A New Year, Same Goal- and Where Have I Been?
Welp… my New Years Resolution several years ago was to blog more. And…. I FAILED! Failed big time, because I have neglected this little part of my website. And here we are, a million trillion years later, I’m finally sitting down to write.
Where have I been? I’ve been here, juggling being a mom of 4 and small business owner. And in this season, my kids needed me, to be present and not mom being behind the keyboard writing up a blog post. I know blogging and updating this is extremely important, but we as moms know, that the most important thing is being there for our children. And that is what they needed, especially in 2020.
As we are now a few days into 2021, I am doing what many of us have been doing over the last few weeks, reflecting on the crazy year we all just lived through. It was a year like no other, and one that we hope not to have to re-live again!
2020 was difficult for all of us, and I too shared in the struggles. I struggled to mother. 4 young kids is a hard stage of life is challenging enough, then add a pandemic & all the fall out from that, it was trying. My 3 kids had to give up EVERYTHING! Everything! And when schools closed and life was put on hold, they really struggled, emotionally. They are way too young to understand, they just know that they had to give up everything they looked forward to and relied on. School was a big part of the identity and routine and they had to give it up without warning. No friends. No goodbyes. And this was so hard for them to deal with. My 3 year old daughter, cried every day for months because she couldn’t go to school. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It wa heartbreaking. As big trips got cancelled, as my kids had to give up their birthday celebrations that they looked forward to, and give up seeing any of our family, it was blow after blow. And their sweet little minds were confused and angry and sad and had a difficult time to process it all. I know that I am not alone in how that felt as a mother. And I do understand that others had it worse. But my mother heart broke hard for them and that I couldn’t fix it for them. Fast forward until Fall, and school was still a pipe dream. And I decided, at least for my 6 year old, that the Distance Learning option that was presented for us, was going to fail my child. I took on the role of homeschool mom. A role I didn’t think I was ever going to take. My oldest wanted to try to stick with school because he was desperate for a return to school and he convinced himself he had to take this step to get back in the building. But here we are, in January, and no end in sight for a return to normal. So looks like I’m going to be homeschooling a 3rd grader as well as a 1st grader, and preschooler when I can, all while I’m also taking care of a one year old, the house, the business, and try to stay sane. It’s a large order.
Homeschooling is actually not as terrible as I thought it would be. But some things had to take a back burner- again, this blog.
As a small business owner in 2020, that has been trying for sure. I’m very lucky compared to many, but it’s still scary.
I wanted to thank every single person who believed in me over this past year, that encouraged me to put one foot in front of the other, to just keep going. I’m thankful to all of the clients who I worked with this year, and those who continue to come back year after year.
It was a year like no other. But we made it through, with the hope that this new year will bring a better year and new perspective on things.
I am making my yearly goal to be more present on this platform as well. Like I do every year. I hope to actually keep it this time too! But just like you, I’m a mom. I’m a busy mom who is trying to navigate and process this while my role changes and I continue to grow.
But I hope that we always remember the lessons we learned in 2020- to be thankful for what we have, to be adaptable, that we need to slow down, we need to be kind and understanding, because we don’t know the struggles others are going through, and most importantly, that family is everything!
Happy New Year, friends. May 2021 be a kinder year to all of us!
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