All that is left to say about 2020.
We made it.
When I last updated on life it was June of 2020. I was optimistic that Grace's return to school would be triumphant that fall and my husband would eventually relocate back to his work office. I was severely fooling myself to be completely real.
COVID-19 turned into almost an entire year of giving, and it isn't even over yet.
Throughout all of it we found our way and made lots of great memories along the way. Do I ever want to repeat a year like 2020? Hard no. But I am hoping we come out the other side of this with lots of life lessons we never quiet expected.
JULY -
Grace lost her first tooth this summer and then proceeded to lose two more to date.
Our van had to go through a recall inspection and ended up failing. What this led to was two months of driving a rental van while they waited for Chrysler to address the recalled part. Thankfully this is hopefully an issue that will not follow our van until its dying breath but to say it was a fun hassle this summer is a literal understatement. We were thankful to get our van back before the original November window that was quoted to us though.
The girls and I took several trips out to various sunflower fields in the area. One of my favorite things that Kansas presents in the late summer/early fall is sunflowers. It is always an adventure getting there and my kids may not enjoy the dirt and heat. But it is worth it every time.
In late July, Lawrence Lady Boss Project joined the Lawrence Chamber on a sponsored membership. I hosted my ribbon cutting in conjunction with a Virtual Networking Night Out hosted out of RPG and their amazing upstairs area. I've had my work cut out for me trying to find ways to pull off networking events during this pandemic. I'm not sure when my community is going to be ready to get back to in person networking, but I am hoping that 2021 will bring us all back together.
AUGUST -
We were fortunate to spend over a week visiting with Rob's grandparents as they stayed with us. There was baking and playing outside. Rob took his grandfather fishing and we enjoyed our time together. It is so special to me that the girls get to have a relationship with Rob's grandparents as all of mine have been gone for many years. We definitely don't take for granted our time with them.
We took the ultimate plunge this summer and Rob opened his own hair salon in our bathroom. It was truly horrific in many ways but the girls ultimately really love their shorter hair. I believe I am still in mourning for all the long locks that are gone, but it couldn't last forever, and hopefully they will invite them back at some point.
We also checked another Pandemic activity off of our list in the form of matching tie-dye. Then wore them at the same time at the lake, as you do.
SEPTEMBER-
We spent one relatively stuffy afternoon down at Union Station reliving the Super Bowl win that happened earlier this year, as hard as it is to believe. It was a great time out with one of my oldest friends, Kara.
Grace finally went back to school in September. It looked a lot different than we expected. Our district decided to pursue a 100% virtual curriculum. Something out 1st grader found challenging at every turn. She's not reading yet and receives ELA Title services through our school. Not being in person ended up being a huge issue for us this fall. With Rob working from home, the other two girls at home playing and the rest of the comings and goings of our house, it was a challenge to keep her engaged with a screen for hours of the day. To this day we are still experiencing some virtual days - but our district has shifted to a hybrid schedule that means Grace is in her school building two times a week, and virtual the other two days with Wednesday being a mainly self-guided day. Something less than thrilling for us. This year has taught me just how thankful I am for the teachers in our district and our public school system when it operates in a normal compactly.
We found a fun way to bring together some of the amazing boutiques here in town in September with a socially distanced shop crawl. I had 6 local boutiques participating and we had such a fun time. It was all in honor of National Women's Small Business Month and National Business Women's Day.
I was able to sneak away for an evening in Manhattan with my best friends from high school. We went to a vineyard and sat outside on the most gorgeous evening ever before grabbing dinner and parting ways. I am forever thankful for these women being in my life for all the years they have been at this point.
OCTOBER -
Our entire family took advantage of one beautiful night at Baker Wetlands and got some updated family photos thanks to Trina Baker Photography. They are absolutely my very favorite photos to date even though Emily was an absolute turkey and would not cooperate, at all.
One thing not cancelled this year? The pumpkin patch. More than enough space to spread out and see and do all the things that mark our standard fall traditions in this area. We got some pumpkins, and took all of the pictures. Thank goodness.
Prior to going back hybrid, we spent an evening out in front of the district offices helping the district realize that there were parents that wanted our kids back in person. As all the surrounding districts went back in person full time, ours was still seeing lots of push back from our school board. The bottom line is that the kids here will not go back to a full in-person schooling this year. Unfortunately in many ways that makes me feel like it is a loss for us this year, but what can ya do? All the other options are full and booked.
Networking wise, we wrapped up October and the She Means Business events with a Virtual Networking Night Out. Its as a great way to see National Women's Small Business month go.
Halloween was another thing not cancelled this year. It was different, to say the least, but we still took advantage of what our community had to offer. The girls trick or treated and we had fun seeing what some of our neighbors had come up with as stand ins for handing out candy. As for us? We put the candy on a table and let the kids grab it themselves.
NOVEMBER -
We watched our days go by with the most gorgeous leaves, ever. The girls loved playing in them.
Perhaps the biggest news of 2020 was that we added chickens to our crazy! We ordered 5 Black Australorps. Unfortunately, one little lady did not survive the transition. So we ended with our 4 girls. This has been such an adventure and I think we are all enjoying these little ladies and the fun that comes with having chickens. Even though they are REALLY starting to stink up our laundry room at this point.
For Thanksgiving we hosted our circle of people that we have socially been around for the last few months. It was a great night full of food, Cards Against Humanity and so much laugher. We so enjoyed our time with our people.
DECEMBER-
The first part of December brought in the last networking event of 2020. We hosted another Holiday Shop Crawl and unfortunately we had to make it virtual because of the state of our community. It was still a lot of fun to be out showing off some of the fun holiday options available at local boutiques.
My sister and her boyfriend got engaged! Then she went and found her dress almost right away. I am so excited for the next year and all it has to offer.
Perhaps one of the coolest things to come to our town during the pandemic was the Snowglobe Popup Christmas bar downtown. I got to go for brunch with one of my good friends and it was so good and so fun.
Christmas was another holiday not ruined by Covid. One of the best parts of this whole pandemic has been seeing the fun ways people have gotten creative with making things happen. Our local indoor play space hosted Santa this year in an appointment only, behind a Plexiglas set up. The girls were so pumped.
We were blessed this year to get to see both sides of the family. We spent 48 hours with Rob's family and got to see almost all of his siblings and all of our sweet nephews. It is a challenge to get things all lined up, but we made it happen and it was so much fun for our kids and everyone.
We wrapped up our Christmas actives with my side of the family. I think we had some happy girls by the end of things and we were all wiped out otherwise so a success it was.
We had one amazing day where the temperature was above average and the chickens got the first taste of the great outdoors. Here in the New Year they will head outside and we will miss having them inside, but we will not miss their smell.
And finally - happy New Year from our family to yours.
0 comments:
Post a Comment