Stress Awareness Month

While doing my daily ritual of perusing social media, I noticed a post that mentioned National Stress Awareness Month (it was a Crayola ad LOL). I did a google to see if this was a thing and turns out, it is. Stress Awareness Month has been held every April since 1992. During the month, healthcare professionals and experts across the country do their part to raise awareness about the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.

How fascinating that it coincides with this pandemic.

Now, as of last Friday, I am officially furloughed until further notice. As stressed as I was at work, I just feel this deep deep sadness. Sadness for the state of the world. Sadness for our country (oh good God, don't get me started on what has been taking place across our country recently). Sadness for all the sick people and their families. Sadness for all the people hurting right now. Sadness over the absolute uncertainty of everything. Just sad. I know this is all temporary, and as a very wise and very good friend of mine keeps reminding me, we can do anything temporarily. THIS is temporary. THIS will not last forever. I don't know what the new normal will be like when everything gets back up and running, but I do know that every single one of us HAS to do our part right now to keep us safe to get to that new version of normal in the future. Stay home. Temporarily. Keep you and your loved ones safe. Your hair will only be wonky temporarily. Our lawns will only be overgrown temporarily. Your boats will still be there when this is done. This is a horrible situation that is no one person's fault. No one wanted this. Not one single person. As another very wise and very good friend of mine keeps saying, we are all victims of corona.

Hang in there a little longer. Please. It's so hard to disregard these rules and regulations if you aren't seeing how bad things are first hand and if you aren't personally affected by the virus. Believe me, it's bad. It's excruciating and heartbreaking and I have had more than one person I know experience tragedy from it. So please, sit tight a little longer. Stay home and bake bread a little longer. Enjoy the time with your families a little longer. Consider yourselves lucky if you haven't experienced any heartache from this and remind yourself this is temporary.

Other things!

- Jeff suggested we have a movie night with Charley last weekend and hang out on our new pull-out couch in the living room for the evening. Charley chose the movies and we had popcorn (courtesy of me and my trusty Whirly-Pop) and soft pretzels (courtesy of Eastern Standard Provisions) and Coca Cola. We had a lovely time watching Onward with Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, as well as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (C's pick. No kidding). So fun to watch an old timey movie with Chuck and see him truly enjoying it and belly laughing at it. Made me happy.

- You guys, the cast of Chuck got together last Friday and did a live virtual table read of one of their episodes (Chuck Vs. The Beard) and it was DELIGHTFUL. I cannot even express how fantastic it was. I smiled so much that it made my face hurt. They raised money for a good cause but also threw a ton of happiness out there to a lot of people who haven't experienced any in a long time. Here's the link if you have an hour to kill and miss that show as much as I do: Chuck Vs. The Beard

- Confession: I am more comfortable in jeans than I am in leggings. I keep seeing a lot of memes about people quarantining in jeans and that there must be something wrong with us. Truth is, I feel real weird in leggings. They make me feel like I am naked. So, I stick with my jeans. After all, I am truly a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal.

- We painted our living room and hallway. We wanted to do this before we even moved in but there was a huge catastrophe with the moving company (they cancelled on us while we were waiting for them to arrive) and it just never happened. We ran out of time and motivation. Well, we have had lots of time, so we got it done and I love it so much. We will start on Charley's room sometime this week.

- While Charley and I were taking Bryn for a walk yesterday, we saw a drive by birthday parade for one of our neighbors. It was about 10 cars long and they were all honking and had signs and bullhorns and it was just the coolest thing. A few of them shouted to us how much they loved Bryn and that made me smile so much, which eventually lead to me tearing up and starting to cry because you guys, I am just an emotional wreck these days, but mostly it made me cry because it makes my heart so happy to see people go out of their way to make other people happy. Charley promptly rolled his eyes and told me to knock it off, while laughing at me, of course.

- Does anyone else find it strange when you have to do normal, every day life things these days? Like doing laundry, or paying bills or studying for a test? Life is so not normal right now, so it is so bizarre to me when I have to do something that used to be so mundane before. Now it seems odd.

- Circling back around to National Stress Awareness Month, there is an account on instagram called The Quarantine Coloring Book that different artists from all over contribute to and you can print the pages out and do what you want with them. I printed a few out for Chuck and myself.

Anyone have any good recipes for peanut butter that they want to throw my way?
Anyone have any good book suggestions that they want to throw my way?

I hope you are all managing okay and staying safe and taking care of yourselves. No matter how dark your days get and how sad you get about our current situation, please remember that this is only temporary and that by staying home, we are preventing things from getting worse in the future. Cook something great, bake something fantastic, color, write, read, exercise, play a game, facetime or house party your friends and family. Do whatever you need to do to keep yourselves entertained and keep the stress at bay. I'm the first to admit that I am all over the place with this-- and that is okay too. Have a good cry (it's so therapeutic!), be sad, be mad.

Just stay home.

Excoriation

If there were a contest for world’s best picker, (face, lips, fingers) I would win the gold medal. Ever since I was a kid, I have picked my lip and my fingers. Relatives and close friends/coworkers constantly telling me to stop. Most of the time I don’t even realize I’m doing it. I always thought it was just a habit at the very least, or at most, a nervous thing. After doing some research on the google (and everything on the internet is true, you guys), it turns out that this is an honest to goodness condition. Excoriation, also referred to as chronic skin-picking or dermatillomania (say that ten times fast) is characterized by repeated picking at ones own skin. It is commonly related to obsessive compulsive disorder and mental illness. Apparently 1 in 40 people have this (or body-focused repetitive behaviors).

Almost 40 years old and I find out my thing is an ACTUAL THING. Which totally explains why these days I absolutely cannot stop picking my face. My skin does not like having to wear masks all day every day while at work and I don’t like that my skin doesn’t like it and so round and round we go in this stupid circle. I’m trying to stop it, but you know- stress. 

Real quick rant: 

Our neighbor keeps having his buddies over to drink beer and stand around his campfire. They attempt to stand 6 feet apart. I guess I appreciate the effort, but do you know how frustrating it is to work all day at a medical facility, wearing a mask, wearing gloves, sanitizing my hands and everything around me 447 times throughout the day, worrying if I’m bringing something home to my family, only to see my neighbors not obeying the whole stay at home order? It’s so frustrating. It’s like a slap in the face to all essential workers. It needs to stop. 

Please stay home. 

Dudes, just stay home! 

End rant. 

Happy things!

• John Krasinski’s Some Good News show on YouTube. He’s been uploading new episodes Sunday evenings. I adore him and them. They make me SO happy. 

Some Good News

• Joanna Gaines has a new cookbook! I cannot wait to get it because I love her. I have her first cookbook and it’s so so good. One day I will go to Texas and visit all of hers and Chip’s businesses and drink coffee and eat cookies at their bakery. Magnolia Table, volume 2

• Zach Braff and Donald Faison have a new Scrubs rewatch podcast! Fake Doctors, Real Friends

• Reese’s peanut butter eggs. All day, every day!

• Shipt!! I cannot thank those Shipt shoppers enough. We placed an order for groceries last Saturday around 1130pm and it arrived Monday evening around 730pm. My shopper was so great. She communicated with me and dropped all the bags off on the porch and then let me know when she was done. So so great. 

• Vanilla sweet cream cold brew from Starbucks. It’s so good and the closest thing to an iced fudge ripple that I’ve been able to find. 

• Lego Masters- Wednesdays at 9pm on Fox. Will Arnett is the host and it’s a lot of fun and he makes me laugh. The finale is next week! Lego Masters

• Charley started watching LOST and refers to Locke as “the magic grandpa” LOL

Try to have a happy Easter weekend, everyone. A lot of people are missing traditions and family dinners and brunches. A lot of people are going through a really hard time for one reason or another right now. Try to make whatever you end up doing memorable and fun and full of love! I’m going to attempt to make my parents chicken paprikash recipe. It was my favorite as a kid and I’m a little nervous about it. It could end up being a disaster or maybe it will be delightful! There’s always chocolate to fall back on if it turns out real gross. Ha!

Anyway, still trying real hard to stay positive. Writing here helps a bit, so if you enjoy reading my blatherings or if you’ve tried some of my suggestions or enjoyed yourself some Reese’s peanut butter eggs, I just want to say thank you. Clearly, it is a really awful time and we are all processing it in different ways and I truly appreciate you all bearing with me and my ranting. One of these days my posts will be filled with ALL happy things. Until then, we will get through this by staying home and trying to help each other. 

Also, tell me how to stop picking! K, thanks!

Give me some good things happening in your lives!

Perspective

I know a lot of people struggle with anxiety. Some of you may not know this, but Charley has struggled with it for a very long time. It’s so extreme at times that it practically paralyzes him when he’s in the moment. He has been learning coping mechanisms over the last few years and seeing a therapist (whom he adores) but through trying to help him readjust his ways of thinking, I’ve had to consider the fact that a lot of the anxiety he feels could be because he’s feeding off of me. I’ve never been one to have panic attacks but lord, I  have seen plenty of the people I love experience them. I’ve gotten pretty good at trying to bring some calm and quiet to those that have come to me when they’re anxious but I am realizing that while I may not have panic attacks, I have been living in a constant state of anxiousness. Maybe that’s the new norm these days? 

It’s been a weird week this week (but really, what isn’t weird these days?). I’ve had to really take a look at myself and try to figure out why/how I’m responding to this whole situation. I know there is so much right now that we cannot control, so I have been trying my damndest to let things happen as they’re going to but I don’t think I’m doing as good of a job with that as I originally thought. I think I’ve bottled up a lot of my fears and worries and anxieties and that’s probably not the best thing. I’ve been thinking of the worst possible outcomes for everything when I should probably be focusing on the positives. It’s easier said than done. There aren’t a ton of positives in the world right now, but maybe if we (*I*) try to focus on a few each day then it will make the trudge through this pandemic a little easier? I don’t know. Maybe it won’t, but it’s worth a try??

Last weekend I was whining to Jeff about the weather. I told him it felt like the universe was punishing us by giving us crappy weather when our only outlet was to go for a walk outside. His response? “Maybe it’s the universes way of trying to keep us safe and telling us we need to stay in our homes”. It’s all about perspective, people. You and only you are in charge of the way you see and comprehend a situation. You can choose to look at the negatives (much like I have been doing lately) or you can choose to see some good. Any good at all and it makes a world of difference. 

Some things making me happy right now:

• SUNSHINE! You guys. It is GORGEOUS outside today. 

• Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

 I love this show so much. Every time it ends I say to Jeff, “I love this show. It’s going to get canceled”. It is so funny and clever and heartwarming and just plain entertaining. Shows that are rich in all of those things usually don’t last for very long. It reminds us a lot of a show we used to watch in 2008 called Eli Stone, that only lasted 2 short seasons. If you are a fan of singing and cleverness and Lauren Graham, check it out. Also, Jane Levy, the star of the show, is phenomenal. 

• I ordered a new coloring book from Amazon. It’s a Beatles one. I’m very excited to start working on it. 

•This video of a little girl trying not to hurt her mom’s feelings made Charley and I laugh so hard. We watched it about 47 times in a row last night. 

• Potbelly has introduced something called Potbelly Pantry where you can buy their meats, breads, cheeses etc to make your own meals at home. You can order and pick it up or they will deliver it. I thought that was really neat. 

• A few people have posted about making a COVID Time Capsule. I think it’s such a neat idea. Here’s the link to the one circulating: time capsule,or I suppose you could get real creative and make your own from scratch?? I’m going to make Charley do one with me. I’ll post it later. 

• Charley and I started playing Animal Crossing. I haven’t gotten to do too much with it just yet but I will play more this weekend. (I made a succulent though and I was very happy about that!)

• Reese’s peanut butter eggs 

• Seeing my dog lay in the sun again

• We saw a bunny on our walk today! When we lived on Camden, our street was FULL of bunnies. We would count them every night we took a walk. We miss that about our old house. We were thrilled to see a bunny hop in front of us this afternoon! 

• When I was in high school I used to write in a journal every night. Every. Single. Night. It was so helpful and therapeutic for me. It helped me get through a lot of hard times. Now would be a great time to start journaling. There’s so many different ways to do it nowadays; good ol’ fashioned writing, blogging (ha!), bullet journaling, or you could even download a journal app (which I ended up doing and really like). 

• If you feel like helping your healthcare workers and doctors and nurses out, you can donate food or snacks or care packages to them while they’re working. I know they would appreciate the love and support. You can send cards and letters to patients admitted into the hospitals and you could do the same for your seniors in assisted living and nursing homes. Put some smiles on people’s faces. Everyone could use a smile these days. 

A few questions:

Teacher friends and family, with school being more or less canceled for the remainder of the year, how can we help our kids?? I’m struggling hardcore with this right now. How do I get my kid back on a routine of daily learning when I am not a lesson planner (and I still have to go to work every day)? What are some good advice, tips for us that we can do? Right now I am just trying to get Charley to check his school email every day without giving me an eye roll and a heavy sigh. (Tweens are FUN!)

• What is everyone doing to stay entertained these days? How are you coping with your stress/anxiety? What are you cooking?? What are you baking?? What has been your favorite quarantine snack so far??