April 2020 in review

Another month of being in shelter-in-place, so life has existed in a bubble around here. Dare I say this is becoming everyday life now? I hate it. I’m getting used to it. I feel these things daily and sometimes they change hourly.

We’re making the best of it. We’ve been outside and making crafts and Olivia has been on a screen way too much, but hey. No one’s perfect. While April has been pretty boring around here, it went by fast-ish.

I AM CURRENTLY…

Feeling eh. I don’t do well with staying at home all the time, so I guess I’ve been struggling a bit mentally. I’m thankful I’m not working in the hospital right now. I’m worried about the lack of work I have. I’m frustrated that even if I had my usual amount of work, I’d have hardly any time to work on it. I have been making small changes to get healthier, and am working on getting enough water throughout the day. I’m officially going back on the nursing mom’s plan with Optavia that I did last year and lost 30 pounds. This week, my focus is on getting a meal plan going for the first two weeks and grocery list. It’s time to get back to it.

CHRIS IS CURRENTLY…

Still working from home. Luckily, things seemed to calm down for the most part, though he still has some crazy days and needs to work into the evenings. I don’t think he’s gone for a run in six weeks, which is unusual for him. He chopped a whole bunch of branches down last weekend in both the front and backyards and then spent all day chopping them up. We celebrated with a bonfire that night.

OLIVIA IS CURRENTLY…

Loving going on bike rides with her dad. She’s getting so good at her balance bike and we’ve been talking about buying her a “big girl” bike and having her practicing pedaling in the backyard for balance. She let me cut her hair (which is a post on its own since man, I didn’t think her first haircut would be the hack job I did, but desperate times. She’s been a bit more feisty lately and I think she’s going stir crazy, even though we’ve been getting out daily. I know she misses outings and adventures we used to do.

EMELIA IS CURRENTLY…

A boss at scooting around on her back, using her head as navigation, or lack thereof. She officially rolled from her back to stomach, something we’ve been working for weeks on and has days where she’s flipping constantly and days where she acts like, what? I can move?

She laughs at everything and when you say, “Olivia” she looks around to find her sister in the room. We’ve had a few nights of amazing sleep and mostly OK ones where she’s up twice a night.

THE GOOD

• Emelia got to use her outdoor swing for the first time.
• I wrote up a cleaning schedule for myself that I think I can finally stick with.
• I read four books this month.
• This laugh.
• We’ve been getting out for a lot of walks.
• Including the few times we went back to the pond/trail by the townhome Chris and I lived in years ago.
• Chris and Olivia made dill bread and English muffins.
• We’ve been making smores and had a bonfire.
• I hosted a Norwex party on Facebook and got a ton of free stuff!
• And so, therefore, I’ve been cleaning a lot. It makes me happy.
• I ate a Heath Dairy Queen Blizzard.
• My mom and sister both visited out in our driveway.

THE BAD

• Olivia threw a massive tantrum one evening, completely out of the blue.
• I had some righteous nights where I had a hard time sleeping. Always a bad thing when you have a baby who doesn’t sleep well. When the baby sleeps, I need to be asleep, so, therefore, it’s frustrating when I can’t.
• Olivia has had some days where she’s really feisty and demanding.
• Olivia was supposed to start dance class and an ECFE class with her friend and that was all canceled.

ON MY MIND

• I wrote an article for Vox on my infertility journey and got a ton of SCATHING comments on their Facebook page. I loved writing this and adored my editor, so it was one of my favorite pieces to write, but oy. Those comments.
• Getting back to better health.
• I need my hair cut. I hate my hair long in the summer. But to trust my husband to cut it…or not?
• Buying a quarter of a cow and trying to figure out how we can shove 100 pounds of meat in our deep freezer along with my frozen milk.

Read more monthly review posts here.