Backpacks and lunchboxes get washed on the last day of school. Three weeks ago, we started stockpiling non-perishables. Why? Coronavirus. We are a family of five and we consume a lot; a little extra, just in case, is probably not a bad idea. We are concerned, not so much about getting COVID-19, but about the inevitable disruptions. We want to prepare, not panic. I grew up in Guyana in a time when scarcity was commonplace. I remember the lines for everything - food, cooking gas, toilet paper! I have vague memories of sitting for hours at a clinic, waiting for vaccinations and, I think, powdered milk, or maybe it was another place, another queue. The run on grocery stores that we are experiencing now in the U.S. gives me flashbacks. I presume that the majority of shoppers have never seen anything as widespread as this in their lives, not here in the U.S. anyway. As it happens, we were living in Lagos, Nigeria during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Social distancing, increased...

Can't believe that, until A Perfect Fit , I had not written new blog post in over a year. Time flew, life was lived, and lessons were learned. Most noteworthy is that I've assumed a more relaxed posture towards housekeeping. I found that keeping up with the standard of clean and tidy I had become used to, having household help overseas, is unmanageable. I still clean thoroughly, if not as frequently, and we still endeavor to have a place for everything and everything in its place. Still, with three young children, I spend much of my day tidying. We attempted to ease the burden of cooking by enjoying takeout out a few more times a month but quickly realized that eating out more than a handful of times per month, even at inexpensive restaurants, has a significant effect on our food budget. For a family of five, the only way to stay under budget, $5 to $7 per person, per day, is to prepare the majority of meals at home. To put things into perspective, what we can reasona...

Living like we do is no cakewalk. It is hard, and requires a level of commitment that can be unsustainable. I've come to appreciate the benefit of taking a break and regrouping. It has been a while since my last post because frankly, the rigidity of my routine was wearing me down. I created a place for everything but everything was not in its place. I was struggling to keep up with the household chores. Cooking, cleaning, care of children, and the like are tasks that were previously performed by my household help and I was finding life stateside to be rather difficult. Not being able to keep up and the resulting disorder in our home brought me to my wit's end. Of course, everyone in the home was feeding off my ill temper and it was making for a very bad situation. I challenged myself with letting a few things go, with the condition that I needed to recharge and I would get back on track as soon a possible. I couldn't turn a blind eye to the toothpaste on the mirro...