Day 67 – Listening to the CEO of my wife’s company gave us a bit of a pause. She figures there will be more weeks of furlough but he was mentioning 50/50 chance of the US falling into a depression by fall and possible layoffs in the next few months. We knew this was coming but to hear it just somehow makes it all worse. We are trying to remain positive and doing everything we can to prepare in case it happens.

I was reading the other night about what they were calling Pandemic Depression. The sustained unknown is creating long term anxiety, sleeplessness, lack of motivation, etc… I completely understand this. It is the second level of moving into the third level of depression. The first level of anxiety motivated people when this all started. People were working, cleaning, cooking, and had the mindset of “We are all in this together!” They would make sure we all got through this. Then as it wears on the bigger questions start to press on us – When will this end? How are my parents, friends, family coping? Job losses? Money worries? Homeschooling and working? The sleepless nights start to creep in and the lack of motivation or to even want to get out of bed in the morning. I have noticed my sleep schedule has completely inverted. I am up until 5:30 -6:00 am most days and fall asleep until 11:00 am or noon. I just cannot get it turned around. I know I am not the only one.

What this leads to is comfort eating. What is better than meatloaf and macaroni salad for a comfort meal?

Verdict: My family loves meatloaf. We don’t make it as often as we would like. I usually make it with just ground beef but when we want “REAL” meatloaf it has to be the mixture of ground beef and ground pork. It is the perfect combination to make a real juicy and tender meatloaf. This recipe is a generic old-fashioned recipe. You can use bread crumbs or like most 60s and 70s recipes use the round butter crackers (2 long sleeves).

I served this with macaroni salad and green beans to complete the meal.