So far Shawn and I have been lucky. We don’t know anyone who’s health has been seriously affected by Covid-19. We both still have our jobs, and are working from our home office (an old table and one of our dining room chairs we squeezed into our bedroom). We have everything we need and more and feel grateful as there so many families who have been severely affected, hoping to get through to unemployment or waiting in long lines at food banks.

Some downsides include that we are in the epicenter of this pandemic, in New York City. Which is scary for us at times, but mostly for our friends and family living in other parts of the country who are worried about all of us. We live in a 1,200sqft apartment without any personal outside space. Shawn and I are by no means considered essential workers, so we don’t have our (fantastic, wonderful, amazing)nanny coming. No one can be in the kitchen without Samson wanting to be in there as well.

So those are our huge upsides and less-huge downsides to how we are holding up.

Let’s go back to the upsides, shall we? Here’s what’s helping:

1.

Shawn and I have been super, overly nice and supportive. We ask the other one if they need some time, want to use the bedroom to work or workout, offer to cook, etc., all the time. We are certainly spending more time together than ever, and have loads of problems (i.e. cranky, bored kids) all day and we don’t need any more!

2.

We have upped the toys/crafts at our in-home daycare we have going on now.

A few of Juliette’s favorites include this critter treehouse from my parents, Elsa/Anna/Barbie dolls, and a very nice tea set that Samson also likes and keeps breaking the pieces (little brothers are what’s up am I right?). Samson’s ukelele has stayed a tried and true favorite, he loves Juliette’s old Leap Frog fake computer, and lift-the-flap books like this or this. They will both play together with this amazing Porcupine Pop game a friend recommended and playing aggressively in this not-cute (but folds well and stashes away easily) castle.

We also bought an easel that has gone unused and a few other duds we plan on putting in our building’s playroom when this is over!

3.

You might be asking, but what about you Hollyn? And I say “hell yeah, let’s talk about me”. Honestly, I think Shawn is handling this better than I am. I’m more of an extrovert and really miss tequila-soda-with-a-splash-of-pineapple nights out with my friends and meeting Shawn in Manhattan after work for drinks and dinner. We did a lot of double dates and weekends away with friends (including everyone’s kids, sometimes 5 or more!) which I really miss. But. I’ve been zooming with friends, Facetiming with family, and learning to crochet (just kidding I have almost zero personal time and will be doing no self-improvement).

I have been shopping a bit. The Anine Bing 25% off sale is pretty major so I bought some things. I love love love my new Nuface and wish I would have bought it sooner (Kathleen Jennings has the best how-to video!). I have been sleeping in the Pixie eye patches from Target and they 100% help with my undereye circles. I don’t know how but they just work. We are not Amazon people, but I had a hard time finding sweatpants in-stock anywhere and turned to Amazon in a desperate moment and I really love these sweatpants so much that I ordered another color. We also ordered this bad-ass coffee/cappuccino/frother machine and I’ll report back on if we like it!

4.

Me time is hard to come by, and although it sounds crazy I’ve been waking up early and watching old episodes of Girls, texting one of my best friends that is in a later timezone in Amsterdam, and most mornings I’m working out and catching up with some RHONY. Working out in the living room isn’t for everyone, but I like it! I save videos I like to a Pinterest board, and lately, I’ve been doing a lot of weights because I feel like I get all the cardio I need pushing my kids in the stroller in the park or picking up their toys/food/clothes/crafts/them allllll day long.

5.

One other thing that’s helped is helping where we can. Getting takeout from our favorite restaurants that are open, or contributing to the go fund me accounts of those that aren’t, and finding other local places that need help like the Food Bank of New York City. Again, we are lucky we have the funds to give away right now, and if you do too, even $5 here $10 there helps!

Stay safe everyone.

xx

Hollyn