Category: Just me being me

Life Update: Back to School

As I shared back in early April, both Travis and I were able to get our COVID vaccine shots. We had our second shot at the end of April and two weeks later were considered fully vaccinated. While Jack cannot yet be vaccinated (he’s 9), with both of us vaccinated at home and his teachers vaccinated at school, we felt that it was time for him to return to in-person class.

Jack’s school has 4 day in-person hybrid school through the end of the year, which means he is now at the school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. All students remain virtual on Wednesdays. When we decided to have him return to school it was a flurry of planning. I had to contact his teachers, as well as the administration. Then, I had to arrange for before/after care for days that I’ll be going in to Baltimore. Oh, and also find his backpack and lunchbox. And then, of course I had to order a few school supplies to take in his backpack AND mark all over the calendar and set all the reminder alarms.

All for about 5 weeks of school before summer.

Jack started back at school on May 13th and after some initial anxiety (from both him AND me), we are all settled in! He happily wears his mask all day long (except during outdoor recess and lunchtime) without complaint. Most importantly, Jack is doing great with his new schedule and is so happy to see his friends in person.

I’m happy too because starting last week I started going back into my office twice a week. While I love being able to work from home, I also love the opportunity to drop in and chat with my co-workers. My ideal schedule is a hybrid, where I’d go into the office 2-3 days a week and telework the rest. Until the office announces a new schedule, that is what I will be doing. Which feels like an incredible work-life balance version of normal for me.

Between Jack returning to school, me returning to work, and having our family fully vaccinated… I feel almost giddy with relief. After a year of 6 feet of distance from our loved ones, being able to hang out unmasked, hug family members after a year, and nomnomnom on my baby nephew is all like a little slice of heaven!

A Weekend Away in OCMD

Even though the weather was forecasted to be in the low 60’s with clouds and rain, we decided to take advantage of the fact that it was our family’s turn to use the Ocean City house and made the trek down to the beach. Frankly, we could use a change of scenery… and some new restaurant options too.

However, due to a police chase and standoff that shut down the Bay Bridge for hours, we almost gave up and turned back around. Instead, we decided to do a little walk around Annapolis and go out for lunch. Jack requested to go to some of my favorite antique spots that I visit with Lindsey, so we stopped by two fun little shops in Deale before deciding to check the traffic down to the beach again.

Things were looking up, so we gave it another try and I’m SO glad we did!

We ended up getting to Ocean City just around dinner time, so after dropping our stuff at the house we met the crew at a nearby restaurant. And by the crew, I mean my mom and dad, my brother, his wife, and their baby. It was the first time we have been able to see each other in person since getting vaccinated, so being able to sit around a table safely while enjoying drinks and delicious food was FANTASTIC. And for the first time in a YEAR my mom got a hug from me and Jack!

We were only in town for about 22 hours, so the weekend flew by. There was an amazing dinner with some of the best scallops of my life, ice cream, a Mother’s Day breakfast out, another delicious lunch. Basically, we just ate the whole time. Oh, and there was a rousing and hilarious game of charades and a ton of baby snuggles.

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic Mother’s Day weekend!

6 Things Stories: My Office

I decided to start doing my “6 Things” series recently because I love how everything in a house has a story behind it. I started with 6 Things Stories: Our Den and now we are moving on to My Office.

While my office is filled with things that have all sorts of memories attached to them… I narrowed it down to just 6.

Thing 1: Cotton Monster

This is my very own Cotton Monster, handmade by a Baltimore-based fiber artist. Many years ago, I was at a work event that had a raffle and the Cotton Monster was one of the prizes. I wanted it SO BAD… and did not win it. However, one of the accounting partners at the firm I worked at DID win it by accident. And not even knowing how much I coveted it, walked by me on the way out of the event, handed it to me and said “enjoy” before disappearing off into the night.  

My adorable little monster is soft and ridiculous and always makes me smile! He also appears in the background of many of my #ootd pictures on Instagram, back when I used to leave the house regularly for work.

Thing 2: Voices of the Year Award

This is my Voices of the Year award (aka a VOTY), which is basically like the blogger version of the Emmy’s or the Tony’s. Back in 2016, I submitted one of my posts to be reviewed through a juried program with a minimum of three rounds of judging. Out of the thousands of submissions for the 2016 VOTY awards, fewer than 5% of them made it through to become an Honoree. The piece of writing that I was honored for was really special to me, because it is about some of the simple pleasures of being a mom. You can read it here: I Want You.

Thing 3: My Watercolor Painting

I’ve always been an artsy-fartsy-crafty kind of person. I love to create everything from tie-dyed shirts to embroidered pictures. I’ve tried pretty much every craft out there, including stained glass and hand throwing pottery on a wheel. I LOVE to create. However, I can’t draw worth a crap. At the beginning of the pandemic, I bought myself a watercolor set and an acrylics set and just allowed myself to play. This is one of the paintings I made and I love it.

Thing 4: Jack’s Note

Over the years, Jack has always been the kid who has made me little notes and pictures. One day a few years ago, he found a piece of wrapping paper and wrote this note on the back of it: To Mom. I love you so much. I like your hard work.” He painstakingly sounded out each word and carefully wrote each letter. Sure, some of the words are spelled wrong and he was a little loose with his capitalization and punctuation. But it is absolute perfection to my momma-heart.

Being a full time working mom is hard — I want to be awesome at my job and I want to be awesome at being a mom. I added Jack’s note to a photo frame with some pretty backing paper and it hangs right over my desk.

Thing 5: My Relaxation Corner

Each morning before I turn on my laptop for yet another day of pandemic inspired teleworking, I have a little ritual. I light a nice smelling candle and settle in with a cup of coffee, before attacking the emails that came in since I had logged off. If it’s a super stressful day, or I’m on a call where I have to keep my cool… you’ll probably find me with one of the little shells or rocks in my hand. Just smoothing it like a worry-stone. My friend sent me the llama-corn planter, but the plant that came in it is long gone. I recently bought a couple new ones… and they’re still alive. So yay!

Thing 6: All the Craft Organization

As I previously mentioned, I love being creative. This bookshelf is basically my home version of Michael’s. Do you want some embroidery floss to use for cross-stitching? Yup, got it. How about some super soft yarn to knit a blanket? Yup. Some jewelry making supplies? Some fabric paints? A metal stamping set? Glitter? Yup. Yup, Yup, and Hell Yup! Not only do I have a little bit of everything, it’s all organized and labeled so I can find whatever I need. So whenever inspiration strikes, I’m ready to create!