The Shafferland Shuffle

And once again, the world has changed a whole lot since the last Shuffle post. Things look so much different than they even did last Sunday, and I can't even bring myself to imagine how much different they might look by next Sunday. It's too much! But I want to remember these days, so here's a peek at what our life looked like this week.

* As of last Sunday, the rule here in Indiana was that gatherings were still permitted, but they had to be under 250 people. Our church canceled public services and did a Facebook live service instead, but our pastor requested staff to attend in person. Since I'm a recent addition to the staff, that included me. Ryan and I went and thoroughly enjoyed the service, even though it was strange to be in such an empty room. (I wrote about the day here if you missed it.) After church, we spent the rest of the day at home - Ryan even made waffles and smoky links for us!

* Ryan went to the gym on Monday and had no idea this would be his last week of going to the gym for a while (the gyms have been shut down in our county). He was so worn out from the workout, he came home to take a nap! I went to work as usual on Monday and even got to take a field trip to the radio station to record an ad for an event that we hope will take place this fall. (Good thing we recorded on Monday. Radio stations are now closed to all people other than staff.) Monday night I asked Ryan if we could go back to the grocery store to get a few long term staple items. I felt like I needed to have some additional plans in place in case everything ends up closed for an undetermined amount of time. It really wasn't as bad out as we thought it might be.

* Several people have asked me about Ryan's work and how it's changed, and it did change dramatically throughout this week. He spent most of Tuesday deep cleaning at his work. (Obviously they always keep the place clean, but they went to extra measures this week.) Throughout the week, they kept cutting back on his patient load, reducing it further to try to keep as many of the patients home and safe as they could. The church staff had a FIVE HOUR MEETING on Tuesday to make plans for changing the face of ministry in the weeks to come. Because I've switched roles on the staff, I actually covered the office during this meeting, rather than attending it.) That evening, Ryan installed a new floor in the bathroom at a friend's house, and I worked at home.

* Ryan's job on Wednesday was to screen those who entered the hospital, and mine was to continue training for my new job. (I donned both my nametags that day. I'm #notquiteabagail and #notquitesabrina - a nod to both assistants I've trained under.) Abagail was so sweet and brought me Starbucks that afternoon. She said she wanted to thank me for covering for her so well during the staff meeting the day before.

* Thursday was laundry day, and Ryan thought the dryer sounded funny, so he spent some of his time cleaning out the dryer hose of all superfluous lint. I still going to the office - and our new church directories showed up that day! I could finally see people in the church again - even if on a piece of paper! That night, we worked out together at home, as will be our norm in the days to come.

* We knew going into Friday that by that evening, our county was moving to an orange level travel ban, which meant the closure of many businesses and the increased encouragement to stay home and stop spreading germs. One of the pastors treated the few staff members in the office to coffee, because he wanted a coffee run while he still could! After work, I made dinner for us, and then Ryan had to go back to work for four hours to help with an extra assignment. While he was gone, I hung up our new Easter art that I ordered last week.

* Ryan worked yesterday, and I took a mental health morning at home on the couch. My brain has been swirling all week, up and down with general thoughts and all over the place with work, so I needed some time to Pinterest and Hallmark my way through a day. I even made a batch of chocolate chip cookies so he could have freshly-baked treats when he came home. (That helped life feel normal for a moment!) Once he came home from work, we hunkered down for the rest of the day, catching up on DVR'd shows, taking naps, laughing, and talking. (And I never did put on makeup, so I'm not sick. I just look like I am.)

Much love to all of you, friends!