Personal: 2020 Year In Review

This past year has been rough. And I mean R-O-U-G-H, rough. A year that was supposed to filled with so many great things for us: starting the year in Japan, me graduating college, Evelyn’s first birthday, and not to mention the travels we had planned. Despite the anxiety inducing news and state of emergencies, Charlie and I started this pandemic in an emotional high. Both of our biggest dreams had come true: to stay home with our baby (now toddler!!). Well, why don’t we just go back to January and go from there!

JANUARY

We started 2020 with the Japanese tradition of watching the first sunrise, on top of Mt. Takao! Then we did some sight seeing like walking by the Tokyo tower and eating Japanese street food at all the shrines hosting festivities. We then attended the Emperor’s New Year ceremony and watched the sunset from the Tokyo Skytree. From there, we visited Fujiyoshida, Okazaki Park, Nagoya, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, Kamakura, and Hiroshima. Our 3 week trip concluded when we arrived home January 19th and the next few days were spent trying to switch Evelyn’s sleep schedule back to EST! And we started our basement renovation project at the end of January.

Some random, and kind, lady insisted on taking our picture even though Evelyn was breastfeeding.

FEBRUARY

Most of February was spent working, my last semester, and spending time with Evelyn. However, we did get to witness our best friends get married in Miami, FL - and what a beautiful wedding that was! Evelyn could pull herself up and we had to lower her crib on Valentines day. She then figured out how to crawl (forward) on the 21st! Then Evelyn and I met my cousin at my grandparents in Weeki Wachee, FL for Spring Break and I joined the LIKEtoKNOW.it community!

MARCH

In March, we attended our first political rally together, before everything started to shut down, and we discovered Ethiopian food! I think about that food daily and would love for someone to teach me how to make it. Then classes began happening online and I had so much time to spend with Evelyn that I didn’t even know what to do with it. We started going on daily walks, I learned about sensory play, and I started finding parenting books and reading more about Montessori practices. I had wanted to plan an Irish cultural learning day for Charlie’s birthday (which falls on St. Patrick’s Day), but everything had shut down by then. So I made a traditional Irish breakfast to send him to work with, and a Lucky Charms cake for when he returned home! March is when I made my first sourdough starter and decided I’d stop wishing I could bake, and just do it. I discovered @Taraherron_photography and @meg_nlo and started challenging my photography skills by taking self-portraits with Evelyn.

APRIL

We finished the basement!! Evelyn and I begin prepping the garden, repotting and propagating indoor plants, and seed-starting. We have our first fire of the year in the backyard too! Evelyn began walking by holding onto furniture on April 12th. We had random snow in April. We got cabin fever and decided to quarantine in the middle of the woods in a Cabin and do some much needed hiking. I took up crocheting. I had a virtual graduation ceremony on April 25th, the same day Evelyn could take a few steps unassisted!

MAY

Evelyn and I pick dandelions to make our first batch of Dandelion wine! I got a new sewing machine so I could make cloth produce/bread bags and masks. We started our front yard project (which is still very much in the works and has been a very slow process)!! we dropped off some meals to Charlie’s grandparents for Mother’s Day and she gave me some garden bulbs. I recruited some amazing mothers to make a pass-the-baby video! The Blue Angels flew right over our home twice. We began a weekly tradition of supporting a local pizza company and local ice cream stand. I began regularly vlogging just to practice/get use to talking to the camera, and still haven’t posted those videos! We packed our bags and went to a family friend’s cabin for Memorial Day weekend, drove through the cherry blossoms in Traverse City, but mostly stayed secluded in the cabin with a very secluded lake. Evelyn officially walked all by herself Memorial day! My parents got her a water table and my grandparents blew up our old pool, so we spend the next few days enjoying the nice weather and some water play.

JUNE

We are starting to open back up so we opened up our quarantine pod a little with small game nights and play dates. My parents celebrated with Evelyn on her birthday while I worked, the day was filled with all her favorite fruits, 3 (small) slices of cake, her water table, and a bubble party! Evelyn and I make Charlie a father’s day gift through some paint sensory play and taping a picture to the cardstock. Charlie and I finish the backyard garden bed and fill it with two truck bed loads of dirt! We are called Farmer Charlie and his wife for the rest of the month. Our sensory play experience is graduated to colored rice and edible finger paint. The state opens up family gatherings to 10 people, so we have a backyard party for Evelyn! Which ends in us visiting the ER because Evelyn scratched Charlie’s cornea. I harvested our mulberry tree for the first time and made mulberry rhubarb pie! We set up an old pool my parents passed down to us and Evelyn and I spend much of the next few months enjoying the sun. I discovered @alexadriaslens and started pushing my photoshop skills! That has been one of my most favorite creative projects to take up during this pandemic. We go on a 4 day camping trip up north, but end up having to come home a day early because the well water upset my stomach. I finally started posting regularly on my YouTube channel! We happened across 150 free landscaping bricks which jumpstarted our front yard project!

JULY

I started teaching Evelyn how to cook and she starts helping me with chores! And we bake a lot… pie, scones, pancakes, waffles, zucchini bread. We trash picked a four-wheeler for Evelyn to drive around the backyard with! We took Evelyn tubing with Charlie’s family. We began a second backyard renovation process: digging up and laying down durable tiles for drainage and to stand against the dogs running through the grass. We only placed those around the garage, where we hope to train the dogs to eliminate so Evelyn can run through the rest of the yard. This month was mostly filled with staying home and enjoying our yard projects.

AUGUST

I went with my parents to my brother’s graduation ceremony! We went on our first backpacking trip for our first anniversary! Turns out 20 miles is a lot for a beginner and we ended up hitching a ride back to the car at 15 miles. The burnout of being stuck at home finally hits us and we start to have a hard time working from home. But we also visit a local sunflower field, have a beach day, keep going for daily walks, and take Evelyn out on the Kayaks for a day.

SEPTEMBER

We spend Labor Day weekend on a 3 day Kayak trip down the Huron River. Joined friends on our daily walks and had picnics. We decided to pack up last minute and catch my grandparents in their Kentucky home before they officially went south for the winter. We visited the drive-through Renaissance festival. Started canning our garden harvests and prepping for winter. My parents found Evelyn a sensory table for our backyard! So we spent more of our days playing in the backyard. We visited a local pumpkin farm for some cider and donuts. I forgot to mention that we were potty-training through these past 2 months so there were many trips to the bathtub and cleaning up messes on the floors.

OCTOBER

I publish a fall photo challenge! My dad gets Evelyn a ring light to enhance her cooking vlog game. We are still canning, taking daily walks to the playground that is now open in our neighborhood, and baking. I have Charlie hang me a line to dry clothes in the backyard and it breaks after a day. We decide to take the leap and remove one of the side of Evelyn’s bed to give her a toddler bed. Evelyn starts climbing and we can’t keep her off the coffee table. We do all the fall activities and visit apple orchards, face painting, dressing up, pumpkin carving, and backpacking day trips. I photograph my brother and his friends with pumpkins on their heads. The grass is growing around the side of the garage! And we take Evelyn to a local trunk-or-treat in the morning of Halloween.

NOVEMBER

It was surprisingly still warm so we spent more time working outside, playing with sensory bins, working out, baking, finished canning, and dropping off meals for family. We finished tearing out all of the overgrown bushes in the front yard. I hosted fireside mini sessions. We lost power for three long days, only living off a generator and a propane heater or sitting by the firepit. I spent a lot of time working on my LIKEtoKNOW.it. We ended the month with a small Thanksgiving dinner with my parents.

DECEMBER

I started my first ever vlogmas. To make up for the lack of family time, Evelyn and I filled our days by testing out some Christmas traditions! We woke up to our first snowfall and decided to move inside to renovate one of the bedrooms in the house. We attend three drive-through light shows and you can see everything on our YouTube channel!

We didn’t get to fill our schedules with all of our family, friends, travels, and long lists of itineraries. In fact, much of our 2020 was filled with home projects and working on our inner development. We have struggled with loneliness. Charlie was let go from his job, and we struggled with unemployment. We struggled with many uncertainties but we faced them all and we are ready for this next chapter.

“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”

-Oprah Winfrey