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2020 A Year of COVID 19 and Social Distance

As bad as 2020 has been for us as a population, I wanted a way to remember how we as a family fared. I figure a decade from now when all of this is either the beginning of situation normal or a distant memory, I will want to be able to look back at 2020.

So here are a few of the photos of this past year to show what it was like for our family.

Our year started off great. We even had our nu.
The year quickly seemed headed for nowhere on March when we began social isolation and distance learning.
O’s computer sitting on his great-grandmother’s desk.
Distance learning was a new, serious challenge for our family of 4 special needs children.
Our family walked daily.
We found lots of interesting things on our walks, like this abandoned car from the 1950’s.
It was a pleasant surprise to find so many wooded walks near us. So we walked….
And just kept walking as we discovered more interesting hikes near us.
Wildlife ran rampant in the neighborhood.
All of the walking and sharing in,my wife’s exercise routines lead to my 4,5,6 challenge. My hope is to add a year pf productivity by being healthier in exchange for the year lost to COVID 19.
After a few months of social distancing, we did a formal dinner where we all dressed up.
We had fun playing blind twister with textured circles and blindfold to level the playing field for K.
Fireworks were visible from the comfort of our neighborhood again. They were a tradition that survived the virus unscathed.
We still dressed for Halloween and our yearly photo at our neighbor’s house.
When we could not do some of out normal traditions, J stepped in to keep things fun with Halloween themed foods like Mummy Dogs.
As Christmas rolled around, we headed out to look at the lights. This house has been invited to participate in Christmas Lights War next year.
There is nothing like a singing pooping flamingo to get belly laughs from the family.
What’s Christmas without a constantly squeaking pogo stick?
The rainbow signaled the end of bad times in biblical times. May this one signal the coming of better days once again as we head into 2021.
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New Normals with Covid 19

Love is making Smores around a fire pit.

When Our New Normals Disappoint

COVID19 has certainly made us redefine our life styles.  More and more, I become convinced nothing is going to change any time soon.  I am convinced it will take a long time to develop a vaccine, prove it safe and effective, manufacture enough for all, and finally distribute it.  So how do we make it OK?  How do we make the months, important months with our kids, meaningful and instructive. 

It is a little awkward for me as I think about how MS always leaves me wondering if I will be able to do tomorrow what I did today.  For our older kids, they think about all they have lost and are losing.  For a kid, their world exists within all of their social contacts.  The world is what they experience and with whom they experience it.  COVID 19 has drastically shrunk their world as social means with their brothers and sisters. So how do we make it OK? How do we expand their horizons andnot waste their time to grow?  Did I mention the challenge of doing this without going crazy or dropping from exhaustion and stress?  They want new experiences and are tired of the same things day after day.  Then they get annoyed at new announcements of things they can no longer do.  I get it.  

My boys and I dress up for a fancy dinner at home.

For years, I lamented the things I could not do anymore with my MS.  I could not play soccer, and for a while I couldn’t run. I could not even hold a bowl of oatmeal in the cafeteria without dropping it.  I could not swallow without things getting stuck in my throat…The list goes ever on and on.  I said to myself I did not ever want my family to understand. I thought the way they would best understand is to go through it, and why would I wish that on family.  Now it seems we all get to live through some of the same uncertainty and loss of control over our losses.  It sucks.

However, there is a lot to be gained too.  I just don’t know how to make my kids understand it.  More and more it becomes necessary to look around at what we still have and enjoy it.  Then find new ways to enjoy those things we have always enjoyed.  For example, I have always enjoyed going for walks, and now we as a family go for walks every day.  Now walks that were about escape into the solitude of my mind have become family bonding and exercise for all of us, including the dogs. 

We have a beautiful yard with a swing set and trampoline.  I love watching all four kids on the trampoline together playing silly games.  We have always done dinner as a family, but now we have it on the screened in porch every night.  Frequently, we have desserts J makes with the kids.  We have even played around with a fancy dinner night where we all dressed up.

Family walks provide bonding time when we are all together. However, things are rarely this harmonic which is why I snapped the picture.

As we continue through this time of uncertainty with schools opening remotely again, and uncertainty around how and when we will be able to visit with family and friends again, it seems the only way to find any peace is taking the time and put in the effort to enjoy our new normal.  It is not how we imagine we want it to be.  However, we are lucky we still have our home and our loved ones. We still have a lot. 

It just takes stepping back, taking a breath, and looking at our situation. That is looking at our situation as it is, not as it was, or could have been. There is a lot of good…even if if it is not what we thought we needed to be happy.

It is time to stop griping and start living our new normal.

 

l.    

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