What a week this has been. Better yet, what a month this has been! At the beginning of every month I plan out the month. Work makes our schedules a month in advance, allowing me to plan my entire month around work. My month of March, at the beginning, looked beautiful. Grant’s birthday, his birthday party, doctor visits for my momma, spring break, new classes starting up, a scholarship reception dinner, and a week of visiting the Smokey Mountains with family among other things. Ninety percent of what was written in my monthly plan book was marked out. For some reason this has been hard for me. I am not normally one to make a bunch of plans and be so social so close together, but this month I was going to and was looking forward to it.
Tyler has been home for a week now, that alone makes it a weird week. By now he should be packing his bags, reminding me that we will see each other again in X number of days, and making plans to get him to the airport. Instead, the bags sit in storage here, he is reminding me that he is here for who knows how long, and we are making plans day by day. Transitioning into this new normal is hard for me. I have become used to it just being me and Grant and having our set normal. This week I was supposed to be in the Smokey Mountains with family, which got cancelled, so I’m not working which makes it even harder to transition into a new normal.
Work is thankfully still open, and I am blessed to still be employed. They had to cut hours a great deal in order to try to keep the business going and spread things out for all of us. While I was working an average of twenty-five to thirty hours a week, I am now down to two days a week, ten hours total. When my manager told me this she asked if that was okay with me, I laughed and told her whatever you can give me and whatever you need I am happy with. I am grateful for two days of getting out of the house and having a little piece of my normal back. The way we are responding to this and how they are treating all the employees makes me very proud to work for Royal South Toyota of Bloomington (Nice little plug there for ya).
Grant is missing going to daycare, we all do. Grant has so much energy and wants to be apart of everything going on. This is difficult when there is nothing going on or Tyler is working on things that Grant needs to stay out of the way for. By the end of all of this, Grant will have a working knowledge of all tools and how to hold the flashlight correctly, I’m sure of it….This week has allowed me to see all the things Grant has learned in daycare. That boy can count to ten and knows a good chunk of his ABCs, he is only three. We have also spent a great deal of time playing outside, playing hide and seek, and watching Paw Patrol. I have watched Paw Patrol so many times now you guys, I could probably win a game show about it…. I need some adult conversations in my life ASAP!
Tyler is getting a lot done on the house and is trying to stay on my good side. I don’t think he realized how emotional of a person I am until he spent this full, uninterrupted week with me. Wish him luck. I am proud of how he is handling this whole situation; he is throwing himself into working on the house and spending as much quality time with Grant as he can. There is no one else I would rather go through this with than him. He keeps me grounded, calls me out on my over reactions, and still makes me laugh with his stupid, cheeky grin.
We will get through this ugly time. Hopefully closer than before, so long as the Tiny Terrorist doesn’t gang up on us beforehand. Soon we will come up with a new normal for this household that will make things run smoothly again. Until then, we will stay focused on bonding with Grant and being what each other needs in these times of uncertainty. To anyone who is still looking for quarantine partner, my piece of advice is to find someone who even when the world is imploding on itself, they make you laugh, roll your eyes, and forget about what you are mad at them for with a stupid, cheeky grin.
Stay safe out there loves and find something that makes you laugh.
-Caitlyn aka Pretty Lady
Please sign up for notifications.