What I Will Remember About the Last Two Years

As I was scrolling the other day, I saw someone writing down things they wanted to remember from this pandemic time. It's obvious this time in our history will be wrote about profusely. I can't predict the future, but I have a feeling this time in my life will be monumental... something that will have definitely shaped who I become. I decided I wanted to take some time to write down some thoughts about this time in my life. To tell my own story. 

What I Will Remember About the Last Two Years:

The Earliest Days

I remember first learning of the pandemic. It became a topic of conversation with anyone you came in contact with. I never thought it would even come to the USA. If it did, I thought it was going to be no big deal. Maybe my naïveté was a positive so that I didn't go directly to freaking out and losing my mind.... that took a few months to come. 

Another big moment from the earliest days was when my kids went to school on Friday March 13th, 2020. I knew it was their last day of school... for a couple of weeks. We planned to head to our St. Augustine spring break early and ride it out there. We'd head back to school after spring break. Again, the naïveté.  

One of the things that sticks out huge in my mind was the first time I wore a mask... my mom made my sisters and I all a mask with hearts on it. I wore it to grocery store. I never imagined I'd have literally hundreds of masks come into our house. 

Health Concerns

There was a chunk of time during the pandemic when I was genuinely terrified to go to the grocery store. Before PPE became readily available, I very much felt like I was risking my life, risking my family's life to get food. There were times I would cry before I went. The trips used to take me hours.. trying to stock up on what we would need for 2-3 weeks, wiping everything down after I got home, changing my clothes before I even came into the house. 

My parents live in the same neighborhood as me, literally 30 seconds away. Josh's parents live about 20 minutes away. There was at least an 8-week window I spent without letting any family even come near us. Grandparents would come and watch our kids play from outside the fence. My family watched my kids open their birthday presents from behind windows. A moment that will be seared in my mind was a time when my mom was watching our kids play in the backyard. Preston went through the gate to run to her and she had to keep backing up from him. He didn't understand it and was really sad. 

During the first weeks of the pandemic and the huge shutdown, I watched the news every night, at first, but then I stopped sleeping. I changed to watching it every morning. I would write down things I was grateful for and also headlines about the pandemic and how many were dying. In hindsight, this was super unhealthy for me, but I thought it was so important to stay informed. 

I was constantly terrified I would give this new sickness to one of our parents. 

A small, non threatening health piece is that during the first several months of the pandemic, I both got a huge black eye and broke my pinky toe both thanks to my children ;) 

New Rituals/New Routines

Throughout these two years, there are so many little parts of our daily life that changed. One example is how we walked outside around the neighborhood. Usually people were friendly and waved and meandered down the sidewalks and streets however they liked. During this pandemic, we all got really good at cutting across streets, yards, etc to. be as far away from another person as possible. 

Drive-by birthday parties and celebrations are something I will never forget. Several of the neighbors close to us celebrated birthdays and had car parades. One, in particular, was a senior in high school. So many friends drove by and there was a laundry basket put at the end of their driveway for anyone to drop gift cards or presents in. For every single car parade, my family would come outside and watch it like it was the biggest show we'd ever seen. It pretty much was, at the time. I cried during all of them. 

#hundboysx4 has had two pandemic birthdays (so far). The one in 2020 was also a car party. Our families drove over, I walked cake to everyone in their cars, we sang, and the fire department drove by to honk their horns. The one in 2021 was a little better. We had separate parties for both our families. We were even able to celebrate with my family in Folly Beach, South Carolina where we had traveled! 

Reporting every sickness and ailment is also a new routine. We were always careful and considerate with our health, but now it feels like, even with a small sniffle, you should cancel any plans you have. 

Our own family had so many new routines throughout these two years... doing a 'me time' in the afternoon, having a soft start in the morning, hand washing and sanitizing routines, etc. 

Don't even get me started on school- talk about some new routines there... holy smokes. Doing school on Zoom, collecting packets and workbooks every few months, spending hours and hours in our basement school area, someone working on things in our bedroom where Josh was working. Then having to learn things all over again when the kids went back in person for a shortened day. And everything I've had to do this year teaching back in person. Oh gosh...so much. 

Places Where I Found Joy

It was no secret that, particularly, the first year of the pandemic was so so difficult for me. There were days my worry, loneliness, and fatigue of being isolated swallowed me up. 

But, thankfully, there were many bright spots to be found. 

• My family played a ridiculous amount of Chess, Mastermind, Life, a variety of Monopolies, etc, etc. Board games were a savior to us. 
• Our trampoline got an incredible amount of use. For many, many weeks it was literally the only thing we could really do I am SO thankful we had that. 
• I truly got a window into how my children learn and got to play such an active, important role in their education. I taught Carter how to read. 
• We crafted more than I ever normally would. 
• Our love for nature and hiking has now become a huge part of our family time. When everything was shut down, even playgrounds, taking walks in nature were such a gift. 
• The biggest place of joy was the safe adventuring we were able to do. We are now lovers of national parks, mountains, and Maine, in general ;) 

There's a huge part of me that can't believe we've already been living in this pandemic for over two years and then another part of me that doesn't even remember what life was like before masks and extreme amount of hand sanitizer. Either way, the impact on these last two years, for all of us, is significant. We've all had very unique and personal journeys during this time, no two alike. This is a little snapshot of my takeaways and memories. And I'm hoping that maybe a year from now, I won't feel the need to reflect on year three of pandemic life because it will mostly be behind us. Time will tell...