This is Quarantine. A Look at Our New Normal

Hi, my name’s Nicole & it’s been 40 days since my last human interaction.

Thankfully that’s not entirely true, but in all seriousness, I can’t tell you how grateful I am for my husband and fur babe during these uncertain times. I’ve cherished these past few first weeks of marriage together in our tiny one bedroom apartment & couldn’t be more thankful that we are healthy. For far too many people, the word healthy carries so much weight. I keep hearing stories from friends of friends or neighbors who’ve been struck by corona virus and it keeps getting closer & closer to home. My heart breaks for anyone who’s been affected in some way from this pandemic. Whether it’s been through illness, you’re a healthcare provider on the frontlines, you’ve lost a job or have financial uncertainty, we all feel this.

Our new normal.

Both Richie & I have been working from home for a little over a month now. What’s that look like? The first week was glorious and by the end of the second week, we fell into a routine and each had our own ‘space’ in the apartment that we liked best for our makeshift office. By the third and fourth week, Jake was in heaven having us home, but the work load was real, the lack of enthusiasm to complete the work was increasing, and even more real than that, working off of a laptop for 8+ hours kind of sucks. The silver-lining: we’re beyond grateful to both be employed, our laundry basket is nearly empty at all times and we have each other!

Finding the sunshine in a sea of clouds and looking on the bright side.

This time in quarantine has made me slow down to focus on what matters most in life. It’s not about what ‘cool’ thing you did on the weekend or about the number of likes your Instagram photo gets. It’s about love and relationships and telling people that you care about how much they mean to you every chance you can because life is so precious. It’s the small, beautiful, simple moments that give our lives meaning. The can’t stop laughing at your spouse because he’s singing a Disney song at the top of his lungs & the spur of the moment dancing in the kitchen just because - it’s those moments we live for and I’m so thankful to have these endless days together as a sweet reminder.

Between the emails and Zoom calls, Richie & I love to take little breaks to play with Jake and go for walks around our neighborhood. We’ve also been enjoying conversations of what our future together looks like and dream of the days we’ll be able to welcome our family and friends to the newly-dubbed Westerlind home. With extended stay-in-place orders, we’ve also had to come to terms that our dream honeymoon won’t be happening anytime soon. That sunshine I mentioned? Although we may not be going to Africa when we thought we would be, we’ll get there one day & the best part: we’ll be able to fully enjoy it - no masks or gloves necessary!

Until then, we’ll be here, at home enjoying those little moments.

XO, Nicole *while snuggling with Jake after morning coffee & wearing PJs on a conference call