Well, my mind has just been all over the place today. At first I woke up with slight anxiety/curiosity over the Corona Virus thing, wondering if it was going to blow up and we needed to skip our trip. So the first thing I did this morning was make a pot of coffee and take Maisy out and then hit the news!

Seems everyone must be wondering the same things. The news covered my points I needed to know. Should you cancel the trip? NO. Not unless you have health conditions that might put you at higher risk. So far as I know I don’t. I’m 3 years under the risk category of 60 so I have 3 years to flirt with disaster. I had to ask the questions though, b/c at what point am I being selfish of wanting to see my daughter and do this trip we have planned for so long? I don’t want to put her at risk either. But I believe as for now our trip is on. We will wash our hands, sing twinkle twinkle, elbow greet each other, smile and be on our way to our many public destinations.

So…yes, Nashville has it’s first case of Corona, but the greater Nashville area announced it’s first case a few days ago, Thursday I think in Williamson County (Franklin). Not what I was hoping to hear this morning, but it is what it is.

At least they seem to be honest about it here – not wanting people to panic, but I keep hearing just wash your hands and greet each other by the elbow bump.

Meanwhile Roger was found doing some reading in bed this weekend.

George had gone to make a sandwich and I passed by and this was my view – cracked me up!

I have packed today since it is the weekend. While the flight is not til Thursday we all know what the week and it’s uncertain commutes can do to the work night schedule. So any thinking/packing/organizing kinda has to be done on the weekends as the work nights are just eating, simple chores, taking care of dogs, quality time watching a 45 min show during dinner and then head for bed.

Our temps for our trip in Tulsa were in the 60’s at one time. Now it’s upper 70’s for the day we arrive and then storms come through and it’s 50’s the rest of the time we are there. So I pulled my short sleeves out and put the long sleeves in.

The news said if you are traveling to be sure and consider if you may be quarantined up to 14 days. Well I’m not packing 14 days of clothes or jammies (the hotel has sink and water) but I did pack crosswords and I’ll take my iPad. I’m taking a thermometer, acetaminophen, my vitamins (from that shake/supplement company I use). I packed some Vitamin D (liquid sunshine) if needed for morale. And a couple of e-shots boosts and a couple of shakes.

I really like it when the sun shines in and gives a late afternoon glow in my office, as I spent some time on line looking up weather, looking up things in Tulsa to do and places to eat, and shop.

I spent some time thinking about anxiety. There have been times this week where it was just *almost* overwhelming – the tornadoes being so close, the damage, the hurt you know others are going through, working or trying to keep your own life together – feeling guilty you are not able to give much time or muscle, three hour commutes to and from work several times, the Corona Virus showing up this week in our community and knowing I am going to fly this week. It’s all just almost too much. I have felt like crying several times but end up being calmed by God’s spirit – thank God for his counselor! He is keeping me calm and placing wisdom in my head and heart and telling me what to do, what to consider, and giving me hope and leadership in the situation instead of wimping out. (I’ve always been one to destress life, but it always seems to try to find me). I also find calm in watching and doing normal things this weekend – cleaning, doing laundry, watching my shows – so I can forget the turmoil that is ever present in our community and society and world.

My God and his Spirit have counseled with me today, aside from all things written in scripture, that one must do the following when considering the Corona Virus or other disaster at hand.

Ways to NOT be Anxious over the Corona Virus or other situation:

1. Be prepared, considering the facts instead of being anxious or afraid. Learn about what is frightening you. Learn the facts. Then prepare for the worst case scenario and go from there if you need. Once you know what the worst is that can happen and how you will deal with that, you have already looked it in the face and considered what you will do. That takes half the fear away right there. You have a plan for dealing with the worst possible scenario. 90 % of the time the worst case never happens right? That has to be some consolation.
2. Turn a bad situation into something good. This can go many ways and in many facets. Considering this corona virus for example – it’s time to encourage others, soothe anxieties, be there for one another, hear and listen one another, hug one another – or just do the elbow bump – lol. Consider what good you will do if the virus impacts someone you know, or even know of? Can you send a card, send a message, drop off supplies, pray for them. What will you do if someone gets this and how can you calm them, help them, or their family? Be thinking along those lines.
3. Be hopeful. Yes there has been ebola, and all those other things. Usually they go away with the summer and the heat. Hopefully this will too and summer is not far away. Our normal flu begins subsiding sometime in April as the heat returns here in TN anyway. March is a prime time for flu but it can happen here anywhere from Thanksgiving to April.
4. Again about being prepared. I made a list of things below we should probably be prepared for in case of ANY emergency. See what you think needs to be added? Leave me a comment.

Store up Extra for Emergency Situations

• Change your meds to 90 day supplies? So you have plenty available. I’m not doing this yet but considering it.
• Canned goods and a manual can opener. Include things like chicken, tuna, Vienna sausages (ok we are talking emergency here), canned fruits like pineapple and applesauce, and mandarin oranges, pears, etc. Don’t forget your canned greens, and other veggies, potatoes, carrots, beans, and so forth. Frozen is good too but if food goes bad due to power outage, you need a back up. Canned goods have less nutrients though, but better than none at all if you are quarantined or stuck at home in a disaster or disaster relief situation. Also thinking of things like evaporated milk b/c if you don’t have fresh, it’s nice to have this. Maybe even keep a loaf of bread frozen? It could be thawed during an emergency.
• Rice. We have a lot of rice – a lot! As long as we can heat water, we can survive a ways on that!
• Vitamins. Good to keep a multivitamin or a multitude of vitamins, as you prefer. If you don’t take them regularly already – it might be good to have some around in case of illness in the house or lack of being able to get fresh food so you have some nutrients coming in.
• I actually thought of keeping some Ensure on hand – it might not be tasty warm, but it would sure lend some nutrients to you. I have my shakes from “THAT SHAKE/SUPPLEMENT COMPANY I USE” which are good just with water, that I have plenty of if food runs out. Disclaimer: NOTE that SHAKES/SUPPLEMENTS DO NOT CURE ANYTHING. How’s that? NEVER claimed it did either.
• Bottled water in case the water supply goes bad. I’m guilty of not having enough of this available. There are many times when community water has gone bad for whatever reason and this becomes necessity. We count on the fact that plenty of stores around have these items but in time of disaster related need it’s often the first to clear the shelves.
• Cash – while we have not done it often – we probably should have some cash available for bartering when power is out and such.
• Pet food. I’m no longer letting myself get too close to running out of at least dry food. We should have food to get by two weeks at least.
• General home cleaning supplies – bleach, Clorox clean up, or wipes, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap and paper towels. I’m thinking that from now on, when I open one thing up, I’m already going to be buying the next one. Instead of waiting til I’m almost empty with the current one – just go ahead and get another.
• Personal Hygiene supplies – soap, toothpaste, Kleenex, toilet paper, and other needs. We should keep extra on hand. I plan to do the same – if I open one in the house, I’m buying the next unopened one.
• Always buy the big container of eggs – we use eggs a lot – for cooking, for boiling to put in tuna or chicken salad, or just to eat for a snack. If you have these available if you were quarantined you could do so much with that for protein. We always buy the big container. If we don’t eat it by expire date, we can boil them up and make dressed eggs and there is no time before they are gone.
• COFFEE! Lord, please don’t allow any of us to run out of coffee! I mean you have to think of your morale right? In that case should we also keep cookies and ice cream? Maybe! lol If the power goes out, must one eat the ice cream first, and that will do wonders for morale! 😉
• I put essential oils on my list. Just because so many of them have natural health/wellness benefits. If there is power, the diffuser works great, but there are other ways to use essential oils. Not saying one shouldn’t see their doctor but in times where that may not be possible, you might find relief in having the basic essential oils available. I’ve cured earaches with them, calmed myself with them, and can change the mood with them.
• Batteries
• First aid kit and supplies
• Over the counter meds and remedies

My thinking did not get beyond this, but I’m sure there are numerous things I’m missing. I did tell George when he went to the store for some other things to bring home some canned fruit and greens as that was missing from our pantry currently. I plan to stock up on some of the other things little by little. I don’t intend to go and clean the shelves off or do it all at once. It’s a good idea to be prepared for ice storms, illnesses, tornadoes, earthquakes, a community situation, guests, a broken down vehicle, a closed off road, a flood, a terrorist attack of some sort, power outages, and whatever awaits us around the corner, who knows?

Being prepared like this for any emergency would help bring a peace of mind anyway.

On a fun note, I did get to go check out YoWorld b/c I heard it was still open by Linda, a Facebook friend/blog buddy. Did I know this? I’m not sure. I thought it had closed for good. I guess YoVille did and somehow someone kept it open as YoWorld. I had a lot of fun just going in and seeing my homes that I decorated. I don’t see much fun in playing the game and buying (game money – not mine) and decorating it now, but I really enjoyed it back then many years ago. Here’s a few of my rooms:

And I had some geeky moments just trying to figure out how others organized their iPhone apps. I often get caught up in trying to reorganize mine and sometimes it changes as my priorities change. Here is my current iPhone set up after I rearranged it today to be more user friendly to my needs. I combined a lot of them into categories – but some I want quick access to. Notice that Facebook no longer gets it’s own space – it’s grouped in with “Social Media”. I’m not on it much any more – although I do post some things often, just don’t want it to be the first place I go when I pick up my phone. I want to be my own ideas and my own person! Here it is as of today:

It’s not really in any kind of order as much as just where I am used to going to the apps. For so long weather has been in a certain spot, photos, and nearly everything. So I kept it to where I normally would “go to” and the first page of course has the most important. I rarely FaceTime and if it happens it’s incoming, so some things like that are on the 2nd page now. THAT SHAKE/SUPPLEMENT COMPANY THAT I DO is no longer on the first app page. lol. I really use my home computer for that. And Snapchat is not under social media b/c I mainly only use that for videoing certain things and then saving it and posting it other places. So it’s under “video”.

Also by making the categories have a space b/w each letter it makes it easier to find.

I had to laugh at this one. This is NOT how I have mine organized. This would drive me crazy, to have your apps organized by COLOR! Oh no! lol

But there are whole Pinterest sites on finding ways to organize your apps!

I liked this one. I think the background is neat and a lot of folks are using the skip a space b/w each letter.

Well that is all I have for today. Maisy says goodnight and she is very upset with me for not going to bed already. She tells me when it is time – I mean FULL ON BARKS! But I told her I was finishing this blog post that she was not going to tell me what time to go to bed.

She gave up!

Hope you all have a good week. Would love to hear any comments you have on anything in today’s post. Your views on Corona virus, anxiety? Being prepped? iPhone app organization? I will try to post this week as I can.