Day 1

We arrived home yesterday around 6:30 in the evening after pretty much driving straight through from New Bern, North Carolina—31 hours.

Although physically and emotionally exhausted, we were relieved to be back in Canada, and happy to be in our own home.

Our wonderful neighbors Thomas and Beth had picked up groceries, and Julian went and got rum and beer 🍺 for Stephen. We didn’t need any wine, because we smuggled \240two boxes across the border. 😄 Plus we \240also snuck in bananas, apples and oranges! Such rebels!! They didn’t even ask if we had anything to declare.

Our good friend Joann sent me a message earlier today saying she was going to Costco did I need anything? She picked up laundry detergent, red onions, batteries and surprised me with a bouquet of yellow tulips 🌷! My favourite flowers! I’m over joyed with gratitude for having such good friends! 🙏

I asked Joann to pick me up some red onions because I thought that Thomas forgot when he went grocery shopping for us. Well it turns out he didn’t! I just didn’t notice them because he put them in the back of the fridge. We now have almost 20 lbs of red onions! \240🧅 🧅🧅

Day 2

Quarantine Recipe Challenge — Red Onions

Sweet and Sour Peppers + Red Onions

Day 3

Quarantine Recipe Challenge - Red Onions

Apple Walnut Arugula Salad with Red Onion and Grilled Chicken Breast

This is one of our favourite salads. It’s adapted  from a recipe I found online from Minimalist Baker. If you don’t have arugula, or don’t like it, feel free to switch it out to any other lettuce, or spinach.

Day 4

Quarantine Recipe Challenge - Red Onions

Pickled Red Onions

Super easy and super delicious! Great on sandwiches and tacos! Or you can just eat it out of the jar like Stephen! 😀

Day 5

Quarantine Recipe Challenge - Red Onions

Greek Orzo Salad

I did it! After 5 days of procrastinating, I finally cleaned up our family room downstairs. Took a couple of hours but it was worth it. 😀

We didn’t have onions today. Instead we had homemade fish and chips — which Stephen cooked. Funny enough... I’m a lot less irritated with him today! 🤪

Day 7

It feels really strange not be frantically getting ready for our family Easter celebration. In any other time I would be out grocery shopping this morning, Stephen would be reluctantly cleaning the house, and I would be starting to prep everything I could today... such as starting the stuffing for tomorrow’s turkey dinner. \240🦃

Our family get togethets, like many other’s centre around food. It’s what we do, it’s what I especially love doing... but this year we will not be gathering because we love each other! 💕

The truth is we haven’t been around for Easter for the last two years. Last year we were in the Bahamas with Melissa, and the year before, in 2018 we were celebrating Easter in Havana with the boys. So I was excited about the possibility of getting together this year.... \240but it will have to wait. Like so many other plans people have to put on hold because of this stupid virus. 😡

Abbey, the little girl next door turned 4 yesterday. She will have to wait for a birthday party until next year... in the meantime the neighbours across the street had their windows decorated with her name! We painted a large bday card and put it in our bedroom window so she could see it when she went bed. 🎂

Not attending church at such holy time doesn’t feel right either! Even though we were not home the last few years, we still managed to attend an Easter mass somewhere. Watching it on YouTube somehow doesn’t seem the same. 😞

We had my “bday dinner” tonight... which turned out fantastic! Stephen bbq’d the stakes from DeLucas, and I did roasted vegetables and another red onions recipe— Balsamic-Glazed Red Onions! It’s a winner!!

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/balsamic_glazed_red_onions/

Day 8 — Easter Sunday

We did it! We survived our first week of quarantine. Only one more week to go!!! \240After living on our boat for the last two months it’s a little frustrating to be stuck inside. \240But what choice do we have “suck it up buttercup!!!!! 🤪 Its a small price to pay for keeping people safe.

Stephen and I listened to Andrea Bocelli singing Amazing Grace, alone, in front of the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy. \240Heartbreakingly beautiful!! ❤️

The tag line -

“Our Streets are Empty but our hearts are full”

This performance will forever define Easter 2020!

An excerpt from Anne-Marie Zajdlik Blog -

Such love, such grace, such hope. \240Witnessing the resilience and strength of humanity fills me with awe.

We have not given up. \240We are not defeated. \240Instead we choose to find incredible moments of triumph and joy.

Under adversity, the human spirit soars.

This will be another difficult week. \240We will see many more COVID 19 infections and more deaths. \240But so far, this pandemic has not overwhelmed our health care system and in the back ground, as we struggle through this surge, the scientists and researchers are plotting a safe path towards our re-integration into 'normal life'. \240This will happen in short order.

Day 9 — Easter Monday

As we’re counting down the days, I have to say that I was more than a little disappointed about finding out that even when we’re finished our quarantine, we’ll still not be able to see our family. It will just simply be called physical distancing! 😉

It really sucks!!!

It’s bitter cold out today - the high was -5C with a strong North wind. I guess Mother Nature just doesn’t give a crap that it’s Spring!

It was hard to get motivated to do anything but I’m proud of myself for continuing to do my little fitness regime - today I finished my 30th workout!

I also started painting the hallway in a half hearted way... but I’m sure I’ll get more in to it as the isolation continues. The colour is changing from a yellow — which the kids have hated since the beginning—to a light bluish gray called Quick Silver.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve made a conscious effort to cut back on eating meat. I’ve started adding more fish and veg meals to our diet - I don’t think Stephen has even noticed. 😆

As a result, we had pan fried salmon with the left over grilled veggies from Friday. \240No red onions on the menu tonight!

Day 10

Not a good day!

Totally unmotivated to do anything. It’s cold and cloudy outside. I’m getting increasingly more frustrated with the weather, and our inability to go outside for walks. Down right depressing!

Tried painting but didn’t have my heart in it... Stephen tried redoing the floor in the back door landing, but it was simply too cold to set up the saw outside.... so he abandoned the project.

So instead we mopped around until supper time and then we decided to watch Monty Python on Netflix! 🤪

Day 11

Still cold, but at least it’s sunny and not quite as windy as yesterday. Stephen has decided to tackle the back landing flooring project again despite the 🥶 and I made another feeble attempt at painting our hallway.

I just had a disturbing note pop up on my screen from a newsfeed — Canada has now hit 1,000 deaths due to Covid-19! \240😠

I’m going to go and do my workout... I need to manage my anxiety. Yesterday I didn’t exercise and all I wanted do is eat all day!

For dinner I made ceaser salad with homemade pizzas - with caramalized red onions, mushrooms and peppers 🌶!

Day 12

Quarantine Recipe Challenge - Red Onions

Caramelized Red Onions, Mushrooms, Spinach and Goat Cheese Quiche

We’re getting close to the bottom of the onion bag... only three more red onions left!

Today’s recipe is a crustless quiche using up things in our fridge such as the mushrooms and spinach that were reaching their end of life. It’s low carb, but not necessaryly low calorie, but super tasty!! Enjoy! 🥂

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 tsp thyme/oregano mix

1 tsp salt/pepper

Fresh Baby Spinach

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 large red onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

2-3 oz chèvre cheese (goat cheese)

1 oz shredded gruayere cheese

1 tbs olive oil

It felt like a normal day! What a nice feeling!!

It’s day 13 - and I’ve decided to risk it and go for a walk to the creek. It’s my normal routine when we’re home and it was finally a nice day! The walk takes \240about 45 min round trip through Wolsley - it was a little awkward with people weaving around you to keep safe distance away - but it was nice to be out!

We also had a happy hour Zoom call with our long time friends Karen and Ken and Chris and Sandra. Asides from a few technical difficulties we had a great visit and had a few much needed laughs.

For supper we pretended that we ordered in \240Chinese food - but instead I made curry chicken stir fry. It was a fun day!!!

We did it!!! We made it through our two weeks of quarantine... and I managed to use up all 15 pounds of red onions, along with another 5 pounds of white onions! Sure is a good thing that we love 🧅🧅🧅! 🤪

We celebrated with homemade French onions soup made with fresh beef stock I made.

Nothing more needs to be said!

A perfect weather day! Sunny and warm with light south winds.. a lovely day for being outside. ☀️ It’s sad to think that people around here have been waiting for a day like this for six months.

It’s only our third week of isolation, but it feels longer. My anxiety is definitely up... I had to restrict my time to only reading local news. I can’t read about what’s going on in the US without feeling physically ill... so I stopped for the sake of my mental health.

I’m noticeably more emotional... Just ask Stephen! 🤪 I can cry at a drop of a 🎩! I’m trying to manage my anxiety by staying busy and sticking to my exercise routine, but it’s barely keeping it at bay. I had a total meltdown today because Stephen didn’t pass me the vacuum cleaner when I asked him to! I know it sounds crazy!! 🤣

💡 Today's Takeaway

If you're not acting "like yourself," cut yourself some slack. It's OK to feel what you need to get through this.

On the positive side, I’m making progress on painting our hallway. It’s a huge job and I’m only about halfway done despite being at it for almost a week. I can’t figure out how I managed to do it the last two times with 3 kids and work!

For dinner tonight I made a chicken curry with chickpeas. I have to say it turned out exceptionally well!

Yesterday my day went from gloomy to bright! 🌟

The day started out cool, cloudy with a painfully slow drizzle. 🌧 It was simply too dark for painting, so I was at a loss of what to do. I cleaned up the kitchen and stared at the sparkling clean counter tops in a daze. What to do?

Out of sheer boredom I decided to bake something I’ve book marked on the Bon Appetit website long time ago - Blueberry-Pecan Galette. Scrounging through the freezer earlier I found a big bag of wild blueberries from last summer that Cindy and I picked one luxurious summer afternoon at Princess Harbour... so it seemed like a good way to use them up.

But because I’m not a baker, I usually feel overwhelmed by the prospect of starting.... so I usually don’t! 🤪

Feeling reassured by the post script on the bottom of the recipe - The great thing about a blueberry galette? The more rustic (read: messed up) it looks, the better. Novice bakers, this one’s for you. - I decided to give it a try.

The primary reason why I don’t like baking is because I don’t like carefully following instructions... but it was relatively easy to follow with only a few ingredients, so I didn’t get overwhelmed, and dare I say, I almost even enjoyed it!

The results were unbelievable! The dough was this delicate puffy pastry with a rustic charm from the pacans, and the blueberry filling was sweet with a slight lemony flavour. The combination of the two was sheer delight. It was so good that I couldn’t believe that I baked it myself!!! Such a small thing, but it had such profound impact on my mood! ❤️

The rest of the day got even better when I got a text from our good friends Sylvia and Jed to see if we were available for a video chat. A couple of hours later we were still online laughing and having fun catching up.

Would it have been better to see each other in person? Probably, but for the foreseeable future this is our new normal. We’re all learning how to connect and care for each from a distance and I for one am very grateful!!🙏

I have to keep telling myself - just do it!!!

You think after 41 days of working out I would be used to it by now, but I still have to push myself to get off my butt every time.

As a good friend once \240said “Sometimes it’s difficult to know the difference between stretching and torturing ourselves”.

I feel stronger and I can almost see newly developed muscles and yet... and yet at times it still feels like torture! 🤪

Didn’t feel well yesterday.

Woke up exhausted to the bone and with a queasy stomach. Buy mid-afternoon I also had a mild fever 🥵 and diarrhea.

It’s pretty hard these days not to jump to fear and paranoia right away and \240think that you have the virus—and I would be lying if it didn’t cross my mind.

I took some Tylenol and pretty much just chilled on the couch for most of the day and today I feel better. Not sure what was going on but I did just read in the paper that some people get mild symptoms like I had. It would be great to get tested so I would know for sure... \240but that’s not possible.

So I’ll just assume that it was a mild stomach flu and move on.

We got home a exactly a month ago... which means we’ve been physically isolating for four weeks.

It seems much longer than a month!!! \240😱

I find keeping to some resemblance of a routine helps me. I take incredible delight in having my latte in the morning while I read the news. I also enjoy making my bed every morning and fussing with the duvet until it’s absolutely perfect! 😂

I try to go for a walk and do my little workouts and of course the rest of the time I’m either painting or cooking.

I’ve just about finished the hallways... one more day to do touch ups on the the trim and I’ll be done!! It has been a huge job and I swear that I’m never going to do it again, but it does look so much better!!!. 👍

Today for the first time I went and did a large grocery shop at Safeway. Grocery shopping shouldn’t be scary for heaven’s sake.... but I was totally apprehensive about going. I’m struggling with keeping the mask on my face, and I can’t seem to figure out how to wear my glasses without fogging up and my nose is constantly itchy... \240😆

I did go for a nice walk to the creek today after lunch... I so love being outside! 🦆🐿🌿

It was Mother’s Day today and I got see all the children!!! ❤️❤️❤️

We had Lilian and Lorelei over for lunch on Friday. Yesterday, Saturday - we had my mom and Melissa for dinner.

And today, Jesse and Julian came over so for a short period all three kids were back home for first time since Christmas.

It was stretching the guidelines for sure... but it was so nice to be together as a family!

Let’s hope we didn’t put anyone in danger.

We couldn’t visit outside on the deck because it was SOOOO COLD! 🥶 The overnight temperature is expected to go below -10 tonight! Seriously 😳!!!

Cold but sunny Monday morning! ☀️

I finally finished painting all the hallways and I’m happy with the results-thank God!

Yesterday I tackled my dressing table in our bedroom and it looks fantastic from burgundy to my new accent colour “soot” — a black with blue undertones, so technically it’s a really a dark navy. It’s the same colour I used on the back landing.

The kitchen is next, but it will have to wait until next week because we’re heading out to the cottage tomorrow, and then it’s the long weekend - as hard as it is to believe. 🤪

The boat is not going in the water until May 22, so we’re just heading out there for a couple of days to get out of the city!

I don’t know for sure, but I think this is the longest we’ve been in our house uninterrupted since we stopped working!

Sometimes I still can’t believe that we’re in a global pandemic and the world will never ever be the same again! 😔

The death toll rose above 5,000 in Canada this week. In Manitoba it’s only 7, thank God, but how people will this virus take before there’s a vaccine. Also, the first nurse died of the virus in Ontario a couple of days ago. It’s all weighing on me... like a bad dream it’s constantly rolling around my brain.

We’ve been at the cottage since Tuesday, though the weather continues to be crappy, it’s a nice change of scenery. It’s the first time we left house since we arrived back home from down south.

I’m continuing to do \240my exercises, but it’s a struggle. I lost my motivation so I sabotage my progress by eating chocolate. Once I start I can’t stop... it’s better than heroin in managing my anxiety.

I realized yesterday that what the virus took away from me - hopefully only temporarily- \240is my absolute love for dreaming about, planning and actually going on a travel adventure! I’ve been doing a travel photo challenge on FB and I’ve taken a tremendous amount of pleasure from looking through our travel photos from the last few years.” Oh the placed you will go!” \240We have been so blessed!

I love traveling.... seeing new places, meeting new people, discovering new foods...the architecture , the history, the wine, the pastries, the crowds... I love it all.

Hopefully we will be able to get back to seeing the world again. I have so many more places left on my bucket list! In the meantime, we are one of the fortunate ones that we have both a cottage and a boat to go to!

Arthur, the first named tropical storm just missed Georgia and is heading to NC. We got the alert on our phone, while enjoying our first night on SeaDucion at Gull Harbour on Lake Winnipeg.

“A truism in the cruising community is that plans are written in the sand at low tide.” You never know when something is going to come along to wipe them out... perhaps something like a hurricane or a pandemic. 🤪

Or, maybe it's that there's always a fresh chance to try again.

We’re in Gull Harbour getting ready for another boating season. It feels good being back on the boat... like life is almost normal again. ❤️

We realize how blessed we are to have the opportunity to spend the summer on the boat. 🙏

I read Jann Arden’s post this morning and I thought that this is exactly how I feel, but she expressed it so much more eloquently than I ever could.....

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

Seemingly over night, the tiny buds on the poplar trees have begun to unfurl into bright green fans. One moment branches were barren of any life and then they burst forward with color and movement and growth. It really is a miracle.

Watching things grow.

People unfurl themselves in similar fashion.

These are the things I've learned in the past few months:

I'm not going to fall apart.

I like talking to myself.

The sun is a force for good.

Having a sound sleep can heal body and mind like nothing else.

Friendships are sacred.

Asking for help can make you a better person.

Falling apart is like falling in love, equal parts of pain and pleasure.

Food and the eating of it, can ease a troubled heart.

Being angry at anybody, including yourself, is pointless.

Movement of one's body, in a vigorous, committed fashion, can be the difference between life and death- literally.

Breathing in and out is often times, all you need to be doing. And when that is combined with movement, good things happen.

Being alone does not mean that I am lonely.

My dog is a good hugger.

It is possible to eat just ONE chip, but why would you?

Being greedy for money is fucking up the planet and our health.

Being part of a community feels wonderful.

Helping other people feels better than anything I could have ever imagined.

Connection is paramount to human life.

We were meant to be together in large numbers, shoulder to shoulder, singing the same song and waving the same white flag.

We can do anything together.

I am fragile but I am mighty.

I love my job and I know I'll get back to doing it.

Gratitude can lift you over any obstacle.

People can be SO good.

Negative people will NEVER win.

Leadership is about empathy and strength and caring and support. The economy is stronger than we think and it cannot keep dominating over the wellness of people and animals and the earth itself.

When we look after each other, we conquer fear and doubt and create wonder.

There are some God Damn brave people out there who put themselves on the line every single day, with or without a pandemic and I will forever be grateful for their massive contribution to human life.