Sunday Scratches is where I share the little stuff that has happened throughout the week. In hockey, “scratches” are people who are on the roster but do not play in the game. On the blog, “scratches” are the things that have happened to me throughout the week that aren’t necessarily big enough to be an entire post.
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Happy Sunday! Here are the scratches for the week.
It was another long week. I’ve had a hard time creating content for my blog over the past few weeks, but I’m sticking with Sunday Scratches at the very least (even if I don’t get to sit down and write it until 6 pm on Sunday…) because I really enjoy going back and reading them, and I know I’ll want a record of this crazy time. So even if no one reads these, I’m going to keep writing them! 😂
Monday was the last day that our offices were open to the public. As of right now, they’re officially closed up through April 3, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’re closed longer than that. This, of course, hardly impacts me, because I’ve been working from home since June of 2018, but it’s still a big deal!
I had a meeting on Monday with our program team, because a lot of their work got canceled (all of our program events have been canceled until at least April 3) and they wanted to host virtual programs for our members on Facebook Live. I was so excited about it, because it’s been a topic that’s floated around for a few years but we never made it a priority, and this was the perfect opportunity to do it.
We came up with a schedule (10 am and 2 pm every weekday) and assigned different dates and times to the different Girl Scout grade levels. I made a quick post about the schedule on Monday afternoon, and it took off! We started on Tuesday, and by Wednesday’s session, we had troops from all over the country (including Puerto Rico!) tuning it. It was so exciting to see.
It’s clear staff members at all the Girl Scout councils are kind of running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to figure out what to do now. Many of us had to cancel the Girl Scout Cookie Program or cut it short, program events and troop meetings have been canceled… it’s madness. I feel very fortunate to be at a council with a kickass program team who had an idea and ran with it. Since it’s been going so well, I’ve tried to tell other councils to not try to recreate it—we’ve got virtual badge workshops handled, so other councils can focus on other things that we could then utilize and promote to our members.
Tuesday was my brother’s birthday (he thankfully doesn’t care too much about birthday celebrations) so we did a group FaceTime to celebrate. It was a bit of a mess, but in the best way. I love how connected this pandemic is enabling us to become!
Wednesday was another big day—my new team member started! What a crazy week to start a new job. She’s our PR & Community Network Manager, so she’ll focus on small-scale external marketing and digital word of mouth, and I’ll start transitioning to internal member communications. Which, thanks to our virtual programs… I’m basically already doing. No transition allowed.
The other big project for the week is called Business Bosses Supporting Cookie Bosses. Because we had to cancel the last weekend of the Cookie Program, a lot of troops are stuck with unsold boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, so we worked with a troop leader and restaurant manager in Cincinnati to challenge businesses across western Ohio to buy cases of Girl Scout Cookies from troops and sell them on their behalf with takeout / delivery orders or use them as client thank-you gifts and incentives. Fingers crossed it takes off!
On Friday, the program team and I had a virtual happy hour, which was so fun. It was really great to get to know some of my coworkers on a more personal level. We’re planning to do them weekly until our offices reopen!
That’s another thing I’ve noticed about everyone working from home—it’s way more personal whenever I talk with my coworkers. Before, I would be in my house, but everyone else would be in the office. Now everyone is at home, so we’re getting a much more intimate view of everyone’s lives. And I’m no longer the only one whose cat walks in front of the camera during meetings!
I unfortunately had to leave the house yesterday to get some groceries and a few things at the hardware store. It was so weird going to the grocery store. It was almost like everyone behaved how people should behave normally—if someone was in your way, they moved to let you by. No one stood too close to anyone else. It was magical.
It wasn’t terribly crowded, so at first it didn’t feel like we were in the middle of a pandemic—until I got to the household items aisle, which was almost entirely empty. (Luckily we have Costco sized everything so we’re good.) Then I went to grab a gallon of milk and some bread, and both had item limits. One gallon of milk per customer, and two loaves of bread per customer. Of course, only the super bougie bread was left, so I guess we’re eating super whole wheat organic bread with omega 3 now.
Ace Hardware is taking the pandemic seriously. Or at least the one by me is. There were stanchions set up to keep customers from getting too close to the counter, and the cashier used hand sanitizer and wore a new pair of rubber gloves when helping me check out. It was crazy, but in a really positive way.
Last night we did a virtual Power Hour with our friends from college, which was a blast. We all live in different areas (some in west Michigan, some in the Detroit area, some in Chicago, some in Nashville…) so we rarely get to hang out as a big group, but now we’re making it a weekly thing! It made me so happy.
Today, Sean undertook the big project of removing the tile from our entryway. We knew there was hardwood underneath it, so he started ripping it all out. And then I jumped in to help because it’s exhausting and creates a lot of waste that needs to be continuously cleaned up. I didn’t get quite as much tidying / household stuff doing today as I wanted, but holy cow we’re so happy to have hardwood floors in the entryway. Now we just need to find someone to refinish them!
Follow along on Goodreads or Instagram at @caitlinhonard to hear about these things during the week! xo
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