Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t updated this blog since my babymoon. And I didn’t even finish blogging about the babymoon lol. I did have private blog entries documenting my pregnancy up until my 36th week, which I’m now so thankful for.
So much has changed since June of 2018. We moved out of our 480 sqft. studio in West LA and moved into a 1,100 sqft. condo in the suburbs. Our son, Maverick, was born and is now 21 months old. I quit my amazing job in West LA to work at a small start-up closer to our new home. Nine months later, I was laid off. Two months after that, I landed my dream job. But after I finished my 6 weeks of training, we had to shelter-in-place (SIP) because of COVID and I was furloughed. And as of today, I’m still furloughed.
Since I’ve always loved routine and stability, you would think that all this change and instability would’ve made me miserable. But honestly, I’ve been feeling very content and grateful these past few months. I do feel a little bit of job insecurity because I’m not sure when my company will be able to bring me back given everything that’s going on. But these past 2 months has yielded a lot of positive side-effects:
I’m spending a lot more time with my husband, James, who now works from home. For the first 4 years of our marriage, he had to commute at least an hour in traffic to and from work every day. He’s been in a much better mood overall and even started cooking for us, which never happened prior to SIP!
I’m spending a lot more time with my son. The first year of my son’s life was tough. That’s when I was at the start-up and easily working 10-12 hour days. Even on nights and weekends, I always had a lot of work to finish or wanted to catch-up on sleep so it was difficult to enjoy the limited time I had with him. With daycare also being closed, we’ve been spending so much quality time together these days, which has been amazing because he is changing so much right now.
I’m spending a lot more time with family – my mom and my in-laws, especially. My mom is also working from home and has a lot of flexibility so she helps babysit a few mornings a week. Sometimes those mornings are just quick catch-up sessions when I drop off/pick up my son. But other times, we get to catch up more in depth over a meal. I’m also loving the Saturday night dinners we’ve been having with my in-laws, especially since my nephew was born in May. I love spending time with him and watching him grow every week.
This list goes on, we’ve been able to continue saving, my health has improved, I started doing devos again, the house is cleaner, etc.
Growing up, my mom always reminded me to enjoy the season that I’m in because if you keep wishing you were in a different season, you’ll never be happy. I’ve always taken her advice to heart and as I get older, it gets easier and easier to apply. So even though I love my career and look forward to working again, I’m definitely enjoying this “new normal”. I know it won’t last forever because regardless of COVID/SIP, the only constant is change. So I’m going to continue appreciating all these current blessings while they last :).
Minimalist Chic Life 