My love for Groundhog Day is well known and documented...And this year, my love of the day has never been more poignant. These past eleven months truly have been Groundhog Day.
Like everyone else, the days have swung between helplessness,
depression and numbness to embracing the new way of life and appreciating the
little moments of joy. In some respects,
I took the opportunity to better myself in the never ending day… and in others,
well, not so much. Here is just a brief
recap:
- In March, we opened a daycare in our house for two bright, but rambunctious kiddos… we made it 3 months before shutting down and outsourcing to professionals pretty much as soon as it was an option again
- Oskar got a big boy bed and an upgrade to his bedroom
- Alva got potty trained and went from barely walking in January to running around the house, jumping and dancing in December.
- I baked some bread, made some applesauce and planted some plants
- We spent multiple weeks up at Dunsmuir: over Easter in April, in June and an amazing two weeks in September including my 40th birthday with the family
- We spent most every other weekend at Timber Cove, enjoying the extra outdoor space, fresh air and slower life... And in September we got finally sign off on our home allowing us to subsequently put in an unpermitted loft and start planning the guest house.
- I did a little self-care while trying to age gracefully and made just a “few” purchases over the 11 months… some really good buys (like my comfy pants and "Welcome to the Shitshow" coffee mug) and some not so useful buys (like a new lipstick or cute new work shoes).
- Thanks to working from home, I lost some muscle then gained some weight and am now trying to lose the weight and gain the muscle
- I finally and fully acknowledged my white privilege, how it deprives others of the very basic rights I take for granted, and started to try, on a daily basis to address this both personally and when raising my kids.
- Much to the chagrin of Martin, I started the huge project of redoing our basement / laundry room in June and still haven’t finished yet.
- We binge watched too many TV series to remember but highlights included Call My Agent, Borgen, The Great, Catastrophe, #blackAF, Ted Lasso and The Queens Gambit. I did manage to avoid watching Tiger King, so I would call that a win
- I re-launched my attempt to learn German via Duolingo and gave it a solid effort for about two months
- My morning beverage of choice evolved from drip coffee to earl grey tea followed by Americanos and back to drip coffee
- And I learned how to make the perfect martini and cook a perfect turkey
When the pandemic first
hit, Martin and I both embraced the shake up in the routine and chance to get
out of the daily grind. I don’t think we
realized that the shake up in the routine would just lead to a new one. I am ready to find a balance between the two
options.
