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Old Town Bluffton, approximately thirty minutes off the shore, is such a sweet coastal town. Its charming character is preserved through its' architecture and a mix of old and new retail shops and antique shops. There is even a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop! Each Thursday it holds a farmer's market from 12:00 pm-3:00 pm. Unlike other markets we have been to where farmers line up their tables in one central area, this market is spread throughout the main street in different nooks and sections which ensures that you spot the many art galleries and unusual stores as you farm stand hop. Coming from NYC I couldn't help but compare the experience to shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket. Although NYC's market has a much larger selection, it is also very dauntingly flooded with people. In my twenty-two years living in Manhattan, I have never bought more than one item from one stand during a visit because I found the crowd too overwhelming. I certainly have never made a plan to go to the market, I only stopped by when I was in the neighborhood. How easy today's experience was, despite the thirty-minute drive. Drive. Park. Stroll the village. Have lunch (make sure waitress wipes down table first and I wipe every glass, plate rim, and silverware handle with alcohol swabs). Stop at farm stands. Select the beautifully harvested berries. Smile. Be on your way. Living on Hilton Head Island for the past month has really opened up a whole new, stress-free way of living. Unlike other summers where we travel abroad and move around a lot, we have really settled here and have been taking in a much more relaxed lifestyle.

Savannah is just one of those cities that oozes Southern charm. This was my third visit to this charming city in Georgia, and hopefully not my last, because I truly love this town more each time I stop by. Its location serves as a perfect day trip from Hilton Head Island, only a 45-minute drive away. Considering the soaring summer temperatures, we planned to arrive early to beat the heat as much as possible and left by 3:00 pm when temperatures peak. This visit was extra special because for once, my husband actually planned the itinerary which is something that I always have done in our past adventures. I loved being led by him around town to check out the spots he deemed visit-worthy. He executed a pretty impressive itinerary and my children and I have forgiven him for the imperfect planning and the never-ending walk in the heat "to the river" (i.e River Street). We have given him a pass, just this once! We started our route at the Mikve Israel Synagogue, the third oldest Jewish congregation in the US, built-in 1733. Conde Nast names it as one of the 15 most beautiful synagogues in the world. Surprisingly, there are 400 families in the congregation today. I had no idea there was a Jewish community in Savannah! We continued our walk towards Forsyth Park, one of the most romantic parks I've ever been to (not surprising since it is inspired by French park landscaping designs). As you walk towards the iconic fountain you are surrounded by oak trees draped in Spanish moss and quickly become enveloped by floral fragrances and lush landscaping. It's just a little piece of shaded heaven. The Historic District is where we seemed to get tripped up. The walk there from Forsyth Park was not shaded, nor scenic. We were disappointed when we finally arrived to find a less impressive architectural style and a lack of greenery. Since we are trying to be as conscientious as possible during Covid, we did not check out any of the museums that cover the area. The sun was pounding down so we decided to walk "to the river" which put us at another hour of trekking through the heat, but we made it, finally! The last time we visited Savannah was on St. Patrick's Day and River Street was packed with people celebrating. It was a stark contrast to see how bare the crowd was this time around. Our kids were not fond of this area- too hot and lots of homeless people- but when I found online stories of the ghosts from the past who like to visit, they quickly came around. Since River Street is a bunch of shops and restaurants, and we were unable to enjoy either due to Covid, we didn't get to enjoy the area as much as we normally would. Next, we walked over to Emmet Park to grab a shaded spot in the grass and to refuel and re-energize with our takeout lunch from B Matthew Eatery followed by ice cream at Leopold's. My almond buttercream scoop was dee-lish and just what I needed to keep me cool as we continued to walk the city. On our drive to Savannah, I read the kids stories of its haunted past and common ghost sightings. They were mesmerized by all the tales and eye witness accounts of these tortured spirits lurking around. When we stopped by The Davenport House and Sorrel Weed House they already knew all about its haunted past and were glued to the buildings asking questions and imaging the distressed deaths around the love triangle in the Sorrel Weed House. Our oldest son wanted to visit Chippewa Square to find the famous bench scene shot at the beginning of "Forrest Gump". We walked around in circles trying to find it until I finally found an article on google informing us that the bench was an added prop in the movie and cannot be found in the park. Oops! We got to see a beautiful bride and her wedding party instead. There is so much history in Savannah, the architecture and landscaping takes me away to another era, the people exude southern hospitality, I just love it! Despite this Covid Era, most people were still walking around unmasked, except in stores/restaurants. Leopold's did a good job allowing no more than 12 customers into the parlor at a time. We never leave the house without our masks, Purell and wipes. I wipe down every spoon, ice cream cup, take out container, water bottle, etc... At first, it was daunting to frantically wipe everything down so I didn't see the purpose of dining out but now that we have gotten used to this new normal it has really opened up a whole new world for us as we can begin to enjoy take out meals, ice cream treats, restaurants, etc... In fact, in this magical city, my kids hit some swings in a park for the first time in months (yes, I wiped down the swing seats and metal chains too, ha!) Savannah broke me into this new willingness to enjoy these small outings and for that, I love her, even more, the third time around.

One of the new traditions we began during the pandemic is "family movie nights" on Fridays and Saturdays. Our kids look forward to these nights and quickly fall into their routine of pouring a glass of milk and filling a plate with homemade desserts and grabbing a blanket as they run to claim their spots. It's always a struggle for us to find movies that appeal to all three of our kids which are also appropriate for their age levels. Our almost 14-year-old thinks he is old enough to watch most movies. We disagree. However, we will watch movies like "Platoon" with him when the younger two are already in bed. At this point, we have succumbed to movies with bad language but even with this exception, it is extremely difficult to find great movies that don't have sex scenes. I often wonder WHY the decision is made to even throw in these scenes when they have nothing to do with the movie! For example, my husband and I really liked "Come Hell or High Water". Our oldest could have totally watched it except that the three-second, pointless sex scene in the movie killed any hope for him to watch this film. Are we too prude? In seventh grade, he had friends who watched Game of Thrones. Personally, I thought that was ridiculous. Do some parents really not monitor what their kids watch? Are we too strict? I don't know... and I honestly don't really care what choices others make for their kids' viewing pleasures but we will stick to our guidelines for now. I am sure there are parents out there who won't agree with our allowance of movie screenings with bad language for a ten-year-old and that is ok too! We use Common Sense Media as a guide to our decision makings and often hold the remote control closely to quickly skip over scenes we don't want them to be exposed to yet. For example, our kids absolutely love Jim Carey movies but unfortunately, they are ridden with sex. "Cable Guy" is pretty harmless except for a couple of scenes where the sexy talk is a bit overwhelming for our taste but we just skipped over them and still got to enjoy a funny flick. In fact, they loved this movie so much we watched it twice! I hope the list below helps some of you who are looking for some good movies that are appropriate for younger kids albeit the bad language and some violence. I highly recommend reading the Common Sense Media reviews closely so that you are well prepared to hit fast forward on that remote! · Green Book · Trolls World Tour · Scoob · The Upside · Father of the Bride · Hunger Games, all of them · Dark Waters · Contagion · Zoolander · JoJo Rabbit · Dumb and Dumber · Tropic Thunder · Stand By Me · Encounters of the Third Kind · Mrs. Doubtfire · Monty Python and the Holy Grail · Indiana Jones 1-3 · The Dark Night · Knives Out · Clue · The Matrix · Gravity · Three Amigos · Captain Phillips · The Pursuit of Happyness · Cinderella Man · The Imitation Games · Onward · Big Daddy · That Thing You Do · School of Rock · Rockaway · Napolean Dynamite · Concussion · Unbreakable · War of the Worlds · Signs · Dead Poet Society (did not complete) · Cable Guy · Shaun of the Dead · The Big Year · Blinded by the Light · Rise of the Planet of the Apes · Ace Ventura, Pet Detective · Titanic · Dodge Ball: A True Underdog Story · The Wizard of Lies · Field of Dreams · Good Morning Vietnam · Free Solo · What Dreams May Come · Ford v Ferrari · Captain Marvel · Planes, Trains & Automobiles · A Beautiful Mind · 127 Hours · Interstellar · Oceans 11 · Twilight · Tenet · Lincoln (only made it through half) · The Phenomenon · Soul · WW84 ·Hamilton ·Fire in the Sky If you have any films that your family has really enjoyed, please share them. We have several months ahead of where it is just the five of us and need as much entertainment as we can get!

These tasty treats always get my juices flowing for a few reasons: they are delicious, they are freezer friendly so I make a large batch and freeze half, and the ingredient combinations are endless. For this recipe, I used Barefoot Contessa's apricot rugelach recipe. I love the bite-size cookies the recipe yields allowing me to pop them in my mouth throughout the day! I saved the extra sugar and cinnamon mixture used for sprinkling and combined it with the leftover filling and used it in my french toast batter the following morning. Also, I used pecans instead of walnuts. Next time, I will make chocolate almond rugelach to please my chocoholic daughter, or perhaps Nutella with hazelnuts, or maybe raspberry with walnuts, or white chocolate cream with macadamia, or chocolate coffee, or .... see, the possibilities are endless!

We spent the day on Dafuskie Island today. It's a small island, with roughly 400 inhabitants, which you can only get to by boat. No grocery stores, no high school, no bridges to the mainland. On a private taxi, it takes 25 minutes to get to from Bluffton or 60 minutes on the public ferry. Regardless of the form of transportation, you are almost guaranteed to see several dolphins along the way! When we arrived we were greeted by the golf cart rental company representative- a 17-year-old young man who was raised on the island. My family was immediately mesmerized by the idea of growing up on such an isolated island only 8 square miles small. Driving around in a golf cart is the chosen method of transportation and five hours was enough to see the entire island, stop for lunch, and swim in the sea for an hour. We started off by exploring the island. Most of the houses we passed were either abandoned or needed major upgrading. However, there were many private communities we could not enter that looked really well maintained and boasted large homes on the water. After an hour of driving through lush, tropical landscapes and pretty desolate "neighborhoods" we stopped for lunch at Lucy Belle's, one of the island's three restaurants. We snatched an outdoor table under a gigantic oak tree dripping in Spanish moss. Lovely. This was our first time eating at a restaurant since the pandemic. I was well prepared with alcohol wipes and wiped everything down meticulously. Lucy Belle's is unpretentious, offers outdoor seating only, and serves its' meals on paper plates with plastic utensils. The food though... oh was the food delicious! I had the Caribbean grouper, perfectly blackened and grilled. We left satisfied, energized, and ready to hit the gravel road again. This time we stopped at Iron Fish Gallery, an outdoor welding studio opened by a man who moved to the island at the age of 24 when he had an epiphany to become a welder. This gallery is a real treat filled with quirky art, mainly of sea life. We also stopped at a farm and met the owner who moved to Dafuskie twenty years ago. She said she visited the island, fell in love with it, and purchased the property the very same day. I love meeting people who not only have callings but actually follow them. Next, we stopped at the Bloody Point Lighthouse, which isn't an actual lighthouse, and were surprised to find a vineyard there. We quickly hopped off our cart to buy a bottle of Daufuskie wine but were quickly disappointed to learn they were all sold out. Next, we went to the cemetery and left as quickly as we arrived. I actually like cemeteries but this one gave me intense goosebumps and a fleeting feeling. Finally, we went to the beach. The water glistened like glitter calling us in and embraced us with the most ideal water temperature we could have hoped for on a hot, summer day. There were barely any people on the shore with us, maybe 30 at most. We stayed immersed in the water for almost an hour as fish swam by bumping into us. The day ended with a ubiquitous tropical shower as we headed back to the dock to return to the mainland. Our take away from the island was WOW. How do people manage on an island with no hospital, no grocery store (Instacart delivers!), three restaurants, and really nothing to do. Dafuskie is a great day trip and maybe even a great place of residency for those who want complete isolation and a life "off the grid". I always love finding the spots few hear of and exploring them. The only way to learn about our beautiful world is to seek those places that are so different from our own lives. It is the only way to learn about the many, many possibilities that are available to us. If we don't explore, how will we find our true calling?

Homemade cookies have become staples in our Quarantined Kitchen. We have baked endless dozens of cookies to dip in milk during our family movie nights (new Covid-19 ritual!). My ultimate favorite, cannot-get-enough-of-cookie, is.... white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Oh my gosh are these darn delicious! I have tried many recipes for this variety and my favorite has been from sallysbakingaddiction.com I do not add cornstarch to the recipe as directed and I also add extra white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts because you can never have too many! Enjoy!

We are two weeks into our month-long stay on Hilton Head Island, SC; this being our first stop on our road trip. The experience has been slightly confusing since this stop is a combination of summer vacation and also the commencement of a long road trip ahead. Perfecting the art of beach bumming, endless bike rides and splash-filled swims in the pool have definitely captured the essence of summer. Yet, knowing that I do not know what comes next has propelled me into recklessly abandoning any planning or looking ahead and instead of striving to learn to focus on each day one at a time. This is day seventeen of detox (no alcohol or caffeine) allowing me to embrace boredom rather than worry about what comes next with a glass of vino in my hand. When I get bored I pick up a book or stare at my children's feet longing for the days they fit in the palm of my hand. I have listened intently to my daughter crunching on cheerios while she reads and I have noticed subtle changes I would have normally missed as my eleven-year-old son enters puberty. It has only been two weeks since we hit the road but really it has been almost five months since Covid-19 thrust us out of our complacent, blinded, rigid and scripted lives. I can't remember the last time I had absolutely nothing to do and nothing planned in the upcoming months. In fact, I am pretty certain that stillness was never a reality for me. For now, I am content staring at the sea and listening to the laughter of my children, the chirps of the birds, the crashing of the waves, the chatter of nearby families, and most importantly, the voices inside me that I have quieted for too long.

It amazes me how many people I know do not respond to their text messages. The fact that the technology era has placed a wedge between people as most prefer to text than to pick up the phone and say "hello" is no new news but the fact that people completely ignore a text is mind-boggling to me. Some people ignore them outright for days at a time. Then there are those who engage in a text conversation and disappear midway through. I imagine physically engaging in a conversation with someone and just walking away while they are speaking and never coming back to close out the conversation. Or having someone walk up to me and share a thought or ask me a question and just staring at them, saying nothing. These examples, to me, are the equivalent of ignoring or not responding to a text. If we would not behave this way in a face-to-face conversation then why do we feel it is acceptable to do so via text? Have we really all gotten so self-centered that we cannot take a minute to show common decency and respond to someone? Have we truly convinced ourselves that we are justified in our busyness to basically outright ignore someone? Even when I was working full time while raising children, I always made it a point to respond to each and every text. I feel confident that no one has ever felt ignored by me. Yes, I used to get really offended when this would happen to me. When the Covid era started I felt so optimistic that things would change, that people would change. After all, how can we not be more sensitive in our communication with others when death is lurking all around us? Nowadays I no longer get offended it just downright confuses me. I can't relate to seeing responding as an option. I see it in my social circle and I see it happening in my children's circle. Now that they have phones they too are bewildered when their friends don't respond. Ironically, it is the very same children who have parents guilty of text evasion that do not respond themselves. Could this possibly be genetic? Here is a tip for those of you who have good intentions but poor organizational skills: at the end of the day, before going to sleep, check your text messages and respond to everyone you were not able to respond to earlier in the day. Just take the two minutes to respond.

When you are self-isolating with the same four people for months at a time, you need to come up with fun and tasty activities to get through the days. My daughter suggested cake pops topped with sprinkles so cake pops with sprinkles we made! We opted for Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix for the batter (just bake as instructed on the box). We melted Ghirardelli white chocolate chips for the coating. Since we didn't have the foam block at our temporary Covid era housing, and I have found myself to be more frugal these days and less willing to buy things unnecessarily, we used empty egg cartons that I cut slits into to hold up the sticks until the chocolate coating dried up. Once the cake is baked and cooled break it up into crumbs and roll it into balls. Insert a lollipop stick into a cake ball, dip into melted chocolate, and top with sprinkles. Note * We tried to be creative and split the batter into two batches: all chocolate batter and chocolate batter mixed with peanut butter. The peanut butter mixture was too dry....oh well, you win some you lose some! These are super easy and fun to make - the combinations are endless!

My quarantine kitchen has been blowing up these days. Operating like a legitimate bakery my oven hosts a plethora of deliciously baked goods throughout the week. Since we are on the road and haven't been home since March, it's always a challenge to choose desserts and breads that are easy to make with the given utensils and appliances in the house we are staying in. Despite any lack of tools, any kitchen has been my savior in fighting off boredom while whipping up delicious new recipes. These brownie sandwiches are so simple yet so tasty. What I love most about them is that there are many varieties to try! I made my favorite brownie batter recipe, spooned it onto a baking sheet, and let it bake and cool. For the filling, I made a basic buttercream and added homemade caramel and sea salt. YUM, YUM, YUM! My mind goes wild as I think of other combinations: brownie cookie with Nutella filling or peanut butter filling or chocolate buttercream filling; Blondie brownie with caramel creme filling; White chocolate brownie with vanilla buttercream or chocolate buttercream or coffee buttercream. The possibilities are endless! Let me know which combo you try and how it turns out!

It's been four months since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, forcing me to realize something has been brewing inside my soul for the past couple of years and that I, too, have been in the process of imploding. COVID is coincidentally a parallel circumstance to my emotional entanglements. The self-imposed isolation of the Coronacoaster era has propelled me to face more than I have ever been willing to. As COVID made its' move into our lives, my family quickly packed up, left New York City, and headed to Long Island knowing that outdoor spaces, fewer people and more indoor space would be crucial to our mental and physical health. Four months later, I can vividly recall the sense of gratitude towards having an escape plan and more importantly, our health. I can also easily remember the constant confusion, feelings of loss of control, and the beginning stages of following my mind's journey into sometimes dark and unhappy places as I struggled to figure out my life purpose and goals. I look back to this moment in the photo when I had the shore to myself, with no one in sight (or so I thought), and danced my ass off to Titanium and I Follow Rivers. I danced for my happiness, I danced for my fears, I danced for my rage, I danced for my resentments. I danced and danced... Looking back, I now know this was the beginning of a slow and steady unravelment. .

So... it's February! All I have been hearing everyone saying is that time is passing quicker than ever. I must agree, it has been moving at lightning speed. It seems like yesterday that I was looking ahead into January with a plan to instate new habits and routines and here we are one entire month later and I find myself already looking back. In a previous post (see here), I committed to a set of specific goals that I established for myself to meet during the month of January. Below I highlight each objective I sought to attain along with the ultimate outcome. Meditate 10 minutes each morning Check. I am happy to share that I have consistently been meditating on a daily basis. In fact, I meditate between 15-20 minutes each morning instead of my original ten-minute target. Read one book every two weeks Check. I am thrilled to report that I have not only achieved this goal, but I doubled the outcome. In the month of January I read: Greenwood: A Novel of a Family Tree in a Dying Forest by Michael Christie The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma Acid for the Children: A Memoir by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Reserve wine for weekends (which begin on Thursdays!) Unaccomplished. Big fat ZERO here. I'm not sure why this was on my list to begin with. I have a feeling it had something to do with "dry January" being all over my social media feed. I will happily continue to allow myself to enjoy a glass or two of wine at the end of very long and action-packed days. Watch one classic movie per week, alone Unaccomplished. I think this was added to my list as a romanticized activity thinking that I would enjoy watching a movie mid-day by myself. I had fantasies of watching Casablanca or Breakfast at Tiffany's under the blankets on a Monday morning. The truth is, I watched one documentary and had very little patience to sit through a two-hour film on a weekday. I also really love watching movies as a family on the weekends and I learned that two movies a week are about all I can handle. Sign up for a virtual personal growth/spiritual awakening type class, once per week Check. I signed up for weekly classes that highlighted various new-age topics each week like auras, dream interpretations, kabbalah basics, and shamanism. Although I didn't pursue any of these topics more deeply, being introduced to a new way of thinking reminded me just how much I enjoy acquiring new knowledge and exposing myself to new perspectives and possibilities. Spend 10 minutes each day on Duolingo, brushing up on my Italian which I haven't used since the Spring Unaccomplished. I tried to stick to this. I really did. The first week of January I spent ten minutes each day on the app. Then, I'm not sure what happened. I just kind of forgot about this goal until looking back at it now. When planning ahead for February's goals, this won't make the list. Take care of my roots Check. I finally touched up my roots. Not that they were so bad, but they were there, and pre-pandemic they were always covered before they had a chance to peek their way out of my scalp. Now, that I have figured out how to take care of this matter on my own for under $15, I cannot imagine ever spending a couple of hundred dollars plus taxi fare on this service again. In Retrospect: For me, having my goals written out really helped me focus on achieving as many of them as possible. Although the goals I set for myself seemed very realistic at the time, in retrospect some were doomed to fail although looking back, I don't see the unfulfilled ones as failures at all. I learned from the unmet goals too ( while watching Pretty Woman on my own sounds fantastic, I really rather be doing something else during the day like hiking, walking along the coast, writing...) What I find really interesting is that the goals which were fulfilled were done so at a higher completion rate than initially targeted (i.e. reading four books in January versus two books). This realization has taught me that while there are some tasks we discard or ignore, the goals that truly resonate with us inspire us to give one hundred percent of our energy into attaining them, even surpassing what we hoped for. Meaning, it is crucial that we focus on aspirations that really, truly are meaningful to us. That being said, if we all took a pen and paper at the beginning of each month and listed a handful of goals we'd like to fulfill during the month ahead, how gratifying would it feel knowing that although we may not have met them all, we successfully accomplished even just a couple of our goals? Even more so, how wonderful would the realization be in knowing that the journey and process that we embark on to reach our goals will inevitably and perfectly lead us to new goals and accomplishments? By exploring new goals each month there is also an automatic default into a world of unexpected achievements that organically arise. My January goals led to new habits and routines I didn't set out to incorporate into my daily life yet through cause and effect, here they are! New accomplishments that surprisingly sprouted when planting specific seeds for January: 1) I currently wake up at 5:00 am on weekdays. I prepare everyone's morning smoothies and soon after lock myself in a room where I meditate, journal, and watch an inspirational TED Talk/podcast. I realized that in order to fit everything I'd like into a day, I need to wake up earlier. I love my sleep more than anything but I have learned that I love my moments alert and productive even more. 2) I now incorporate a daily TED Talk on varying topics into my morning routine (this is a direct result of fulfilling last month's goal of signing up for a spiritual class once a week. Enrolling in those made me want to fill my brain with as many positively powerful messages each day). 3) I have begun to journal each morning jotting down anything from complete rambles to thoughts on precise questions that I pose to myself like "what are your biggest strengths? what are your biggest weaknesses? What would you do if today was your last day alive?" etc. If I want to be more aware, I need to practice more awareness and journaling helps me with that. 4) For the last three weeks, I have finally returned to the gym and have been working out on a daily basis. By 6:30 am I'm in the car and on the way to a sweat session. I put my body on hold for the first six months of our road trip. It's so exhilarating to challenge it again and feel my heart pounding through my chest reminding me with each beat how grateful I am to be alive. 5) I have stood my ground and let my husband and children know that no one is to call me or interrupt me before lunchtime unless it's urgent. Having focused, uninterrupted time to think, work, and manage my endless list of tasks has been lifesaving. Gone are the days when I serve everyone's every little need. My kids are now old enough to figure out how to make a snack on their own. It is easy to let the clock tick and the days pass without even taking one deep breath. Can I ask you to PAUSE and join me in listing some realistic goals for yourself to focus on in February? If so, let me know you're on board, share your goals with me, and I'll touch base with you in a few weeks to celebrate your successes and also discuss which new routines and accomplishments emerged that were unexpected. Make sure to read my tips to help you get started. I look forward to hearing from you!