It is a time of being mostly at home. The empty nest is full again, to my delight, though it has been an adjustment for all involved. I do feel fortunate to have my whole immediate family under one roof. I know I would be worrying about our daughters more if they were not here.
We are four, two parents and two adult daughters. Our youngest daughter is a teacher, just finishing her sixth year of teaching middle school choir. She taught for five years in the Houston area before deciding to move back to Round Rock and try to work somewhere in the Austin area. She has taught at an area school now for a year and likes it very much. She is single and a teacher, and had to replace her car recently so, for financial reasons, is living with us for the time being. She and my husband have turned a shed in our backyard into an insulated, drywalled, air-conditioned studio for her to work in which she has enjoyed immensely. This separate space for her has been especially helpful with having to switch to online teaching, meeting with faculty, communicating with students, creating videos, etc. this last part of the school year, as all teachers have had to do. How choral education will be done next year is uncertain, because of the ease of transition of viruses when singing in close proximity, but she has to plan for next year anyway, in different ways, since much is still unknown.
My husband works entirely from home, having his own office area in our "study". His work is a little uncertain right now, but promising, and he has always been very good about saving money and making investments, so we are ok for the time being. This means that I have been able to do a lot of volunteer work in the community, and be available to care for our older daughter. "R" as I will call her, usually lives in a group home for IDD adults. (IDD stands for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.) It's a pretty good situation for her, though there have been some errors in medication dispensing on the part of house staff. Because of those errors in the past, and the fact that she wanted to be with us if she was going to have to be confined indefinitely, we brought her to our house.
The provider company that manages the group home is gladly holding her room for her, in spite of the two week limit to being away, because they do not foresee being ready to take any new clients in right now. They promised to let us know if that changes.
My husband and I have been R's legal guardians since shortly after she turned eighteen. That was almost twenty years ago. During this pandemic, we are also her full time caregivers. Since his job is being the family income earner, most of the caregiver responsibility is mine. However, he helps a lot when he can, and so does our other daughter.
I and R both have underlying health conditions that make us especially vulnerable, so I have made the decision to table all work outside the home for myself until a vaccine is available and then for at least two weeks after we have all received said vaccine. At that point I will feel safer about letting R go back to her group home, and I will consider going back to my volunteering. I am only guessing that that could be a year or so from now.
We probably all need outlets, those of us in stressful situations like the present. Taking care of ourselves has to be part of our coping, so that we are healthy and we can better take care of each other. I have always found writing helpful for mental health and to aid in problem solving. And now, I do not have much problem fitting it in to my day.
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