Spring Forward (and catching up)

 

Happy Equinox, dear ones!  Hope is on the horizon as we turn the corner into spring.  The sun is shining brighter and warmer and longer, and the world is opening up, in every way.  This week I hit my "fully vaccinated" milestone, and the state of Ohio opened up vaccination to the over-40 crowd, so each day brings more announcements that my treasured friends are getting vaccinated too.  It feels like it might really happen sometime, this return to our normal lives.  And regardless, spring is going to happen.  Our daffodils are up and the birds are a cacophony of joy. 

Current news:  

* Our doggo is home!  She has weaned her puppies and we are back to our full complement of mammals in the house. 

* I'm on spring break!  This year is flying.  I am grateful for the records day I had yesterday, so that I can enjoy sleeping in, going on long runs, and painting the hallway and entryway with no work to worry about.

* The kids will be returning to 5 full days of school after their spring break!  Talk about gratitude.  We have noticed that Jack is like a different person when he comes home from his in person days.  He may not *say* he wants to be back in school but it is so good for him.  

And now for a photo dump catch up.  We're going to rewind back to end of ski season and watch as springtime begins to emerge. 

We were able to use our ski passes 28 times this season, which is not too shabby.  We  skiied the first day of the Ohio season and the last (pictured later).  In between we had every possible type of snow, some bitterly cold weather, and a really remarkable number of gorgeous days and spectacular sunsets.  I know most of these "ski day" photos are going to look pretty much the same to you, but I treasured each of these moments, the time outdoors, with everyone in the family enjoying themselves. 

Spring-ish weather in late February has brought a few more of my running groups out of the woodwork.  Paloma and I have been running most Mondays and Wednesdays all winter, right through the snow and ice and 15 degree weather. I've added running with Rachel and Marissa on Saturdays for long runs.  Having a running buddy is a gift. The miles fly by.  And just like skiing, it gets us out, no matter what.  When we started the run pictured below it was 35 degrees and drizzly.  Seven miles later, sunshine!  Always worth it. 

A gorgeous treat of a February day to visit the orchids with our friends.  In this Covid world, where advance reservations are required, you can't plan around the weather.  But sometimes you just win. 

This tenrec had a really hard night last night.

Took some work to get the two of them in there this year.  They are good sports though,

After-orchid time in / on the fountain.  We frosted our own cupcakes and soaked up the sunshine and the company.

Here's one of those spectacular sunsets.  One of our last nights at Brandywine.  Both kids skiied Progression Park and Jack was getting some pretty good air.

Sunset at Euclid beach is nice too.  The ice-world of Hoth has disappeared... but it is still chilly by our lake, and surprising to think that we'll be swimming here before long. 

Gram's birthday.  We had a yummy chili and cornbread supper, then Steve and Eileen joined us for cake. 

Largest family gathering we've had in while.  Strange, masked, but good. 

And... the big day!  Shot number 2! SO utterly grateful to my school district and the state for making it incredibly easy and convenient, and for taking care of teachers. That feels good sometimes. Also we had the rest of the day off which felt good too.

Random photo of kitty cat basking. 

You know you're a mom during Covid when...  I had the opportunity to pick Ivy up from her half-day hybrid school after I got my shot, and watching her, and all the other children, come out of school-- I got all choked up.  Actual tears.  It is so good to see children in our beloved Boulevard, after almost an entire year.  We became numb to a lot of the loss, I think.  I got used to seeing the school empty after so long.  I hadn't fully realized how good THIS moment would feel til it happened...

Another day, another ski trip.  Jack and his friends have had such a nice time together out on the slopes this winter. 

And some emerging spring:  Lake Farmpark reopened just in time for baby animals.  After completely missing the chance to see little lambs last year (we'd put off the trip, thinking we'd have more time, and then....) we went on the first day they opened. Like everything else during Covid, the experience was diminished somewhat.  Fewer lambs, no greenhouse. It felt a bit like we were going through the motions of a farmpark visit... but the babies were cute!

We treated ourselves to a spring skiing day at Peek'n'Peak, thanks to some half price tickets from Geigers.  It was a stellar way to ring out the season.  Perfect weather, remarkably good snow, a very happy young man who met 4 friends there for the day.  We were completely charmed by this little resort in the middle of nowhere, complete with adorable ski-out chalets at the top of the mountain, and a nice variety of accessible, pleasant runs. We put in about 6 hours of skiing, and a fair amount of drinking beer on the patio too.  A day well spent. 

Outdoor time is increasing.  We've been cleaning up the yard and dreaming of ways to improve it.  Maybe some nice edging around the groundcover, maybe a new propane fire ring on the pergola.  We are going to be reconfiguring the chicken run and rehabbing the side wall of the garage.  Maybe some windows and window boxes!  After learning the cost of a new garage we have decided to make the most of what we have. 

Had our friends over for a fire and temporarily used our charcoal grill as a pergola fire pit.  It *almost* worked. 

The weather has been teasing us, with brilliant blue sky days that are just a little too cold to actually enjoy.  We go to the lake anyhow.

And we ski the last day of the season even if the snow is a combination of slush and mud and getting down the hills was a slog.  We got in a ceremonial 5 runs and then went for milkshakes.  We are going to miss skiing.  It has gotten us through. 

But now the chance to run and play without coats, and soon, to see our friends and gather in groups and maybe even go to the pool this summer.... that's going to get us through now. 

Spring flowers like little metaphors for us all, tentative and Covid-weary, peeking out and seeing the light and wondering if it's time...

One Year

One year ago today it was a brilliant spring day, just like today.  Blue skies shining and all felt right with the world.  Except for the fact that the world was about to grind to a halt.

Today marks one year since the lockdown started and Covid began to dominate our lives.  It's a bit nebulous as to when it all "officially" started, but when I look back March 13th seems like the most clear dividing line between our "old lives" and this strange new normal.  That wild week, where the news and the rules changed by the hour... March 12th was as Thursday, when we got the announcement of school closure for three weeks, starting at the end of the school day the following Monday.  We finished the school day with lots of hand sanitizer, and we hung up posters about handwashing in our rooms.  That evening I went out for a happy hour with my co-workers, and we had a great time, but there was also this anxious undertone as we glanced at the tables of people near us, checking for signs of illness. There were 5 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ohio, two of which were in Cleveland. I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home to find the shelves of non-perishable foods emptied, and I went to the library to stock up on books.  But we still prepared to teach two more days, and made learning packets just big enough to last til Spring Break.... and then on the 13th it all shut down.  We learned we would NOT return to school on Monday.  The library closed.  We were up to 13 confirmed cases in the state. All Ohioans were advised to stay home if at all possible.  We filled empty milk jugs with water just in case things got bad, and prepared for our "extended Spring Break" at home. Little did we know....

And here we are.  We've made it a year!  It feels just a little bit celebratory, this achievement.  This act of survival in the face of the strangest 365 days of our lives so far.  Kind of like when your baby turns one and the party is actually for you, not the baby, a recognition that you did a really hard thing for a whole year and you are still standing.   We are still standing.  We are largely unscathed. We have been unambiguously, almost undeservably, lucky.  We have done this hard thing and here we are. In a bit of timing kismet,  as of yesterday at 5pm all of the adults in our home are also vaccinated!  And cases in Ohio are dropping daily (though still higher than we ever imagined they'd be, a year ago). It's like the pandemic heard that it's been a year and it's about time to go.   It really does feel like that one-year birthday party, standing here blinking a little, surprised by everything and very very tired but also feeling hopeful that everything is going to be easier in the future.  

And just like that one-year birthday party-- maybe it won't actually be easier, but it WILL be different, and having survived this year, we know we can handle just about anything. 

I have a lot of thoughts about this year, here on this brilliant-blue day. I'm going to ramble about them for a bit, if you don't mind, in the form of answers to four questions.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, too.

What did you miss the most from your old lfe, during this pandemic year?

Being able to spontaneously go places.  Going places-- museums, festivals, theater, concerts, restaurants, coffee shops, breweries....  Singing with choirs!  Community events with our kids- Soul Food Cafe, Boulevard Blast, the high school musical.  All those places in our community where we gather with our neighbors and make small talk and connection.  Cumberland Pool and Tigersharks.  Our Broadway series.  Friday night dinners with friends, sitting around and talking together in each other's houses.  Going in other people's houses!  Traveling-- having to cancel our road trip, not getting to visit anyplace new.   Big holiday dinners and gathering with our families. Decorating and prepping and cooking and hosting parties in our house.  Sending our kids to school!  (Can you believe that in our old lives we used to be able to send them to this place that is *not* our house and other people taught them and guided them and even fed them a meal??  And they came home knowing all these new things so magically??   And they weren't desperately lonely and bored and depending on us for absolutely everything?  Imagine that...) Living life WITHOUT an underlying thread of fear and anxiety.  Taking our busy and vibrant lives for granted.

What was the hardest thing about the lockdown?

Everything our kids missed out on.  For me, this is just another year in my forties.  God willing, I'll have more chances to do the rather mundane things a forty-something does.  For the kids, though!  Each year of childhood is unique and you never get to be those ages again.  They've each missed the last year in their current schools. The friendships and projects and concerts and sports that might have been.  A year of full learning (because remote school does NOT do it for our kids).   Also hard:  remote school with our kids.  Trying to juggle life  and work AND allllll those missing assignments.  Watching the kids turn into screen zombies who do school from bed because we just do not have the energy to push them.  (See above comment about underlying thread of fear and anxiety...  it saps your energy, big time)  And also: Both of our kids have hit puberty this year.  While stuck at home with us full time and isolated from their friends.  The moods and angst and unpleasant body odor have really increased in our house and we are missing our sweet little kids quite a bit these days.  They are going through so much-- and crazy hormones too!  We try hard to be patient and understanding when they are impossible, but our emotional reserves as parents have been depleted by this year, too.  We are ALL lonely and off-kilter and low-grade terrified and unmotivated and sometimes we just let them watch TV and play video games all day, and then wallow in parental guilt.  There is a lot of parental guilt right now and it's really not a lot of fun.  On a larger scale it has been utterly disheartening to see how many of our fellow Americans do not care enough about others to wear a freaking mask, and heartbreaking to see the struggles and losses increase exponentially around us.  This has been a hard year to be an empathetic person.  Exhausting, really, to feel so powerless against so much suffereing. 

What was good about the lockdown?

The chance to slow down, because our vibrant lives were, in fact, exhausting.  Also, no one in our family has been even a tiny bit sick for a full year, which is just crazy.  Teaching fully remote from home was weird and not super effective but I did like the commute!  And the extra time in the day to run, or tidy the kitchen, or scroll through facebook.  With travel plans cancelled we spent more time at Farley's and really sunk into lake life, with nowhere to run off to, and it was lovely.  Bike Club with Ivy and her friends-- those afternoons were pretty magical, and I had the time to get home early and be there with her and not always be running off to the next thing. Having ski passes and skiing three times a week was awesome, and we never would have done that in a "normal" year.  Our Hiram Happy Hour has been a gift, too, full of chances to reconnect with people who might not have crossed our paths in our old, busy lives.  And, there is that strange sense of accomplishment we can have now, just for making it through the day. 

What do you want to remember about this year? 

The ways we coped with the shock of the lockdown and the fear that took over early in the pandemic: making careful lists  of things to do and overstocking our pantry and baking bread and doing specially planned outdoor events with the family like our tulip tour and our lighthouse tour.  The way everyone around us was coping too and the way it brought out so much kindness and creativity, bears and rainbows in windows and stick art at the park and reaching out to those in need.  Talking with my friends every other night on Zoom (and then twice a month because you can only keep up "early pandemic intensity" for so long).  Our three foster kittens crawling on the kids while they did school from home in the spring.  The way this year opened us up to different possibilities for our day to day life-  like having a cat, or getting a season pass for skiing, or shopping (a lot!) less or cooking from scratch (a lot!) more.  The fact that we can in fact adapt to just about anything, and we don't HAVE to be busy all the time.  A renewed, deep appreciation for things we took for granted before:  Our health-- how very lucky we have been (knock wood) to have come through this with our family and friends intact and well.  Our friends and family!- and how much we cherish personal contact.  The bright pang of joy we feel when we have the opportunity to stand and chat with our people, even for a little while.  Our village-- the shared values and strength and beauty of the people with whom we share our lives.  Strange times and fear bring out what is at the core of a person-- and our people are amazing at their core.  I know I've always known that, but you forget, right?  You get busy in the day to day, in the always-8-minutes-late rush from one thing to the next, and you stop really *seeing* the people and the places and the moments that make up your life.  This year, this 365-day pause- it has brought a lot into focus for me.  I hope I can remember, and hold on to, that focus when (fingers crossed) we start to add back in all those things I have missed...

Looking forward in hope and sending love to each of you!