We must, we must, we must increase our bust!

Are you a chosen one? You already know I am. Let me explain. My life of oddities along with the cruel & unusual circumstances I face are no secret to any of you reading this. I tend to always be the one that gets tied up with the weirdos. I could be in a place where 10,000 people were in attendance & that one nut job would pick me out to either harass, ask a strange question, or actually do something to me. I use the number 10,000 because that’s the number of people that seemed like was in attendance at my local Walmart a few days ago. Ava & I were meeting my parents there to pick out some material for a project for one of our Berry Patch remodels. Mama, who is a master seamstress is making a huge curtain for what was once our office that has now been torn down & we need a curtain the size of a wall to cover up the junk left behind from tearing down the office. This is a perfect time for Mama to work on the curtain during quarantine! While we were waiting on Mama & Daddy, I ran into a former coworker of mine from my teenage years. While chatting & catching up, a shopper of “the Walmarts” walked up to us, specifically me. He was holding a bottle of L’Oreal’s finest Garnier Frutis shampoo with a picture of an avocado on the bottle. This man was dressed in what I refer to as pure country attire, had long hair, a very country accent, & there is nothing wrong with any of that! He apologized for interrupting in a kindly manner & asked “is this shampoo for babies?” Or so I thought. I just shook my head yes & thought, “sure, babies can use that”. Ava informed me after the the man walked off actually asked me, “is this shampoo for white people”? Was I being punked? Why didn’t he ask the friend I was talking to or Ava, didn’t I pass this gene down to her? Out of all the people inside the Walmarts, why did this man choose me to ask this to? The store was completely packed with Corona shoppers, surely he could of asked someone else this question. I wasn’t even on the shampoo aisle, I was on the shaving cream aisle. There were other people there, but no, as I say I am the chosen one every. single. time.

Onto more Corona news as if you haven’t had enough! Our business has been doing well despite the bans. We were & are so very concerned about a lack of business which could mean we can’t pay our bills & our employees would suffer as well. So far, people have been buying beans, onions, & taters like they are not going to be coming out for months. This could be a possibility. What we are more worried about is the continuing spread of the virus & possible shut down. We are coming up on prime strawberry picking season soon & wonder if we will have a place to sell them out of or even any customers to sell them to. We are all scared of the uncertainty of this virus. Jack keeps talking about the government, specifically l wanting to know why the government wants to shut down everything & put curfews on us. He obviously doesn’t understand what we are dealing with at all. I’ve gone crazy with Lysol & hand washing like the rest of you, just not toilet paper or paper towel hoarding. I vow not to be like those people on My Strange Addictions & start eating tp as a craving if this gets worse since the only meats for sale at the grocery stores are cow tongue & chicken feet! Some of these tp hoarding nuts might have a lot of paper to eat when this has passed-if it does!

This all seems so weird, like a Sci-Fi movie. I’ve never been too worried about germs-until now. Dravet kids catch everything, Jack has been hospitalized for pneumonia before & when he gets a cold, it wrecks his breathing capability. So I am super worried about this virus. What unchartered territory we are all facing, but the only cool thing about it is, we are all facing & learning from it together. No one has any more answers than the other. There will always be the people that defy what we are being told in order to protect ourselves, those types of people are everywhere in any situation & that is unfortunate-especially in this case. Not only are we worried about the health of the elderly, pregnant women, & those with compromised immune systems, I think most of us are worried about our finances. This whole fiasco could be a wake up call from our Creator. We all need to be humbled & reevaluate our lives. It’s so nice to see kids, teens, & adults back outside again. I’ve seen more people walking in our neighborhood this week than I have in the 10 years we’ve lived at our house. I get so tired of hearing all the stuff on Facebook & tv about the virus, the negativity about our country, the news, it’s all too much, particularly during a national crisis. We need to be encouraging to one another, help each other out, & be understanding as we go through this learning curve. Our lives have changed & will continue to change. Coleman is going to graduate this May, but we won’t be able to see him walk. What an accomplishment for him & us. He will just have celebrated his 20th birthday & he will be a NC State graduate. We are all in awe of him. He is so bummed about missing out on this. Think about the proms, high school graduations, weddings, funerals, American Idol (not on the same scale but that is someone’s dream that will be missing out due to Corona), the athletes that have trained their whole lives for what was the summer Olympics, church, homeschool (I do NOT want to do that), kids missing their friends, elderly being secluded & alone, & the plain old fellowship we are all going to be missing out on. This is going to be especially hard on Ava because school was her out from dealing with Jack. Readjustments will be made, we will carry on, but it doesn’t make the load any lighter.

I’ve been sick with a sinus infection for a while now & won’t go to the doctor because of all of the potential Corona’s floating around. I can’t call my doctor because I don’t have one, I never go (mainly due to me not wanting to know what I weigh). It’s not until you get into situations like this that you wish you could foresee the future. Ava has been wandering around aimlessly. She goes to a small private school that is still uses books (which is awesome btw). They are working on a plan to do things electronically, it’s going to take a minute to figure it out though. Jack has actually been getting more involved in things that don’t apply to electronics, I wondered if he has seen people doing things like this online. I came in from outside & found him doing a puzzle which is so unusual, but so welcomed. Sadly, I finished my taxes earlier this year, I cleaned out about everything I own, vacuumed drawers, washed things that need to be washed a few times each season earlier this year, I did everything I could do before Corona because of my downtime from The Berry Patch. Now my days consist of find funny Corona memes to send to people, sitting in the sun, birdwatching, drinking the water I didn’t have time to drink, & eating. Rest assured, I have gotten plenty of exercise fetching for Jack & walking back & forth to his room for me to look at something. I don’t like being quarantined. I love being busy & having things to do. Lee is having to hold down the fort at the farm as usual. He is taking all the precautions he can in order to come home as healthy as possible, but we just don’t know-I feel we will all come in contact with the virus sooner or later. Coleman is quarantined at his apartment in Raleigh, it’s times like these you want your whole group home even more. Thankfully, Jack has been calm this week, not acting foolish in any way.

I am no stranger to natural disasters, most southerners aren’t. We can’t drive in an inch of snow, school is canceled at the first flake of snow, not too mention hurricane season. When I was a big haired teen donned fully in Rave hair sprayed to max, we went weeks without power or water after hurricanes (several times) out in the boonies of Ellerbe, NC, been through snowstorms where we couldn’t get out for a while, then as a business owner, we survived (just barely) during the aftermath of hurricane Matthew while the beaches were closed due to flooding. Our business is about 90% beach travelers, that was an extremely difficult fall financially for us. We know how to prep-the hubs is a farmer after all & I’m a cook, just not sure if we know how to prep for this long & now with a mentally challenged child who doesn’t understand the complexity & seriousness of Corona. I feel like I am prepping for a perpetual snow/hurricane day each & everyday. I find myself making sure all clothes are washed up everyday, make sure my toothbrush is charged, all dishes washed, but there ain’t no snow or hurricane-it’s a scary virus!

Obviously thus far, Jack & I have survived our Chinese restaurant buffet adventure, but that’s only been 7 days ago. The countdown is on, will we truly know even after 14 days since I have been to the grocery store & The Berry Patch? I wipe & spray down everything like I just wiped a raw chicken thigh all over the house! We survived the one bedbug by not getting an infestation, will we survive Corona as easily? The Berry Patch plans on being open through this crisis, taking all necessary precautions. Remember not only us, but all small businesses as we try to wade through these murky waters. Learn to cook, watch some of my cooking videos on how to cook dry beans that everyone in the world is buying up or some of my other ones. We’ve sold more dry beans in two weeks than we have all summer, fall, & winter put together! If you’re like me, you have several return bags riding around in the backseat of your car to take back to favorite places like Belk & TJ Maxx. I am hopeful for quick reopening of my most liked escapes when this all passes.

Here’s a funny story to close & the reason why I picked this title. I don’t like to always post doom & gloom in my blogs, laughter is a huge part of my life, hopefully, my blogs are well balanced with laughter & sadness. I am BIG into natural health. I don’t take prescriptions unless absolutely necessary, I’ll try to find a home or natural remedy for something in a heartbeat. Many friends already have experienced my holistic remedies. Don’t ever post that you are sick, I will try my dangest to cure you with celery juice or glycerin! I had been reading up on the benefits of pumpkin seed oil to help with urine incontinence. You Mama’s know what I mean. You cough, sneeze, or run, you pee on yourself & I happen to do a lot of the latter two. I’ve always been a well endowed gal, I’m no Dolly Parton, but I’m not far behind! After only a few days of my pumpkin seed regimen, I started experiencing terrible, awful pain in my chest, like in the muscle. It began around my collarbone, even into my arm-I was convinced I was having a heart attack (which wouldn’t be unusual either). I went through the normal-did I pick up anything heavy, sleep on that side wrong, what’s new in my supplement world? Bingo!!! I forgot during my research that pumpkin seed oil can increase the breast tissue. My breasts had already increased one whole cup in just a few days! Once I stopped, I deflated back to my norm. Being a saggy old Dolly Parton runner up is not so bad after all, especially when it was terribly painful. I was glad to be back at home in my C cup. All you girls that want to have implants, try pumpkin seed oil capsules. They will plump you up…quick! It’s too risky to go have plastic surgery now anyway! Increase your bust the natural way! Stay safe my friends!

Author: dravetsyndromeblog

44 year old Mama of three kids, wife of a farmer, & business owner. View all posts by dravetsyndromeblog