Last week, I had so much fun answering your questions from Instagram that I couldn’t stop. So this week, I’m sharing the second half. We’ll definitely do this again!!

As this Summer unfolded, I was dismayed by my lack of plans. My family and friends had busy summer schedules, and even though I worked, I still had some free weeks. I am never one to sit still, so, as always when I have no plans, I got moving.

First, I re-committed to exercising more (I know I always say that, but it’s true!). Then I looked for “crafty projects” – did you see our blog on cupcakes? When the weekends rolled around, I grabbed them with gusto! My husband and I rented (junky) boats and challenged our seamanship, went paddle boarding and hiked … anything outdoors! We made the most of those two days, so by Monday we felt we’d really had a vacation, albeit a mini vacation. And that seemed to make all the difference in the world. Each week, we came back refreshed, rested and connected … which, I have to say, after being married almost 31 years, is invaluable.

Then, after not really leaving home all summer, I have spent the last three weekends traveling. Two of those trips were spent reconnecting with viewers of Days of Our Lives, first in Nashville and then in NYC. As I have mentioned before, for me and my fellow castmates, it often feels like we work in a warehouse with just our friends, and we rarely see anyone else at the studio. Plus, we are all working our hardest to keep up with the lightening speed of the production each day that we have very little time to even socialize with each other.