It's been a while...

Hello strangers.

Our pooch Tola LOVES playing in the leaves, almost as much as the kids!

It’s been a while since we’ve been in this space together.

I’ve had another baby, now a toddler, and we are in the holiday season in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s been such a hectic, yet stationary, time. School years have been interrupted, vacations postponed and everything in general has been in upheaval.

My hope for all of you is that you’ve given yourselves the grace I’ve given myself over this time. I’ve described it to you before as the asterisk after my name. (Thanks, Dad, for that gem, and so many more.) The asterisk means that your only “have to” is to yourself. Everyone’s quarantine looks different and, for hopefully the only time in our lifetimes, we get extra time with our close family, extra time in our homes, extra time to figure out what’s important. But it also means less time making new friends, less time exploring new places, and for some of us, less time alone... We’ve learned what the necessities are (Hello, toilet paper!) and what we can do without (I’m looking at you, kids birthday parties every weekend).

I can’t say that working from home full-time with two kids has gotten easier as time has gone on, but we have reached a rhythm and have learned what is working for us. For me, it’s been trying to carve out time to create, and finish something. Anything. I’ve often joked with people asking me how I’m handling being home all day with the kids and I’ve likened it to the Greek Myth of Sisyphis, pushing the boulder up a mountain all day just to have to start over. Everyday is an endless stream of meals, snacks, cleaning, wiping, playing, messing, and pretend adventuring, only to begin a new day with the same demands and expectations all over again.

While we haven’t done any major work since I’ve last shared, we have gotten some smaller things complete, which I’m going to start sharing with all of you. Because if this pandemic has shown me anything, sometimes the smallest things make the biggest impact.

Stay positive, test negative, and always wear your mask.