Kali J Desautels

The Gratitude Hour – Little Man got to do the car alarm tonight.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our global neighbours. If you are on the frontline, thank you; if you are an essential worker, thank you; if you are staying home and keeping the curve on the flattening trend, thank you; if you are doing errands for the immunocompromised, thank you; if you are teaching kids from your computers and phones, thank you; if you are making the best of things, thank you; if you are sharing your talents online, to make things easier for the rest of you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Fill your heart with gratitude. Fill your home with gratitude. Fill your town with gratitude. Fill the world with gratitude. It helps.

#gratitude #gratitudeattitude #graditudehour #thankyou #grateful #thatsmile😍 #mysonshine #covid #quarantinelife #7pm #7pmcheer #yvr #vancouver #bc #siren #panicbutton #kalidesautelsreads

Today my work offered a course on resiliency during the pandemic, and it reminded us that some of the best ways to remain resilient were to:

1) move your body;

2) get fresh air;

3) learn new things;

4) be kind to ourselves.

So after my meetings were done, and my tasks were completed, I went to work on my resiliency.

After walking through the trails, admiring the efforts of my neighbours to also work on their resiliency, listening to Harry Potter in French (if you don’t use it, you lose it), I walked barefoot through the field, watched puppies play, took deep gulps of clean air. I am feeling much, much more resilient, and even more than that, my mental health and gratitude are on the upswing.

#lightorb #rainbow #vividcolors #trails #my3rdhappiestplace #happyplaces #happy #resilient #freshair #earthing #freshairtherapy #takeawalk #breatheinbreatheout #meditation #lovemywork #kalidesautelsreads #harrypotter #franglais

For 12 years this Raggedy Man as been my fur baby. For most of that time he has sat with me, avoiding touching me as he possibly could. He kept me company, tripped me as I cooked, and was always near my feet. But now? Now he is all over me all of the time. Smacking me, climbing on me, walking across my chest, laying next to my pillow, sitting on me, yelling in my face, reminding me that he is here. I don’t know why the change, and honestly, some days it can be a bit annoying to get fur in my eyes and fluff in my mouth, but on the other hand? He is my baby. He is getting old, and I love him. He’s at an age now where when he wants me, I feel like I need to stop what I am doing and give him the attention he needs. He needs pets, and love, and treats, and sunshine, and attention. Most of all? He seems to need me.

Also – I need him. A lot.

#myraggedyman #raggedyman #blackcatsofinstagram #catsofinstagram #catsofinsta #myfurbaby #furbabylove #lovehim💙 #myboy #adozenyears #twelveyears #myoldman #stagethreestudio #easter #kalidesautelsreads

Hoppy Easter!!! These little bunnies woke up to a wonderful surprise! The quarantine kept the Easter Bunny from coming into the house this year (hard to self isolate, while bouncing through everyone’s houses), but it didn’t stop him/her from visiting our yard!

It really does take a village to raise kids, especially through a pandemic ❤️💝

#easterbunny #easter #osteria #outside #freshair #kiddos #kids #love #candyshop #candy #yvr #treats #aunties #uncles #momlife #covidbunny #covi̇d19 #kalidesautelsreads

This week was hard. Not because I couldn’t leave my house but because I had too many things happening in one week. My anxiety level reached an all time high. I haven’t felt that anxious in at least a year. Not since I was waiting for my husband’s official cancer diagnosis. I was working on something super important for work, along with a few other personal things, including but not limited to – my son breaking quarantine, my husband being in more pain than he had been for a while, my daughter’s school stress, my critical project at work… just all the things at once.

So I started walking as fast as I could for 5 km. I started walking in the grass barefoot. I started walking into the creek and letting the icy glacial water run over my feet. I started listening to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while staring up at the trees. I tried to breathe. I survived the week, and turned in my project. It was Thursday before the long weekend, and I could feel my body burnout or my brain or my eyes or my soul. I don’t know. Something. Something burned out. So I ordered pizza and pasta for my family, and celebrated my survival of the week, because it truly felt like surviving, by going to bed at 5:35 pm, waking slightly at the 7 pm cheer, before returning to sleep.

I slept until 6:30 am, and moved into the living room to start my day, where I fell asleep until 9 am, and then 10:30 am, and then 12:15 pm. This is surviving. The sleep of the burnout. The sleep of a hundred sleepless nights caught up with me. The sleep of anxiety. The sleep of self protection and recovery. It’s not productive. It’s not catching up. It’s rebooting.

And so today is « Good Friday », and I have slept most of it away. My daughter is sewing in her room, her machine sounding like an angry woodpecker on a street lamp. My son is reading in his room. My husband is in the basement, either in his shop or on his game. My cat is at my feet and I am in bed. Again. Not resting, not sleeping, just here. Stream of consciousness blogging about nothing. Rebooting.

Moving into the 4th week of a 2 week quarantine and I have a few things to say:

1) I still have all 4 members of my family, safe and sound (including Timon);

2) Texting my friends and family keeps me sane and smiling;

3) I have a fantastic job that I genuinely love that can be done from my home;

4) Society depends on us all working together, because we are all dependent on each other;

5) Nationalist policies will never solve a global pandemic;

6) Dr. Bonnie Henry is the most calming person in the world, even when she is sharing bad news;

7) I love the 7 pm honking and cheering, even though I live nowhere near a hospital, for the purpose of gratitude, and for the fortification of community;

8) I don’t really like leaving my house anyway, so staying in it 24/7 isn’t that big of a deal;

9) Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed is so good that it can be read in one day;

10) Things that stress me out, like baking, is soothing for other people;

11) My kids can want to kill each other one minute, and curl up and read together the next;

12) Chest tightness can be caused by anxiety AND be anxiety causing;

13) Skype is one of the greatest inventions in the world;

14) I stand by my belief that vaccines save lives and do not want to live in a world with less than 50% herd immunity;

15) Less pollution is taking the frizz from my hair;

16) We can heal the planet and ourselves by all working together;

17) This pandemic is being faced by everyone from janitors to billionaires, and cannot be faced by only one group our another;

18) We need each other, we need to support each other, we need to care about each other;

19) Small business owners are struggling, and need us to support them;

And finally 20) there is no wrong way to handle this pandemic, other than to disregard the rules, orders, and scientists.

#20things #selfie #untamed #covid2020 #covid19 #quarantine #selfisolate #healthcareheroes #thankyou #gratefulthankfulblessed #gratitudeattitude #covidfairies #love #family #friends #glennondoyle #vaccines #vaccinessavelives #anxiety #depression #kalidesautelsreads

Mommy was busy reading, but I stood on her book and reminded her that she can’t be too busy to cuddle me. Don’t worry – she stopped reading.

#catstagram #blackcat #blackcatsrule #turninggrey #cateyes #myboy #myraggedyoldman #raggedyman #greeneyes #furbaby #fluffball #kalidesautelsreads

One of the things I love about my job is that it can be remote, and I can work from home regularly, so the switch to COVID-19 working from home didn’t feel like a huge change. The biggest challenge is that usually I have a very quiet house for 6 of the 8 hours while my kids are at school, and my recovering husband mostly sleeps. During COVID, the house is full, and there is very little quiet time, so I am working in all the available spaces, like when my son is busy yelling at his friends on Fortnite and my daughter is practicing elaborate makeup routines that I, as a 37 year old woman, can’t even imagine mastering.

This morning, with my cup of coffee, generously furnished by my family, my desktop on the kitchen table (back pain has me working my way back to my desk) and at least an hour of solitude, (minus shouts of “look out for that sniper!! Why didn’t you rumble? There’s a Peely over there!!” And peals of laughter from my so to room) to get some of my work done. The best part about it? I literally love my job, so it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like something that I look forward to, and am lucky enough to do.

So happy Sunday. Try to find a way to make it happy, whatever your happy looks like.

#canadiancancersociety #canadiancancer #workfromhome #nonprofitlife #covıd19 #feminist #coffee #sundayfunday #relax #quarantinelife #happy #happiness #fortnite #familylife #grateful #kalidesautelsreads

I like social media. A lot. I feel like it was created for introverts like me – just extroverted enough to want to say things that make people laugh, but over all, desperate for quiet space. I like to read what my friends are doing. I like to see pictures of their pets and kids. I like to mentally cheer for my family as they accomplish something. I like to direct the thoughts in my brain towards other people. I love to congratulate people on pregnancies, and engagements, and promotions, and weddings, and graduations. I like to click the little crying emoji on Facebook when someone is heartbroken and I know that offering my thoughts and prayers will not be what is needed. I like taking videos of my kids, and then having them pop back up on my feed 3 or 4 years later, remember their big eyes, soft hair, and fat cheeks, frozen forever in time. I like being notified that someone I haven’t seen since high school is having a birthday. I like everything about it, and in fact am teased for overusing it.

It’s true. I do overuse social media. I check it multiple times a day, share too often, and like way too many pictures. But I genuinely like to like them. I have read articles about people’s social media addictions, and the phantom cell phone alerts. I know that getting likes lights up the dopamine or oxytocin releasing section of my brain. But that also means that I know that it does that for other people as well. If I know that I can do something that will temporarily, but measurably cause an improvement in someone’s day or mood, just by engaging with something that they posted online, why wouldn’t I do this? Why shouldn’t people know that their posting on Facebook through COVID-19 as the Star Trek Captain’s log made me smile? (Thank you, Holly! It’s awesome.) Why shouldn’t someone get 53 likes on a selfie of them with their engagement ring? They are excited and want to show it off. Why wouldn’t I double click on someone’s post about their ability to lift a truck? If it makes people happy, I like to do it. I like to make people feel happy.

Through the last few weeks, we have seen a lot of people reaching out to each other through social media. My friends and I have been doing online yoga and coffee dates. People are posting activities to do at home with their kids; posting pictures of their new COVID-19 foster/adopt pets. My sister is using the internet and social media to teach her son in Nova Scotia AND my kids in BC. My best friends and I have saved our sanity by sending each other memes that are either dark AF or inspiring depending on the mood. We are getting information, misinformation, and disinformation on Twitter. We are depending on social media for the social parts of our lives. Even the most introverted among us rely on people. We are social. It makes us feel good. We like each other. And so, right now, most of us are reaching for our devices and liking each other’s posts.

And why not? If we can do something right now, that makes our friends and family feel good, when we are all on edge on day 50009090023 of quarantine… (OK, more like day 12…) why not?

Quarantine homework from @thewitcheryworldofbrenna is taken very seriously here. The first 4 chapters of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone to be read by Wednesday. Thank you for teaching them!!!

So we are sitting in our self-isolation, he is reading his book, in his Batman onesie, on my Doctor Who pillow, which is leaning against my Sherlock pillow… while I work several feet away. Because in this house? We do geek!

#quarantinelife #homework #harrypotter #batman #doctorwho #sherlock #superwholock #readingtime #kidsinglasshouses #onesie #myboy #thankyou #love #selfisolate #gratitude #kalidesautelsreads #bookstagram #potterhead #saturday #quiet