Day 31. A month of quarantine. The longest month…ever in my life. How am I? Well, I don’t really know. How are you?

In ways, I’ve sort of relished this forced slow down. No rushed mornings. A little extra sleep. A lot of extra family time. So much baking. Lots of yummy food. And no errands. None. No calendar to keep track of.

But then there’s the no breaks. None. Ever.

You guys. This morning, a squeezed a workout in, got the little guy onto his morning meeting with his class, made delicious french toast breakfast for the fam, cleaned up the kitchen, and got both boys started with their schoolwork, all with my eyes on sneaking a quick shower. (Ok, fine, the little man was playing LEGOs in his room, but they say that’s excellent for spatial aptitude, and it’s also excellent for mama *actually* getting a shower without a brotherly smackdown ensuing.)

I had 14 minutes from the time I shut the bathroom door until the next virtual meeting I had to log a kid into, so I knew it had to be snappy. I also knew I needed this moment. So I threw my shower cap on and jumped into that steamy heaven in a box.

As the hot water pounded the back of my shower cap I thought “wow, this sounds just like a waterfall!” I chuckled to myself — vacation is obviously long overdue. Before that chuckle even concluded, my brain just jumped straight to “It’s so loud I bet I couldn’t even hear someone screaming (mom…mooooom…MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!) under here.” Relief. So much peace. At some point, I started to wonder whether I’d be able to hear the smoke alarm going off, without really caring one way or another about the answer. And that’s about the time I snapped myself back to reality. If I didn’t end this blissfully deafening silence now, I’d be forced to join a Zoom with 50 children in nothing but a towel, and I don’t even want to think about all the ways that could go wrong.

It’s curious to observe the ways we’re all simultaneously falling apart and holding it together during this bizarre time. There are things that feel so much more sustainable now that I never want to go back to PC (Pre-Corona) and then others that I can’t wait to become ancient history. What are you missing? What are you loving? And where is your unexpected quarantine mini-vacay spot?