.
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