Hello friends! If you are in the states, Happy Memorial Day.

We have the day off today, which is so nice. I don’t know what to do with all this unstructured time. I simultaneously want to do all the things and do nothing. I realized that I hadn’t had a proper day off (not counting weekends) since the Christmas holidays my trip to San Francisco in February, so this is really nice. Of course, there is a lot of guilt, too. The week started off very nicely (compliments from coworkers, yay!) but finished with a sputter (didn’t get to finish everything on my list, which leads me down a worry spiral of LETTING EVERYONE DOWN). I know I need this time to refresh because I was starting to feel burned out – but it’s also hard to have time off without some guilt, if I’m being honest.

Things are opening back up in Indiana. Our community swimming pool opened yesterday (WHICH SEEMS LIKE A BAD IDEA, but no one asked me), retail shops and restaurants are open with limited capacities, etc. After nearly 70 days in quarantine, I’ve built a routine. Workouts in the morning, work by 9:15 am. Zoom trivia with the friends Friday nights. Virtual drum lessons Saturday morning, followed by a weekly hike for my sanity. Virtual Italian lessons Sunday morning. (Outside of trivia, these were all things I was already doing before quarantine – I don’t think it’s realistic or fair to expect people to develop all these new routines or skills while being quarantined). The idea of returning to work – of being back in Indianapolis proper again and seeing my coworkers – fills me with both joy and dread. The idea of Husband returning to teaching makes my heart pound. So I’m having to approach this the same way I did when back in March, when things were quickly changing day-to-day – just take one day at a time.

I still imagine it will be quite awhile before we feel comfortable shopping or eating out. Right now, our outings are limited to our weekly hikes. I so look forward to these weekly hikes. I can’t tell you how transformative it’s been for my mental health.

I discovered a new park last weekend, with some beautiful river views. Yesterday we returned to an old favorite and did a LONG hike. Apollo had so much fun, and got so muddy 🙂 (Well, we all did. Haha!) The weather here is finally warming up to the 80s, which makes me so happy – but that is the temperature at 3 or 4 pm, so we can go hiking in the afternoons without melting from heat exhaustion. We also saw BABY RACCOONS CLIMBING TREES. I wish I had a better camera to capture it, but it’s a memory I will savor! At the risk of sounding ignorant, I had no idea raccoons climbed trees (or could climb as high as they did!) We saw four or five little babies and my heart exploded.

Here are some photos from our hikes the last couple of weeks! I’m so happy we are near some beautiful parks to explore.

I’ve been pretty scatterbrained while working on creative projects. I’ve been working on garments, but that’s always pretty slow-going for me. The past several days, I’ve found myself drawn towards quicker projects that wouldn’t require any counting or concentration. I have a couple that are close to being finished, but here’s one that I completed recently:

This is a kit from Mollie Makes, designed by Jenny Blair. It’s so cute! I need to find a place to hang it.

Well, I think I’d better do something with this day. Have a great week!