This One is For the Heroes!

healthcare heroes coronavirus covid-19 first responders thank you

Navigating our careers through Coronavirus

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed and uprooted everyone’s life one way or another. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by working from home and trying to juggle homeschooling your children, cooking, and cleaning. Or if you live alone, you may feel incredibly lonely while practicing social distancing.

Perhaps you are an essential employee who continues to work. You may feel blessed to have a job, but worry about the potential exposure for yourself and your family.

Or you may be a small business owner who can’t sleep at night trying to figure out how to hold on for you and your employees.

Or perhaps you are someone who has already been laid off and is unsure how you will provide for your family.

No matter where you lie on the spectrum, there has been a change for everyone. And I hope we can all respect and appreciate each individual situation as we navigate through these changes together.

Celebrating the heroes

We can all agree that first responders and healthcare workers all over the world have been affected. Even if we had physically and mentally been prepared, nothing could prepare us for what was to come.

Healthcare workers and first responders all over the world acquiring the virus and many losing their lives while so unselfishly trying to save others. Providers and nurses so selflessly coming out of retirement or traveling to the most severely affected cities to lend a hand.

Jumping in head first regardless of the risk, because it is what they have been called to do. Navigating unchartered waters with daily changes in practices due to so many unknowns with COVID-19.

Providing care to patients with inadequate supplies in a country that we thought was flawless and prepared for just about anything! Long hours of wearing masks and personal protective equipment, to the point that skin breakdown develops behind their ears.

No department is excluded

It has not escaped any department. Even in my world as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, there have been “rule-out” and positive cases and we have been exposed. It is scary.

And I have not even come close to experiencing what so many other nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, and healthcare techs have endured. The healthcare workers in the emergency departments and ICUs who are truly on the front line – especially in our cities that have been so affected.

Pure exhaustion and devastation

Healthcare workers moved to tears out of fear, exhaustion, and pure sadness. Seeing more devastation and death in one day than they have witnessed the whole previous year. Supporting their patients in the dying process because otherwise they would have been completely alone.

Unable to process each devastating moment because there are too many more waiting on them.

Many in healthcare who have chosen not to go home and see their family and children at the risk of exposing them. Unable to get a much needed hug from their spouse or children after a grueling day at the hospital. Yet, sadly, you may hear some parents complain about their children being home all day.

So many of my friends, including, but not limited to those pictured below have continued to go to work during the pandemic. We read the daily updates and do our best to keep our patients and ourselves safe!

healthcare heroes nurse first responders hospital coronavirus cover-19 masks nurse practitioner doctor

Give thanks!

So please, take a moment and thank a first responder or healthcare worker today. Although it is our profession and what we are paid to do, the simple “thank you” notes mean so much. The signs outside of the hospitals and the videos of people greeting employees from their cars in the hospital parking lot or from their homes in the city is so beautiful and moving.

After all of this passes, and it will, show those that have been on the front lines some grace. Support them emotionally and check on them frequently. They will need you.

Remembering the patients affected by Coronavirus

We must also remember and honor the patients who have acquired this horrific virus and those that have lost their battle with it. We read and hear heartbreaking stories everyday. The images we have seen on the news or in social media cannot be erased from our memory – even if we try.

Loved ones unable to tell their family member good-bye before their last breath.

So many healthcare workers and first responders losing their life by simply going to work and doing their job.

Give back to the heroes

Consider giving back to honor the heroes.

It can be as simple as a prayer thanking them each night. Help your children write a thank you card to units actively treating COVID-19 patients. Send a catered dinner to a hospital unit or police station. Or simply support one of the many fundraisers to help supply more personal protective equipment for those on the front lines.

Beautycounter is donating a Charcoal Cleansing Bar to healthcare workers through April for every order that is placed. I am personally donating my commission from my event, This One is For the HEROES. I will be supporting a company that is proving masks to Chicago area hospitals and will provide units on the frontline with food.

What can you and your family do to show support? It does not need to be a monetary donation, sometimes the most simple gestures are the most touching.

Stay safe and be well!

Magnet blocks are wonderful for imagination, as well as science and engineering skills.

Kindergarten Toys and Activities

We are in the midst of something that has caught us all off guard and has left us feeling uncertain of not only today, but also the future ahead of us. We are trying to stay afloat in all of the uncertainty, yet we are home schooling, cooking, washing our hands, cleaning, washing, trying to be creative, refereeing, crafting, playing, washing our hands again! To help, I put together some toys and activities that my son absolutely loves!

All of the roles we have taken on

William even fired his Spanish teacher last week (🙋🏻‍♀️Yep! It was me) 🤦🏻‍♀️
But luckily, there are a few toys, some old and some new that have not only kept him entertained, but are also great for imagination, creativity, hand-eye coordination, responsibility, as well as science, math, and engineering skills! They have also kept me sane by giving him something that he enjoys working on individually or that we can do together.

As I’ve said before, us Mamas need too stick together and share our struggles, but also our wins or what is working well. So, I thought I would share what William has been busy with this week in case you need some affordable ideas for your preschool-kindergarten aged child to keep busy during this time of social-distancing.

Magblocks

Magblocks! William has magnet blocks at his school, so I bought him a set a few months ago and he has spent hours playing, building, and imagining with them. They are amazing and worth every penny! You will not regret purchasing a set for your home!
https://amzn.to/2Uy5hSR

Magnet blocks are wonderful for imagination, as well as science and engineering skills.

Learning Resources City Engineering

Learning Resources City Engineering – I bought this set last week and it is already a hit! There are several different options to build including bridges, skyscrapers, and cranes (William’s favorite so far – as he refuses to take it down and build anything else at the moment). He uses his imagination and incorporates other toys in with it. Again, well worth the money! Only $25
https://amzn.to/2UPmXsi

William loves the Learning Resources City Engineering set that is great for imagination, hand-eye coordination, science, math, and engineering skills.

Behavioral Chart

Behavioral Chart – William is becoming more and more independent each day. He loves to do things on his own and loves even more when we praise him for it! The stubbornness that comes with it can be rough at times, but what can I say, he gets it honest and it has served him well thus far! ☺️ I found this responsibility chart and he has taken a lot of pride in it and is currently working towards a big goal! The one I purchased is not currently available on Amazon, but this one is similar!
https://amzn.to/2QYERYc

responsibility, chore, behavioral chart magnetic, excited, proud

Wooden Train Set

The Wooden Train Set – We have had parts of the train set for years and William still loves to build new tracks and play with it. I have to admit that I also get a bit wrapped up in building an amazing track full of bridges, different levels and switch tracks. Again, there are several different versions, but I would start basic with a set like this then add to it as you can!
https://amzn.to/2X0lKRl

William playing with his favorite wooden train set that fits Thomas, Brio, Chuggington, Melissa and Doug, and Imanginarium sets

For more ideas of indoor activities for you children, get My List of 20 Indoor Activities to Keep Your Children Busy HERE! It is full of free, creative, indoor activities for your children until our warm weather arrives! Please comment below and share 1 or 2 of your child’s favorite activities or toys!

I hope you are all holding up, staying well, but most importantly, staying HOME and INSIDE! Continue to support one another with kindness, especially those you are at home with and wash your hands!
😘