Homeschooling, Marco Polo, and Living with a Coworker: Kyla Woods COVID Diaries
I’m Kyla Woods and I live in Walnut Hills. I am quarantined with my beautiful family – husband Allen Woods, who also currently happens to be my boss (yes you can do both but probably only for so long in quarantine….lol. But we are both so thankful to have JOBS!) and our 13 year old daughter, Ava.
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day looks like waking up around 7:30 or 8, moving my body for about 15-20 mins, and starting work around 8:30. This might feel “late” to some people but one thing I’ve truly enjoyed during this time of quarantine is actually catching up on rest and giving myself grace to do so.
As someone who used to wake up at 3:30am for work (when I was the Morning Traffic Anchor at WLWT) – it feels reeeeaaallly nice to sleep in.
AND if you think about it, what other time in our lives will we be able to allow ourselves to ease into the mornings? I really enjoy it.
Once I’m up, I am pretty much working nonstop until around 5:30 or 6pm, which is another reason I allow myself to get that good rest. Work for me is managing Communications and PR for MORTAR, and also running my own communications consultancy, Crowd or Camera. On Saturdays, I host a weekly show for the Business Courier on Local 12 called First Financial Biz Beat.
I am also an active member of Impact 100 and am very involved in our DEI efforts, which I truly enjoy.
In addition to that, I’m doing my best as a mom and support system for Ava in her schoolwork while we’re home but let me tell you – it is NOT my ministry.
It’s a daily reminder that teachers do not get paid or appreciated enough.
How are you feeling right now?What’s been the biggest challenge? Where are you finding joy?
Overall, I feel incredibly blessed. Yes this is a crazy time to be alive but we are ALIVE. Yes there are so many bad things going on but I would argue that there is more good in the world and we just have to find it and focus on it. I tend to be an optimist, and operating in the midst of a pandemic has certainly presented challenges, but I rely on my faith to bring me back to a joy that is ever present.
I feel tremendously grateful to be healthy, to have a wonderful family that I get to love on even more these days (although I do miss hugging my parents), and to have everything I need and most of what I want.
The biggest challenge for me has been seeing and knowing how hard this has been on some members of our community and how difficult it will be to bounce back.
How are you staying healthy? Mentally and physically?
I am doing my best. There have been some tough days mentally, to be honest. Not too many, but enough. Just feeling the weight of it all – and as an empath, there have been some heartbreaking stories that have really just been hard to understand.
Physically, I was working out regularly but the way these knees are set up…….let’s just say they don’t bounce back like they used to. So now I’m doing more low impact activities. And lots of walks when the weather is nice. I appreciate the workouts Quidwell provided for us as well – they were amazing!
Any funny moments of quarantine?
One funny moment is that I’m somewhat convinced my retired dad doesn’t think I’m actually working during the day. He often calls back to back for no other reason than to ask me how to turn the mic on for his Zoom call or to see if I got his email (he seriously called me 3 times the other day to ask about an email).
But again, I’m so grateful he’s healthy, I can talk to him and my mom, and we can use Marco Polo to send each other video updates. I’ll take his repeat calls any day. 🙂
