Whenever I get super overwhelmed, I find that writing usually helps me feel better. I’ve been writing this blog for over a decade, but long before that I used to keep hand written journals. I find it gets all of the jumbled mess out of my brain, helps me organize thoughts, clears the slate. I think it’s safe to say we’re all feeling it this week as we roll through the first handful of days of social distancing. Even if no one reads it, open a journal or a word doc, get it all out on paper — I find it really helpful. This post today is just that — a release of all.the.feelings — emptying my brain, a little writing therapy, and sharing what’s helping us stay sane.
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Like many people, we’re looking at least a few weeks of school and activities being cancelled. I am a little stressed trying to figure out how I’m going to get work done and keep Jane occupied at home for that time. I took a deep breath after my mild panic and surveyed our closet where we store toys and craft supplies, and even dug into my “snow day” stash I was saving for snowstorms that never arrived this year. As I was wrapping my head around how to pace out these projects and activities over the next few weeks, I thought I’d share some of my ideas and favorite toys and craft supplies with the hope this list might be helpful to others in the same situation! I linked everything below with some context for how we use, play, and extend the time on each activity, and included a few of my favorite sites I use for kids activity inspiration as well. If you have good ideas or resources for keeping kids busy during this time please share them in the comments!
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Let’s talk self-care for a minute, shall we? I have an unreasonable, fury-filled reaction to the term “self-care.” I have long felt the term is thrown around at women and makes me feel like I have one more unreasonable expectation added to my growing to do list. Not to mention the accompanying guilt that I have about not doing it enough or not doing it right. And self-care is often presented to women in the form of rather expensive solutions. I say all of this while knowing full well that one thing I’m trying to be better at this year is: taking care of myself. Oh the irony! So when Maelove, an affordable skin-care line founded by MIT grads, reached out to me about trying their products and I jumped at the chance to try them.
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It is 50 degrees and the sun is shining and we’re just a few short days away from Daylight Savings. I feel like spinning in a field of wildflowers atop a mountain like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music! Sure, we live in New England, so it could snow tomorrow, but it’s amazing what some sunshine can do for my mood so I’m eating up every little hint of spring that I can. You can find my gathering heaps of tulips at the grocery store today, and sharing all the spring things in this week’s download below!
I’m dedicating this week’s download post to all things Valentine’s Day! Swapping out my usually book list with some of my all-time favorite romantic-reads, rounding up a few local brands with lovely Valentine’s gifts, sharing kid-friendly ideas for celebrating the holiday, and pulling some sweet treat recipes to add to your sweetheart menu from my archives! 
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We have reached a stage in home ownership where a lot of the big problem areas have been tackled. For example our home office used to be a hair salon and our bedroom had a kitchenette in it — we’re talking for real problem areas. There are still lots of tiny projects left to do, and the annoying thing about tiny projects is they’re SO easy to ignore. My friends at Chasing Paper asked if I wanted to try out some of their removable wallpaper from the Darcy Miller collection and I jumped at the chance to finish one of those tiny projects I’ve been putting off for ages in Jane’s playroom.
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You could say I “heart” snack trays almost as much as I love my grazing boards! With Valentine’s Day a few weeks away, I put together this kid-friendly snack tray with some fun ideas for giving your kiddos a love-ly snack time! I started with some 6-cup muffin tins, which are great for containing these bite-sized snacks, and got to work filling them with a few treats.
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I’ve always been someone who gets hyped over the new year. I love a fresh start, I love clean to do lists, I love resetting goals and the whole clean-slate thing. It usually gives me so much energy and momentum, but man this year has not been that way! I have been sick, Jane has been sick, we’ve been operating in a cloud of sinus infections, ear infections, and general exhaustion. I even had to cancel plans on my birthday so I was in a reallll cranky spot! Over the weekend I rallied for a girls night out with my best friends’ and today is the first day since the start of 2020 that I’ve felt like I can breathe (literally and figuratively, ha). So I’m trying to get back in the game — a little bit slower in my start than I anticipated — but with lots to share.
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I made a lofty resolution in 2018 to read 2 books a month and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I took the goal seriously and made it part of my routine (finishing 29 books!), which has since gotten me back into a nice steady groove of reading for pleasure again. Last year my goal was to continue my new habit, and I paced at a very consistent speed because I ended up reading exactly 29 books again! My 2018 reading list recap was one of my post popular posts of the year, and I am writing this one to recap all of my 2019 reads — both for you the reader and for me (I love to go back and use these lists to give other book-nerds some of my favorite recommendations!).
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One of my biggest resolutions for this year is to put sustainability more in focus on this blog. It’s a topic that I’m really passionate about, but haven’t shared much of on the site because I wasn’t quite sure how it fit in. I’ve come to realize though that where it fits in is everywhere; it’s something we need to be thinking about in every aspect of our life. One site that I continue to be inspired by and look to for practical, simple advice about making impactful changes is on TheEcoMamas. Continuing my week of posts here on the blog about New Year’s Resolutions, I’m so grateful to be sharing this interview with Colleen and Gillian from TheEcoMamas with their thoughts on sustainable choices we can make in 2020! (See my other posts in the series here about getting organized and eating healthy).
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