in only took a pandemic in order to......

I've been home (and technically without a job) for the past 7 weeks and just like everyone else, a lot of every day things in life have changed.

So here are the things that it took a pandemic occurring in order to finally happen....



~Have a "normal" schedule with Austin. His night job furloughed him as well, so we've been spending every night at home together, which has never in our 7 years together happened. Typically he worked most nights and didn't get home from work until late (sometimes I was already in bed). There were also days that our schedules kept us from even seeing each other.

~Cooking at home. Like most, we've been making and eating home cooked meals just about every night. Very rarely do we order to go or do left overs. Most of the time it is Austin cooking though and he's gotten really adventurous and good! He made a homemade pizza last week where everything (including the dough) was from scratch.

~We finally watched the popular movie "A Star is Born" with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. The music was fantastic- the ending was heartbreaking.

~People are finally realizing how important and amazing teachers are to our society! I've seen so many parents post pictures or videos of how their kids' teachers went above and beyond for them. As a former teacher, I've seen this so many times from my colleagues. Most teachers love kids and they want their students to succeed, which a majority of the time means going above and beyond. So let me be clear, this is NOTHING new-- the pandemic didn't create this attitude, it just brought it to your doorstep.  But I'm so grateful that parents and others are finally seeing and spreading the word about how incredible some teachers are.

~I've been working on my social media game for Ashes. Granted it's not where I want it to be yet- but it's better and I love learning more.
goal: Continue and take 3 more classes online about Business to better help Ashes. 

~Read books that were on my to be read pile. There are a ton of them and I've made time to finally read and check them off. I've read about 20 books while in quarantine.
goal: keep reading so that by December I get to 100 books read for the year.

~Take online classes. There are several places to do it, but I finally signed up for a Contemporary Art class and two Business courses. I've wanted to for awhile, but just never had the time or will power. I would love to take a history course, but there aren't any on coursera.

~Clean and clear out in our place. To be clear- it's been Austin doing this and he seriously has done an amazing job! We have so much more room!!!!
goal: for me to clean out the closet and fix the broken shelving. 

~Have morning time with God doing a devotion that is long as I want it to be. Let's be real-- I am NOT a morning person, so typically my devotions were done when I got home from work or at night and I was exhausted, so they weren't very long. With all this extra time, it's more frequent that I'm doing my devotional and I get to spend as much time as I want outside or on my comfy bed reading and studying. It's been amazing. I'm currently in 2 Peter. Not sure what I'll do next though....