How are you really handling this?  Like seriously, are you being honest with yourself  and your feelings right now and in the past weeks?  Or are you burying your head in the sand?

I have my good days where I feel on top of it.  Like the laundry is all caught up, kids aren’t fighting over school work or with each other, my sense of dread that my husband will contract COVID that day is not as high as most days, dinner is prepped, I organized another section of the house, positives thoughts fill my head that my business will bounce back from this, etc.

Then I have my bad days.  The days when I truly do not give a crap the laundry is an overflowing mountain, that the kids aren’t reading as much AR as I have them scheduled to do, I don’t make my bed or even have a plan for dinner.  I just want to sit and wallow in my own self pity because the world is an even scarier place right now, my business that I have sacrificed so much to grow the last 5 years is now sitting idle, and that very day, may just be the day that my husband contracts COVID at work.

I have subscribed for a while to the blog, Finding Joy and she gets really real sometimes in her messages and many days that’s what exactly what I needed to hear.  She recently wrote a blog titled Lessons from Isolation and it was as if I had it told her my thoughts and she blogged them.  Please click the link and read for yourselves too, I bet her words will speak to many of you.  Also sign up to follow her blog, she writes so many that are very relatable, especially to moms and wives.  

My biggest take aways from that days blog was in needed reminders of things I knew deep down but never wanted to give myself the grace to feel or deal with. 

Give yourself and others Grace.  It’s okay if we have bad days where we are wearing the same leggings as yesterday and dinner is a frozen meal from the deep freezer.  It’s okay if you want to sit and binge your favorite tv show and eat from your secret chocolate stash after everyone goes to bed.  It’s okay if the click list person isn’t the peppiest when you pick up your order, they may be have been yelled at by a previous customer or are worried about their own health.  Just offer a smile and tell them to have a nice day and stay safe.  It’s okay if your friends don’t return texts quickly, maybe they just do not feel like chatting that day.

What is really important in life.  Truly I think this topic will end up being a whole blog in itself at some point, but it’s shown, not just me, but everyone in the house, that we truly have everything we need right here under our own roof.  From food, be thankful for what you have in the pantry and eat it even if it is a weird meal idea.  This has been the best time to eat all those random foods you have in the back of the pantry. Clothes, be thankful you have comfy warm comfy clothes to lounge around in.  Love, be thankful that you have a warm loving safe home to be in because too many are not that fortunate.    

Hold on to that Hope, that tomorrow and each day to come, will get better.  This one is so hard for me.  I know we still have not had the worst of this horrible virus, but each morning when I’m watching the birds and squirrels out my home office window (I have hit old lady status and love watch them almost every morning), and notice how much my peony is growing and coming back to life after being eaten into the dirt by deer last fall, hope is a word that comes to mind.  That there is a smidgen of hope that things will get better and we can come back out of this “COIVD19 dirt”, stand tall and feel safe in the outside world again.

Find something to be thankful for each day.  Even if it’s something little like your coffee tastes great today or your kids put their laundry away without you asking them.  

What are you thankful for today? 

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Cover photo captured by Autumn Branscome Photography in Princeton WV