What can you even say about the past year? We’ve been extremely fortunate, and I’ve been very grateful. At the end of 2019, the company I worked for was acquired and I started working remotely for our new parent company. By the time the pandemic hit and businesses started shutting down, I had already been working from home for almost three months. The only major adjustment was the kids moving to remote learning, but thankfully Mike has been able to stay home and help them with their studies.
I think the weirdest thing for us is how much hasn’t really changed. The most drastic change has been that the kids miss their activities and sports, and that makes me sad for them. We don’t go out to eat or shop, but a big part of me doesn’t really miss that. We still get takeout (primarily from local restaurants), and I do enjoy that. But I’m finding I don’t really miss shopping for the sake of shopping.
As a big homebody and introvert, though, the lack of social obligations has been a really welcome rest for me. It’s also made work on the farm a lot easier. Keeping a steady schedule milking the goats was much easier this year. I ended up milking till almost the end of October instead of stopping in mid-September this year.
I hope 2021 will start to shift back to being slightly more normal, but I also hope a lot of the things that changed in the last year – the slower pace, the family togetherness – stay the same.
