I lost it yesterday.  The heaviness was too much for my shoulders.  The grief of my dog, my country and the world overwhelmed every cell in my body.  I feel vulnerable all of the time.  There isn’t enough I can do to protect my husband, my daughter and myself.  And on top of it, I am more “home-sick” than I have ever been.  The longer predictions of when life will return to normal, the longer it will be until I see my family.

And then I woke up this morning and felt better.  I hugged my husband and danced with my daughter.  We took the long route when we walked our two pups.  I baked a butternut squash to make into soup.  This evening, Dolly Parton is going to read Squirms her night time story.  The air is crisp and clean.  The sky is just about a blue as you can ever imagine.

I fell apart last night.  Love and gratititude put me back together today.

What’s on my mind…

We are hanging in there. We are healthy and have food. All of our family and friends are healthy, so far, and also have food. This is more than 2800 people and their families can say today.

Everything feels irrelevant compared to this.

If you are healthy and your family is healthy and you all have food… count your blessings. You are ahead of so many…

We will love you and miss you forever, Murgatroid… you made our family whole.

Hello my fellow humans!

Never before have I felt so connected to you. No matter what corner of the world you are reading this in, we are battling the same enemy. This is heavy, guys. But know, I am doing my part and got your backs.

Here in Spain, the government has declared a State of Alarm and as of tomorrow, Monday morning at 8am, we are movement restricted. Unless we are going to the grocery, pharmacy or hospital, we have to stay home.

Dan and I have been anticipating this for several weeks now. No other measures seemed extreme enough to stop the spread, except quarantine.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the term social distancing. I feel it gives too much freedom to interpretation and by default, won’t be successful. We are quarantined. Government mandated quarantined. We can’t negotiate the terms because they are black and white. Stay home unless you need medical attention or provisions. Period.

A great article about social distancing, in case you are interested, is Here.

So… how are we doing on Day 0?

The moment feels surreal to me. I have inundated myself with facts and figures, articles and protocols for over two weeks now. At any given moment, I could have told you exactly how many people worldwide were in serious or critical condition with the virus. I have been an obsessive statistic-junkie hoarding figures, trying to figure out exactly when this moment was going to arrive. Now it’s here and I feel prepared, but nervous.

Dan’s teaching has been moved online indefinitely. Squirms has been out of school for a week already. An abundance of new toys were purchased on Amazon last week and we will try and stagger their reveal :). We have completed our Costco run and placed our grocery order for delivery next week. All in all, our ducks are in a row. We all feel great except Squirms is cutting some teeth.

It’s unclear to us what is allowed when walking the dogs. Can we take them on their normal long walks or are we restricted to the end of the block? By the end of the week, we should have a rhythm with that too.

I will make sure to write regularly so you don’t worry. Could you do the same? Down there… in the comment section… let me know how your mental state is. Need any words of encouragement? Any mamas of newly mobile one year olds reading? How do I contain this energy?

You can trust that the Clarks in Madrid, Spain are thinking about you, your health and your family’s health too. Please think about ours. We are in this together.

Love you all. Wash your hands and Don’t touch your face!!! ❤️