So that was a weird week. Starting school after summer break is always a little strange, but this year took the cake. On day one, I overheard Abigail on the phone with a friend before heading to school. She was advising her which mask worked best with her outfit. And when I picked Kaleb up at the end of the day, he didn't rip his mask off like I expected. About five minutes into the car ride, he still had it on and when I mentioned it, he claimed it felt cozy. I did not see that coming. Another weird thing - Abigail and Paige are complaining that nobody knows how to social distance. Six months ago, would we ever have thought our kids would be throwing around this, now universally accepted, lingo?
Six months ago, we wouldn't have expected any of this. I recall the Wednesday before school officially shut. Abigail mentioned they received their ELA books a few days early in case school had to close because of the Corona Virus. Back then, that's what we called it. Now, I think the general consensus is "Covid." Anyway, I remember being floored. There's no way they close the schools, I thought. But by the time Saturday rolled around, I fully expected the email making the official school closure announcement. What I didn't expect was a two week lock down which, as we all know, transitioned to months.
In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now. I would have panicked. But instead, we got through it - embraced it almost. We were making a major change in our professional lives anyway - the lockdown gave us an excuse to prolong the big question - what do we do next? We tabled our careers and spent time with the kids. I wrote a daily blog. It kept me grounded and gave me an outlet.
Covid is still here, though. It is likely far from over. But we are all learning to live with it. With the kids back to school and life slowly taking on a new routine, we decided our professional procrastination had to come to an end. If nothing else, Covid has taught us that life is short and fragile. We spent quality time with the kids we otherwise would not have had. We took a step back from the hustle and bustle of after school activities, sports games, dance recitals, and social obligations. And in many ways, I resist welcoming all of that back. So with that in mind, we decided to take it down a notch. We are focusing on career paths that play to our strengths and allow flexibility for the kids.
Sounds good in theory, but do these jobs exist? We're still not sure. But we are taking steps to figure that out. As many of you already know, I work a side gig as a Justice of the Peace, officiating weddings all over the Cape. I love it and one of the things I like best is writing the ceremony, customized for each couple based on a questionnaire I have them fill out. So I decided to expand upon that. Write Weddings was born a few years ago, when I realized couples wanted to write personal vows to each other, but struggled. So I do it for them. I never had time to really market this service, though, so that is what I'm doing now - and it's a LOT of work! There's website design, and optimizing search results, blog writing, newsletters....the list goes on and on and it's overwhelming.
Meanwhile, James has headed back to school to study computerized accounting. He had always been a numbers guy and getting a certification will hopefully set him on a path to take clients and work mostly from home, crunching numbers and setting up spreadsheets.
So I'm working the words and James is working the numbers and hopefully, eventually, we will get somewhere. Sadly, this blog will have to take a back seat for awhile. I'll still post from time to time, but it's amazing how quickly the school day zips by. Transporting to and from two different schools with two different sets of hours eats up a lot of time. There's only a small window to accomplish all we have set out to do. Learning from my mistakes in the past, I have vowed not to bite off more than I can chew, so something has to give.
It has been fun sharing the ups and downs of parenting during the pandemic. It has been therapeutic in many ways - when the kids did something to put me over the edge, the silver lining was that I could write about it. Just because they're back at school doesn't mean the shenanigans are over. And when I need to vent, I'll do it here. Until then...
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