What Ana Does

I watched Netflix's new series Bridgerton during my evening walks on the treadmill in the basement and whew! what a series! I was a very dedicated walker during the week I watched it.  And it does fill me with a certain amount of glee when a romance novel goes mainstream. As a dedicated romance reader, and lover of historical romance, especially, I get excited to welcome new fans to the party!  Because, yup, I totally read several of the books in the Bridgerton series. Julia Quinn isn't my favorite romance author, so I didn't finish it. But I'm really happy to watch the series, taken in a far more colorful and inventive direction -- with a queen! -- and see where it goes.  If I remember right, Anthony's story was better than Daphne's, so we have much to look forward to!  Interested in reading Regency/Victorian-era romance? Sarah MacLean and Lisa Kleypas are my all-time favorite authors in this genre. The Wallflowers and Ravanels' series are soo good. And Sar...

It's time! Let's buy a new house.  We've been talking and thinking about this move for so many months, that it seems crazy that it's FINALLY time to DO something, but it is.  So last weekend, when we were really supposed to be safe at home, we packed up the kids and flew to Philadelphia to drive around the Bucks County towns we have been investigating all these many weeks.  And while we're gone, our realtor is going to jump on the opportunity to take pictures of our house for the listing (GAH)! So much happening all at once! Let's start with flying during a pandemic; We haven't been on a plane for the last year and, while the empty planes and non-crowded airports is nice, it's still anxiety-inducing and not all that fun.  We took all the precautions -- double masked, washed hands, wipes and hand sanitizer. We kept a distance with others and I think we did pretty well. Though, I would NOT recommend anyone travel, unless totally necessary. I was a bundle o...

I haven't made it into a salon since early 2020, so my hair was long, heavy and style-less. Most of the time, it was going directly from shower into a bun.  Time for a BIG CHOP!  BEFORE:  And AFTER:  And I got 8inches + off, so I can donate it to charity. I found this one: Children With Hair Loss that will take my hair -- even with a few strands of gray! So off my little ponytails go ...  and I feel about 20lbs lighter! 

As a family, we are devoted to bringing reusable bags to the grocery store -- every time. It's a practice we started WAYYYY back when we were living in New Jersey, continued in France (where a plastic bag is not free) and we've gotten pretty good about remembering each time we go. (Checklist: grocery list, phone, sunglasses, bags).  And yes, I look down my nose at people walking out of the grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags. It's so wasteful, horrible for the Earth and bringing your own is stupid SIMPLE, people.  BUT, with this pandemic, grocery stores are not allowing use of reusable bags for fear of spreading germs from home. I'm fine with that. But I'm NOT OK with using plastic bags.  We get by with refusing a bag, when it's just a few items. Or requesting paper bags, which are a far more sustainable choice. Most are made of recycled paper, are easily recycled or reused around the house.  But let's discuss the reality of the situation. It...

We miss three things the most in the pandemic world: travel, restaurants and seeing BIG movies in the movie theater. Otherwise, we're pretty content (on most day) with staying in and keeping our community safe.  BUT the travel thing is a real big bummer. We love to travel as a family (obviously) and the WANDERLUST is a thing.  We can order from our favorite restaurants for pickup. And we can watch movies at home, in the dark basement while eating popcorn and approximate a theater experience. But there's not much we can do to fake a trip to London. Or Hawaii.  Then ... my older sister told me about her cool NordicTrack treadmill with iFit that uses videos of trainers in locations all over the world and you VIRTUALLY run along with them. The best part ... there's an app! So I don't have the fancy treadmill that will adjust to the trainer's speed (I have to automatically adjust the speed) BUT I can follow along on the video using the iFit app  on my iPad.   ...

Our home office has been a bit of a wreck since we moved back from Paris. A catch-all room. But then we started working from home in March and this room has been in a state of PROGRESS. David used it. Than, he moved to the basement, and I've been using it. We moved the chaise in here for the dogs to nap and watch the neighborhood -- it's everyone's room.  Once the decision was made to distance learn, we had a family discussion on where the girls wanted to work. After last Spring's experience, the dining room or kitchen was out of the picture. Too messy. We quickly identified the office as the optimal place (the first of there several options) so they're close to me, for guidance and questions while I'm working from home, and they're away from distractions in their rooms. The desks in their rooms would play an alternate roll, once they got up and running successfully and needed a fresh location. Options are good.  It was also the perfect opportunity to clear ...

In our normal days, I wear a lot of hats. Mom, worker, wife, dog mom, house caretaker, etc. And I usually get transition time to change my hat.  I start work in the morning and I'm constantly interrupted by dogs, family members, the kitchen dishes (who mock me when they're piled up in the sink). My house projects, the laundry, my book, the beautiful weather, they all fight for my attention. And I barely had focus before this all started, but now that focus time is under a few minutes.  When I'm working, I'm always keeping an eye on the dogs, the kids, the house. And no amount of hiding or wearing earphones or trying to concentrate on one thing ever works. I always get pulled away to something else.  I'm a multi-tasker at heart, but it's exhausting to multitask as many things as I have been while everyone is home. I find places to disappear when I need to re-charge, but some days it's just too much.  And there are only so many hats I can wear on any given day...

It's not the summer we were planning but the kids are off of school and the weather is getting warmer. So, it still counts as summer.  Bring on the quarantine summer 2020! 

Entering our third month of quarantine and there are certainly things I'm liking and disliking. ⤊Curbside Shopping - I just order something (Micheal's for crafts, Pet Supplies Plus for dog stuff, etc.) and I pull up to the store, call them, and they deliver my order in my trunk. No interaction. No awkward checkout conversation. Bam. It's dynamite! ⤋ Grocery Shopping - We'd rather reserve the online grocery pickup options for high-risk groups, such as the elderly, so we're making a big grocery shop once a week -- usually on weekends since we're both working full time. I dread these trips. People in masks, some in gloves and more, avoiding eye contact, this hollow look of the apocalypse in their faces. Gah. It's unsettling. Once the initial panic subsided, and there was no sign of a real food shortage (at least in our area), the experience has gotten better. But it's still a stressful trip. ⤄ Working From Home  - Juggling is really the name of the ...

It was around mid-March that we were sent away from the office and asked not to return. Staffers who could work from home, were shipped off to do so. I grabbed all that I could and haven't been back to my office space. Since working from home, I'd been sitting in a corner of my dining room table. The location made sense because: a) the girls did school work on the other corner of the table, so I was there for help and to keep them on task. b) Dave took the office and spends most of his days on conference calls with the doors closed. And c) I could keep an eye on the dogs and all the other activity going on in the house. But lastly d) I could look out the window at my backyard. Sigh. It worked for awhile but, lately, I've been finding that I get UP so many times through the day (see the list above and it's easy to understand why). And getting myself resettled each time was annoying. And now my hours are increasing, so I really needed to figure out a more permanent sp...