This last month has gone by in a blur. We established really good routines and rhythms to keep us going while we’re all at home together and before I knew it a month had vanished — no blog posts and very few photos, but lots of memories and movies and takeout adventures. I’m still working from home and there has been no mention of when I should return to the office. The girls are ready to be out in the world and we’re still debating whether our annual camping trip will actually take place. It has been such a blessing to be at home together, despite the world around us.
making | We are making so much progress on the girls’ rooms, now that we’re all at home together! I don’t know how we would have ever gotten so much time if we weren’t confined to our homes. They each have a single piece of furniture left to be painted and installed, I ordered crib sheets and a wall hanging for Polly’s bed yesterday, and we still need to finish up the trim paint in the hallway. We installed the sweetest little art studio in Sophie’s closet on Monday — I’ll have to snap pictures and share those with you later this week!
missing | I’m honestly missing very few things that we’ve given up in the last eight weeks. I hope that this experience will change the way we live and move in the world — I don’t want to add all of the excess back to our lives, even when we can. The things I am missing are worshiping collectively at our church campus (we’re having church at home in the photo above), meeting with my small group girls on Monday nights, and going to the gym in the mornings. We’ve made sufficient substitutes, but there is nothing like the real thing in those particular areas of my life.
learning | We are definitely learning to live with less. We’re taking fewer trips, running fewer errands, buying fewer things. Being at home this much is a learning experience for sure, but it’s one that we are enjoying so much.
loving | I am loving all of our plans for summer. We were thinking we would move right into our big kitchen renovation, when we finished upstairs, but we’ve decided to take a quick detour. My mom and I have been working in the planter boxes in my back yard and have come up with a great plan for my favorite part of our property. The kids have been scheming with my dad over an elaborate tree house and I’m trying to channel all the beautiful vibes from the parents’ backyard in Parenthood.
reading | I was struggling to read in the first few weeks of quarantine, but I’ve finally convinced Polly that I can read and watch Frozen at the same time. I pulled out my Jodi Picoult collection for my mom and have been reading through her backlist while I’m not shopping for books. They are still four and five star reads for me — over ten years later — and it’s been so fun to revisit them in a completely different stage of life. I only have a few more here to read, so I’ll be requesting a stack from my local library soon!
