Time to get cozy
Yesterday, while I was journeying back into the country with my parents, my wonderful friend went to the store to pick up some basics for the kids and me (I'm self-quarantining for 14 days because I just flew internationally, so am hoping to avoid grocery stores for the duration). Alas, those basics were - as you know - in ludicrously short supply.
Milk? Nope - but there was one lonely container of chocolate milk! And now it is mine.
I'm still out of the country - we're in an area that so far has had no issues getting back to the US, so I'm coming home tomorrow, on the day we originally planned...but I think it goes without saying that I hadn't exactly planned on coming home to this. Our school district - like so many of yours - has announced that it'll be closed at least though the end of April, and if the issues that these closures present for a work-at-home-mother such as myself are overwhelming, I can only imagine what so many others are struggling with.
Related: How to Keep Your Pets Safe While Driving (huge thanks to Joey from Ms. Parker's class for the submission!)
So let's strategize. Here's a list of ideas and resources for handling this extended period of self-isolating with our kids without going (completely) insane - and thanks to those of you who contributed ideas via my Insta. Keep 'em coming - I'll be updating this list as more arise.
Lunch.
I've never been a huge fan of Mudslides. I acknowledge this is an unpopular opinion, it's just...you know, if I want ice cream, I want ice cream. If I want a cocktail, I don't want to add hundreds of calories to it; I'd rather have the cocktail...and then, maybe later on, have ice cream that doesn't taste like alcohol. You know?
But apparently real Mudslides - by which I mean the ones made where the drink was invented, The Wreck on Grand Cayman's Rum Point - don't have any ice cream in them at all. As the story goes, they were created in the 1970s when a customer came in wanting a White Russian (vodka, Kahlua, and cream), but since the bar was out of cream, the bartender substituted Bailey's Irish Cream. He threw it all in a blender, and ta da: A drink that's milkshake-level delicious, but not saturated in sweetness. (So you can have two. Just proceed with caution; these may not taste like anything but wonderfulness, but they're deceptively strong.)
Hi all, Olivia, Ramshackle Glam's editorial director here; Jordan's still away, so I'm hopping on today for a quick guest post! If you're anything like me, you're currently working overtime to keep your anxiety at bay, so I've been making the effort to put my phone down at night and read books. I thought I'd share my top book finds of recent times in case you also need something to help your mind escape at night. What have you been reading lately? Tell us in the comments! PS. Need some more book suggestions? Check out this post, and this one, too!
Not gonna lie: I definitely spent a decent percentage of the week before my parents and I left on our annual diving trip obsessively scanning coronavirus-related headlines and buying massive amounts of water. (Buying extra water - as with toilet paper - is completely unnecessary. But show me a mother and a Contagious Thing, and I'll show you a garage stocked with a whoooooooole lot of Dasani.)
I wasn't worried about catching anything, exactly - I was (and still am) worried about some turn of events resulting in me being stranded extremely far away from my children for a duration of time. But the Caymans seemed like a relatively safe pick, planetarily speaking, and I'm also of the mindset that in a situation like this, you collect information and do the best that you can to protect yourself and others, but you also keep on living.
Curious what it's like to travel internationally during this bizarre moment we're living in? I shall tell you: It's weird, but also strangely...pleasant. (I know; I didn't expect that, either.) First of all, airports - and the flights themselves - are vastly emptier than usual, making for a much less cramped in-air experience. There's also this odd sense of camaraderie - even humor - when you travel during a crisis: Everybody knows what everybody else is thinking about, so it's almost like you can communicate in shorthand.
About a year ago, in Indonesia
A little over a year ago, I took two weeks out of my life to fly to Indonesia with my dad. The trip was logistically near-impossible to manage, and financially unconscionable for the both of us, but once we'd conceived of the plan actually executing the thing didn't even really feel like an option. For two weeks, Dad and I fell completely off the grid, and did nothing but play with manta rays and read books and talk and talk and talk.
My parents and I have always traveled together, once a year at least. I was an only child, so they had a habit of throwing me into the proverbial (or literal) backpack and slinging me along with them wherever they went - riding motorcycles up to Canada, hang gliding on the sand dunes in North Carolina, diving wrecks in the islands. Sometimes when we travel it's just me and my dad - as in Indonesia - and sometimes it's just me and my mom, but more often than not it's the three of us.
I'm trying to make the switch over to Beyond Beef (or similar products) whenever possible, because...you know...environment. I'll be honest: I resisted for awhile, because something about the concept freaks me out (although why plant-based protein should freak me out more than actual ground beef is beyond me). But then I tried Burger King's Impossible Whopper, and it tasted...like a Whopper. The taste was virtually indistinguishable from the OG (cheese and sauce, basically), and the texture may even have been an improvement.
Next experiment: Seeing whether I can swap in plant-based protein for the primary ingredient in one of my family's all-time favorite dishes, pasta bolognese. We make one version of this dish or another virtually every week, so this is not a change I make lightly - and not one I especially accepted my children to get on board with.
So? I didn't tell them. Sue me; sometimes children are on a need-to-know basis with these kinds of things.
I didn't know Brian Platzer super well in high school - we were in the same graduating class back in New York City - but I always felt like I should have. He was hilarious, and super smart, and one of those people who's nice to everyone, even - especially - the people few others think to be nice to. I'm extremely gratified to announce that High School Me was apparently an excellent judge of character, because Brian has grown into the same hilarious, super smart, and kind person I figured him to be - oh, and he also happens to be one of the decade's best new novelists, NBD.
I was wary of Body Politic when it first landed in my mailbox: I didn't really want to read a novel having anything to do with politics, as I spend most of my day reading about just that, and I'm getting very, very close to that aneurysm I've been expecting since November 2016. I was also wary because I'm very picky about my fiction, and can't bring myself to put the time into finishing an entire novel unless I absolutely have to - meaning because there is no alternative. Because I can't put it down.
I could not put down Body Politic. My life came to a standstill for an entire weekend; everything else just had to wait. And it's not actually about politics, exactly: It's about four friends struggling with the devastating aftermath of a freak accident in the wake of Trump's election.
In honor of Baby Sleep Day, I wanted to provide some tips for those of you with newborns. Having a new baby is such a beautiful time on so many levels, but when my child was little there were days I was so sleep-deprived I didn't even feel that I could fully enjoy her. If you have a newborn at home and are struggling with sleep, please know that it will get better. They will soon be capable of longer stretches and self-soothing.
Read: Jordan's (very chilled-out) approach to sleep training.
Here are some of my tips for surviving newborn sleep.
Apparently - thanks to my DVD ripper - it's throwback week on RG!
So remember a couple of years ago, when I spent months and months flying back and forth to St. Louis, filming a project that I was all cagey and secretive about, because I contractually wasn't allowed to discuss it? It was a pilot called The House That Trash Built. Basically, what the show involved was our team literally building a house from the ground up using nothing but reclaimed materials (a.k.a. trash). We found old windows at a church, pulled tiles out of a house that was slated for demolition, and made furniture out of tires.
