Spring 2020 Retrospective

Peeps.

People.

M’friends.

When I think of the fact that we’ve basically been home for three months and still have three more to go before a theoretical school year can begin, I kinda wanna do this:

It’s a lot to think of half a year spent more or less cocooned.

And, yet. Like so many people, I’m absolutely able to look at the positives to come from this unprecedented and tragic situation, as it’s sometimes the only way I can wrap my head around it all.

So before I post my Summer Intentions (as I hope to do soon), I feel like it’s absolutely necessary to take a moment to honor this unforgettable Spring of 2020, and all that its unexpectedly given our household, specifically.

A Change Of Food Life

I don’t think there’s a single soul out there whose culinary habits have not been affected by this pandemic.

And that certainly holds true for our household.

But we’ve also had another major food component to contend with this past Spring, and it’s changed everything for us. 

Long and short—as the full background would require an entire post I don’t have the energy for—the hubby has been battling digestive and general immune-related health issues for a long time. Years and years. And we finally made the choice to proceed with a functional nutritionist to tackle the food source of his problems, first and foremost, before casting the net wider, as need be.

Ironically, as we made this decision, it was very late February/early March, and our first consult and subsequent blood work with the nutritionist happened barely in the nick of time, prior to stay at home orders.

Subsequently, we have spent the past three months fully in the weeds of beginning a lengthy process of repairing his gut as a start to improving his health, and lemme tell ya how complicated it makes the planning, buying, preparing and consuming of our household food.

No gluten.

No dairy.

No sugar.

No soy.

No beans.

No starches.

No raw or inflammatory vegetables.

And a whole slew of other odds and ends that he just can’t consume. Spices, nuts, fruits, etc., that are a no-go. Just try and name one of your favorite things to eat that can fit within the restrictions above, and you probably can’t. It’s just...tough. And requires lots of duplicate meals to serve the needs of everyone living under this roof.

The poor hubby had weeks toward the beginning where his energy and caloric levels were so low, it was heartbreaking. His body reacted so poorly to an onslaught of supplements that were intended to help him, but overwhelmed him all at once, that we had to go full stop and start all over.

I can officially say at this moment that we have made it to rock bottom and back up, and he is now responding well to his healing supplements, we’ve figured out this new food life of ours so much better, and it’s not nearly as hard as it was.

But still.

It’s an every day, every meal kind of challenge that requires a lot o’ household planning and it would have been next to impossible to pull off without this current global climate.

We’ve had to be at home, without access to restaurants, and it hasn’t felt like as much of a sacrifice as it would have, otherwise. 

We’ve had to make the working-from-home dynamic work, and some days, I feel like it’s the only way we would have been able to feed the hubby enough to keep him going at times. With me literally carrying some bone broth (when that was all he was eating) into the study and forcing him to pause long enough to eat. It.

I hope, I, hope, I hope—and I pray so hard—that by this next next year, his gut is like a new gut.

And I will forever be grateful to this sequestered Spring of 2020 for giving us the capacity to dive in and tackle the food as the source. 

A Bump In Our Active Lifestyle

I remember this time last year, as I was thinking through my intentions for the Summer of 2019, I joked that it would be kind of nice to get some exercise once in a blue moon.

And then, when Fall began, and Little Man kicked off his preschool life two days a week, I was able to add a little bit of planned exercise back into my personal life.

But it was still the forced, scheduled kind of exercise, hard to manage and often bypassed when other responsibilities won out (hello, the burden of every parent, everywhere), but...this Spring changed all that.

Living in South Texas is hard during at least half of the year, because it’s boiling hot and impossible to be outdoors with any degree of comfort. And during a typical school year, when the weather is seasonable in the Spring or Fall, there’s very little free time spared to enjoy it. Too many other things take priority. 

But this year, we truly thrived on our daily, outdoor time. The only outlet we had, beyond our shelter from home status. I made the absolute best memories with my babies, watching Chica learn to ride her bike, and the other two master bigger, pedaled rides.

It was so very wonderful, and so very effortless to be so active. 

It helped keep us sane.

And furthermore, with the hubby working from home, I was so easily able to escape to the garage (where my elliptical sadly lives) for a bit of time, a couple days a week as a Mama stress reliever, and it was also so, dang effortless.

On any given day for the last few months, my body has literally collapsed in bed from all that we do, and it is a wonderful feeling that this Spring of 2020 gave us. 

Just the simple reminder that an active body—exhausted from the joy of fun things—is a happy body.

The Education Microscope

I suspect the same holds true for many parents of school-aged children: when you’re in the weeds of a school year, you’re so focused on the to-dos and the homework and the extracurriculars, that you sometimes can’t see the forest from the trees.

I might know at any given time that Chica is powering through a new bit of math, or that Chicklet has new sight words for the week, but I’m not fully in the day in, day out weeds of every, little thing. Or if I’m sometimes aware of areas of struggle, I give it a bit of extra attention at home, and then rest easy knowing our amazing elementary teachers will help lead the way forward.

But this Spring was a whole new ballgame (obviously), and though I often wanted to poke myself in the eyeballs with toothpicks on a daily basis, it was absolutely INVALUABLE to see my kiddos’ educational strengths and weakness up close, with my own eyes.

I’m still fighting hard every week to move my kiddos’ educational mark forward just the tiniest bit by the time we make it to the Fall. I’d be so sad to see six months of time go by, just holding down the fort without progressing.

But at the very least, I will 100% know where my babies all three stand heading into the school year, and I’ll be their biggest cheerleaders every time they make even the tiniest stride forward, because this Spring has reminded me of just how much work that takes—and how rewarding it is to see it before your own eyes.

And now. With those three major categorical blessing typed up, here’s honorable mention of a few more:

X-Box Time

This is the Spring that gave us family video game fun (sometimes at the expense of the cleanliness of the playroom, ha.)




Sleep

This is the Spring we were able to disregard the earliest of alarm clocks and allow the natural rhythm of our household to shift a bit later, and that has been MAJOR in all capacities. More sleep and more snuggles has been the BIGGEST of BLESSINGS.




Thriftiness

Whether it was the busting out of my dusty sewing machine or scissors for home haircuts, I’m proud of the minor resourcefulness we’ve managed—along with the rest of the world.




Nesting

Whether it was painting study doors, repairing ceiling holes, adding wallpaper flair, or tackling yard work, this Spring allowed us the capacity for a bit more nesting in this house. Those projects it’s always so hard to get to. And I’m so grateful.






Doodles

Last but not least, this Spring of 2020 gave us the joy of DOODLES—an outlet I feel like we’ll be taping into for a looooong time to come. 

A few months ago, I never would have imagined all that’s come to pass, and I still have so many feelings about it all.

But when all is said and done, I’m grateful for so much, and I’m eager to see what the Summer of 2020 will bring.