Yesterday, March 11th, marked the anniversary of Covid-19 becoming a pandemic. It also marked another important anniversary in my personal life – a year of my husband working from home. His office closed on that intrepid Wednesday, unbeknownst to us it would be a heck of a lot longer than the originally predicted 2 weeks. I remember that day as being incredibly weird as we were not used to having him home all day, but it was also eerie in that a huge company just closed its doors out of safety. Our house was not prepared or equipped with a dedicated home office at that point, and my kids’ volume levels are really not conducive to a work environment. I felt like we were in his hair, so I took the kids to the park, not knowing what else to do. It’s strange how clearly I can remember that time period because much of the past year is a blur. 

We went on with life that first week, albeit with some trepidation. I had a friend over for a play date on that Friday, and I specifically remember saying, “surely we will still be able to have small play dates like this.” That makes me so sad thinking about that day because it would actually be months before we saw each other again. 

On another note, oh the joys of grocery shopping those first few months. I vividly recall having ordered groceries for pickup Wednesday, March 11th, like I normally would anyway, It would be 3 days before my groceries were actually ready for pickup. It was crazy. Not to mention, when I finally got them they were out of almost everything – bread, spaghetti sauce, flour, yeast, toilet paper (obviously), eggs, and soda. And, who was with me wiping down every single item with a Clorox wipe (and we proceeded to do so almost up until now). 

It’s funny – not funny haha, but funny ironic – that the country seemed to think it would all be over in two weeks. Schools were just on an “extended” spring break for two weeks, the news was saying we would be back to gathering by Easter, and I even wrote a friend a card including the naive thought of ‘when all this is over in a couple of weeks we are looking forward to visiting this summer’. They live in Iowa, We haven’t been back to Iowa since December of 2019. 

Fast forward to 2021. The pandemic is still here, but there is hope on the horizon. How we do things, possibly forever, has drastically changed. I’ve learned that I can actually go longer than 2 weeks without getting groceries. I’ve learned the true value of friendship, especially those in person conversations which have become gold to me. I’ve learned the people within my walls are my absolute life, and I would truly do anything to protect them, including setting boundaries and having hard conversations with those outside our walls. I’ve also learned that life doesn’t slow down no matter what is happening out there; my youngest has grown from a crawling one year old to a babbling, jumping, running two year old, and my oldest has gone from a 2.5 year old still learning independence to a smart, caring 3.5 year old who puts on his own shoes (on the wrong feet) and stubbornly refuses to fix them even though his feet aren’t comfortable. Then there’s me, 18 weeks pregnant with a beautiful baby that is the brightest spot ever in all of this chaos. My husband can’t go to any of my appointments with me, and there is added caution now with staying healthy, but this is where we are. Happy, growing, continuing on with life. 

This past year has been life altering to say the least, but nothing stops, it merely changes and we learn to adapt. So, stay healthy my friends, and hang in there.