Sunsets

The gift of this quarantine -- I LOVE our house and I LOVE our backyard and the amazing greenspace we look out on to....and I love the views from our house. Every night I am mesmerized by the real-life shows of sunset. JUST spectacular. We have the slow pace and the opportunity to view the magic of what may seem like the mundane...the sunset. I sit in my room and just look stunned at the art in front of me. The gift of time to observe.

The last pic is a sign of the times -- matching masks.....Maggie wasn't too impressed.

Mountain Bike Mama

Without sports, Frances is a bit at a loss. She went from practices to 6 days a week...to nothing. She can train on her own...but the gift of time is exploring OTHER things.

Near our house is Forest Park and magical trails.

So.... we bought her an early birthday present of a mountain bike.

SHE LOVES IT.

It is so fun to see her and Mark bond over biking and to explore things she hasn't explored or can't explore all of our sports.

Easter 2020

Well - this Easter was VERY different. No mass, no brunch -- but we have our health.
It was VERY important to Maggie to have an easter egg hunt.
In a distracted, multi-tasking moment, I clicked on multiple orders on Amazon....and accidentily ordered HUGE eggs. The girls and I pivoted and recycled the eggs to be "joy bombs" in the neighborhood filled with Halloween candy :)

Then, Sunday- we had our first ever BIG Easter egg hunt in the backyard, HOMEMADE brunch, listened to mass via a podcast, and played golf.

Pretty amazing.

Pretty thankful.

Inspiration

Two artists for Nike live in our neighborhood and they have created new message so hope and inspiration from their home. I love it. The beauty and grace of this difficult time.

Zoom = Connection

It has been so fascinating to see the connections and ways we have virtually "hugged" each other through Zoom and other means.

Frances has Zoomed her soccer team who lost the rest of their season with their once in a liftetime coaches -- a first world problem - but a loss at that.

My family has actually talked every Sunday. It started out as a way to connect with Katie - who is isolated in NYC as she works- and has evolved as a wonderful way to see and hear each other. We started a new thing where someone gives a lecture. My dad on third world medicine, my brother in law in art. I have just cherished this opportunities to love and learn from each other.

Walks in Quarantine

As I write this, over a half of million people have been infected and are SO sick from COVID-19 and over 35,000 families have endured the heart ache and sadness of suddenly losing someone like I did my brother. My sister - an OBGYN in NYC - has not seen her family in six weeks.

So it feels heartless and somewhat insensitive to talk about the grace of the period.

Life is complex and brutiful - beautiful and brutal.

For us, we have been SO fortunate and with that sheer luck, we have tried to accept the honor of the gift of time together and the gift of Spring in the place we love so dearly and that we call home.

I have so appreciated and valued eating dinner together every night.

I have LOVED the walks in this lovely and amazing town I call home. I treasure more each flower, each sunset and each glimmer of hope.

BEACH - Week 1 of COVID 19 Quarantine

The first week we went to the beach. My parents were not there and we weren't sure if Gordon would need to be at our house when he was discharged from the hospital and we wanted to allow him to be quarantined from the kids. So, for the first time ever, it was me and the kids solo at the beach for a week, until Mark came on the weekend. Mac was confused -- we swore he was nervous Mark and I were getting a divorce. I have to say, I will cherish the memories for the rest of my life. We were fresh in quarantine and still with reserve. The weather was AMAZING and the kids were so flexible with my work schedule and they had no online learning. Our fortune and luck was so clear and I will cherish that week with the kids forever.