Our world came to a screeching halt in mid-March when Covid-19 took over life as we knew it. Everything just stopped. It felt like we were on a fast moving train that slammed on the breaks so fast that we got knocked unconscious and woke back up into a world that looked exactly like we remembered, but felt a thousand times different. Days turned into nights and the sun still came up each morning, but time began to just stand still. Though we had so many plans ahead of us as we looked forward to spring and the end of the school year, so much heartbreak came as we said goodbye to those plans and learned to accept our new reality. A track season that never really got started. Baseball and softball seasons that we hoped to eventually start, but never got to play. An annual trip to Florida that was gone. A once-in-a-lifetime anniversary cruise to Alaska that couldn't happen. A family road trip to Washington DC was a no go. All of those fun end-of-the-school-year moments that everyone works all year to enjoy were not going to happen this year. There was so much we didn't understand and so much that changed in such a short period of time. Stores were picked over like it was the end of the world. We didn't know if it was safe to be around anyone else. People walked around with such stoic faces and it almost felt weird to smile and exchange kind looks with a stranger. It was still winter in Chicago, so it felt okay to just stay inside and avoid the rest of the world.
And, as we closed the door to the rest of the world, we opened so many new doors within our own home. Time slowed down enough for us to really enjoy the simple blessings that we have.....each other, a warm home, dinner at the table each night with the ones we love, long walks and bike rides, movies, pj days, snuggles, and thousands of memories that we know we will cherish for a lifetime. The simplicity of life during the several months of quarantine was a breath of fresh air for a family who was going so fast through life that we surely were beginning to miss what mattered the most. One day, we will look back on those months as being some of the best months of our lives. What started out as a period of fear and uncertainty and a hope for things to return to normal, ended with a sense of fear that things might actually go back to that normal....and we didn't want that to be our normal anymore!
It would have been really awesome to keep a daily log of our days during quarantine. Undoubtedly, the days just ran right together and we often didn't know one day from the next. We lost all sense of time, but there was definitely some beauty in that. Since I was creative enough to keep a journal or document our days, these pictures will have to do:
Leah started out the quarantine quite sick and leaving us all a little worried. We kept her isolated in her room just in case she had this mysterious virus that nobody really knew much about at the time. There was no testing available at the time, so our game plan was to just keep a close eye on her and pray that nobody else got what she had.
We desperately missed our family and kept our distance from loved ones that fell into a "high risk" category. We enjoyed visits through the window, Facetime and Zoom calls, and text messages as often as possible.
The humans weren't the only ones who felt a bit stir crazy. Chief loved all of the extra walks he got and especially loved when we'd make a stop at the baseball fields to let him run around!
More time on our hands meant more time for a lot of things that we don't often have much time for....
like LOTS of board games
and puzzles
and reading
and dance parties
and crafts
Everyone did a fantastic job of adjusting to virtual learning. It wasn't easy to switch to school online, but they all did the best the could. Some days were hard and sometimes technology didn't cooperate, but we all survived!
We loved having the chance to enjoy dinner together as a family every single night. Our favorite night was "fancy night". We got dressed up, finally used our fine china after 15 years of marriage, and had a beautiful candle-lit dinner followed by dancing.
More time at home meant a LOT more time to learn those valuable life skills that we often forget to make the time for...
cooking
cleaning
and home maintenance (just to name a few).
We all loved getting to spend more time together, but perhaps the best gift was more time with our teenager (who, during the school year, was often gone from 7am to 8pm). It was a definite blessing to get to know her even better and she always did a great job of adding joy to each day. Here, she was showing us her idea of how to stay safe in public during a pandemic!
Everything about normal life looked different, but that didn't stop us from trying to take part in those areas of life that we didn't want to miss out on.
Church on Sundays looks a little different when you're still in your PJs and sitting in your family room.
Basketball awards had to be delivered in a much different format this year...socially distanced and outside.
Girl Scouts and 4H met with Zoom meetings....and oftentimes, the girls spent hours just chatting and giggling away after their meetings were done.
As restrictions started to lift, we did our best to ease back into things. We spent the first weekend of freedom taking these two for a very informal college visit to ISU and U of I. It was so fun to get out and enjoy a day with two great kids.
We aren't totally in the clear yet and the future is still so uncertain. The kids may or may not go back to school in the fall. Sports may or may not start back up. We may or may not have to move back to Phase 2 or 3 of our state's reopening plan. What is certain, however, is that we will never forget the gift of countless blessings from these past few months.
