Six Dream Weavers: December 2020

It's the evening of December 31, 2020. I sit at my desk in my "home office" on my "work" computer, surrounded by work paraphernalia, and just having read the public school notice for the plan for the class for our students next week. Sleet is hitting the skylight in the master bathroom, reminding me there is always renewal. I choose the "Top Hits 2020" playlist from Spotify to accompany this writing session. I know I am not alone in being beyond ready to put 2020 to bed. Back in March, the switch was flipped (Also, A Tik Tok trend in 2020), and we are still far from normal. Covid-19. Corona Virus. The 'Rona! We have been invaded. A global pandemic. And it is relentless! I never even wrote the girls' high school graduation posts. Nothing has been "right" since then. And I have been anxiously approaching this writing for days. Weeks, really. I want 2021 to get here. To be more. To be BETTER! But to get there, let's look back at 2020...

Toilet paper shortage (twice), more hand sanitizer than I can keep track of, scouring store shelves for Lysol. Working from home. Working on a hybrid schedule. Adjusting the schedule dozens of times due to close contact quarantines and exposure scares. One employee quit, hired another to only find out she was pregnant 2 days after she accepted the job - has to work from home. Closing the campus. Reopening the campus. Everyone remote but my team. My public school kids in distance learning. Then fighting for them to be in class 5 days a week. Settling for an AB schedule. Which only happened 2 weeks, before we were in "red" and back to all distance learning. Boys got about 10 days of in-person learning from March 2020 through today. Sent my adorable baby girls to be college freshmen and live in the dorms. In-person classes, online classes, and hybrid classes. Testing, attendance, technology issues. Joining a sorority and having an in-person, adjusted, and socially distant initiation. Stay at Home Dad transitions to a part-time job. Online grocery orders, curbside to-go food, and picking up school lunches daily. SO. Much. Toilet. Paper! Bills are higher due to the electricity consumption of 4 people being home all the time. Making banana bread. And InstantPot Cheesecakes. Adding an air fryer to that mix. White Claw, Corona Seltzer, Rolling Rock, Smirnoff Ice, and everything else that lives in the garage refrigerator. MASKS! Fabric and reusable, disposable, adult, women, and kid sizes. Holiday prints. Solid colors. No more earrings. Added Apple Watches to our wardrobes. COVID TEST COUNT: Emma - 5; Lara - 5; Jake - 3; Britt - 4 (Betsey and Finn - 0). ALL of the above were negative. SO MANY FRIENDS lost family members. Jake makes the basketball team; they have played 2 games - and we think one of those games exposed the team to the virus as MANY tested positive the next week including 3 of the 4 players in our carpool. Rocket League, Fortnite, Minecraft, Call of Duty, Xbox, Switch, TikTok, and iPhones are the boys' constant companions. Emma has a serious boyfriend. Lara has floormates, diamond sisters, and the rest of her sisters. Britt and I have each other.

THANKFUL for the extra time we have had together. Even when we are bored. So bored, that we adopted 2 miniature dachshund puppies. Ama Beck was my Mother's Day present that we brought home in June. Jasper Arch was an early Christmas present that we brought home on Thanksgiving weekend. They are funny, adorable, stubborn, and great companions. Love having my girls in college, but close enough to come home. Grateful the dorms are still open so we can all stay safer and limit exposure. Grateful that 2021 promises vaccines - Britt is Phase 2, all the kids and I are phase 3. We should be vaccinated by Spring we hope! SO WE CAN ALL GET BACK TO SCHOOL IN PERSON! Emma and Lara - Freshmen in College, Jake 8th grade, Finn 3rd grade. I will graduate with my Master's in May 2021.

So - the big things:

Brought Ama Beck home - June 14, 2020