It’s been six months since much of the U.S. shut down, with stay-at-home orders put in place so we could flatten the curve. Remember that, all those major headlines and hashtags? And remember how long ago that was? Six months of life both going by in a flash and feeling like an endless amount of slow monotony. I shared a little earlier in quarantine about how things were going at the cozy cottage (see here). Now here are six things about how life is going six months* into this pandemic life.

The first four months were by far the hardest. He was at home full time while Daniel and I were both working from home full time and that was damn near impossible. I basically was working from wake up to late evening as an employee of a company that pays me and as as mother, almost every weekday, with no alone time at all.

Pandemic life got a little better when we put him back in daycare in mid-July, a couple of weeks after daycare centers were allowed to reopen in NJ. He went twice a week for a month, then three times a week for a month, and returns full time this week. This has allowed for us to actually work during working hours and has freed up some personal time on evenings and weekends.

And all the while, Gus is growing! He’s 19 months old and a maniac. He is always on the go except when he’s sitting down to eat or sleeping. And he’s still not speaking in actual words but he understands so much in French and English, he says “yah” in affirmative responses to our questions, points at everything, and loves to read.

Anyone got any ideas for activities for a little baby going on 2 years old?

I started on two projects in quarantine. One was this super easy landscaping project that isn’t done yet. So easy, in fact, that I basically forgot to complete it. Well, there is still time! I just need to order the rest of the pavers and finally use up the remaining mulch we got delivered months ago.

The second project is a DIY media console. It’s underway! You can see more about it here and follow along on Instagram. I hope to finish it up by the end of the month but that schedule may be a bit rushed as I really only have time during Gus’ naps on weekends.

The cooking and baking continue with madness! I’ve made a few of my grandmother’s recipes, which you can check out here and here. But I’ve done mostly a lot of baking. My go-to recipes is this sourdough, this onion bread, this yeast loaf, this Japanese milk bread, this pizza dough, this challah bread, and these chocolate chip cookies.

If you have any savory or sweet recipes you recommend, please let me know!

Remember that time I was included in a beauty article on Ebony.com?! I still can’t believe it. Well, here’s an update on my current day-to-day routine. My new favorite candle comes from Harlem Candle Company, and I’ve added COSRX exfoliating pads and Shani Darden’s Retinol Reform to my daily skincare regimen. I’ve had to cut back on the caffeine because I’m already having trouble sleeping due to any kind of stress, so I basically have 1.5 cups of coffee a day now. Every night includes a glass of wine or beer or cocktail, especially on #ThirstyThursday. I haven’t worked out in months, I’ll be honest, but I basically spend a chunk of every day chasing after Gus. Speaking of which…

Every single weekday morning and some weekend mornings, Gus and I are running up and down our block saying hi to birds and squirrels, passers by, staring at the lawncare companies working on our nearby properties, and having coffee with our neighbors. I wrote about an earlier iteration of this here. Every evening, we run up and down the block, coming in and out of conversations – sometimes over cocktails – with our neighbors. All of these conversations are socially distanced, of course!

One neighbor is a photographer and he has set up a rotating gallery of his work, which has become an attraction and something Gus loves to see.

My mother-in-law sent me 1,000-piece puzzles after I posted on IG that I was bored with everything. The first is now artwork hanging on our front porch. The second is of cocktail recipes that will get hung up in Boss Bar.

Daniel and I recently celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and someone suggested a pretty fun way to enjoy it: a virtual cheese tasting with Murray’s Cheese, a New York City cheese institution. We signed up for a Spanish cheese class on a Friday night, we provided our own wine and cocktail, and Murray’s shipped four amazing cheeses and accompanying snacks. It was a fun way to break up the monotony of every other weekend we’ve spent in quarantine.

I just finished rereading Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, a really beautiful book that I have thought about since I first read it 5 or so years ago. As it’s about life after a pandemic, it seemed a propos. I highly recommend. Now I’m reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, as well as this coffee table book from the founders of design company AphroChic.

We have been pretty strict since the start of the pandemic. We have barely been inside any stores, we get everything delivered if possible, and we still wipe down everything that comes into the house with disinfectant or wash it before we wear it. But as this pandemic life is just hard to deal with, we decided we would take a vacation. All of our personal trips for the year were scheduled to happen between March and September so everything got cancelled. We were planning to go to Italy for almost two weeks this month. Instead, we decided to go somewhere in state so we wouldn’t have to deal with out-of-state travel restrictions and it would be easy to get to via car.

We went for five days to Cape May, which is at the tip of NJ. It’s a beautiful historic beach town and made for an easy trip. We stayed at an Air BnB cottage with a fenced0in yard, so we didn’t have to deal with anyone else and we could bring Molly. We didn’t have the greatest weather for the full trip but the beach is my happy place and it was nice to getaway.

So there are six ways for how we’ve been living this pandemic life for the past six months. As always, I’m grateful for our health and that both my husband and I still have our incomes. Life these days is not easy no matter how good anyone has it. I’m just trying to focus on the good and get through each day.

If you have any tips on how we can get through the next six months, including winter and our baby turning 2, please let me know!