Home office
"Mommy, what's for food?" I flinch inwardly when this question comes. And it comes at least twice a day. If I were a seasoned housewife, I would surely whip that up for my three children – but I am self-employed, as a designer and blogger. Normally, I would now be with our producers in Italy or Portugal, at fittings or in meetings with my team. My children would be at school or in care. But we are in the middle of a pandemic and I am working from home. That requires a completely new daily routine and a change of perspective. At first, we still celebrated the forced quarantine time as an extended family vacation.
I was internally crafting a home scavenger hunt, promoting virtual yoga and meditation challenges on my blog, supporting local shops with our reach, and wanted to learn seven new foreign languages in 30 days. We enjoyed the first weeks 24/7 alone at home, like an extended weekend: the days lost their shape and thanks to nightly Netflix addiction attacks, we slept in late. The sleep outfit was promptly declared the house suit and we enjoyed the sudden we-time. Finally, applying all my silicone masks from Dr. Susanne Schmiedebach, letting my favorite hair treatment from Olaplex work long enough, and joining the phone meeting with curlers and décolleté fleece (from Apricot).
Wonderful this beauty-home office multitasking, if only the question about lunch didn't come up at the latest after breakfast and from 4 p.m. the call for "What's for dinner?" Since then, something is constantly sizzling on our stove and my freshly washed hair smells more like chicken soup than Wella. The smell of food paralyzes me a bit, so I have placed Samphire scented candles all over the house. They even swallow stubborn chip smells and conjure up a touch of the Italian Riviera in my four walls with a lemon scent. And that helps me to concentrate on my job alongside homeschooling, hang-out piano lessons, and my son's PS4 distraction maneuvers. Because every day brings a new challenge and my new favorite word in this context is now IMPROVISATION.
After just a few weeks in quarantine, I no longer want to start a thousand creative projects, nor do I want to declutter my wardrobe or do Pilates all day. I will not rise from the totally tidied living room like a phoenix after time in home isolation, completely self-optimized, and romanticize this pandemic as a great opportunity. No, but I have learned that rituals (including beauty) and discipline help me find a new structure.
After just 2 weeks, our lazy life came to an end: I got up again at the crack of dawn, ran a quick Alster round, and was sitting at my desk by 9:30 a.m. at the latest. For the hangouts with my team at 10 a.m., I dressed up again – the jogger outfit gave way to a business look, and my morning beauty ritual with ice-cold water, tonic (Shiseido), serum (Dr. Susanne von Schmiedeberg), and tinted day cream (Bare Minerals – Vanilla) gave me the necessary "toughening" for the day. Several times a day, I catch myself spraying facial mist on my face, and I now also dab my cooling eye cream under my computer-tired eyes in between. These are my little freshness boosts during the day. Around 5 p.m., I look forward to a well-deserved Quarantini (a kind of martini) – sometimes I wear red lipstick for it and get "Ah's" and "Oh's" from my family every evening.
After the aforementioned kitchen thing (yes, that will become routine someday – also because my eldest daughter suddenly found a passion for cooking and supports me enthusiastically), I look forward to my home spa: I run a bath with Dr. Hauschka's rose milk and indulge in body foam and lotions from the Douglas Home Spa Ayurveda Collection. I read my new book by Susanne Kaloff "Fear is Not for Cowards," breathe deeply in and out, and set my mindset to positive vibes. I dream of the next vacation and bridge the time until then with a can of self-tanner from Vitasun – at least that brings a touch of sun tan into the house, not just in my mind.
I believe in the power of community to get through this crisis well – without speaking fluent Japanese – but hopefully with a nice complexion.
Everything will be fine – Yours SoSUE