I looked back at the last post I wrote three years ago, and I had to laugh. At the time, I thought that was a bad year. And then 2020 came along and said, “hold my beer.”

Everyone has been affected by the pandemic. Some people much more than others. Although this past year has been so tough, especially with raising littles and being confined mostly to the home, I realize it could have been a whole lot worse. The highlight of the year was welcoming a new baby boy in August of 2020. I spent much of the pandemic being pregnant, taking care of two wild kids, working from home, going on maternity leave, and working from home again while the kids returned to daycare. Being pregnant and birthing a baby with a mask on during a pandemic was an interesting experience that I will probably write about one day.

Unfortunately, last month, the entire family got the ‘vid. Thankfully, we knew we were exposed before we had gone anywhere so we were able to quarantine immediately without risking spreading it. I am so grateful to say that we are fine and everyone is fully recovered. Although health-wise we are fine, mentally, it was a freaking nightmare of a month. Both my husband and I were sick at the same time with flu-like symptoms and extreme fatigue, and the kids remained high energy and obviously weren’t able to be in daycare. So between worrying about survival (I know we are youngish and healthy, but the “what ifs” kept me up at night worrying especially with the new baby), trying to rest (which is impossible if you have kids), trying to work from home once we were feeling better (not ideal since kids don’t care if you’re on a conference call), and being confined to the house, there would have been no better time to chug a few beers, jump out the emergency exit, and head for the hills.

As you can see from the “real life” pictures above, it was a crappy month. The fake poop pictured on my shoulder is from Amazon and I highly recommend if you are trying to prank someone. My son gets a kick out of it, and it looks so real that I still get surprised and grossed out when I see it. But the silver lining to this whole story is that we are all healthy and well, we got to spend some good old fashioned quality time together with our fake poop, and we now realize that daycare, although expensive, is worth every penny.

How are you making it through the pandemic with littles at home?

To say that the past year has been challenging would be an understatement.

The hot water heater flooded the house and we spent half a year dealing with contractors and repair folks, our newborn baby cried and cried and cried and rarely slept for the first few months of her life, my job was eliminated while I was out on maternity leave, and my car died a week before Christmas. Sadly, the 4Runner suddenly became the NoMoreRunner. The engine just blew up with no explanation as to how or why. You know it’s bad when the mechanic says, “we’ve never seen anything like this happen before.” There are many other things I could add to the list, but I will stop there because I think you get the idea.

Picture proof. There she goes… off to see ya never never land.

Does anyone know if they make a yearly version of this stuff? Asking for a friend.

Around the start of the new year, I was feeling really discouraged and wondering when things would start to get better. I said to my husband, “I really hope 2018 is a whole lot better than 2017.” Aaron looked at me and asked why. I gave him a blank stare. And then proceeded to recap all the events listed above, and added “is there anything else you’d like to include on that list?” He laughed and said, “Yeah, it sucked to go through it. But we ended up with a bunch of nice upgrades to our house, God blessed us with a new baby, a new job opportunity will come along that will make you happier and more fulfilled, and you get to enjoy some time at home with the kids in the meantime. Oh, and we got a new car. I’d say we had a pretty good year.”

Reality check! Sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective to realize that maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem.  And they most certainly could be a whole lot worse.

Sure, the past year has been filled with challenges I never expected. But because of that, I became a little more resilient, my faith was reaffirmed, my kids got more attention and time with me, and my family and friends lifted me up and provided the encouragement I needed at exactly the right time.

Yes, it is all about perspective.

Having perspective is evidence of spiritual maturity, and it enables us to handle whatever comes our way in life. Perspective was one of the reasons Jesus was able to endure the cross. He looked past the immediate pain to the long term joy that was set before him.

This year, I’m challenging myself to start seeing things from God’s point of view instead of my own limited perspective.