Our tree has been up since the second weekend in November. Our elves, Elfie, and new arrival Twinkles arrived on Thanksgiving night for a season of tricks. We’ve drunk hot chocolate and watched Elf. We open our advent calendars every morning. We are going through the motions in a holiday season that is anything but normal. My calendar is noticibly empty. A time of year when invites typically elicit a “hell yes” I now I find myself trapped by the weight of yet another decision. Every decision these days has a tendency of feeling like life or death. And will a fleating moment of joy (dinner wi ..read more

If there is anything we could all use in 2020 it’s a bit of luck and to make whatever aspects of our lives that we can as simple as possible. And that’s because we all know 2020 has been a lot. When it comes to gift giving this year I’ve expanded my gift list in hopes of making everyone’s year a little bit merrier. Which means I’m giving small gifts to lots of people in my life. The easiest way to to give a small gift that can have a BIG impact is with New Jersey Lottery Holiday Scratch-Offs.  This year New Jersey Lottery has introduced 4 new holiday scratch-offs that start at as low as ..read more

You wake up in the middle of the night if you were lucky enough to fall asleep. And you spend from 2 am to 4 am pondering what fresh hell you are living in today. You inevitably fall back to sleep 20 minutes before your alarm goes off . And your mind remembers, yes there is still a global pandemic. You make your coffee and try to stomach the news. Sometimes you make it through the paper without wanting to sob. Other days you toss it in the recylcing bin knowing no good will come from more depressing and stressful headlines. And you hear the sound of your kids waking up and you brace yourself ..read more

Back in March a few days before lockdown or safer at home or quarantine or whatever it is we are calling this started. I remember thinking “it will be fine, we’ll stay home for a few weeks things will surely get better”. Boy was I wrong. As my husband likes to say every time someone makes a stupid comment, “that’s not how viruses work”. So when we started distance learning in mid-March I was pretty sure that it was going to be longer than 2 weeks but surely not longer than spring break, surely not the rest of the school year. But, alas this whole school year has been wiped away like the Lyso ..read more

Let’s face it getting anything delivered right now is a huge win. If I don’t have to venture out to the store it is an instant win. But sometimes shopping online for wine can be a little difficult. Often when shopping for wine, I go into the store and head right for my favorites. Online it’s not usually so simple and I’ve definitely had some online wine shopping experiences that have left a bad taste in my mouth. But that is not the case with Wine Insiders. Wine Insiders offers great bottles of wine at a price you can afford. 4 Reasons to Try Wine Insiders Curated Wine Packs Know you like ros ..read more

My temptation is for this post to be one line. At 39 I know nothing. Because that’s very much how I feel as I sit here about to pour my second glass of wine on the night of my 39th birthday. Because right now in the midst of a pandemic, nothing seems to be all I know. But I’m not going to let the current situation deflect from all the thing that I know to be true. And besides after months of being home with my family, I have to know somethings. 39 Things I Know at 39 Leadership matters. If the past months have shown me anything it’s how much leadership on a national level and on a local leve ..read more

There has been a lack of fun these past few months. Between stay-at-home orders and canceled trips I’ve been looking for anyway to make these strange times a little more fun. When Theme Night Wines reached out to me to see if they could send me some of their themed wine to try I thought that it would a great way to have fun with friends and family. Theme Night Wines includes the following themed wines: Pizza Night (Red Blend or Pinot Grigio), Movie Night (Chardonnay),  Game Night (Merlot), Our Night (Cabernet Sauvignon), Summer Night (Rosé), Ladies Night (Chardonnay, Rosé or Cabern ..read more

I keep staring at the package of toilet paper in my hallway with the words, “30 weeks supply!!” When I brought it I had thought it would be enough. I’m not sure who did the calculations or what kind of algorithm they used but that package is in no way 30 weeks for 4 people who are constantly at home. I keep thinking of Eileen from Seinfeld, “I can’t spare a square”. Everything appears normal in our house but if you look around you notice. The sign on the door that says, “we can’t play today please do not ring bell”, or the clorox wipes and lysol spray that sit by the door. But life is at tim ..read more

Week of March 23rd This week felt really long and I felt like there was a constant drum beating in my head along with an angry voice that I could not seem to silence. My parents weren’t able to fly home from Florida on Monday, March 23rd because the person who drives their car home from Florida is also the Chief of Police in Sea Isle City. He wasn’t able to take the time off because the town had become crowded with second home owners and their college aged kids who were having parties. The problem of second home owners coming down the shore only seemed to be getting worse and at some point in ..read more

I’ve been really hesitant to write anything about this time in our lives because recording it makes it real. But at the same time there feels to be much more of a need to connect and to feel like you aren’t alone. And really that was the whole reason I started this blog, to connect and feel less alone. So I’m going to start a weekly post of what life is like right now. Week of March 1st I started to get an inkling that this virus was going to be a problem. The reports of toilet paper and disinfectant shortages had just started appearing on social media. Since I work in social media I feel lik ..read more