Hello, April, darling! Be kind to us, my dear. We’re still recovering from March.

What a month this has been! While I was writing this post yesterday, I found myself helplessly laughing at all the past four weeks have held. They’ve been exciting and hard; the highest highs; some very low lows; both restful and exhausting; and so on, and so on.

I never anticipated that the first Month in Review on Elemuse would be quite so eventful; but let’s dive in!

1. Adelyn:

• Taking many walks and reading in the sunshine; sneezing often – the pollen has arrived
• Finding a rhythm of writing and creating outside of work
• Having a moment with Mexican beer (Modelo and lime, anyone?)
• Somewhat surprised by the amount of days spent in cozy clothes (I’m usually one to happily get dressed every single day)
• Struggling a bit to find my place in the midst of all the change this month has brought; but also proud of myself for continuing to show up most days and for feeling more settled now than I have in weeks.
• Absolutely loving talking so frequently to friends and family – especially with Marco Polo
• Still humming along to the Les Mis soundtrack playing in my head since we saw it earlier this month
• Quickly settling into our new place and loving every inch of it.

2. Seth:

• Listening to Volbeat – a Danish rock band, and The Jonas Brothers, which is a very strange mix.
• Recently cleared Spotify favorites list to restart – something that is very cathartic.
• Reading by David McCullough and listening to by Ron Chernow
• Also enjoying Mexican beer, but would prefer Dos Equis over Modelo, no lime needed.
• Watching Lost Leblanc, a travel YouTube Channel. This is perhaps a poor choice because traveling sounds extra wonderful right now; but also isn’t possible.
• Running regularly for a few months now. It’s awful; but also, is not. If this was Facebook, it would be ‘it’s complicated’ under relationship status.

3. Read:

• by Therese Anne Fowler
• by Jonas Jonasson (Audiobook)

4. Traveled: San Diego, California

5. Favorite Date night:

We were able to see Les Misérables just days before everything shut down! I’ve listened and loved Les Mis since I was a little girl, sitting on my sisters bed, knitting along to the soundtrack – I was not an, ah, normal child. And Seth was introduced to musicals by his wonderful grandmother years ago. It was so surreal to see something we both have loved for many, many years!

6. Things to Celebrate:

• Elemuse launched! It’s so fun to write & celebrate this today because I had originally penciled in early next week as a launch date; But I could not be more thrilled we were able to hit ‘publish’ a few weeks early! Having a place to write and create and process has been such a gift the past few weeks. I wish I could perfectly communicate how special it is to actually be here, writing on this beautiful platform.

• We moved! As if there wasn’t enough going on, we have been packing, moving, and unpacking in the midst of it all! Our new place is so much better than we had even hoped. Seth keeps telling me how peaceful it feels. And I couldn’t agree with him more.

• In a world that has changed so quickly the last few weeks, we feel so lucky to be healthy and to have my business be ok. While we don’t know what the coming months will bring, as of today we are doing well!

7. Things that were challenging:

All that has changed. I have been through difficult situations and challenging circumstances before, but this has weighed on me in a very different way. I’ve gone through moments of intense focus, optimism, and creativity, that have suddenly changed to exhaustion, numbness, and lethargy. But as a wonderful counselor reminded me last week, this world that we’re living in is completely new to us. It makes sense that we are struggling to process. And it’s perfectly ok that we’re not ok at all. Give yourself just as much grace in the low moments as you feel in the high moments.

8. What I am looking forward to:

As unnerving as the past few weeks have been, there’s also been glimpses rest. This is the slowest our lives have been probably since knowing each other, and definitely since I started my business a handful of years ago. So for April, I’m looking forward to lots of good time spent together, reading on a blanket in the sunshine, exploring our new neighborhood with Hudson – our Great Pyrenees, continuing to write and create on this new platform, slow evenings cooking and cleaning in our new home, and enjoying all of the beauty that happens during spring in North Carolina.