Tag Archives: covid

Mental Health, Family, Parenting, Blog

How 2020 changed my life

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Dear Tunester,

When I asked my girlfriends if we were getting together for our traditional laugh/cry year in review over wine, they thought I was joking. 

Are we really going to analyze our goals from last year, and see how they panned out? Are we actually going to plan new ones for this year? 

I say – YES. 

This year trampled over us like a toddler over their sibling’s intricate lego creation. All those tiny pieces laboriously assembled were broken apart in an instant.

But for me, this year has also been as monumential as it was disastrous.

And since Baby in Tune wouldn’t exist without you, I’d love to share it with you.

 

Here’s where I was this time last year. It’s comical:

I had just finished a 4 hour meeting with my business managers in which we’d strategized the hell out of 2020.

Ha. So many plans.

In addition, I had spent two months training no less than FIVE new instructors who would be leading groups in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

I was working with a new web developer, a copyeditor, and vendors who were printing new flyers and swag.

I’d just launched a brand new online course that I had worked on for most of the year. 

Baby in Tune was about to become the Bugaboo of music classes! (At least, in my mind.) My entrepreneur self was leading the way with conviction.

 

And then – BOOM. 

 

Two days before the city closed down we went remote. Since we were one of the first to do it we actually received complaints. But soon everyone was on board and we all became so very acquainted with the concepts of quarantine and Zoom meetings.

Baby in Tune is one of MANY small businesses that suffered this year and I’ve had my share of tearful nights. But despite the challenges I’ve been pretty lucky.

So I don’t want to count my woes here. Instead, in the entrepreneurial spirit of my peppy female business mentors, let’s look at the many ways Baby in Tune, and I, have kept GROWING despite it all.

 

My 2020 in review – lessons learned, new roads taken.

 

  • I realized Baby in Tune classes work remotely.

It’s something I’d been wondering about for years. The business had been born and raised in NYC and it felt as if it was the only place it could live.  Which meant it was the only place I could live! COVID helped me realize that Baby in Tune can thrive without physical boundaries, and that’s been liberating for this mama.

 

  • I trained 5 instructors from around the world remotely.

Last year I trained 5 instructors in my kitchen and I was sure face to face over chocolate and popcorn was the only way. This year I did it remotely and it worked just as well. Not only that, the locations of the trainees ranged from Singapore, to LA, to Nashville. How exciting is that? I can now offer it worldwide and spread the Baby in Tune love (can we brand a bar of chocolate with that?).

Side note: Two of my trainees were moms who had taken BIT classes with their baby. It’s been so gratifying to see their transformation from exhausted and overwhelmed parent of a baby (as we’ve all been,) to empowered instructors who will surely touch other parents deeply.

 

  • I improved the online course

Not running around doing 15 classes a week gave me time to think more deeply about the mission of Baby in Tune. As you know, our classes go far beyond Twinkle Twinkle, and even beyond pure music. This year I tweaked the course to revolve more clearly around the main theme of Baby in Tune – helping parents learn their baby’s language.

 

  • With your help, we’ve created villages

More than ever, it was important that you find your village this year.  I mean, you were stuck at home, isolated, lonely, and bored. And that’s on TOP of the normal isolation and blues that we feel as new parents.  Despite the awkward muting and unmuting we found ways to feel natural laughing about not showering all week, crying about how the baby rolled off the bed right next to us, and letting each other know that we’ve been there. You showed up to class ready to support others and feel supported and it worked. 

 

  • I found a balance between work and play

A year ago I was a different kind of entrepreneur. I worked until the computer slid off my thighs and my eyeslids fell shut. I always had a never ending to-do list, I listened to business podcasts in my free time, and I got A LOT done. These days I let things go. You’ve probably noticed that you don’t always get a weekly Tuesday Tune In. Sometimes you even get it on a Wednesday (like today!). Who cares? Not me anymore. COVID knocked the overachiever out of me and showed me I have no control anyway. Pass the Haagen Dazs. Let’s watch Schitt’s Creek.

 

  • I went on a trip I’ve wanted to go on for a long time.

Remember the blog in which I wrote about COVID being an accelerator? Well, for me it turned my “someday we’re going to travel as a family” into “should I take the guitar AND the ukulele?” I’ve wanted to travel forever but haven’t been able to put the puzzle pieces together. How will we make a living? What about school? What about my business? COVID answered all of those questions for me. It said – now is the time. And I listened. These days my favorite moments are the 4 hour drives to our new destination – the kids safe in the back, all of our belongings with us, and the unknown ahead. I feel utterly grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given to follow our nose to the next destination. 

 

 

  • I started a travel blog

Did I just say I’m not an overachiever anymore? Well, now I have two blogs I am keeping up with. They’re both very different. One is for you all. My guiding principle with this one is that if it isn’t of value to you then there is no point. The travel blog is different. In large part it’s to keep anyone interested up to date on our whereabouts, especially my mom (do you want to stay up to date on my family’s road trip? Come join the list!). But it’s also for me. I know I’ll want a record of this time and a blog is my way of keeping a journal that holds me accountable. Who knows? Maybe one day It’ll turn into something else…

 

  • I’ve written new songs. 

With everything going on I’ve actually been creative this year. I think it had to do with me relaxing on the flow charts a bit. With my inner entrepreneur on break my musican self had some space to breathe. I’ve learned a bunch of covers and have written songs from the road. It’s refreshing to write with no pressure. I don’t expect the songs to turn into albums (do those still exist anymore?), I am not gearing the songs toward a specific market, I’m just noodling. The best place to hear those are on my travel Instagram account. 

 

 

So there you have it dear Tunie. Without a doubt I’ve been one of the more fortunate during COVID.  I’m very lucky that my husband’s job stayed a constant.  I meant that even during my sleepless nights regarding my business, I knew our family would be ok. So many did not have that luxury; they lost jobs, were sick, or lost loved ones.

 

So before I write off this year as a bust, I wanted to acknowledge that with your help, it actually paved the way toward directions I had only dreamed about prior.

 

Thank you all for joining me on this journey. Thank you for continuing to sing, learn, share, laugh and cry with me.

 

So what about you dear Tunie? Has this year pointed you in new directions? Has it trampled over all of your plans and you’re still picking up the pieces? Comment and let me know.

 

Wishing you a very warm new year full of plans that get broken only to point you in a better direction.

Love,

Vered

 

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Mental Health, Family, Parenting, Routine, Blog

The Coronator Accelerator

Corona Corona, 

You’re like a bulldozer. 

So much disaster 

Everything moves faster

 

Here’s the gist. I know that your days may be moving at snail speed because maybe  you’ve got your kid hanging off of you at all times, but today I want to talk about how things are also moving so much faster. A catastrophe like COVID comes along and our walk becomes a RUN. 

 

But… who has time to loll around anyway?

 

Let’s take our social system for instance. We’ve been snoozing through social equality in this country for the past 75 years. We needed a wake up call. And it came fast and mighty.

 

Now take a look at your own life. The questions you’ve been saving for middle of the night wake ups and then brush aside in the morning have probably risen to the surface, kind of like the muck that’s been trudged up from the Gowanus near my place.

 

All signs and variations seem to point to  this question: How do I want to live my life?

 

Suddenly there is no clear path. There is zero roadmap for what we are experiencing. Together and apart we need to invent our next steps as we go.

 

And there are a myriad of unknowns.

 

All the things that were once a given – adult goes to work, kid goes to school, nanny watches baby, friends play together, have turned into question marks. 

 

I mean shit’s so bad I bet you’ve wondered if you were going to put together your own school pod this year. WHAT? Are we all suddenly principals and educators?

 

And what about Barbados? Who’s on their way there as we speak? Because the Coronator has all of us who’ve  been fantasizing about moving out of the city on a fast highway to the burbs, while suburbians are moving out to farms, and all the rest who never intended to move are suddenly clutching their sofas wondering if they’re missing the boat.

 

Why is this happening? Two reasons: 1. Our psyche is less cluttered with distractions, and 2.,  Life intensifies when there is danger.

 

During the last few months, I unintentionally read stories of people who lived in or escaped captivity. I re-read the Diary of Anne Frank, Educated, Circe, Lilac Girls. The other night I added to that list and watched the movie: “Room”. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of a woman who is held hostage for 7 years in a man’s shed. Two years in, she has a baby and raises him in the “Room.”

 

(**Spoiler Alert ** if you haven’t seen it and don’t know the story I am about to give something away but it’s in all of the previews so you probably know. It’s worth watching for the process. It’s not a plot type of movie)

 

When they finally escape the son is overwhelmed by how much space there is in the world. He says: 

“There’s so much of “place” in the world. There’s less time because the time has to be spread extra thin over all the places, like butter.”

 

For those of us who have been lucky enough to stay healthy during this pandemic, the main issue we’ve grappled with is the walls closing in on us. Moving around less, not seeing friends, kids staying home. I don’t have to tell you.

 

But what that leaves us with is more time. We’ve reduced the rush from place to place and we freed ourselves for other processes to happen. Do you remember how much time we wasted moseying into Anthropologie and checking out that shirt we didn’t actually want? Or spending hours carting our kids to and fro places? Or coming home exhausted from the day’s marathon vegging for the rest of the day?

 

But there’s another piece. Do you remember how you felt 6 months before having a baby? I don’t know about you but I got more done in those 6 months than I had in all of my adult years before that. I went into overdrive each time I was pregnant with the feeling that my life (at least as I knew it) was about to end.

 

And I know I’m not alone. We move to new apartments, we get cars, we find our dream job, we take on mammoth projects and actually get them done. The three albums I made? Two of them were while I was pregnant. (here’s a video about how I actually made an album without being pregnant too.)

 

When we feel imminent danger or transition we are so much more aware that life is fleeting and precious. There’s no time to waste living in a place you don’t want to live, or doing a job that isn’t fulfilling, or staying in an unhealthy relationship.

 

Basically, our bucket list is in full force. And that list is staring us down with no other competing distractions to let us off the hook.

 

Here’s the good news. It’s exhilarating. It’s living. It’s not acquiescing to a situation that we might have continued in for years with our morning coffee and daily complaints.

 

One thing’s for sure: This year and maybe the next few years to come are going to take a big amount of flexibility.

 

But we got this. we can create our own map. And maybe it will even be what a little voice within us thought was just a dream and didn’t dare yell out during the day, only at night.

 

At this point,  anything’s possible.

 

So tell me- Is your bucket list calling you? Mine is. I hope to share some of my big moves in the next month or so. Are you making big moves? Are you asking big questions? Please let us know.

 

Do you have a friend who just bought chickens for her farm? Send her this post to let her know she’s not crazy.

 

Yes! Please send me the Tuesday Tune-In!

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