I want to see that movie by the way. Lovely outside and have to enjoy it! Tonight we get some sort of snow, rain, something. Next week isn’t going to be good weather-wise either. Sweet. So, gotta live it up today. Yesterday was a busy day. John Michael and I worked on tracing letters in sugar, played the memory game, painted pictures, dyed Easter Eggs, made salt dough foot impressions, made bunny paintings, took a walk, and just stayed busy!

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Aunt Jody gave us the ideas for the bunny paintings and salt dough! Thanks Aunt Jody! (Will post the salt dough creation when that is done!)

This morning we enjoyed the beautiful weather and I also made some open faced breakfast sandwiches.

Joe’s birthday is tomorrow and of course Easter,  so we worked on some preparations for both today. Made some birthday cookies and got some Easter photos done.

We also FaceTimed with Nana Lynn and Papa D while they smoked their pork shoulder! We are soon to FaceTime with Grandma Lu and Grandpa Mike. Maybe some games with Aunt Christie and Uncle John later.

Tomorrow we will see if the Easter Bunny comes to our house, watch some church online, have mimosas and cinnamon rolls, and then later stroganoff for Joe’s birthday/Easter dinner. And presents for Joe!

In random news, clearly this is needed to measure the temperature of the bed…

Have a good evening friends!

 

 

“Act the way you want to feel.” – Gretchen Rubin

You got it Gretchen. Definitely had to do that today. The weather is back to gloomy and cold. Tired. But, I got up and did the routine on this Good Friday. And well, she’s right. It flipped my mood around. After I exercised I felt stronger and after I got ready, I felt happier. Did some thinking and journaling with my cup of coffee before John Michael popped his little head up. Then came online to a really nice little article the Eagle Herald posted. 🙂

Eagle Herald Article

In other news, the basil is starting to sprout Lynn Fay! The other ones will take longer. John Michael is over the moon about the little plants. He looks at them everyday.

Yesterday was pretty good. But the weather was weird. Welcome to the midwest. It went from the sun shining, to wind blowing, to snowing, to sleeting, back to sun shining. Just wait 15 minutes if you don’t like the weather. Definitely cold and brisk throughout though.

Look at this cuteness. Delivering waters I guess.

While driving yesterday, JM and I drove over the Fox River on the WI-172 bridge. He said, “but mom! This isn’t the big green bridge! That one is my favorite!” Me too buddy.

Today we are going to dye Easter eggs and work on writing letters in sugar. We might do some reading, painting, and building. More of the usual. Tomorrow we make Easter/Dad’s Birthday cookies! Will try to do some work videos and work on a photography project for mom’s book. JM is trying to be very good and he wants the Easter Bunny to come. Have a Good Friday!

Been running this kid (and dog) around for days. Does he (the kid) ever run out of energy? The answer is no. 🙂 Whew it is brisk today! Steve Beylon said there is a disturbance. No thank you. Snow showers??? “Candy coating” of snow he says possible. That’s heavy! (Told ya I was gonna put that back into my daily speech!) Best movie of all time. You’re welcome.

Blustery on our morning walk. Pilates this morning. Burgers tonight for dinner. A bit of work in between. Gotta drop off an instrument on the curb at the music store (not going in, don’t worry.) Will devise a way to dye John’s Easter eggs tomorrow or Saturday. Not too shabby of a day thus far. Keeping it real.

It’s Thursday. Let’s go!

Today I am happy. It was a really good day. Marinette I missed your face! I got to drive my car up to school just to get supplies to teach online and drop things off. This granted a slight reprieve from my new little work-family mesh of late. I did have a pang of missing my students!

I actually always loved my morning and afternoon commute (provided no bad weather or late event evenings). It has always been my chance to think and recharge. I’ve been missing it a lot lately. Today was extra special to get to go, so I had a smile on my face as Remi and I jumped in the car (John couldn’t go because I had to be alone while getting things from the building).  The drive up was foggy. On my way back I loved the feeling of the sun coming through the windows. I got to listen to my podcasts. I got to be alone!

John Michael has this funny thing he says a lot that goes something like, “I can’t just stay in my room forever!” It feels like that sometimes doesn’t it? We will all come out on the other side of this forever changed, that is certain. I loved my podcasts today. Two thoughts stand out to me.

One is, In sixth months, assuming I lived my absolute best life, the best version of me, what would that “me” want to say to the person that is here now? I would say: “Be grateful. You get to be with your son and husband and slow down. You get to have slow dinners. You can savor things. You can get in shape. You can focus on the goals you always said you didn’t have time to do. But remember, be present. Be a joy to be around. Make John Michael remember this time he had with his parents with fondness. He will remember this even if right now he doesn’t understand all of it.” In a decade, we will all look back on this and while lots of it has negative sides, I want to remember those good moments. Did I slow down and play with him? Did we read stories and build things and imagine? When he asked me to do something did I say yes as much as I could? Did we have races in the backyard and dance in the living room? Did I allow him to ask all his curious questions and not get exasperated? Did I have grace for myself- cuz not everything needs to be perfect. Was I loving to my husband and supportive of him? Did we enjoy our long dinners and slow sips of wine, funny shows and movies? Did I reach out to my family and friends and try to help them through this? Did I do all I can with all I have? These are just some questions I am trying to ask myself.

If I could go back in time even 2 months I would have told myself to be more present with moments that are forever going to be different from this point on. But there is no use being in the past, nor having anxiety on the future. I can only control what is happening right now. Haha (Random) my son just ran in here and told me my keyboard felt “cozy.” (I have this little Marinette purple thing that fits over the keys that does look/feel sort of cozy!)

The second thing that has been making me ponder is being careful of what parts of normal you used to have you keep in the new normal on the other side of the quarantine. Yep. Will be thinking on that one.

Forgive my thoughts and bad writing- they are all jumbled. Kinda thinking as I type. I just want to do the best with the time I have right now. My family is important and that’s a big priority. I want to take charge of my physical and mental health. (Can’t help anyone else if my oxygen mask isn’t on first!) and I want to do as good of a job as I can for work. I am lucky and I am grateful. So I’m trying to use this time as best I can to honor all those who are really doing hard and scary work or have made huge sacrifices. I have this time. It’s going to happen either way. This situation is going to happen either way. I can either make the best of it, or I can not. So I’m trying to choose joy not to be selfish, but just to do what I can to honor this. To bring some sort of meaning to this.

However, I do really think that people process things differently. I just know myself and so I have to be busy. Take photos. Exercise. Dance around. Be goofy. Laugh. Schedule things. Make things pretty. Clean. Organize. Schedule my cool virtual meetings. Make funny memes for my students. Try to look for meaning and positivity. I do that because that is my coping strategy. I’m sure everyone’s path is going to look different. I say and explain all this because I know there’s surely someone out there who is annoyed at me.  But this is how I do!

Things I’m grateful for today? The sun on my face. Driving in my jeep. Remi’s happy wiggle. My podcasts. Sweet music. John’s questions. Racing with John in the backyard and his funny dancing. Joe’s laughs. Joe cleaning up the kitchen. A fun clarinet lesson I gave to a student virtually. A good exercise session. A nice walk with John and Remi. John’s joy as he saw some plants starting to sprout in the herb garden. His excitement over seeing the musical instruments I brought home which prompted him to remember a music show he recently watched on rhythm. “Short, short, long” So many things!

Also I made some pretty good salmon last night!

Tomorrow? I hope to have my joy list made. 🙂 Gas is $1.08!

 

 

Right? 4 years old is supposed to be better than 3 and yet, I haven’t seen the data in our household to support that theory. Deep breath. Going to do some intentional activities today with him although it looks a bit cloudy. I have some deadlines for work ahead and I also have to stay focused on this. Joe’s job has him in meetings a lot, so it’s not too flexible as of yet and he can help with JM but not until the evening. So long days. John didn’t do what he was supposed to do yesterday so he lost some privileges. Cue the whining and crying because I held him to it. Exhausting, but I did not give in! I also wasn’t too happy they kept the polls open today. Seems stupid… I voted absentee.

We have it good. We are healthy, we have jobs (not on the front line like some do! Thank you to all that do!!!), we have shelter, we have food. That is all we need. Many many people don’t have that. Will channel up the positive and laugh lots today. Gotta keep it together!

One thing I am proud of in the chaos of yesterday is that around 3pm while juggling work and John’s attitude, I got really stressed and was on the point of a breakdown. But I flipped a switch and started cleaning the living room when John Michael was driving me crazy. That lead to us cleaning up the kitchen and then playing with tiles, and then the train kinda came back on the rails by the time I had to start making dinner. So that’s a win. I think everyone is under a lot of stress and it would have been perfectly understandable for me to just freak out for a second and sit down on the couch. Normally I would have. So that was my small win that is going to help me get through today. Must have been my podcasts!

In other news, last night’s dinner was amazing! Mom got us a Butcher Box a bit ago (thanks Mom!) and there are some good meats in there. Last night I made spicy pork chops, sweet potatoes, and green beans. I will be making that again. Tasty. Tonight is Salmon!

Also in looking for the positive…Day 17 of moving the body daily. Well on my way to a consistent morning routine!

Alrighty. Time to see what the world is up to. OH!!! Here is something amazing! Romeo High School Robotics has been helping with the cause and they even got a mention on John Krasinski’s show! I’m proud of their good deed. Not gonna lie, hearing John Krasinski say “Romeo High School” was not too bad either. And Hamilton? WHAT. This was amazing. Check that out…

 

Now… let’s hope for a good Tuesday! Time to go to work. Here we go kids…

 

(Note: We didn’t get out of the car, just dropped off some checks at the bank!)

My Monday reminder is to reach for joy. Not going to lie, there have been some hard moments here. I’m reminding myself to stay present as much as I can and embrace the time with my son. Hopefully today is better. In other news, I am “that annoying person” who just has to set up virtual nerdy get togethers. 😉 I’m so glad I am that person. Not gonna apologize for that because I think it’s been wonderful to keep us connected and keep us sane. Lots of hangouts with family and friends.

Virtual hangouts aren’t really a new thing for my parents and us because we did usually FaceTime pretty often before all of this. (They live in Michigan, us in Wisconsin). We are still trying to do it more with them too. Yesterday JM told his Nana Lynn that “she was a sweet one.” Awwww. And they did the usual. Watched him sink baskets and run all around. 🙂 I bet it was pretty exciting.

Last night I decided to set one up so that my brother John and his girlfriend Christie could join us for a game of Heads Up. That game is usually one of our go-to’s when we have family gatherings. I’m glad for this because we probably wouldn’t have had this hangout if it hadn’t been for the present situation. And it prompted us to keep on doing it more often virus or not. It was lots of fun. Apparently Wyoming is “that state that has nothing going on.” (According to Joe ahah)

Nothing beats being in person and that very real connection. But thank goodness for technology in our lives. It definitely makes life a little more enjoyable. Hope you all have a wonderful week. The sun is out!

Friday was interesting. Started off pretty good but then it was a very busy and stressful day. John Michael was trying. We did have some good moments amidst all the chaos.

Our district released the video for positive vibes. Love it!!!

Marinette Is All in This Together!– Click here!

The cameraman blasted through all my film but he sure is cute and look at his creations. 🙂

And he built some buildings and painted some paintings.

We are stellar parents (nope) and our child listens to us (nope).

We talked with our buddies virtually again. Lots of laughs. At one point the screen froze and this is funny to me. haha. Why did it do this… so great.

I also forgot to brag on my husband, Joe from Monday! Our kitchen drawers like to break a lot (the tracks just don’t hold up). In these quarantine times, he resourcefully fixed the drawers without going to get new parts. Way to be J!

So Saturday? Well it’s been a relaxing little morning. Did a little walk while I listened to a podcast I missed in the craziness of yesterday. Enjoying some coffee. Might do some things today. Like maybe clean closets or something. Definitely gonna put a little garden together my mom sent me. 🙂 Gotta do something with my face. Yikes.

In random thoughts- why these shirts??? Just why? Pretty sure lots of things make a life worth people’s time. haha.

I’m really proud of the way the house is coming together. I think that candle right up front brings the room together perfectly! John Michael really knows how to spruce up a space.

Alright. Better get going. Hope you all have a good day!

As I continue to look for the good in our new life, Remi has to be at the top of my list. She thinks this is greatest thing ever. All her people home all day long. Long walks and playing fetch. She is content and happy.

This morning she lays beside my desk and it makes me feel good too. Although, she did also make me make the bed around her today. She must be tired from all her extra exercise. 🙂

 

She’s pretty happy. She and John ran around in the warm sunshine yesterday which was lots of fun.

 

We had a good day yesterday.  Got a lot done work-wise and home-wise. Here’s a few photos of our good day. 🙂

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Looking forward to a nice day today. Got up at 6am. The alarm across the room, while brutal, worked pretty well. I got up at my target time and did the workout. Got some things posted for the kids and will soon be off to a meeting. Going to be busy at work today.

Pretty morning sun and coffee. Great start to the day!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Afternoon!

It is beautiful outside. I love the warmth and the sunshine. We have already been out one time but will go out again this afternoon. So lovely. Enjoy that!

So darn. I overslept today. Kinda mad that happened but got after the normal routine at 7ish. Ah well. Will put the alarm across the room tonight. Really want to get up at 6am so I can have time to myself. Try, try again. But got the exercises done, and took a walk with John and Remi while Joe had a morning meeting. Then came back and had some meetings with students and worked for a bit. John made a beautiful painting for Nana Lynn!

 

So Joe started a new assignment at work- helping out HR. So he was busy with meetings all morning. But check out his new chair I “built” for him. Pretty slick. 

 

Alrighty. Back to some jobs of work here. Get out and enjoy that sunshine! Feels so good! Reminds me of a song… 😉

 

 

I’ve followed the Hollis crew for quite awhile and done a few challenges in the past.

While there are those out there going through unimaginable life changes and we are incredibly lucky, these two offer me a way to shift perspective and be grateful for the blessings of what I have and also what this situation can teach me. Everyone is going through change and loss.

I’m doing the #next90challenge to keep myself centered during this constantly changing time. Check it out- it’s totally free!

https://thehollisco.com/pages/next90- Click here!

 

It goes without saying that I worry the most about people in my life contracting this disease. I cannot control that other than that we’ve already done all we can to prevent it and we will continue our practice. We just have to hope that they stay healthy at this point.

Other than that, I would say I have two things I am viewing negatively that I can change my perspective on.

The first being that it’s uncomfortable to be so uncertain about what is happening in the education world for me and my students. But to turn that around, I can look at what is GOOD about this for both me and my students. Can we use this as a teachable moment? Of course we can. Can we show and teach our students about vulnerability, resilience, and self-discipline to name a few? Yes.

The second being that this new normal has me juggling my son’s schedule, my husband’s schedule and my own together. And we are together at ALL. TIMES. Which has its very very frustrating moments. To turn that around, I am blessed to have this time to connect with them. Have more family table dinners. Cook more and talk more with Joe. Watch my son learn and to be an active participant with him as he learns. To watch his joy and his laugh when I would otherwise miss it. So many things.

Perspective. There are those out there right now who have it a whole lot worse than me- they might be sick. Someone in their family might be sick. They might have lost jobs. Not sure of how to pay rent or other expenses. Maybe they are an essential worker and have no choice but to power us through this time.

At the end of the day, someone always has it worse than me. How can I make the best of my very fortunate circumstance? How can I honor those who have it worse? Honor their sacrifices? I want to look for the positive. I want to reach out and help out others as much as I can.

I am looking at our new situation through the lens of how I can come out on the other side better for going through this hard time. I am just like everyone else- going through change and loss. Mine isn’t as great as say someone going through the virus or being affected in some direct way. But… I have the choice to do something with this new time. It is a blessing to have time with my family. To connect more. And it is a blessing to think of new creative ways to reach my students.

I can’t control this. But I can control my response.