Quarantine Has Changed Me

This time of quarantine has been challenging. It has been no small task to take a large step outside of the roles I normally hold to fill the roles that quarantine requires of me. It has been a challenge to decrease the freedoms I have at my disposal. But it also has been a time of readjusting the expectations around my life and that has been a huge benefit. I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of the positive changes that have come out of this time.

1.  I like to go-go-go. It has been life altering to suddenly have to stay in place. I have literally had to learn how to sit on the couch and just BE. In the first days of quarantine I somewhat panicked about this, but much to my surprise I have enjoyed this slower pace. As things being to open and schedules threaten to get busier I am finding myself really weighing the benefit of an added activity. Quarantine has taught me to slow down and protect the time our family has together.

2.  I hate to write this one, because it sounds very shallow, but I have learned the value of “do I really need that”.  My days of heading to Target to stroll the aisles and destress and ultimately buying things I don’t really need have passed.  Amazon Prime doesn’t really have 2 day delivery anymore. And I can’t easily just run through the Starbucks drive through as the line is now 5 years long.  Basically what I am saying is my Instant Gratification habits have died. And I find myself asking “Do we really need/want that?”. And guess what that has helped? Our bank account. Isn’t is magical when you stop spending money aimlessly you have more? Dave Ramsey would be so proud! We have saved so much so that we have been able to do a couple house projects we had trouble saving for before!

3.  God is the same Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Our daughter is medically complex but has had a really good few years. The fear of her getting Covid has brought back some of those fears I have had about her health. When I feel the anxiety rise I just have had to come back to the simple truth that God never changes. He is good in all things. That doesn’t mean she won’t get sick, but it means if that happens we will have the strength to get through it. A good friend used to tell me when I worried, “this fear is not upon you, so you don’t have the strength to handle the situation. But God simply does not leave us alone in a fire, so if that situation came about you would have strength to walk through it”. Guess what? Those words have never failed me, and they won’t in this situation either.

4. Expectations make or break the day. This is something that I have worked hard to teach my children during this time. But honestly, I have had to consistently remind myself as well. Expectations need to be realistic, verbalized and agreed upon. I have had to practice setting them with my children during this time, especially as we learned to home school. But practicing having realistic, verbalized and agreed upon expectations has even really helped my husband and I. We go into the days knowing what each other needs which sets the tone for clear communication and mutual goals. 

The beauty of walking through hard things is the great amount of personal growth that can come if we allow the circumstance to mold us for the better. 

Laurisa Ballew is a nurse by trade and mother to a special needs child by fate. She fiercely believes hope and grief walk hand in hand in life, and that storytelling is the universal language that connects us all.  Laurisa has three daughters and writes about the constant humility of parenting in her blog Raising A Sisterhood.