Here in Nova Scotia, we’ve been physical distancing/social distancing/self-isolating/sheltering in place since March 16. It blows my mind that we’ve been at this “new normal” for almost 2 months now. I cannot tell you where those days have gone. If I thought I was at all busy in the months and days before all of this, I feel 100x busier now. I’m not out of the house more than I was then. I have way more time to spend with my beautiful children and technically more time to spend “improving”/”cleaning” my home and all of that. My BRAIN is busy though. I’m still restless. I feel like I have almost no time alone.

For a while there, we seemed to find a pretty good groove. I think we were really optimistic for a bit. The girls pulled out a bunch of the toys they hadn’t played with for years. We had tons of workbooks to work on, tried a bunch of new online educational sites, went on tons of family bike rides, and balanced working from home with parenting, etc. THEN at-home school started, and my job changed significantly. Trying to teach two children (in French immersion) at home on computers is beyond challenging. We have yet to finish all of the “assigned” work for any of the weeks, which isn’t a big deal at all because they are just suggestions. We went through about 3-4 REALLY busy, tiring, difficult weeks in which I blinked and the day was over, but I couldn’t remember what I’d even done. I could never really keep my eyes open well past 8 pm, but I forced myself to stay up and have some alone time til 9:30-10 pm. I stopped wanting to video chat with anyone. I was just TOO tired, too overwhelmed, and it was all just a bit too much.

Now we are back to figuring things out a little more. My work is returning to a new normal in one aspect and I’m getting used to one of the other aspects that was BRAND NEW to me a few weeks ago. Brian’s work has leveled out a bit instead of being super stressful every single day. We’ve had a couple of sunny days. There is hope on the horizon that we might see our families soonish not just from their driveway. Maybe. I hope? I am dying to cuddle with my baby nephew again – maybe by the time he turns 1 in August? We also had to cancel our trip out west because my brother postponed his wedding to next summer. This was the hugest blow yet even though we anticipated it. We haven’t seen him in 2 1/2 years and it feels really devastating after we’d been looking forward to it for 18 months. The girls are feeling that big-time.

Anyway, that’s all that’s really new here. Canada and Nova Scotia, in particular, have handled all of this well, in my opinion. I am proud of my province. I am proud of the kindness people have shown to each other in the wake of the unthinkable tragedies that have occurred during Covid-19 times (see here and here if you haven’t heard on the news where you live). Here are a few fun pictures from our last few months:

So, what’s new with you? Linking up with my amazing KRISTEN belatedly for her What’s New link up!!!