For me, this is the end of week 4 of social distancing and working from home. Week 4 of having my entire calendar wiped clean. No lectures, no guild meetings, no classes to teach. For the first time in a very long time, I have no demands on my time in the evening after working my day job is done. Since I’m not going to the office for that, there’s not even commute time to eat into my time at home and for the first time in a very long time I am keeping up.

In the yard, the butterfly garden is weeded, the grass (such that it is) is mowed, and the weeds are trimmed around the foundation of the house. In the house, I vacuum every day (I have a big dog who is blowing his winter coat right now) and the laundry is done every week. I cook all my meals at home and do the dishes every night after dinner. No more waking up to a sink full of dishes because I got home too late and too tired to clean up. After I eat, I wander into my studio to sew for the evening. It has literally been years since I have sewn in the evening on a weeknight. I normally have something planned 3 out of 5 evenings and the other 2 I’m tired enough that I just want to sit in my recliner and hand sew. Now I go sew from 6-8pm or there about, then sit in my big chair for an hour before I get ready for bed.

I have finished piecing and quilting a quilt for a dear friend. I have started and kept up with the first two weeks of the Bonnie Hunter Unity Quilt Along. I have dug out and finished the piecing on a hand piecing project I started a good 10 years ago; and am now prepping for the Applique that is the next phase of that project. I have also knitted a cardigan since the beginning of February and am half way through another one.

All of this is making me really question the life I live. I enjoy getting out and seeing friends and participating in quilting activities, but I am also really enjoying being in my house, keeping it neat, and spending time in my studio. I know we are all talking about what we plan to do when things get back to some semblance of normal, and I am realizing that one of the things I want to do is have more time at home. Not sign up for so much. Not make plans to be gone from my home so much. There will still be commitments, I like to teach and lecture too much to give that up completely, but I’m finding I also really like the feeling of keeping up.