In My Closet: Cozy Quarantine

How is everyone holding up? We are hanging in over here. I'm not going to lie, last week I started to feel pretty anxious. I stopped reading and listening to the news and I've only been reading general updates that my doctor sends out and it's definitely helped. The first week of quarantine I would refresh my coronavirus search just about every few hours- it was not healthy!

We've been home since the afternoon of 3/11 and have finally gotten into a pretty good groove. My older two are technically still on "Spring Break" so the little groove that we are in is going to change on Monday when we start their remote learning. My husband has been working from home which has definitely been a help- he's been waking up extra early to start working so he can help me at times throughout the day.

Oh and MAE! Sweet Mae. We adopted a puppy last week through NY Pet Rescue and it has been the best thing ever. We had been hoping to adopt a dog for the past few months. My Mom has been super active with NY Pet Rescue for close to 18 years now when my family first adopted a rescue pup. My parents currently have four rescues and each of my siblings has a rescue as well. It was time for our fam! We were originally supposed to adopt this beautiful Golden mix puppy but she was extremely timid and scared and wouldn't thrive in a home with four young kids. I'm not going to lie, I was completely crushed. As fate would have it, Mae came up on the same transport from TX as the golden and I came across her picture a few days later. (Sidenote: if you aren't familiar- many dogs in northeast rescues come from the south- either strays or from kill shelters- you can read more about it here!) It was pretty much love at first sight. Mae is a four month old "lab mix" but really we have no idea what combo of breeds she is. What we do know: she is sweet, playful, gentle and so so loving. Her entire backside shakes and wiggles back and forth the moment any of us walk into the room. Mae is also a couch potato and we joke about how lazy she would like to be. With that said, she also loves a good game of fetch and chasing the soccer ball around. She is the best snuggle buddy and loves nothing more than to plop herself right on to any of my kids' laps when we are hanging on the couch.

When we adopted her, we didn't know much about her backstory. A few days ago, the volunteer who helped us with Mae's adoption reached out because she found out some info on Mae. Mae was abandoned in an apartment (she was probably 10ish weeks at this time?) and was eventually found by the building manager. He took her in for two weeks before she was given to the rescue agency in Texas. And now the rest is history! How anyone could just abandon her is heartbreaking. She has been the best addition to the family and we love her so much. If you are thinking about adding a dog (or cat!) to your family, I would highly recommend adopting!

I wanted to share a few things that we've been doing with the kids below as well as a little roundup of some "cozy quarantine" goodies. Hope you all are hanging in there!

I've been living in sweats. I totally get changing into real clothes when you are working from home- people have said it makes them more productive. BUT the only working from home I'm doing is trying to keep my children (and puppy) alive, fed and entertained. SO sweats have served me well. My favorites: anything by The Great, my Dudley Stephens fleece and joggers, this Lou & Grey sweatshirt, my Varley sweatshirt.

Another necessity: our Chappywrap blanket. We have two on our couch right now and we LOVE them. They are currently 20% off with code STAYCOZY.

We've loaded up on crafts from Amazon for the kids. What we've loved: these pop beads (so easy!), cardboard playhouse to color, kinetic sand, air dry clay, these puzzles, and pattern blocks. My oldest has been a huge help and works on these puzzles with his younger siblings while I watch Ellie!