Three days ago when I looked outside I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was that snow???? What is happening in Berlin? But then, yesterday it was 80 degrees and bright and sunny. We made the best of it and ran outside and down the block to our favorite little forested area in the city. As you can see all four of us had a great time and just kept exclaiming how wonderfully warm it was!

Today promises to be even a little warmer and then back down to cooler Spring Berlin temps on Tuesday, back to rain and grey. This won’t stop us from enjoying open balcony doors and extra sun on our faces as we prepare for the week.

Entering month seven of lockdown is a surreal and yet totally normal moment at this point. There are promises of things opening more and more in the coming weeks especially to vaccinated people in Berlin. Perhaps outdoor dining might even be allowed soon again, I heard on my morning Berlin news podcast. I cannot tell you how lovely that would be. Recently I have been having these dreams about the most mundane things…or used to be mundane…that now feel like actual dreams. I dreamt about sitting outside at a restaurant table eating. This is the entirety of the dream. I don’t know what I was eating or where I was but I was outside and it was glorious to be able to eat restaurant food not in takeout form but at a table not at my house. I had another dream two nights ago that Ana and I were at a gathering and I was reaching for her hand. The entire dream was being at a gathering outside with friends. I wanted to hold her hand. We were next to people. The entire dream was about being with other people.

It is weird what the mind will do after seven months of lockdown life.

At the same time, I am seeing ways that I will be able to still have moments of thriving this summer. I have bought into a garden that I get to help tend all summer and I am so excited about it. We have created a wedding website to try to keep our people in the loop even if we can’t invite people to our wedding. We are starting to hope and plan perhaps future travels.

This week feels a bit daunting but doable and at the end of the week I enter into my 40s and I am ready for it.

Here’s to another week!