When the World Paused - Bandaids are Okay.

So we've been living in this in-between for over a month. Days are blurring together and thank GOD for Magnolia Preschool and their web classes. It really gets us going in the morning.

I did not make this - but it sure is funny.

 Today, we slept in. All of us slept in... even the dogs weren't interested in getting out of bed until 9am. (Since, by then, the kiddo and both dogs are in my room anyway, it's not really an issue.) And to top it off, I was digitally productive, handing bill paying (Odin's life saving surgery from a year and a half ago is PAID OFF! Yeah!) and dishes, but that was sort of where the productivity ended for the day. Dishes was the one thing I crossed off the to-do list I made the night before. Instead, the kiddo just wanted to lounge, play PBS Kids games, and watch her favorite youtube families. I noticed that this came after an especially tough sadness session missing My Sailor, so I get it.
 It happens.
Sometimes we just need a bandaid to stop the bleeding so we can heal.
Sometimes those bandaids come in the form of games, dance parties, hot chocolate and nature.

 We took a drive to Shineland state park. Yes, it's closed. We didn't go in. We didn't get out of the car. We sat in the car with a cookie and a cup of tea/hot chocolate and rolled down the windows. We listened to the animals and spotted some beautiful birds, and we talked. Well, she talked. I listened. It was a good hour.  Back at home, it was back to games and tv time. She picked her favorite youtube families to watch. I don't mind. They remind her what it's like when all of us are here and life is a little more normal. (And sometimes their antics give me ideas of games to play at home with her too.)

And by midnight, I'm wrapping up my night, and she's crawling into my bed after a bad dream.

I read a lot of things about bandaids. We all have our emotional 'bandaids'.  When things feel overwhelming and we just need to recoup before dealing with it again. In this case, none of the stressors are going away any time soon.

So some days we just need bandaids to stop the bleeding - so tomorrow we can heal a bit and face the days again.

When The World Paused - Lessons in Adaptation

We've been on lock down for about a month. And in all of the strange hecticness that seems to linger in our days, I've found that I have learned a lot of valuable things.

Here are a few of them:
Lesson #1 - It doesn't have to be overly expensive to be special. (Okay, so in all fairness, I already knew this and acted on it for most of my life. But after doing a Disney Cruise for Christmas, it's hard not to 'think big' for occasions. But the truth is - simple is beautiful.

For Easter, I knew I wanted to make something special for breakfast, but I didn't know what. The Impossible Girl is kind of a picky eater, and she doesn't get hungry. She leaps from charming to hair-raising-hangry-monster in nothing flat, so a lengthy prep wasn't going to work. So what did I come up with? Rainbow colored pancakes. Just your basic pancake batter, seperated into a few bowls. A few drops of food coloring in each bowl later, and viola! From picky eater to making rainbow pancake sandwiches! She loved it. They may now be an Easter tradition.

 Her Easter dress (I asked if she wanted to dress up - I wasn't planning to, so she had the option and said yes) is reusing her flower girl dress from my Brother In Law's wedding last year. She didn't care that it wasn't 'new'. She loved it and it had good memories surrounding it.

 I bought a few dinosaur toys at Walmart with our grocery order (we do curbside pick up only these days, so my 'browsing' shopping to see her reaction is limited). I know she has a fabulous imagination and loves to tell stories with little toys, so I went in for a pack for a few dollars. But I didn't go in for eggs. I knew The Lady in Grey had some, so I asked if I could borrow a few. Ask and ye shall recieve! We picked up some cleaned up eggs, and she got to go on a small Easter Egg hunt in the front yard, finding the eggs the dinos (who didn't always fit in them) were 'gaurding'. She had to save the egg and save the dinosaur! They have quickly found a favored spot in the toy rotation.

 Lesson #2 - LEAN INTO THE CURVE WHENEVER YOU CAN!
  I remind my clients (and myself) to act on the motivation as it hits, because, let's face it, 'motivation' is kind of a shitty friend. It makes you REALLY want to do something, for maybe a week, and then it leaves you high and dry and you have to figure out if you ever REALLY wanted to do 'the thing' at all! That doesn't mean ultimate goal isn't for you. It just means you can't always rely on the swing of movitavtion to get you there.
  And something similiar is true here and now.
As a mother, I find that 'leaning into the curve' is necessary for everyone's mental health and sanity. And when the mental game is on, the rest of it kind of falls into place.
  As an example, a mom friend of mine kept encouraging me to get up earlier and embrace the day at 5:30 am and workout then, before the kid is up! Sounds like a great plan for morning people. I am not one of them. I have never been, and since I'm flying solo in the kiddo department, I need every scrap of sleep I can get - and going to bed at 8pm is not an option in this house. The kiddo has night terrors. I don't even entertain going to sleep until she's been asleep for 90 minutes and is unlikely to wake up screaming.
  I also do my best writing, programming, singing, etc at night. Always have. I'm a night owl. I did make time for me and took part of her well intended advice, but instead of pushing against my nature and trying to rebuild my clock, I embraced the fact that I LOVE the night and the quiet, so I do my studying, working out, etc after the kiddo is asleep.

Listening to her grandmother read stories

 Some days, leaning into that curve means more screen time. Some days it means making messy potions and experiments. Some days, it means sitting quietly and watching the world go by.  (Today, it meant spending about 2-3 hours in the back yard playing games of tag, swinging in the hammock, playing hide and seek, and making mud pies. We made a mess. We played and I just let her lead the way. And ya know what? It turned out okay.

Working on a Dinosaur Potion

Observing sparling things in the movement of water

A bit of reading in the sunshine, between games

 Lesson #3 - I really only eat out when I don't feel like cleaning up the kitchen.
It sounds silly, but as a fitness professional (working on a nutrition certification that will help me coach nutrition for clients) it's been interesting to SLOW DOWN and conserve my budget while still supporting my body with options that are more grown on plants than produced in buildings.

20lbs of apples for $15? Yes please! 

 Okay, so I've been more and more aware of how we use food - especially right now. There are lots of jokes about gaining weight during the lock down, and ya know what? If you gain a few pounds while trying to stay sane, that's not the end of the world. You'll be fine. I know my coping=Sugar to the max habit made a come back here and that's okay. I recognized it, decided when it was okay to indulge it, and when it made more sense to swap it out. For example, I don't drink much at all when I'm flying solo parenting - call it an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, but I'm always afraid an emergency will crop up and I won't be equipt to handle it, so I moderate things a bit to serve my parenting instincts. This doesn't make me perfect. It's just my personal choice.

I find that, when I'm ordering food for delivery or pick up, I don't ever really 'crave' what they are selling. I usually am just willing to pay for the luxury of a meal that doesn't include me cleaning it up. (Even though most of my meals are made in 1 skillet. How lazy can you be, right?!) My food choice is usually motivated by how well I know the eatery. Locally owned, created, sourced, and operated eateries are more likely to gain my dollars once a week.

Lesson #4 - If you have the option to adapt, choose it.

This has been another life lesson I've hung on to. 

For me, a bunch of emotions cropped up when I realized I was buying my 4 year old a mask, because it's likely that our new world will require them out in public. We rarely go out these days. We made a mandatory trip to the store for the first time in a month last week. (She was masked. So was I. She was in a carrier on my back with instructions not to touch anything, which she obeyed. We walked in, had a no-contact interaction with a pharmacist, and touched nothing but our bag on our way in and out of the store, keeping as much distance as we could between us and others.) In other countries though, this is a much more normal fact of life. But for us Westerners, it's just not. It feels demoralizing and one more way we are seperating ourselves from each other - now smiles are hidden. 

In the history books, this may be such a tiny blip on the map that it's barely discussed in a decade or more. For my family, it's hit too close to home for comfort. But, aside from missing her friends and playgrounds, she is handling it with so much grace. She wasn't remotely reluctant to try on her Disney cloth masks because Ariel or Elsa would "catch my cough". She doesn't fight it or act like it's weird at all. I manage my fear, anxiety, and uncertainty about the coming weeks and the changes to our lives. (I like to plan things out in advance, but right now, the most I can plan is maybe a day or two.) 

But kids find different ways to process these things. So we play a lot and hold space for all the other emotions - big and small.  

  The Impossible Girl's attitude toward all of this is a humble reminder that we need to be adaptable right now. Yes, grieve! Be sad! Be angry! Be Whatever! But just Be as well. The world needs us to be adaptable.

When the World Paused - Day 20ish

(Photo Credit: Unknown) 

It's safe to say the 'honeymoon period' has warn off. Most of my 'play at home' tricks have worn off. I'm still making a full time effort, but it feels like a lot more 'effort' of late. We've had some fun though. Since the last blog, we have
Taken a walk and stroll through our own personal virtual zoo...

'hugging' the ever elusive Pacific Northwest Giant Panda

Some hikes end with Mom Transportation on the way back.

 played virtual hide and seek when the animals got 'loose' in the house.

Had lots of good lunches, breakfasts, snacks and dinners- 

and played games from Candy Land, Tag, Hide and Seek, Chutes and Ladders and more... including several hundred games I'm not sure The Impossible Girl even knew the rules to. We've sat in front of the computer and chatted with friends and loved ones.

We went for a couple drives. Though frowned upon, we didn't get out of the car, and but we were able to see some scenery and get some fresh air (and more importantly, she was able to NAP before 5pm...).

Today this little fur ball even went on an unexpected adventure... 

So far our time has been interesting. Since we went from an 'on the go' family to a 'constantly home' family, it's been a challenge for everyone (except maybe the dogs... they love it).  I am noticing on days we don't spend enough time outside the house, I end up exhausted by 5pm and ready to go to bed, so I need that fresh air to rejuvenate just as much as The Impossible Girl needs it to burn off her boundless energy. Little care packages, chats, and calls all make my day - and occasionally The Impossible Girl's day too. We still do school in the mornings, and some days she loves it. Other days she wants to do something else to distract herself from what she's missing out on. So we take it all day by day, but I'm very grateful for the structure. We often go back and play the videos her teachers made at a different time when she's more open to receiving what they are offering.

*Closed for the apocolypse*

The truth is, no matter how nice and warm and fuzzy we put a spin on all this wonderful time together - the longer all of this goes on, the more the grief changes. Instead of something to distract yourself from (because it'll end shortly), we know we're in it for the long haul. We miss friends. We miss seeing different places. The reality that the world we live in is forever changed by this settles in in a different way every day.  We've seen all too closely how it effects friends and loved ones. The only people who are unchanged are those who are not paying attention.

We get wonderful care packages from friends in the mail. But we also will be getting masks in the mail. Masks will help keep us and other safe, but they will also hide our smiles and put up a different barrier to communication. Yet, all the while it will convey a message of 'I care enough to keep you and I both safe'.

I went through Etsy to order 2 masks for the kiddo and 2 masks for me. Becuase if we have to do this, we're going to try to make it fun. We ordered some Disney printed ones.

 Now, I have never really been a 'touchy feely' person. To me, physical contact isn't a right anyone is granted. It's a privledge. So I don't so much mind not touching humans all that much, but I wonder how it will effect those kids who are living through it now. Will she run up and hug the first friend she can? Or will she be wary of that six to ten foot distance when all this is over? Will she even really remember this time period as a teenager?

All the unanswerable questions linger in the air like a fog waiting on the sunlight to burn it away...

Yes, we're okay. We're coping well. Have I picked up a new hobby with all my 'free time'? No. I just don't have that kind of 'free time'. I'm the sole playmate and human contact for a 4 year old, and I support My Sailor with the rest of the emotional energy I have. This whole situation has caused me to discover a new depth of feeling for those around me - and a new level of exhaustion.

Today - I let the Impossible Girl watch TV while eating dinner (a treat -we usually eat at the table). I made my plate of food and went to join her about 15 minutes later. There was mac n' cheese and hotdog remnant smashed into pillows and the cushions of the couch. She even had hot dog in her hair. This was new behavoir for a 4 year old. I asked her what happened and she said, "I just wanted to make you happy, mom." It dawned on me that I'd put off timing the meal so we could eat sitting next to each other. She'd asked me to stay and eat when I brought her up her plate, but I told her a few minutes, after I finished making my dinner. I didn't do anything 'wrong', but it was proof to me that there is a bit of truama we are working through.

So I asked her if I seemed unhappy lately. She nodded. I told her that she didn't make me unhappy and said a hug would really help my heart feel better. Could she give me a hug? She gave me a big hug. It helped remind me to watch how I let the stress effect me. I can't get so involved in the to-do-list that I miss this - what's ACTUALLY going on.

"Mommy, sit with me?" really means "I don't want to be alone right now."

But the constant underlying stress sometimes turns off my Universal Mom Translater.

We continue on in good spirits, constantly learning, despite the situation - but that doesn't mean the moarning process isn't still something we're all grappling with. While I have nothing profound to share or new accomplishments to praise, it's good to report that we are good. We are fed. We are clothed. We are sheltered. We are loved.

When the World Paused - Day 17ish

Super proud of her tall can tower!

Our Stay Home Stay Safe order was extended to May now, and I think most reasonable people are expecting life to look very similiar in June as well. It's been an interesting challenge. I am working on furthering some business decisions as well as time goes on, though I plan to continue to be there for my clients as things continue to shift and change. Adaptation is the name of the game.

As a parent, I am learning so much. I notice the days we play more and focus on chores less, we both end up in peaceful places. I listen to her play pretend with her dolls, and notice that often then are sick or not feeling good and they need the doctor to help them out - The Impossible Girl is working through situations through play. She's constantly asking me to play with her - and I take her up on it even if it's only for a couple minutes before bed. I realize I'm the only one here in person that can be her human connection. That's a vital role. 

Now, if you've known me through any length of time, you know I'm generally the one people want in a crisis. I'm able to compartmentalize, push through, find and act on solutions quickly. This prolonged crisis has put all of that to the test - and The Impossible Girl reminds me what it means to 'hold space' for all the different feelings. 

For example, I may think that the healthiest way to keep my kiddo connected to others is to have her draw pictures for them. Impossible Girl quirk : She NEVER wants to. Because being reminded of people she is missing hurts too bad to draw pictures for them every day.

So today, I made some time and space to 'empty my bucket', as my dad would say. 

My dad used to say that every woman carries around a bucket. Everything around her becomes a droplet in the bucket. Big and small stressors and emotions become water in the bucket. Eventually, the bucket fills up and spills over. It doesn't matter what thing overflows the bucket, but it'll just flow without ceasing if it's allowed to go all the way. So it's important to empty the bucket every once in a while to keep the flood at bay and make room for more.

There are some things about this time that I will never forget - that I pray none of us every forget.

I will never forget where I was or exactly what I was doing when news of the Twin Towers falling on September 11th, 2001. 

I will also never forget where my kid went to school when they were no longer able to go back (probably for the year). 

I will never forget the image of huge refridgerated trucks outside of hospitals in New York - because the morgue in the hospital couldn't house all the bodies anymore. Nearly all of them dying in insolation without family or friends by their bedsides. 

I will never forget the challenges all my friends in the medical front lines are facing without appropriate gear to protect themselves and their families from the dangers breathing in their faces at work every day. I worked in the medical feild for over a decade and have friends and clients who are still working there. I will always root for them.

I will never forget what it's like to have the usual cloud that lingers as military friends and I chat about this new, unseen, undiscriminating enemy on the landscape. 

Today, I took a little while to myself and poured out that bit of fear and rage and greif from the bucket, while sitting on the kitchen floor. I let my mind rage about the unsolvable problems and fully feel the fear and the helplessness.

For a little while, I poured out the bucket a bit.

Lightening the bucket makes room to better see the other things...

Like the soft fluffy fur of a sweet rescue dog who is (annoyingly) constantly trying to lick my face.

Like the basic sage advice and "When one can see no future, all one can do is the next right thing." No matter how small. It could be 'do the laundry' so everyone has clean underwear tomorrow. Or check in on a friend. Do the next thing that feels right. 

Like simple joys - that The Impossible Girl looks forward to snuggling on my arm as she falls asleep, because she feels safe asking you to stay awake so she can sleep. 

Like this wonderful small tribe that checks on us, brings us things as we need them, and it's a network built NOT from my husband's job, but cheifly from my work as a Trainer and a coach. 

Like the new emergency plan in place should I get sick. That gives me a measure of peace (though I still hope it's not something we'll have to ennact).

Like the joy that we are still healthy! That's a win. The kiddo has caught every virus coming down the pike her entire life. And here we are, almost a month into the lock down and she hasn't been sick yet. I'm hopeful it means we're doing things right. (Or lucky... or we have some really tiny awesome gaurdian angels batting away those germies like baseballs). 

Like the fun bits of humor floating around the world right now - 

I did not make this

or this. But my love of horror movies appreciates this.

Like the wonder and amazement of giving/receiving unexpected care packages and playing in the open air.

There are a lot of blogs out there about the financial devastation this is causing. There are a lot of blogs out there about how to make the most of this time. There are blogs about being super productive, bettering your relationship, being in the best shape ever, or how to carve a relipca of Disneyland Park out of a single bar butter.  But this blog? This is all about life.  (Okay, so that last one might have been a but of a stretch, but if you can do that, or find someone who can, point me to that blog!)

And the truth is, some days end on a super productive note where I slide into the covers with nearly all the boxes on my to do list checked! And there are days when many go unchecked because playing took priority. And there are moments where I'm a puddle on the floor with a warm wiggly brindle in my face.

And all of those moments are beautiful and powerful and meaningful. 

Even if we're not sure what day of the week it is sometimes.

When the World Paused - Day 15ish

The guidance has been given out that we're going to be under "Stay home;stay healthy" rule for another month (let's face it - at least). That's actually granted me some freedom. To know that I won't have plans out of the house allows me to lean into the curve a little harder.  Over the past few days, we've been our usual busy selves...

Foraging for Stinging Nettles, thanks to one of her teachers at school.

The results of Make Your Own Taco Night. I think her shells became a pirate ship?

Sometimes everyone wants a peice of you. 2 dogs and 2 people in this picture.

 It's been a LOT of ups and downs. Days that start great sometimes end in tears for the kiddo. We make it as good as we can in the end. We've been doing a lot of 'holding space', which is something I'm pretty good at for myself, but learning to help The Impossible Girl through as well.

It's been Box week at school. 

I think this was a pool.

Dinner out of her school lunch box. Familiar routines feel good sometimes.

Lunch picnics in the car - in the drive way - every day. This one came with a nature book she picked out.

 We love getting outside. I realized, with all of this isolation going on, that I liked going out with the kiddo because I have no distractions. I can focus on her. I'm not thinking about the floor that is dirty or the barking dog, or the chores that linger on forever. Right now, I know that's the best thing I have to offer.  That's the best combatant against the ever prevading loneliness.

School in the morning. 

 She is always surprising me, and I'm grateful for this little spirit in my everyday life, even when I'm completely exhausted.

planting our seedlings

You have no idea the amount of work it took to get this table cleared off and wiped down...

Post bed time kettlebell workout. 

 The world is a very complicated place right now. Our day to day lives are pretty simple. Remembering that, breathing it in, and living in it is helpful. I'm learning about the balance between discipline and grace, and caring for others and self care. As a military wife, I've become friends with the envitable dark clouds of seperation. The anxiety is a little but heightened, but I trust that they are keeping My Sailor safe. 

 And if we can't hang out, maybe we can howl at the same moon...

We got an invation for a neighborhood howl at 8pm.
It was a fun 10 seconds.

When the World Paused - Day 10-ish

So Washington State (our state) has had schools closed for 2 weeks now. I'm lucky my kiddo doesn't have much she can fall behind on (and with the whole nation 'falling behind', I don't really believe it's a thing - we're just moving the goal posts around for this generation).

At her age, we can sort of throw basic ideas at the walls and see what sticks - and that's the plan for the day. One of the things that makes me an effective coach in the gym is a fairly strong intuition. So now, I get to focus that around at home. Like I've said before, we have a basic plan, as the days start to string together. We can plan ahead a bit since we can rely on a few facts:

1) Everything will continue to be closed.

2) Magnolia Forest School teachers working hard to keep the kiddoes connected. The Impossible Girl misses her friends a lot, but the teachers have a consistent way of showing up for these kids via lots of Live videos and media - to keep them all engaged and connected. They shifted from a Tution model to a donation model to adapt to so many of us who are losing some income and yet keep our teachers around and employed during this time of seperation. Giving those of us with a somewhat uneven income forcast room to breath is such a gift. (If you want to do something for The Impossible Girl for Easter - donate here.)

Apollo goes to school with The Impossible Girl this morning learning all about mixing colors during storytime.

 3) There is always going to a craft or recipe to make. Today, it was Bath Time Playdough. Ours turned out to be a colorful mix between slime and playdough, but she had a lot of fun mixing and making it (and my septic tank won't hate me later).

 4) We have good boots, which means there is ALWAYS a way to get outside and create adventure. Every single day. Today it was cold and windy, so she tried on a new hoodie from a care package from My Sailor (before all of this madness started) and put a stuffed animal buddy in the backpack and we were off! About a quarter mile in, she opted to climb in and out of some of the storm drain areas, building her own adventure as we went on a hunt for Stinging Nettles. We found some and tomorrow we'll be back there with gloves and a bucket to do some foraging. I'm curious to see what Nettle Tea tastes like!

5) There is a unicorn that likes string cheese and pretzels that lives in the back of my car.

Without playgrounds to climb around in, we've gotten pretty creative. When it's too cold/windy/wet to picnic on the front lawn, we picnic in the back of the car. She climbs over the seats, from the front to the hatchback and back again over and over and over. She's really good at it now, and I bring us a picnic style lunch in the back of the car. She eats it without complaint (apparently an invisible Unicorn pet lives in the car too. It lunches with us often as well.) and gets some energy out.  

I have some plans for this later on down the road. I'm thinking dinner tail gate or pretend Drive In may happen if I get truly ambitious.

6) Something will go wrong - and it's probably going to be okay. 

Today, we discovered that The Impossible Girl is allergic to... something? Either outside or in her new hoodie. Her neck and back broke out in a short lived rash... So the hoodie will get an extra wash and we'll have to see if it happens tomorrow on our walk back to our Stinging Nettle spot.

7)  Play is a PRIORITY. 

The Impossible Girl is an only child at the moment (aside from the furkids). When I worked a day shift and an evening shift, our lives looked like this:
  7:30-8:30am Wake up and dressed for work and drop the kid off too.
  1pm-3:30pm Run Errands/Rest
  4pm-6:30pm She goes to Child Watch and I go to work.
  6:30pm-8:30pm Commute home, Dinner, bathtime and bed.

There really isn't much room for extended play in that schedule. And it always bothered me every time I'd have to put off her invitations to play. She is usually a good sport about it, but right now, I am her only playmate. She has already experienced a lot of loneliness over the last few months. While I can't take up every single offer to play (as there are lots of chores and cleaning happening right now), I can make sure I take her up on as many of those offers as I can.

And I'm going to be honest - it's not all about her. It never has in. Playing helps lift my spirits too. As the cheif adult in charge, I need that release as well.

I went through some of my older photos from work - and it all rings true.
Use what you have.
Do what you can.
All the investment, even the little things, COUNT.
If there is an gift to these incredibly challenging circumstances, it's left me with time to invest in the little things once again.
Little things add up to big things.

When the World Paused - Day 9

The day was dry, which made it easier to enjoy some outdoor fun. Our obstacle course and maze were washed away by the rain, so we made a little hopscotch course and I included some light kettlebell work into the mix.  It was another great reminder that play counts as movement - and it ALL adds up! I have no idea if I've lost weight during this lock down or not (I only weigh myself once a month), but it's safe to say I haven't spent it sitting around much. 

Our day had the rythm of waking up, doing breakfast and 'checking on' the animals at the San Diego Zoo (via their live webcams), 'going to school' (via online live facebook videos), and then running necessary errands. We picked up our last school lunch for a while on our way to pick up groceries at Walmart via grocery pick up, and a few necessities from a friend's porch. I learned how to sanitize groceries and have cleared off and made good use of our dining room table (which tends to get covered with toys quickly). Then we hung out in the car and drew hopscotch on the pavement and played. 

 We had a late snack picnic in the back of the car of grapes, pretzles, and string cheese before heading inside to relax.

Dinner was delivery sushi after a significant coupon. (Much to my glee, The Impossible Girl has finally decided she likes rolls as well as her favorite Sashimi. She was an expensive sushi date! Now we can fill that hole with rice too.)

Learning to use chopsticks - but rolls are so big! lol

It was a good day, which was much needed after the low of the day before.

I got an email that our Great Wolf Lodge reservation next month is canceled, since they will be closed now through May 19th (instead of April 12th). I'm not surprised, though a bit disappointed that it's further proof the world will be quiet for a long time to come.

I'm incredibly grateful for my friends in the podcast world right about now. Window to the Magic has put out an episode a day, which we are catching up on and loving our audio tours of Disneyland. It's just like going to the parks with my friend Paul (the founder, creater, and all around magic maker behind). Hearing the bustle of human life does my heart good while we cocoon. I've always enjoyed the show, but now it seems to bring an easy smile that feels harder to come by some days.

The weather is turning to cold, windy, and rainy, which makes it easy to want to hibernate inside, but we're doing our best to get outside every day.