WFH

WFH-work from home

It's a new term I've used a lot in the last several months. One that has been fairly uncommon in my language because it's hard to WFH when you work in a hospital. I have had the opportunity to spend most Fridays over the last couple of years officing out of my home, but never did I imagine I would move my entire work space home. 

But then again, never did I imagine much of what is happening right now. We are living in unprecedented times.
It's scary, it's unpredictable. 

It's unbelievable. 

And it's hard. 

My mom as well as a friend's dear mom both recently sent me handmade masks to bring in on my last day of work to donate. Allina asked the community and then received many amazing donations of masks. 

Some of my coworkers then spent countless hours helping sort as well as assembling face shields as we prepare for these most challenging times.  

My last day inside the walls of the hospital, I was issued a face mask. It's terrifying and sad and emotional and exhausting. 

It was then decided, in an effort to preserve those precious masks, to move myself and most of my team to our homes. 

It is not ideal. 

But nothing is ideal right now. 

I left my beautiful office (and dual monitors!), my amazing office-mates, the comfort of work, seeing my patients face to face and working side by side with doctors, nurses, therapists and the rest of the rehab team. 

Instead, my revised "sit to stand" desk (aka the kitchen island) now holds my tiny laptop and I have never felt more disconnected from my patients and families. 

We have spent hours upon hours this week helping to troubleshoot IT problems, submit tickets for new apps/access, and learning a new-normal. 

I'm a pro at blocking my cell number during outbound calls. 

We zoom meetings. 

I'm "connected" in a whole different way. 

No one knows how long this will last. 

And while I (and my whole family) feels safer to have me WFH, 

I'm optimistic that some day, we will get back to our old routines. 

For now, 

I've traded my typical lunch workout at the hospital gym, 

for walks around the block with my new "coworkers"....my family :) 

Stay safe everyone. 

Hanging in there-COVID 19

We, like the rest of the world, are doing our best to stay healthy and avoid catching this terrible COVID19 virus. We greet text messages and emails with a "we're hanging in there" reply. But what does that really look like?....

Our lives these days are dramatically different than the usual. We have now "sheltered in our home" for the last 12 days. By recommendation of the Governor, but not ordered until today. That means exactly as it sounds. We leave only for a walk in nature, or around the block (and again and again and again), or for me to go to the grocery store. I do still have to go to the hospital, so Ryan suggests I take one for the team and also do our grocery shopping since I'm already more exposed. My shopping trips are very limited. I'm in/out as fast as possible, grabbing our supplies, then wiping them down with a bleach wipe before putting them into our cupboards. Is that overboard?, I hope we never have to find out.

What else does it look like....

School from home....we haven't formally started distant learning (this week is spring break in our district). We had a few attendance/check in days, and we have all of our packets and chromebooks and websites ready to go for the official start. However, Lincoln is in Kindergarten, and needs a lot more guidance than his sisters. So his learning will look different. And I've opted to take spring break as an opportunity to start some of his assignments, a little learning everyday. And always reading. Thank goodness we have our own library of books, workbooks and flash cards.

Plus, I've memorized his matrix learning grid and instead of sitting down to do "school", we incorporate it into everyday activities. One lesson was "teach a parent a song from school". Both sisters helped a little on this one, as he (with their leading), taught us the school song. It was a blast from the past as Regan tried to remember her elementary school song lyrics. But so much fun :)

The pantry is fully stocked with snacks, though they are not asking for snacks all day long. This surprises me. We do, however, eat every meal together, which is a huge change for our busy family. This also means we run the dishwasher everyday!
With the weather still chilly, we still go outside for walks in the neighborhood. Or bike riding. We also still have a lot more fires in the fireplace. The kiddos ask for one daily, but with our wood supply dwindling, we are spreading them out to every few days. And sometimes I use it as a method for my cinnamon rolls to rise :)

Our kids are getting a lot of screen time. It's not all they do, but they do a lot of it. With two parents working, it keeps them quiet when we are on calls or trying to meet a deadline. BUT, we are also doing non-screen activities like play-dou, puzzles, painting, etc. Our most favorite activity, however, is when the neighbors use social distancing and put their new puppy into our backyard so everyone (puppy and our humans) burn off some much needed energy. It's a win for everyone!

We also have a plethora of softball paraphernalia and so practicing, albeit much different than anyone prefers, is still a possibility. We can pitch and hit into the bownet, we can practice grounders against the rebound net, we use chalk to create the training "ladder" for agility.

But it's not as motivating when we aren't amongst our peers. We miss our friends. We miss our routine. We miss softball and dance and volleyball and yes, even school. And so there are tears and tantrums, sass and anger. We're trying hard, we're doing our part, and will continue to "shelter at home" until this is all over.

Please- Stay home

When I started working at the hospital nearly 17 years ago, my coworkers asked me how I would handle the stress? Burnout is very high in this line of work. My answer was simple, I exercise. I run, I workout, I move. 

Throughout my time, the hospital remodeled a beautiful new fitness center. Not state of the art, but beautiful and sufficient for my simple needs. I’m lucky enough that it is so close, I can sneak away from my office and the patient care unit most days over the noon hour. Me and a small handful of the 10,000 employees, never more than 6 others. It’s the best of both worlds to have a gym smack dab at your work place. 

6 days ago, as this horrible COVID-19 virus crept into MN and started spreading, I text Ryan “as long as I can go to the gym, I’ll be ok”. He laughed. Knowing it’s my outlet for a stressful job. 

Fast forward to yesterday ....when that gym and all others across the state, were (rightfully) closed. I was devastated, and have cried no less than 8,541 tears from an incredibly stressful and trying time. It’s exhausting, and saddening, and hard to work in healthcare. And it’s even harder during a pandemic. 

There’s no doubt that we will get past this. We will look back and be more grateful for our health, our freedom (and an endless supply of toilet paper at Target!). In the meantime, for anyone reading, I urge you to stay home, stay safe. That means interact with only your immediate family: no play dates, no sleepovers, no extended family gatherings. Please, for my life and those in all hospitals, please, stay home

Winter-little things

As we sit in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to quick look back and remember the fun we had this winter season of 2019-2020. Before we all were isolated in our homes (except yours truly who must go into the hospital every day). I cried today for the first time since this all started, and I cried 4 times. Fear for the unknown. Sadness for what is lost. Hope that we will get through this untouched.

 

But I can't live in that space too often, life moves on. So up with the bootstraps!

 

 In no particular order, here's some random photos off my phone.

 

The elementary school collected 2 liter soda pop bottles for the ring toss game at the carnival. They collected loads of these bottles. And then Sidney proceeded to bring EIGHT back home. The girl is a master at ring toss!

 

 

We woke up on Regan's birthday to our house being TP'd.
Our security cameras actually caught the little buggers on video the night before and woke me up, but it was minutes too late and they were already headed down the street.

I laughed. Because really, who doesn't want some fun loving TP on their birthday!? And we cleaned up 7 rolls of it!!

Although she asked around, the little vandalizing fellas haven't come clean.

 

(side note: I wish I would've kept all that TP now that we can't find any on store shelves).

 

We had lots of fires, and cuddled up around them after a busy weekend or long day at the rink. There is something about the smell and heat of a fire that just brings us all together. We tend to congregate around the fire, often me and the girls huddled up on the hearth. But this time, I caught Ryan and Lincoln snuggled in together.

 

Grandma Jan came back from a quick Arizona trip, all tanned and filled up with Vitamin D. I'm thankful now that she's here this winter and can isolate herself and not be traveling.

 

As the snow began to melt, we busted out Lincoln's new bike from his birthday last year. He was hesitant at first, but is already cruising around on that thing like he did with his little one. And he's so proud to be riding this bigger one.

 



 

I thought I had seen it all. And then, while volunteering, someone showed up with this dog in a sling. I took a double take, and then a photo. Because, it's a dog in a sling!?

 

Lincoln picked up on reading, thanks to Dick and Jane. They really are the best. They're short and repetitive and easy enough to finish in one setting. He's already graduating onto bigger books now.

 

His teacher sent home some of his work from school.

Ahhhh, I giggled and giggled reading his "brave" spelling as I thought back to both girls in kindergarten with the same types of work.

Sound it out: 'uvn'

 

 

Regan and I volunteered with her summer club softball team sorting and sorting nearly 300 pizza orders from her team. The association sold pizzas for a fundraiser. Thank you to those who supported her!

 

And finally, sometimes I fail miserably at taking pictures with the girls. Here we were watching Lincoln play hockey. I had one girl with the giggles, eager to take a picture, and another one who was annoyed and cold and not in the mood. Can you guess which description fits each girl :)

 

And now, as the winter season slows down, we are met with the most unique situation of quarantine and isolation and social distancing.

The kids are doing online school for the foreseeable future,

 Ryan's working from home, and I'm being greeted at night with "were you safe today?"

meaning was I able to avoid close contact with anyone.
People are hoarding paper products, the store shelves are empty.

Softball is cancelled.

Volleyball is cancelled.

We're filling our time with games and bike rides, more fires, movies, arts and crafts, play dou and family time.

Trying to make the most of this and taking one day at a time.

 Each day, we are one day closer to this being over.

Innagural hockey season wrap up

After a rocky start to the season (no coaches, no team manager), it feels like Lincoln's season ended just as it was getting started.

 

These Mite 1's spend the first 3/4 of the season really just learning how to skate without falling down every 7 seconds. The improvement was incredible!

But they finally had their final few weeks which consisted of games and a couple weekend jamborees.

 

 

He was easy to identify out there, with orange tape on his stick and orange laces.
Anyone guess his favorite color?

 

Ryan snapped this photo at the end of the local jamboree. I needed just one last photo and since Ryan was coaching, he got a good one :)

 

This team of boys sure grew and learned and turned into such a fun team! We are grateful for this first year experience and Lincoln had so much fun meeting up with his new buddies.

 

Nordy from the MN Wild showed up for one of the Jamboree's and the boys were so excited.

Way to go Mite 1 White's for a successful season.

 

Happy 14th Birthday Regan!

Fourteen years ago, this little girl made her debut. She arrived 4 weeks early, unable to feed normally so we used a dropper, but with a set of lungs to let us know she was ready for the world. 

And she hasn’t stopped talking since! 

 

I was blessed to be a mom for the very first time, and in the blink of an eye, now 14 years have gone by. 

 

 

 

It’s so very hard to believe. So slow, yet oh so quick. There really is some truth to the saying “the days are long but the years are short”. 

 

 

Our adorable, chubby cheeked girl is growing up right before our eyes. 

She has an immense love for animals (particularly llamas and dogs), a giant heart that cries crocodile tears of sadness and an uncanny ability to talk and talk and talk. :) She is athletic and adores sports:, long distance running (no sprints!), dance and her absolute favorite is softball. 

 

 

Beyond everything, she is social. Every single school conference since kindergarten, we are reminded that she loves to talk. I cringe because since the 5th grade, she learned how to be social, while getting her work done at the same time. It’s a fantastic life long skill, but one that most of her classmates have still not yet mastered, and as such, can be distracting to them. She easily makes friends, always trying to help the new kids. She floats around, having all sorts of groups of friends. Her coaches and teachers clue us in that these traits (though challenging at times), make her a true leader. And those comments make me proud :) 

 

 

 

 

 

Her most recent realization has been that she will graduate high school in just 4 short more years. While this life event is so very exciting, she cried those crocodile tears when she did the math and discovered Lincoln would still be in elementary school. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her math was off, and he would actually be younger than she calculated. Her fear is he will forget her, she’ll become a stranger that shows up on holidays....(we are a tad dramatic over here!).  But I secretly cried right along with her. If 14 years went this fast, imagine how quickly the next four will go. So my advice to her, keep making memories, don't hide behind those screens, and your siblings will always remember their fun big sister!

 

I’m hanging on to every moment over here. Clinging to this sweet girl who drives me batty with her eye rolls and general lackadaisical attitude. This sweet girl I love so fiercely! 

Happy 14th birthday baby girl!