Month 13

Today I took the kids in the grocery store for the first time in a year. Even though this pandemic is not over, I’m trying to get them used to being back out in public. Summer camps are rapidly approaching and we’ve lost some of “peopling” skills. 

I am working on a new theme. Dave hopes to have a very tiny gathering for his birthday this year since we are all completing vaccination. It was a fun creative challenge (and I’m not quite done yet). 

We had to buy a new car. The transmission died on the mini van and I’m growing weary of the used car game. As we are nearing 50 (how?) I have less energy for constantly repairing cars. We still bought used, but with only 12,000 miles it’s the nicest car we’ve ever had. Aside from inventory problems buying a car wasn’t too hard. It’s weird to not have a mini van for the first time in 17 years, and in many ways it feels like leaving a certain part of life behind. (It’s hard to find an suv big enough for three kids that isn’t a boat though!) there was possibly a little sniff as it drives home just close Jack is to really flying from the nest! (I will confess that Bc of my own disastrous childhood I have no idea what this next part will look like. And there is the atypical hiccup too.)

I’m still trying to get the kids involved in family fun time regularly. They KICK MY ASS at every game, every time. Never play anything with Jack - you cannot win. Lol 

The birds are doing their thing - eggs soon! 

Jack got his first vaccine! He is counting the days to the return of friends, 

 And I’m still sewing right along on the year of couch quilts. This was number 7 I think - a fun little sew. 

I also got to go out with my girlfriend! 

Some things really are starting to feel more normal  (I can visit with the neighbor without worrying I might unknowingly kill him, I no longer think about the food supply in the pantry) and some things are still are feeling like will this ever go away (masks? Not wondering if every stranger is carrying the virus around? Worrying about mutations and on and on?). 

So, there we are.  

Pandemic Easter - take 2

So weird that this is the second Easter in a pandemic. This year my mom can come over. In a few weeks Dave will have his second shot (and hopefully Jack his first!) and we will have my dad over too. 

Eggs were dyed;

The cat is being a punk and eating my damn plants;

We went to the studio again for family photos! Sam looks so little in our last ones Bc we had to miss last year; 

We visited an actual Easter bunny again! (The magic house scheduled private 15 min appointments outside. No masks! There was no one there but the bunny. It was amazing and I nearly cried. One of the hardest parts for me is that we have missed out on so many things during an age we can never get back with the kids. Last year was really probably sams last year of believing and now those things are gone forever. Including jacks 16th bday. It’s all relative and all that, but hard on a mother.)

Bc it was spring break we went for a hike;

Sam is finally taller than grant again;

Baskets were found;

Tables were set;

We ate at a restaurant! Outside, but an actual restaurant!; 

Bunnies were made (this microsuede was so hard for the hang sewing part); 

The peach trees bloomed;

The tulip tree showed off;

No fancy cake was made, but it’s still a cake;

We celebrated pi day; 

Peas are sprouting;

And life feels a lot less scary than Easter last year. 

This is all still an incredibly weird time to be alive. Vaccines are starting  to really ramp up. Efficacy seems to be pretty solid. The constant political screaming has died back some. There is talk that by the 4th of July things may be semi normal again. I’m trying hard to lose my omg we are all going to die worry when someone stands close to me at the flea market. I still miss the big flea, and kids going to school, and just walking in the goodwill whenever I damn feel like it, and the noise of the kids friends running through the house. 

So, here we are. Easter again, 13 months after “3 weeks to flatten the curve.”