Wow. I looked back at my March goals and the day when I wrote them seems like eons ago. So much has happened and changed since then. Right at the beginning of the month, a tornado hit Nashville and Middle Tennessee hard and created devastating damage to some areas. We are lucky and grateful to live in an area that was not impacted. The city came together and volunteer sign ups were fully booked for weeks, with food and recovery donations pouring in as well. Unfortunately, before anything could be rebuilt or get back to normal COVID-19 started spreading across the U.S. and life changed even more.
I am grateful for the calls to stay at home and for closures that encourage that, but feel so badly for all of the small businesses that are hurting because of it. Nashville’s small businesses saw a huge dip right after the tornado hit, as people were spending their time volunteering instead of in restaurants and their money donating to relief efforts instead of eating out. Now that many of them are closed, I hope they can come back after all of this is over. We are trying to support our favorite local businesses by ordering takeout and gift cards, but I still know it is not going to be the amount of business that they need.
Since I know we will be in quarantine for all of April, I’m tailoring my April goals list to this new time at home and hoping I can use some of the extra alone time to be creative. This is a weird time and I’m choosing not to beat myself up when I give in to slower, less “productive” moments too. This month I’m going to try to focus on hope and be joyful and grateful for the things we have. I know that won’t always be easy, but here’s to trying!
March Goals
– VOTE
– Be intentional about participating in Lent – Still ongoing, but I feel good about this one!
– Finish reading The Dutch House – Not only did I finish The Dutch House, I also started and finished Save Me the Plums! Who am I? ;)
– Celebrate Will’s birthday! – Made mini funfetti cakes!
– Do or make something fun for St. Patrick’s Day (maybe this will start a new tradition) – Made Guinness brownies that I took photos of but never shared here. Maybe I’ll still do that?
– No Instagram after 7:00 pm (I’ve gotten into a bad habit of checking whenever I’m free and could be doing so much more with my time – like writing blog posts ;) ) – Lololol this was the biggest joke. I clearly didn’t know what was about to happen.
– Start a list of go-to meals to make for new parents. With the arrival of our new niece last month, and the expectation of a friend’s baby in Nashville this month, this feels like a good time to start putting this list together. Those of you who have been recipients, tell me what is great or what to avoid! – Didn’t start this, but did leave dinner on the porch for friends with a new baby!
– Create a list of things to do/places to eat in Nashville for friends and family – Once again, nope. I could still do this, but it is a bit sad while everything is closed and I don’t know what things will look like when we come out of this.
April Goals
– Continue to be intentional about Lent
– Find ways to make Easter special, despite quarantine and Will’s schedule (he’ll be on night shifts)
– Start a new creative project. I haven’t decided what this will be yet, but I’m vacillating between a painting, an embroidery project, or a new needlepoint design.
– FaceTime or talk with family or friends at least once a week.
– Be creative with our meals and use all of our leftovers and ingredients before they go bad. We are pretty good at doing this already, but inevitably have a few forgotten containers of leftovers that turn moldy in the back of the fridge. While we have limited grocery runs I want to be even more intentional about using things well and not wasting. I think this can teach us good lessons to use long term too.
– Finish reading at least one book
– Make hard copy versions of our favorite/go-to recipes to keep in our recipe box
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