Week 3 of Social Distancing -- A message from my RETREAT!

Hello, fellow #socialdistancing WARRIORS!

How are things going? I don’t think anyone would maintain that this period of social isolation and, frankly, some degree of FEAR (of the unknown, of getting sick, of losing a loved one, of financial instability) is EASY. It’s far from it.

Like many of you, I’ve now been tasked with supervising our child’s education. While I’m so thankful that our school district has been proactive and rapidly responsive to our new “normal”, I never IN A MILLION YEARS thought I would be homeschooling! Bliss has been on top of things so far, but I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for homeschooling in the comments. I find that the dogs are super helpful…

We been working to maintain a schedule — though, to be honest, we are drinking way more wine than usual (and that’s saying something!) If anyone is driving the 110 miles to the nearest Costco, let me know — though you will likely need a trailer for the cases of wine we need. We’ve also been watching a lot of Netflix and VUDU (we just finished season 3 of The Crown and are at various points in Queer Eye, The West Wing and Next in Fashion). Any other must-sees?

Bedtimes are also a thing of the past. We stay up late, sleep in, linger over coffee and then start the day.

Usually, we begin with a workout (HELLO, P.E.!) Brad skips ours and does his at lunchtime, unless it’s a family hike. Our workout may be an at-home cross-training/strength mashup. Bliss and I both like using a deck of cards to guide our workout (spades might be ball slams; clubs could be kettle-bell swings; diamonds, lunges; hearts, crunches, etc. — aces are always some sort of cardio sprint and those pesky jokers always mean 10 burpees). On other days, I’ll go for a run outside while our sweet daughter “walks Grammy” (my mom, who is 75 and lives alone) while maintaining a safe 6-foot distance, or enjoy a yoga practice (usually joined by wrestling dogs) or a hike on one of the many scenic trails within a short drive. Yoga Today is a great resource for about any sort of yoga or Pilates practice you may want — plus, they offer a free 14-day trial, and most of their classes are filmed outside with the Tetons as a backdrop! www.yogatoday.com

A recent hike in the McCullough Peaks east of town. The panoramic views of mountain ranges are extraordinary from up high.

Brad already at work in the solitude of his downtown office, I head up to the home studio to work on design projects and other stuff, and Bliss starts her schoolwork. We usually eat lunch together, clean up at some point (I haven’t touched a blow-drier in weeks, and I’ve put on minimal makeup exactly TWICE— and my hormonal skin is looking amazing, likely due to the lack of makeup AND a fabulous product line I’ll talk about in a Things We Love! post later this week or so). We may do a bit more work, tidy up the house or have a little nap (oh right, that’s only me) — and then cook dinner together.

Our house is more clean and organized than it’s EVER been, the guest bedroom has been rearranged, artwork has been sent to Framebridge for some long over-due framing, and some lingering projects (including spray-painting an antique valet stand glossy red) have been taken care of.

Right now, I’m loving the time in our home. This morning, author Elizabeth Gilbert was the guest on a live TED Connects episode. She talked about a lot of things, but it really resonated with me when she suggested we reframe our thinking around our current situation, whether it be social distancing, lock-down or full-on quarantine — instead of dwelling on the isolation, she suggests we view it as RETREAT. Ahh, I like the sound of that much better — and our clean, light-filled, happy place truly does feel like a retreat right now.

According to the website, “TED Connects: Community and Hope is a free, live, daily conversation series featuring experts whose ideas can help us reflect and work through this uncertain time with a sense of responsibility, compassion and wisdom.” The archived version of Liz Gilbert’s talk isn’t up yet, but there are other great conversations you can access in the meantime. TED Connects

Please share what you’re doing to cope with social distancing in the comments below. Over the coming days and weeks, I’ll be sharing what we’re reading, cooking, and dreaming about — as well as new discoveries that we don’t know how we lived without. Stay tuned!

And, until then, take good care of yourselves and each other. LOVE!