Happy Saturday, everyone!

Of course, if you're in an area with a lockdown of any type in place or if you've lost your job, for the time being, the days sort of run together. Welcome to my life - working from home for the past almost-decade, I quite frequently express amazement - "Wait, it's Wednesday?!?!"  The only thing that keeps me on track is garbage day, and may garbage day be ongoing!  :)

Enough rambling though. I wanted to send you some thoughts regarding the next few weeks.

First of all, if you were listening to a press conference last week in which the President suggested that the shutdowns would be over on Easter, I believe that is extremely unlikely. As much as we want to see the economy back up and running, based on an analysis of what other countries are facing, I think if anything, our lockdown will be even more stringent by then.

Please don't make decisions based on this all being "back to normal" by April 12th.

Secondly, understand this may go on for a lot longer than people initially expected. Tomorrow I'm going to write up the patterns based on what we're seeing in China and Italy. The information may not be what you want to see but it's better to base your plan on reality than on what we hope to see, right?

Finally, take this opportunity to work on those projects you've been putting off. Putting up a fence, tightening your home security, building a new cupboard for canned goods? All those things can happen now if you're not currently working.

I know the uncertainty of our situation is truly difficult to deal with - if we don't even know what's happening next week, how can we make plans for the summer or the next school year or...or...or....? To me, and perhaps also to you, the uncertainty is one of the most difficult parts of all this.

I find that making a plan for each day and not going further than that in my planning helps a lot. So today, I've done some research for an upcoming article, and we're working on a fire pit for the backyard in case some off-grid cooking is called for in the near future.

I believe that social distancing is the answer to slowing the spread of this virus. I know we all had plans and other things we wanted to be doing right now. This will all end at some point. We don't know when and we shouldn't expect things to just "go back to normal."  That would be an unwise mistake to make.

But maybe our new normal can be better. Maybe we can remember the lessons we've learned during the days that the United States (or wherever you are) has locked down. Maybe we can be more connected to the people we love. Maybe we can cook from scratch and use our pantries and become better prepared as a nation. Maybe we can become better neighbors and embrace (from a safe social distance, haha) our communities.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing more information on my expectations for just low long this whole thing will go on.

Today, please take the time to enjoy this current pace. Stop trying to look so far ahead, and savor the moments that are happening now. Nobody knows what the future will bring us, but today, let it bring us some happiness about the simple joys in our lives, no matter how different and no matter how small.

Love,
Daisy