Long Time No Post: A Review of 2020 For Our Family

Hello? Anyone listening? Anyone there? Wow. I can't believe it's been a whole year--well more actually--since I last posted! What a crazy psycho year 2020 ended up being, right?! But here we are in March-almost APRIL-of 2021 and it seems we are finally coming out up and starting to kick things back in gear. Right?! 

What was your 2020 like? 

How did Covid affect your family? 

Was it one of the rough ones? The loss of a job? The illness of friends and family? 

Was it severe? Did you lose anyone dear? 

Did everything drive you closer to family? To God? 

Did you make changes and new habits to do going forward?

2020 definitely brought the world to take a giant PAUSE and it seems it helped the world do some deep thinking about what is important in life. I saw friends say that they didn't realize how busy their life was and how little they actually saw their families until they were forced to STOP. So many made lifestyle changes for GOOD--health overhauls. Cooking at home and trying new things. Reaching out to build relationships more frequently. Learning how dependent their family was on access to the grocery stores--and desiring to be more self-sufficient. Discovering how much their jobs depended on the world running as normal and how "non-essential" they were considered was a rude awakening for many. 

And let's not even talk about the education overhaul! I have had teachers who swore they were retiring after this year. Others said they embraced the challenge. Many discovered how involved parents actually are. Who actually CARES about the education of their children. And how many consider them nothing more than babysitters. Other friends made the decision to pull their children from public school after seeing for the first time the things being taught--they didn't like it. And so many embraced homeschooling for the first time. My sister-in-law did! She never planned on it, and now she's wondering why she ever considered anything different. 

 

But what did it look like for us? 

Well, it actually didn't look a lot different.

I know that seems shocking, but it's true.

We live in rural America. We already didn't go grocery shopping more than twice a month. We have a cellar full of food, so the shortages didn't hurt us. In fact, as a beef farmer, we had our BEST year ever because the shortages in the store caused everyone to turn to us! My husband was home more, but also WORKED more! He's a contract worker with excavation and it seemed everyone wanted work done since they were home. So not only did his work and pay have no decrease, he was home more so we had more family time! There is a great benefit in a husband with a job that can adapt with the economic needs and not worry about business closures. A large blessing.

Education-wise, we homeschool. So our daily life was the same, except we didn't meet without weekly co-op. But we still could go outside. Still have our normal daily work. We have not gotten behind or were dependent on anyone else for telling us whether we had school or not. Our biggest inconvenience was the library being closed for MONTHS! Thankfully they eventually did drive-up so we were able to get caught up on all our series and resource books we needed for school. Although we did enjoy have the Hoopla app with twice as many checkouts available per month to make up for fewer library visits. I also made a BIG decision which allowed for a serious increase of our home library--more on that below! 

While the church was closed for 12 weeks, we had webcast church, and as soon as we were allowed we started back up again at the end of last May and have been able to attend every week since. I have been so grateful for that!! Even though we weren't attending in person, we dressed up as if we were going to keep it in our minds in the Sabbath state. I took pictures each week to remember--this was one of my favorite. We had to work harder to make the Sabbath be the Sabbath each week and we relied on Zooms and Chats to help us stay in touch. 

Because my brother and his wife joined our "pod" for about 8 weeks by staying with my parents (who were in our pod), we were also able to enjoy LOTS of family time, including a family 4th of July. That was so much fun to cookout and have fireworks! A bit of normalcy in the middle of all the chaotic situations around us. 

Later in the summer, we also went camping with my husband's brother's family for the first time. We had a BLAST at the campground where we were able to "get away" from the crazy for some bit of normalcy. We went bike riding and hiking and just explored the area near the campground--family time for sure!

The biggest thing that happened last year is that I made the decision at the beginning of the year--right before the shutdowns to become an Usborne Books & More consultant. I had no idea how much I would come to LOVE this, nor how many people I would be able to help in the upcoming months as they dealt with the shutdowns and new education changes. We were also able to seriously increase our resource shelves at home--helping deal with the lack of library access. I absolutely love the fact that it fits where I want it in my life and I don't have to cram it in or give up other things to make it happen. 

In the fall of the year, we decided to drive down to Texas to stay with John's sister's family in a condo for about 10 days. We knew they weren't going to be able to fly to the farm, and since both families could drive and just "meet in the middle," New Braunfels, TX was the perfect meeting spot. We enjoyed meeting our newest nephew and just having solid days of family time away from everything. We enjoyed exploring the Guadalupe River and the time walking around the town! But mostly just loads and loads of family time with a side we don't see more than once or twice a year.

But it wasn't all fun and games...

Shortly after we came home, we dealt with Covid in our home. Yes, we got it in our house in late October. My nephew had been to a birthday party and since I watch him regularly, we are pretty sure he is the one who shared it with us since we weren't going anywhere--and because it was outside of the window from our trip to TX. It went as we expected--nothing major. My husband had it the worst with migraines and fatigued for four days with the 2 hr fever. He lost his smell (not taste) for a couple days. I had sinus pressure for two days and lost my sense of smell and taste for 10 days. I never had a fever or any other symptom. My oldest son merely had a mild headache and a fever (100.4) for an hour. No other symptoms. And my youngest had a dry cough for a couple days. No fever or any other symptom. Because we didn't need to be told what we had (duh), we never got officially tested. We treated it as we would anything else--increased immune support and just STAYED HOME like we would for any other flu. Two others in our pod--the mom and dad of my nephew--tested positives 3 days after we came down with it, but never had any symptoms other than a stuffy nose, although my Sister-in-law lost her smell and taste too. Not a single one of us, not even my 65+ FIL had any serious case. It was nothing but an inconvenience for us. We are thankful as we know some families got hit hard with it. 

So we finished the year just trying to get back to normal as much as we could. Covid for us was fortunately just a blip in our lives. We were happy to say goodbye to 2020 just as anyone else was. And we welcome 2021 with higher hopes for a good year. 

Our takeaway?
It was a year of family time. 
It was a year to discover how much on the brink of chaos and calamity we are living in America.

It was a year to discover the true hearts of people--for good or evil.
It was a year of trying to keep a low profile in an incredibly divisive country. 
It was a year of being disgusted with the way people treated others who thought or looked differently.

It was a year of being so thankful for the rural life we live and the healthy lifestyle we try to maintain.
It was a year of learning what was truly a priority in our lives.

It was a time to live our lives to the fullest extent that we were able to, even with the minor changes imposed on us. 

It was a time of trusting 100% in God and His plan whatever it was and not living in fear at ALL about the unknown or the "what-ifs" that were crushing so much of the world. 

Now we are ready to explore 2021! So many plans for adventures. Going to *SUMMER CAMP* after missing it last year. (yay!) Starting to be with friends again. Camping as much as possible this year--if we can actually find an open spot somewhere since everyone else has the same idea! And just enjoying LIVING FREE this year. <3