Since the weeks and days have been blending together for a while—no? Just me? I decided to use my blog to track what’s keeping me sane each week. Five things that are keeping me sane, to be specific. It’ll help me focus on the good and try to let go of the difficult.

I know our state is in a pretty advanced stage of reopening. Our life hasn’t changed much, though. Back in May, my husband and I decided we’d cautiously and occasionally see some of our friends from a distance. I sat on my friend’s back porch with a glass or three of wine and it felt SO amazing to do something normal.

Since then, we went to dinner for my birthday and sat outdoors (ABGB is doing it right, y’all) and I’ve had the chance to sit outside at a couple of wineries with my friends. Everyone is reaching for anything that looks like normal, and it’s so difficult to think we just won’t know what that feels like again for a long time, if ever.

As mentioned previously, daily life with a toddler and other children of assorted ages is difficult. Especially since our toddler is an 11 on the chaos scale—everything goes in her mouth. Everything gets thrown around the room. Everything gets destroyed. Nothing makes her happy. I think it’s her age, but sometimes I wonder if she gets bored of going between the same three rooms every day (and we’re so lucky we have three unoccupied rooms to rotate between).

I do breathe a small sigh of relief after we put her to bed at night—but then I miss her thirty minutes later, and I’m so excited to see her every morning. But the days are long and self-care time is limited, so I’m finding some joy in just writing out what’s bringing me joy. So here we go. What’s making me happy and keeping me sane this week.

1. Sewing.
Specifically, mask sewing. I was 75% finished with a quilt when I found out I was pregnant with our toddler. I had a rough early pregnancy, and even glancing at anything in motion made me nauseous… including sewing machines, unfortunately. My sewing room was dismantled to make way for the baby, and my machine sat dusty in our bedroom until it was relocated one more time to the playroom. I had these dreams of getting some sewing done with the baby playing calmly nearby, and now knowing what type of baby I have, nothing could be less realistic. But sewing masks has given me a few quick projects to churn out in an evening as well as a small sense of accomplishment, and I’m going through my pile of fabric at the same time. Win.

2. Animal Crossing.
Okay, but really. Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch. We started quarantine with one “family” Switch in our house. Then we decided we needed something to occupy the older girls when they weren’t in school but we were occupied with work and toddler, so they each got a Switch Lite, along with Animal Crossing. Then I decided to try it on the family Switch. Needless to say, the Switch is now pretty much just my Switch, and we have way too many Switch consoles for one household. (I also said Switch more times in that paragraph than I ever have in my life.)

You get your own little island that you can do whatever you want with. You have a few daily chores that you can do or not do or save or whatever, a money making economy, adorable clothes, cute villagers to talk to, and shooting stars. What’s not to love?

3. Procreate on the iPad.
Procreate has helped me relocate some of my creativity. See my Cassie Rose logo at the top of this page? I made it. It took me an hour. A graphic designer I am not, but I love it and it makes me happy. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Procreate drawing and creating new things, which leads me to…

4. Skillshare.
Super not an advertisement—after all, this is my personal blog with less than five entries—but the classes are quick, doable if you have a little confidence, and creative. I’m all about the quick wins right now, and finishing a Skillshare class with an adorable drawing of a coffee cup or whatever makes me feel like I accomplished something. That’s a big deal in quarantimes.

5. My book of the week: A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn.
If you know me, or if you’ve met me and spent more than ten minutes with me, it should be no surprise that I love a good Victorian novel. Add some true crime and I’m all in. Throw in a female protagonist and some decent dialogue and I’m doubly all in. I start books cautiously—a result of my English Lit degree and years spent speeding through some mediocre books for grades, maybe—and I’m always looking for early flaws in character development. I wasn’t completely sure how I felt for the first quarter of this book, but it settled into a nice, consistent pace with a likable duo solving a twisty mystery. It was a quick read and I was so excited to find out there are four more in the series.

That’s my Friday Five for this week—what’s kept me sane, what’s brought me joy. But writing also brings me joy, so thank you for reading a piece of my weekly journey. We’re all in this together, right?