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I had intentions of linking up with Kristen yesterday, but like so many things I intend to do, it wasn’t done. You would think that with all this extra time I have at home, I would be getting so many things done right??? NOPE! I swear I am busier now than when I was going to the office every day. Working from home full time with a toddler is not for the faint of hearts.

Now that we are deep into quarantine, it is getting harder for Zoe. She is a little social butterfly, and misses her friends and teachers so much. She cried for them multiple times yesterday. We have some FaceTime playdates set up today, and I am hoping they can be a regular thing for her for the remainder of this.

We have told her that there are a lot of people that are sick right now, and there are a lot of germs going around. That is why schools are shut down and we can’t go anywhere. And she understands that part of it, but doesn’t understand why it is still going on. Same girl, same. A few weeks or a few months doesn’t mean much in toddler time, it is all too long.

We have a really good routine going. We wake up and make breakfast together, get a lesson in. We have some outside play on nice days, or do Just Dance when it is gross outside. We make lunch and eat together, and then I go to my office and work while she plays or colors for about 2 hours. She wont nap anymore, and even fights quiet time in her room…so this is what works best to avoid a huge meltdown. I wake up at 5am to get a workout in and work for a few hours before she wakes up to make up for this. Around 3pm, we get a snack and take a walk or play ball outside. Usually more Just Dance or Youtube kid yoga. Then we make dinner and do our normal night routines. What does your day look like now?

Homeschooling is difficult. So much planning has to go in to keeping it fresh and her interested. I have incorporated lots of crafts to make it more fun and memorable for her. We have gone through all the shapes and have started on letters.

Favorite Neighbors: Some cows showed up last Saturday on the land behind our house. Never thought I would see cows in my backyard, especially not living in the city. But here we are. It is actually pretty cool, but I am worried about the smell in the dead of summer. We have all been fascinated by them daily.

Favorite Purchase: After a week of scouring the internet for an office chair, I pulled the trigger on this beautiful blush one from World Market. I was going to do a navy accent wall in my office, but I think I am just going to paint it Storm from Benjamin Moore because I have an extra can of it sitting here from Zoe’s room.

Favorite Funnies:

How is everyone doing on week two of coronacrazy? I have settled into a good daily routine that keeps me mostly sane. Working from home is significantly harder when you have a little one running around and out of sorts because she misses her teachers and friends. I figured I would hop on the What’s Up Wednesday train this month!

Eating: Chicken. Lots and lots of chicken. It is all our grocery store had when we placed our Shipt order. I am thankful to have any meat at all, so I am not complaining. Its just….chicken gets old after several days of it. No matter how different you “fix” it.

What I haven’t tired of? My spinach, goat cheese and apple salads I eat for lunch every day. Delicious!!! I usually pair it with a couple olives, handful of nuts and a few cream cheese stuffed salami roll ups.

Reminiscing: Places. Any place. I think when this is over, we can all agree that we take every day life for granted way more than we should. It is a privilege to walk around TJ Maxx, Target, the drugstore. To be able to walk into a restaurant and meet up with a group of friends and share laughs over chips and salsa. To wander around the zoo and watch your child light up in amazement. To simply have a play date with a friend on a slow weekend.

Loving: Being in my home office every day has inspired me to get this place in order and decorated. Really it is just a desk and a landing place for random items currently. Including Zoe’s bounce house, which is crucial in times like these…but hopefully not a permanent fixture in here.

I really want to paint the back wall navy, and use coral and gold as accents throughout the space. I am having a hard time deciding what to paint the other three walls though. Suggestions? I am not 100% sold yet.

Been Up To: Pretty much what everyone is up to these days. Traveling around our house, bouncing between the living room, kitchen, Zoe’s room, our yard on nice days. Zoe and I have really taken advantage of the nice weather and have been walking/running around our neighborhood at least daily, sometimes more. I have hit my move and exercise goals every single day.

Dreading: The long term effects that the coronavirus is going to put on our economy, our lives, the small businesses. I have so much anxiety surrounding all of this.

Working On: I have a few things in the works that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Even with more time at home right now, it is hard to find the time and balance to really dedicate to everything. I think once I get the ball rolling though, it will all fall into place.

Excited: I am looking forward to Easter. Now that Zoe is a little older, we can have a fun egg hunt with her. I ordered some stuff from Target that should be coming in today to fill her eggs with. Luckily, I had started getting some dresses and stuff for her last month since we cant go out now to shop! I always get her a few swimsuits each year as well, since she has swim days at school, and we have a pool and water table for her at home.

Watching: While I figured we could get caught up on lots of TV during this time at home, that hasn’t been the case! We are caught up on The Good Doctor, The Resident and Bluebloods right now. We haven’t even watched a single Grey’s since December. We need a good binge day!!!

Reading: What You Wish For by Katherine Center (ARC from Netgalley, will come out in July)

Playing: Lots of Just Dance with Zoe! We play pretty much every day for at least 20-30 minutes. One of Zoe’s favorite songs to dance to on there is Old Towne Road. Last night when we were dancing she belted out “Can’t nobody tell me nothinnnnnnn” and I was like oh god, this is why she loves this song. That is her life motto!!!!

Wearing: I mean, let’s get real people. Is anyone wearing real pants??? Not over here! I change every day, but ummm its always athletic wear. I do wear a real bra, so there is that!

This Weekend: This weekend is more of the same I suppose. I ordered a gas can for our lawn mower, we didn’t bring the one from our old house. Hopefully I will be cutting grass Saturday. Excited for the workout!!! And getting our lawn looking super fly.

What are you up to?

Being stuck at home really makes you thankful for all that you have, doesn’t it? Here are a few things that have really made me happy lately.

-If I have to be quarantined at home, I am so beyond grateful it is in this house. I cannot imagine being stuck in our old house for weeks. Here we have decent neighbors, that we say hello to from a safe 10 feet away. An amazing piece of land for plenty of ball, side walk chalk, bike riding, etc. Properly paved streets for walking and running. And an ample amount of interior space for all of us to spread out.

-My home office. Thanks to Chris, I have 4 monitors. It’s a pretty sweet set up.

-A full pantry. When shit started going south in Europe, I stocked up on canned beans and soup. It may not be much, but its stuff you cant find now.

-Time to focus on fitness. Since I am not rushing to commute anymore, I have more time for my morning workouts. And they are starting to pay off, I have officially hit the TWENTY POUND mark!!!! 20 LBS!!!! (20.7, actually.)

-Our patio! Zoe and I spent every afternoon last week back there. Me with a book, her with her water station. Even Mac came out and joined us!

-Endless TV and movies. Not that I have had much time, but we try to get in one show each evening after Zoe goes to bed. Zoe has watched Frozen 2 and Secret Life of Pets about a million times in the last week.

-Wine. God bless it!

-Pinterest. My recipe game is on fire. So is my homeschooling efforts. Wouldn’t be able to do that without good ol’ Pinterest!

-Comfy clothes. Haven’t worn real pants in over a week. Don’t miss them.

-A job I can work from home. Seriously, so so so so thankful for that.

-Coffee. I am home 24/7 with a 3 year old that don’t stop. Coffee makes me so happy.

-e-commerce – Wouldn’t be able to get anything if it wasn’t for online shopping. Could you imagine this quarantine 20 years ago?

omg 20 years ago was 2000. Let that sink in.

-Shipt. I placed our first order on Sunday. My shopper was amazing! She was constantly in contact with me throughout the store. Finding perfect substitutions for things that they didn’t have, stalking the employees who were restocking certain areas. She even called me at one point to tell me what cheeses they had. She had everything bagged just the way I would have put them on the conveyor belt. After she dropped off on my front porch, she texted me that it was a pleasure shopping for me and that she hoped my family had a wonderful and safe weekend.

-Memes. I think we all need the laughs. I will continue to share some in each post.

Coming at you live from day 7 of not leaving the house. Lord help us! I am not sure about you, but it is a little hard to be excited about Friday when you know your weekend is more of the same. Being stuck at home with not much to do and no where to go! I desperately want to eat at a restaurant and walk around TJ Maxx! This is why I support brick and mortar stores more over shopping online. I crave just being out and about!

Favorite Moments: I have been working hard to come up with lesson plan ideas to do with Zoe each day. I try to do a morning and afternoon activity that centers around learning something, anything. And keeping her school schedule the best that I can. With the one exception of letting her sleep in every morning, because it is the only way I can get any actual work done! Follow me on Instagram if you want to see what we are doing. I am trying to share one of our activities each day to give others ideas. This is hard!!!

Don’t think this is all pinterest perfect over here though. Making a work call with a toddler constantly trying to interrupt, or explain to her why you need to be on your computer right this second is pretty much impossible. There have been several times this week when Zoe has said, “Mommy please don’t work anymore. Come play with me!!!” She really misses her school friends and talks about them often.

Favorite Recipe: We have made these buffalo tenders a lot lately. It is one of my favorite Keto friendly recipes and you don’t need a ton of ingredients on hand. Ready in 30 minutes.

Favorite Workout: I have always done at home workouts, so this is nothing new for me. My goal has been to get at least 30 minutes each day in with one of these first thing in the morning before I start work. Then I try to get another 20-30 minutes in throughout the day with walks around my neighborhood with Zoe, Just Dance, kid yoga video with her, running around outside, whatever.

I really enjoyed this one…

And this one….

Yesterday for our afternoon walk, we got down our street and then Zoe took off running. No joke, the kid ran full out speed for over a half a mile!!! I was so not expecting that! I didn’t have on a sports bra, and she was running way faster than I would have if I was the one keeping pace. I had a hard time keeping up with her! When we got back to the house she said, that was fun mommy lets do it again tomorrow. Ummm thanks for the warning I need to prepare myself!

Favorite Lusts: (affiliate links) I have a wish list going of a few items I would like to pick up for the spring/summer. I wanted to go try this dress on at Target, because the length can be really tricky on me. I tend to look frumpy in anything below the knee, but I love love love this style.

I have had my eye on the Tory Burch sandals for a few years now, and I am going to pick them up this year to replace a few pairs of shoes I need to retire due to the condition they are in. I really like the blush color, and they are 25% off at Nordstrom right now!!!

The Pink Tulip is a local boutique here in Birmingham, and they are one of many places that have had to shut their doors and go to online or curbside pickup. I am places like this will still be around when we emerge on the other side! I love this little black dress, its simple but has a few things that elevate it.

Favorite Funnies:

I love a good empties post. I usually tend to stick to the same foundations, my top two choices being Estee Lauder Double Wear and Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Liquid. (Which Nordstrom has a sale on both of these right now!!!) I did venture out with a few others recently, and I want to share my thoughts! There will be two not pictured above that I returned to Ulta after trying out. Ulta should really consider giving samples out for those on the fence like me, such a waste.

Too Faced Peach Perfect – This is a great foundation. I loved the coverage and the way it looked on my skin. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with it though. First of all, my color was never right with either one I tried. I ended up having to go a shade too light and making up for it with bronzer/color corrector add in. Also, the smell of this is too much for me all over my face. I absolutely LOVE my peach eye shadow palette. It smells amazing and the colors are gorgeous!!!! The smell of this foundation is nothing like that, and I think it kind of stinks. I can definitely smell it for a few hours after application too. This will be a pass from me from now on. If you aren’t bothered by the scent and can find your shade…I think this is a great option.

Too Faced Born This Way Powder – (On sale at Nordstrom right now) I am not a big powder person, but someone at Sephora recommended this to me a long time ago when I was looking for something new. I have had this forever and am getting rid of it because it cant be good to use on my skin anymore. I was using it as a mirror in my purse for awhile. Anyways…about the powder foundation. This actually looked really amazing on my skin. It evened everything out and I loved to touch up with it throughout the day. I purchased this before I was pregnant with Zoe, so it is around 4-5 years old. In that time, my skin has changed drastically. Powders are way too drying for my face now. But if you have combination/oily skin, this is a great option for you! It really does have great coverage.

Dior Forever– I absolutely loved this foundation. The color match was perfect, it looked and felt nice on my skin. The coverage is very similar to Estee Lauder Double Wear. Would I re-purchase this again? Yes. However, I would rather get Estee Lauder for less money and same results.

Shiseido Synchro Skin Self-Refreshing Liquid Foundation – Full disclosure, I got this one from Influenster a few months ago. The campaign is over, so it’s not benefiting me or them by talking about it now. This is actually a pretty solid foundation. To me it is more medium/full coverage than true full. I liked the way it felt on my skin, and it looked very natural/skin-like. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this one. I just like Estee Lauder coverage slightly better.

Estee Lauder Double Wear – This is my holy grail, always have it on hand. I don’t know why I ever stray. Well, that is not true. I know why I stray. Sometimes my skin gets really, really dry. When that happens, this one tends to bring out those dry patches anymore. Not enough to not use it though, I am just more aware when I am applying.

And now for the two I tried out for a week and returned…

Tarte Tape Shape Foundation – The coverage of this was alright, it was medium coverage but build-able for me. What drew me to this, was that it was supposed to be hydrating. Ummmm this so was NOT hydrating. This caked like no other all over my face. And it never really settled into my skin. It reminds me of how IT CC cream is on my skin. It wipes off on everything all day because it never settles. Hard pass. This went back after 2 uses.

Too Faced Born This Way – I was told this was medium/full coverage, but it is not. It was barely medium on me. I just didn’t care for the way that this looked on my skin. It creased badly under my eyes and caked around my nose and any dry spots. I found a perfect color match for me, but after 2 uses on this (both with and without primer as I did with Tarte) it went back. The staying power was awful.