Oh WordPress…it has been so long.

Like many of you, COVID-19 has thrown me for a loop, requiring me to find a new normal under current circumstances.  For so many months now, I’ve felt suspended in a strange limbo.  As an introvert by nature, I’ve truly loved teleworking, with brief visits to the office only as needed, and basically removing my commute time per week has allowed me to catch up on watching late-night shows while still getting a glorious amount of sleep!

However, the drastically diminished social interaction does hit me every so often.  My destination wedding has been postponed for a year, which means I will not be traveling at all in 2020….  It’s the first time in 10 years that I haven’t taken a trip to a new country or state during a calendar year.  With plenty of time for self-reflection, I do think the current situation has allowed me to truly appreciate others more than I already had, and any experience more than I previously did.  The brief times I have gotten to see others felt much more important than before, which is a positive byproduct of our situation.

So what have I been up to for the first half of the year?

Since we had a mild winter, we have been keeping our hands busy with our yard.  We’ve completely re-edged our four large planters with stones from our yard, while greatly reducing the square footage we need to maintain and mulch! Plus, with all the hot temperatures recently, I’ve had great luck with the few flowers that are planted on the property.  And we have visitors sometimes!

I’ve also started new creative projects inside the house.  After years of not picking up a Counted Cross Stitch kit, I decided to order a few for myself.  Currently, I’m working on a beautiful lighthouse.  If I can’t travel to any beach I want, I can at least imagine myself inside this picture.  (Thank God for Etsy and Amazon!)

Also, I snatched up a few luxurious curtain panels at a thrift shop a while ago.  Each one was $5.00 (insanely cheap) so I’ll be making a table cloth out of the plain white satiny material, fun throw pillows out of the embroidered palm tree material, and a new set of mini curtains for our guest room out of the fancy white-on-white patterned material.

I like keeping my hands busy anyway, and I always need a creative outlet as a standard, but I think these projects are more important now than ever before.  Even for an introvert, the itch to have things “back to normal” is ever-present, so I especially need creative distractions to keep my spirits high, my hands busy and my heart at peace until we all push through this pandemic.

I hope everyone out there finds something positive to focus on during this time, and help inspire others who may be struggling.  With parents and friends in the high-risk category, I’m taking our situation very seriously, doing my part to stay at home, and hopefully inspiring others to care for each other.  It is the only way the world can heal.

Stay safe everyone!