So far this month is going alright. We’re officially 2 weeks from seeing other people, besides my trips to the grocery store and FedEx. There have been a least a handful of schools reporting cases and quarantining people. My husband and I are still keeping the kids home for now and having them remote in. The anxiety I feel when any of us leave the house is real, but the fact that it’s been 2 weeks and we’re alright has calmed me a little bit.

Halloween is coming up and the kids have picked out their costumes. My son will be the blow up Dino from last year and my daughter will be a bunny. I will be a chef and my husband has not picked his costume yet. I am really not sure what Halloween will look like this year but we are looking forward to it. Even if we just dress up and ring our own doorbell. Who knows at this point?

I have started to look though the Julia Child cookbook we’ve had for years and this weekend we are planning to make one of her kidney recipes and mushroom soup. I’ve been on a little soup kick last week because the temps are dropping. I know I have said it before a lot but I LOVE Fall. The weather. The colors. The food. It’s my favorite.

I could do without all the pumpkin spice though. I don’t mind it if someone gives it to me, I am just not a huge fan of it. One time my sister in law made a whipped pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I think that is the only time I have had a slice of pumpkin pie since I was a kid and it was good!

My rent the runway subscription is going alright. I have settled back into renting what I like, jeans and sweaters, and I have been loving what I have been getting. I still have a small issue with their return delays but I don’t think I want to cancel my membership yet. They also sent out an email saying that they are switching up their membership plans next year so I will be getting less clothes and shipments monthly for more money. I’ll probably wait to see that that really looks like but I will probably cancel at that point. I don’t want too but the plan I have now will be going up $30.00 more per month and there will be a limit on rentals. Part of the fun of this is being able to try new clothes and if they don’t fit or you don’t like the way they look, you can send them back and get something new. So I don’t know what the new plans will look like. They also mentioned in the email there will be a discount on the first few months. I’ll just have to wait and see. For now, I will keep trying new things. Even though I wear the clothes mostly home, I just feel way more put together

.

Besides that, we’re just home. The 28th there is no school so my husband and I took the day off too. I think we might try to take the kids apple picking. There are a couple farms not to far away from us. I think a few of them have corn mazes too.

How about you? Do you have any fun fall plans coming up?

My birthday is Sunday and I am turning 39. Last year of my thirties and that’s totally fine with me!

For me, the 20’s were a mess of just trying to figure out where the heck I fit in the world. It wasn’t the bars or clubs or staying up until I have to work the next day. Then trying to not fall asleep while standing while I trudged to 3 different jobs so I could afford my Honda civic and half of apartment. My 20’s did end well.

I entered my 30’s with a husband and 2 babies. In the past 9 years we have bought our first house and really settled down in a career. I am really proud of how far we have come. We are still figuring it out and still working because we have a few more dreams to accomplish. For me, I’m still going to get my BA eventually, we still want to move to La Jolla, San Diego and I’m still going to write a best seller.  We’ll get there.

This year I really want to focus on getting healthier. I don’t want to enter my 40’s overweight. I feel ok but when I see a picture of my self I am like oh, shit… That’s me? So I would like to take this last year of my 30’s and really try to stick with a healthier lifestyle. I am not planning on giving any food up. I am planning on just trying to eat healthier and cook for us more. One good thing about the pandemic is the money we have saved just not eating out so often and not going to restaurants. Last night I made this fish.

https://cooklikeajamaican.com/amp/jamaican-brown-stew-fish-recipe/

It was delicious. This is one of my most favorite websites for Jamaican recipes. I recommend heading over there and trying some out for yourself. They have a membership that you can buy but they also have a lot of recipes you can get for free. This is one of the free ones and I highly recommend it! So yum.

My daughter asked me what I want for my birthday and my answer was nothing, really. And that’s the truth. What I really want it to be able to go back to the stores and just browse. Then not worry about every cough for the next two weeks. I miss just going out and browsing. Taking my daughter up to Orange, CT and checking out the Christmas Tree Shoppe, Aldies and whatever else is up that way that we don’t have around us. I miss not having to worry about the lady behind me that’s standing way to close. The only store I really go to now is the grocery store and I go with a list to get in and out as fast as possible. I used to like to just browse there too sometimes. I can deal with a lot of what’s going on but I miss just being aimless and out sometimes.

Originally I wanted to go out to dinner and try a new outdoor place. Something with seafood and a view. Then I got anxious thinking about eating at a restaurant so I decided no. I asked my husband to just make me escargot with the delicious crusty garlic bread he makes. It’s so good.

For my cake, I want a Napoleon pastry from the Italian bakery around the corner. That’s it. We’re going to hang out all day and eat all the butter, bread and pastry.

Happy Birthday to me.🙂

This was our first week back to school and we are completely remote learning. I have to say it is going better than I thought it would!

I heard nothing all summer about what to expect. I was really concerned it was going to be like the end of last year where the teachers just posted homework and the kids and parents had to work on it, or not. Last year, they had a half hour Zoom call in the middle of the day with the teacher and that was it from the end of March till mid June. Over the summer, I felt like they were putting too much focus on getting the kids into school and not enough energy into what will happen when schools will eventually close down again because of infections. I was concerned and looking into tutors just in case. I decided to just wait and see what school was going to actually look like for distance learners.

After the first week back, I feel slightly better. It seems to me that there is a good mix of teacher and student interaction all day, that really matters. I feel like we have more support so it will be easier for us to focus on our jobs while we are also working from home.

Of course we had a few frustrating moments. On the first day of school, the internet was wonky and we didn’t receive all of my sons class codes, so he missed the first introductory day in a majority of his classes. This is our first year at middle school and our first year starting remotely, so that was a little frustrating. I usually take the first day of school off to help the kids but this year, with the delay in school opening, it conflicted with my month end reporting at work so I couldn’t take the time off. We did figure out all the class codes for the second day and at 4 days in, besides a internet lag here and there, it seems to be working alright.

My daughter is in 4th grade so she logs into one class all day and the specials teachers go to the classrooms. She has had a pretty easy transition to remote learning and she is thrilled to interact with her friends and teacher all day.

Obviously, I would much rather have the kids go to school and be face to face with friends and teachers, and I would much rather have everything be getting back to somewhat normal. It’s just not going to happen yet. Within the first week, there have already been reports of 3 schools closing for a day to clean after people tested positive and 1 class somewhere is quarantining, so far.

I was holding on to hope that everything would be fine for September and we could start to think about going into school. At this rate, that’s not happening. I never would have imagined in my life that something like this pandemic would be happening. I get frustrated, depressed, angry, sad and also happy. I’m happy to be able to spend this time with my family but I miss seeing my extended family a lot. I am happy that we can stay home and stay safe for now.

I’m depressed reading the news. All day I check the news from all over and it’s not good anywhere. It just seems to get worse. Some days I have to try to do anything else but read the news because I am seriously sad that this is where the world is right now. I’m frustrated that we can’t go on vacation or hang out with our friends like we use to. Every grocery trip fills me with some anxiety and when I write in my journal, I document where I go in case I need to trace where I have been. That’s really scary to me.

Two nights ago I was watching a movie with my daughter and I smelt like burning plastic. I yelled for my husband and we traced it to the boiler which we turned off and then called for service the next day. The guy came and fixed it but also told us that we might have to start thinking about buying a new boiler because ours is getting older. You know what my relief was about that entire thing? I smelt the burning plastic. I don’t have Covid yet. Forget the thousands of dollars we’ll now have to figure out. I can still smell so maybe we’re safe for now. I am mad that this is what calms me down right now.

On a better note, I actually LOVE working from home now. I feel more productive at home and at work and maybe also a little less work life balanced, I’m fine with that. With my work, I am not going back in to the office (except for supplies every other month or so and only for an hour) until next year. I am really thankful for that. It allows me to be able to figure out everything with the kids. Judging by the school Covid reports in the first week, I think it’s going to be a while for them to go back too.

As for now, I am okay with the remote learning. I don’t feel like the kids are being left out. When we have had issues, we have reached out to the teachers to let them know and they have responded fast to let us know what to do and where to go. I’m feeling okay for now. I hope you and family are too!

How are you doing?

Hi Everyone! I am back! Happy September!

I took a much needed break from everything. Promoting blog and books (which are located on the Buy My Book page. I recommend “Little Me, Big World”), writing for my blog and just everything for a while. I needed the reboot. I hope everyone had a great end of summer.

Staycation was fun but it was definitely not the same. We divided the week in 2 and half the week our friends came here and half the week we went to them. We had fun but we’re thinking next year we’ll try to get a lake house somewhere in CT and actually go stay somewhere. I hope we can go somewhere next year out of the state but at this rate, we’re thinking we’ll be staying in state again.

School is starting again next week here. I still can’t believe how fast the summer went and we didn’t really do anything. We’re having the kids remote learn for at least the first few months. Watching other states try to reopen school and then closing is concerning to me. Even here (Connecticut) there are at least 3 schools that I know of that have teachers quarantining because they tested positive. Some were in the schools already setting up. My husband and I are both still able to work from home at least until January now, so it’s really not worth risking it.

I have been trying new recipes out and so far I haven’t stumbled on anything amazing. Tonight I am trying to cook liver and onions for the first time ever. I have eaten liver a couple times in my life. I will try anything at least once and there are very few foods I don’t like. Wish me luck, I hope it’s a good recipe. I am using this recipe:

https://cooklikeajamaican.com/liver-and-onions/

I love this website. Everything I have made so far has come out delicious. The Brown stew chicken, Classic Jamaican Rice and Peas, Jamaican Curry Chicken and the Jamaican Steamed Fish are all great.

I am still doing Rent the Runway. I have given up on trying to force myself to get use to dresses. I do like skirts now a lot more though and I think I have a style of skirt I prefer. Now that it’s going to be fall soon (I LOVE FALL) I am back into trying out different jeans and pants. Rent the Runway just changed who they use for returns though and I am not liking it as much. It used to be UPS and now they use UPS to send the clothes to me and I have to go to FedEx to have them shipped back. The problem I am having with FedEx is that there is now a delay in how long it takes for them to get the clothes back so I can pick something new. So really, I am getting less shipments and paying the same for the monthly unlimited membership. I am considering putting this on hold again for a few months until Rent the Runway can figure it all out.

September Goals are to start blogging regularly again. That’s it. I am aiming small to start.🙂

My daughter is missing all her friends but we have gotten much closer. We’ve discovered that we both have a love of cooking and all things paper and stationery… Kawaii pens and notebooks, pretty paper, just everything. I just ordered her one of these subscription boxes, https://www.kawaiibox.com/ . I hope she loves it. I know I am excited for it. I also ordered the kids a subscription to “The Week Junior”. I figure it might be a good way for them to keep up to date on things going on in the world. Especially since there is so much going on right now. We’re 3 magazines in and I think they like them so far.

That’s pretty much it for me right now. Who knows what’s going to happen in the next month at this point. It really feels like it’s just been one terrible thing after another this year. I would love it if we could host Thanksgiving. I really miss our families coming over for the holidays and catching up. Then maybe we can plan a vacation somewhere new next summer.

How are you doing?