Hey everyone! I hope you all are safe and well. I wanted to do a quick update on what is going on in my life and for my family because I realize that the last few months of blog posts have mostly been about astrology and witchy sorta things. Which is all well and good but so much has changed in a week not to mention since the new year so an update is long overdue.

As we all know I became pregnant at the end of last summer and Jesse and I found out we are having another boy! How exciting! The number one thing that was on our list to prepare for our new sons arrival was we needed to move and ASAP. And how lucky for us we found our perfect dream home and honestly right in the knick of time too. I do want to do a house update for y’all soon, everything is coming together really well and once the rest of our renos and furniture arrive I will do a full house breakdown and tour. But basically it’s a dream come true and we have everything we need to live a long and happy life here. It was NOT in my preferred neighbourhood but given our timeline, I could not wait around for what I deemed our perfect home. And honestly the neighbourhood is a dream come true and very much us, so it’s not even an issue. All I will say though when it comes to house hunting however, is unless you have all the time in the world or the biggest budget in the world, then you will likely need to compromise in some way and the perfect house doesn’t really exist. But you can make it perfect. We found the house in mid January, put in the offer and went back and forth a couple of times and she accepted finally. We were able to get immediate possession basically because our house luckily sold within three days and the lady who lived in our new home was already moved out. There was a bunch of work we wanted to do before we could officially move in with the boys so this gave us enough time to get that done.

Fast forward about a month. My grandma was very kind to offer me some money to purchase new things for our home so I bought lots of nice, new stuff. Adult things and our own because since we have lived together since 2010 we have had all hand me downs from both of our parents. Which is great but it is very refreshing to have our own stuff that reflects our own personal style. I thrifted a bunch, and shopped from mostly Wayfair, IKEA and Structube. I can’t wait til the rest of our furniture shows up so I can really show what we have done with the place. But basically for about a month I was just shopping, packing, overseeing renos and getting ready for our move.

As we all are aware of now, the coronavirus was growing and growing overseas. Like most people I thought nothing of it at first. I thought the same thoughts as a lot of people “it’s just a flu” “it’ll go away” “no need to stockpile” “no need to alter my lifestyle.” We have been through many huge potential pandemics in the past and it never really lead anywhere and always just sorta went away eventually. H1N1, SARS, Ebola, there are a few I can think of over my lifetime at the very least. I do have a love for Twitter, I am a Gemini Mercury and Venus and the knowledge, information and knowing everything I can possibly know is my love language. Twitter was updating constantly on the situation so while at first I thought this whole situation was going to blow over, it did become apparent over the weeks that things were indeed escalating and a lot more serious than I ever imagined. But even last week I still thought for sure I would be going on my Italian family vacation in July. How quickly things changed even just overnight.

Last weekend was our official weekend to move out. It was supposed to be the weekend before but it got pushed back due to a delay in our renovations. Luckily Jesse had been moving a lot of stuff for us late at night and our POD that we had rented to store our belongings while our house was on the market was already emptied into our new home. We had to basically build furniture, unpack, get the boys room set up and make sure the house was habitable for them and all of us. There was a lot of shopping that I hadn’t done at this point. I was putting it off because I didn’t want to fill our old home with unnecessary things when I thought I would have about a month to get everything done at my leisure. I had to get a bunch of baby stuff still, all my plants, grocery run (not even to stockpile but just to be ready for the baby) and last minute house things. At this point I heard the stories of ridiculous people stockpiling toilet paper and bottled water and knew that the virus had made it’s way over to Canada but I still thought I had time or that it wouldn’t really affect my lifestyle. I have been suffering from pregnancy insomnia the most out of all my pregnancies, due to so much being on my mind and horrible pelvic pain while I lay down for a few hours. When I am up late at night I tend to scroll the news which I know doesn’t help but it came to my attention the situation in Italy. This completely freaked me out and made me much more aware of the seriousness of this issue. I realized I likely would not be going on my summer trip. Last week my mom and I made a stop at the Outlet mall, it was a ghost town. I realized that I did not have as much time as I thought. My parents took the kids last weekend so we could move in and do what we needed to do. Our first thing on the agenda was our Costco shop. Well at this point everyone was realizing the seriousness of COVID-19 and that didn’t happen for us. Had we not had a million things to do and a move to focus on we might have been able to stick around and wait it out but the line up was to get into the parking lot alone. We decided we would try groceries later and focus on moving. While Jesse did runs back and forth from our house I took this time to do all the shopping I wanted to get done. I bought plants, baby stuff and some last minute home decor and essentials. I didn’t feel too bad not helping out with moving because it is not as if I could lift much anyway. And luckily I was able to get my errands done. Things felt tense, anxious and panicked in stores. Even stores that weren’t selling food like Home Sense. Everyone was slightly panicky. At this point the term self isolation was being thrown around and people were being recommended to start thinking about distancing themselves and not leaving the house for any reason. My dad had returned from Mexico about a week before, my mom and her partner were home. Jesse’s family is unfortunately still in Florida, and are planning on coming back this week, I hope they experience no issues crossing the border. But we likely will not be able to see them for a while at this point, well beyond Salem’s birth. I will be happy and relieved once everyone we love is back home and safe. Also around this time, schools were shutting down, the NBA and NHL had shut down, major events were cancelled, grocery stores were running out cleaning supplies, paper products and essentials and most restaurants and bars were starting to close their doors as well. Jesse was talking about shutting down his businesses. Shit was getting real. This was no longer a far distant problem overseas that was “just the flu.” My mindset shifted completely. I did go get a pedicure last Saturday, which now that I think about it was not essential at all. But I knew the salons would quickly be closing their doors and I needed one desperately before the baby, and I also needed to relax. So I did take my chances and went to Tiber River and was able to relax for a couple hours. I don’t regret it despite how foolish it might have been. I was definitely overworking myself last weekend. My body was so sore, Braxton Hicks contractions on and off all day, pressure building in my pelvic region. I overdid it for sure. But it needed to be done. All meanwhile my poor son Jaxson was experiencing an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin he had to take earlier in the week due to his ear infection (check out his latest update under Jaxson Myers in the main menu). I have never felt so much stress, pressure and like everything was happening all at once. It was a lot to begin with now adding in the fact that a pandemic was happening and the future was so uncertain it was more than anyone would be able to handle. Surprisingly I am handling it as best as I can. By Sunday our house was ready for the boys to come and live in. We had set up what we could and would be working on it as time went on. So we went and got our boys and they came home. This made me feel instantly better to know that they were with me and under the same roof. They loved it! We ordered pizza that night, relaxed as a family and played in our new spaces. The boys are now sharing a room and Asher is officially in his big boy bed as well. On top of everything going on with us adults, it’s a lot of change for two little humans. They are surprisingly adapting very well and handling it much better than I anticipated. Asher had to sleep in his pack n play the first night but since then he has taken to his toddler bed and I think they both find comfort in sharing a room together. It is very sweet. Naps have been interesting but once the black out blinds come in it’ll hopefully be better. Jaxson has said to us a few times that he misses the old house and wishes he lived there still. Which makes me sad but I am sure is very normal. We have settled in very well this week. I have unpacked and organized a lot of our spaces and it feels like a home. So while the outside world is crumbling and uncertain, it is very safe and cozy inside my safe haven I have created for us. We are on a river front property with an incredible backyard, tree house, back deck and fire pit included, so when the weather improves that will be another bonus of this magnificent fortress. If there is one good thing that has come from all of this, it is us finding this amazing home and moving in with everything we needed before things really got bad. For that I am grateful.

I certainly have a lot of anxiety however still. Now it’s not about the house and the move but it’s about labour, quarantining when Salem arrives, not having my regular support network via in person, and a lot of my husband’s work situation is up in the air. I am grateful he is still able to work but I am also worried about germs he is going to bring home. But at the same time I don’t want his restaurants to be affected by closures so it is very very conflicting. They are doing delivery service for the time being and I hope it ends up being successful and worth their while. The government stimulus is very reassuring to know. Especially the child benefit tax. This will help tremendously during these times. I am very grateful to have such amazing benefits as a Canadian. I still need a new vehicle and very desperately. We have been waiting on this for the new owners to take possession of our home so we could get the money from the sale of our house, but is this something that is going to be available in the next few weeks to come? I worry that we will end up in a mandatory nation-wide lockdown before the opportunity to get that done happens. I really just don’t know. I I am so thankful because before all of this I had already made the decision to have Salem at the birthing centre. Way less people and less germs. But also no doctors and no pain management aside from laughing gas. I feel confident I can do it, but I am not looking forward to the world of pain I know I am about to be in, in the next few weeks. I just need to keep telling myself that it Is only temporary. And well worth it to have the peaceful and calm birth I have always wanted. I do worry that Jesse will bring something home and I will also get sick right when I go into labour that could affect Salem in utero. There’s been hardly any studies done on this matter so very little evidence of what could potentially happen. I do believe the risks are very low but I am sure there is some sort of risk associated. I need Salem to come soon, safe and fast. But at the same time I need a couple weeks to mentally prepare. So I do not want him to come early. Avoiding the hospital at all costs is my goal. Please send me all the good, quick and easy labour vibes and pray for a healthy and strong Salem Gunner Friesen. Please send positive vibes to all those small business owners, restaurants and restauranteurs whose livelihoods will be affected by life as we know it. Please send positive vibes for a healthy community, an economy that bounces back strongly, and a quick recovery from this pandemic.

In the meantime I am perfectly happy to self isolate in my new home. It gives me the best excuse to nest and organize and have everything ready and prepared perfectly for when Salem does arrive. As a stay at home mom self isolation isn’t that much different than every day life so I am grateful that it is not the biggest change to our every day lives. Jaxson will be out of school from this point forward so we will need to actively work on things he would be working on in school but I am also not really putting that much pressure on myself or the kids because of all the changes we are all going through and about to be going through. I am really looking forward to some nice weather, goodness knows we need it. I just need to get out of the house if only for a walk, but its hard because everything is so icy. This week is going to be an improvement for sure. I cannot wait to see what our yard looks like without any snow. I am so excited for things to start blooming and growing again. We need some life, positivity and warmth.

I really hope you are all doing your part where you can too. The least anyone should be doing is social distancing. This includes, not seeing friends and family, limiting our travel, not going anywhere unnecessarily and washing those hands as often as you can. I realize that there are people my age and also those who are older as well, who may not understand why they can’t get together with their friends and family, or go out just for the sake of going out. We are young, strong and healthy. We will bounce back if we get sick. But it is not about us. It is about our parents and grandparents. It is about the immunocompromised. It is about my 37 week pregnant self, and my about to be new-born baby. These are the people we need to be protecting. And unfortunately with people still having social gatherings this is risking everything. Look at Italy! Look at Spain! They did not take it seriously. They did not do what was necessary and now!? 793 reported deaths in a 24 hour period win Italy. This is scary, alarming and so unnecessary. Do I think we are headed the way of Italy? I think we are in a better position for many different reasons but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be taking all the precautions we can. Let’s learn from these countries that are months ahead of us when it comes to this virus. Let’s not be selfish assholes. Please just stay the fuck home. The longer we do not comply with this, the longer we will have to take these extreme measures. And the stricter our lockdown will get. I do not want to be forced into a mandatory lockdown but we ARE heading in that direction. Do not be ignorant to this fact. How long do you want this to last? Because at this point it is certainly going to be months. How many months of our lives do you want to be lost to this virus? When all we need to do is stay home. Please I beg you. Despite all of this I have tremendous hope for the future. Things are tense and hard right now but even seeing how people have come together to do what they need to do, and all the good that has come from this has really given me a warm fuzzy feeling in my soul. We humans are resilient. We will bounce back from these uncertain times. I am certain that after this whole situation our economy will rebound and boom from this crisis. Remember that this is all temporary. Take care friends, stay home, wash your hands and stay healthy.