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| Four Seasons Hemet Herald | May 2020 | 7 lessons learned Surviving Covid-19: Day 30 of the lockdown for Mike and me. I have managed to clean out more closets and drawers than I remember having and now have lost interest! I did run across several old photos. It's hard to believe that we were ever that young and thin. I did run across a picture of my dad's 8th grade graduation class from the very same school that I attended in kindergarten. That started Mike and I on our adventures with Ancestry. In between games of Scrabble (where Mike makes up words), we are having fun looking for his horse- thieving Irish relatives. His grandfather was another Michael Mclaughlin, and his grandmother was an O'Toole. I have been entertaining myself: reading a lot, watching movies, face-timing grandkids and trying to get excited about exercising. Having a "zoom" happy hour with friends keeps me going and looking forward to seeing everyone in person! Mike has been doing some walking with his walker outside down to the mailbox. Good to get him out. The "Stay at Home" has not affected him. He says that since he's been on lockdown for the past year recovering from his cancer. We're hoping to plan some more trips toward the end of the year. We sure miss those adventures, but we have lots of memories tucked away with those old photos that I found. Mike added, "And amazingly, Donna still loves me." Thank goodness for fur babies! We are all familiar with the phrase "less is more." Having essentials is better than having too much. Really? Is that even American? In 2020 we are definitely learning to live with less… less group activities, less meals out, less toilet paper. YIKES! Where is the "more" in this? As my husband and I curtailed our outside individual activities, other stuff started happening. Stuff like singing silly songs together, dancing around the living room, laughing at the grandkids Facebook posts. More fun together. Hmmmm. As we left home less we learned more stuff. Stuff like how to graciously receive help from our kids as they brought us our groceries, meds and more love than we ever imagined. We spent less time "doing" life together and more time "enjoying" life together. More time walking together. More time laughing together. More time praying together. Guess what? "Less really is more." Who knew? ~ Andra Sopp I was able to see and talk to 10 of my family members at one time. We had so much fun like we use to before this awful virus took over our world. We even played games. We played bingo and scavenger hunt. I hope all of my Four Seasons friends and neighbors will be able to have connection with their families also! ~ Marjean Powers Aside from some deep spring cleaning it has been a joy to not think about all the things my to-do list always had on it. Even fun games and activities become commitments and time sensitive. I haven't worn a watch for over a month and am always surprised when the whole morning has zoomed by. I've watched more NCIS reruns than I ever wanted to, but just appreciating a husband to sit next to has been wonderful. ~ Kay Mitchell I went to Japan in January - got out just in time. I've wanted to go there for years. I appreciate the trip even more realizing how lucky I am. Something I haven't done in many years; I gave blood two weeks ago. My two dogs are very happy with us home so much. I've checked the Internet for the many ways to make face masks. Since I am a quilter, I have lots of fabric. I'm starting to make some today. ~ Peace, Linda