My tale of COVID-19. My day to day video is down below. 

Yes, the invisible villain bit me, my two sons and my dad who is in his 70s and lives with my mother all in a matter of a little over weeks time. I feel like we all became COVID vampires that have been in hiding. haha

I feel like there's this initial shock and freak out period when you first find out. All these months we have heard all these terrible stories, going to great lengths to stay safe and keep isolated as much as we can. Separating ourselves from loved ones, closing down restaurants, schools, churches, stores, dousing ourselves in sanitizer and soap, and living in paranoia hoping all we are doing is enough. Even though we let ourselves escape for a little while to the store, or to eat, to workout, it is not without worry and new rules.

However, here I am. At first I was feeling defeated and in disbelief. How could I get sick!? Well, here is what I want to say. I pride myself on being healthy and making good choices for my family and our health. People will get sick,  people will get injured, need surgery, etc. If we take care of ourselves, build up our immune system it does not keep us invincible (although there are times I think that it would!), but whatever bumps we do face in the road our bodies and minds will be that much stronger in facing them. Being healthy does not mean you won't get sick, but I do believe that it will help how our bodies will recover from it and heal.

My little boy who just turned 8 tested positive as well a few days later than I did. I tested positive on October 29th. He has now joined me in my room. I'm not proud of this, but I told myself when I started this blog I was going to keep it as real as I could. So here's my truth. I feel like I am loosing my own patience being locked up here in my room, and I feel myself being short with my son. I have to keep it together for myself and for him. This is tough and I feel there is zero break in this. Break from the emotional, mental and physical worry about it all. It is times like these I have to dig deeper than ever before and bring out strength so when this is over, I can feel proud on how we came out of it. I don't want to look back and regret how impatient and short I was to my son. It is not fair to take my frustration out on him. We are doing the best we can!!! But I have to admit, at times I feel like my 8 year old and I don't 100 percent understand and I am just as frustrated!

One of my biggest physical releases is working out and this is the longest I have not done physical activity since I had Dominick my third baby. But I remind myself, it is all perspective! So we are doing things to pass the time here in my room. I listed a few below, one being after 42 years I finally broke down and have a temporary tv in my bedroom. I enjoy the fact we only have 2 tv's in our house, one in our family room and one in our basement that we take turns on what everyone is watching. Here in my room, my son and I have been rotating shows on Netflix from Scooby-Do, Ninjago and Cobra Kai. I joked to my husband and told him maybe I'll rename it to COVID Kai, because I guarantee when this is all over and I look back on this time years from now, Cobra Kai will remind me of this time. My daughter and I are obsessed haha we have a habit of watching the same shows we like over and over (number one being Rocky that my husband said I have officially ruined for him by over doing it haha!!!) 

I have been sitting allot by my window trying to get some of my vitamin D from the sun with these unexpected beautiful upper 60 degree days here in Chicago. Feeling the warmth on my skin and thanking God for these beautiful sunny days is completley helping us through this. I did have a mask on in my room when my son first joined me. I put a call into his doctor and was just waiting to hear back from them because I did not know if he could re-infect me.  The answer was no. Once you are infected, you're infected. BUT, I have to hurry up and get better so I can fully take care of him and my other 2 children. I want to hold, play and kiss them, and hang out as a family again really soon. MOMS shouldn't be allowed to get sick!! 

The other day I asked my husband, who is he and what has he done with my husband ha. My husband is my everything. He is an amazing husband and father who works his butt off usually traveling 2-3 days a week which naturally lessens his time with us because he truly wants the very best for all of us. He was able to take some time off of work and has gone above and beyond. To be honest I think the kids are really enjoying their one on one time together with him. He just told me he is going to start putting up the Christmas decorations outside tomorrow that no matter what, Christmas is coming to the Redmond household Family Vacation Style this year hahaha, I don't know if I should be excited or nervous hahah He knows how much I love Christmas and the holidays! I am really proud of all of them for coming together as a team and understanding what we have to do as a family right now. He has been my rock now more than ever! He has left no stone unturned so I can relax a bit and worry about getting myself and my boys well.

I keep looking at some of my favorite books I keep on my desk,  pages of motivation and perseverance that have always  helped me when I need a little push! I have been trying to search for a new book so if you have any recommendations please don't hesitate to leave them in the comments below. I also glance over quite a bit at some of my fight photos above my desk wondering and hoping when our dreams and goals can take suit again and forge ahead. I just want ONE more chance at that IFK kickboxing belt, will I get it???!!!! Does anyone have the answers?

Dreams and goals have been put on hold, but I do take several times a day and thank God it appears we are skating by through this virus. My gratefulness does not just stop with my son and me, my dad also tested positive recently despite our efforts to keep them away. As always my hand will stay in prayer, and have faith over fear!

What about school? What am I suppose to do?  Now I think maybe it would have been better our kids had gone back to school. Again, does anyone have the correct answers? All I know is that we have gone through great lengths to keep us all healthy by keeping them home, and now just a few hours ago my little 3 year old tested positive as well. So now I have gained another little boy in my room who has a headache and nausea. I guess shit happens. Needless to say, we are taking another week off of school, per the teacher's advice, to focus on us getting 100 percent better and back on track.

I have been doing a ton of stretches, perhaps I will be like elastic girl when I can finally leave this room. I feel great honestly, but as disciplined as I am to keep a hard core workout regimen, at this time I am making myself have the discipline to get the proper rest and recovery I need to beat this and come out stronger!!!! My doctor said we should have antibodies built up and should be ok for the next 2-3 months! So I plan on living it up and licking some door knobs without major worry! hahaha! To be honest I am not exactly sure how I will approach this going forward. Not everyone (knock on wood) in my family has had this. So I will proceed with the same caution and concern.

OH man, you see why now I need an outlet more than ever, what I could use is a drink right about now haha. I'll settle for Starbucks (green tea!!!), brewed coffee and endless amount of water. Truthfully, my outlet is God, so I'll keep praying and breathing. Stretch, deep breath, exhale, pray...REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT! Cheers to less worry ahead and continuing to take care of ourselves and keep fighting through this.

Below is a video of my day to day COVID journey. As of right now, Me, my son Dante and my son Dominick are all still quarantined in a room together. My husband and daughter, knock on wood, they stay healthy are taking care of the household downstairs!

I also have this list of things my family and I are doing and have done throughout these past 10-20 days while my son and I have been in quarantine!

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out in the comments below!

"A sad soul can be just as lethal as a germ"-John Steinbeck

"If you know the art of deep breathing, you have the strength wisdom and courage of ten tigers"-Chinese adage

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book"-Irish proverb

•  Threw our toothbrushes away
•  Threw my contact case away
•  Ordered new retainers 
•  Changing our bedding often and bleached all of them and clothing
• Make sure we are getting up and walk around  a bit in my room and stretch. You do not want to just lay there and not circulate 
•  Making sure to eat every couple of hours. NOW is NOT the time to cut calories! Keep your strength up and try to ward off nausea 
•  When I think we drank enough, I am making us drink MORE!
•  If we have to leave the room we double up on our masks and wear gloves
•  My husband never touches anything of ours without gloves, especially laundry which there has been a ton with every towel use or anything, we wash it right away
•  Fresh air, I am so grateful we have had these rare beautiful November days where we can open the windows up wide
•  Wash our hands excessively
•  Keeping up with our vitamins....Emergen-C  Vitamin drink mix with extra Zinc and Vitamin D
•  Still drinking my turmeric/ginger shots
•  Painted my toes, colored my hair, curled my hair, put make up one day
•  Colored, I color in my adult stress relief books which I find very therapeutic
•  Reading some of our favorite books,  Pete the Cat is one of our favorites and my son likes the Dogman books
•  Made friendship bracelets ( I know, I really Am old school!)
•  Christmas shopping
•  Planned a vacation to paradise (in my head haha)
•  Discovered filter selfies haha

-My dad has hearing aids which makes it difficult for him to keep a mask on for extended periods of time. My mom saw this tip and I am sharing it with you with these monkey clips! I will be doing this as well when I go back to working out or have the courage to go back into a store eventually. They help to keep the mask on in a more comfortable way. The monkey clips are actually from a game called Barrel of Monkeys that I linked below, they work perfect!!!! Does anyone have any other ideas????? Drop them below!!!! I would love to hear!!!!