Whew! Where to begin? So much has happened in the almost three years since I’ve posted here. I’m ready to share again, so grab a cup of tea and fall into your favorite chair. We have some catching up to do!
September 28th, 2020. That’s the last time I posted. I was whining about my 10th day of Covid. I was sick and sad, having just lost my dear Linda, my sweet and sassy friend and mentor. I had to miss her funeral because of Covid. I had no clue that things were about to get much, MUCH worse.
Later that same night, just a few hours after I posted here, my beloved father-in-law had a heart attack and died. Two days later, I was hospitalized because my Covid infection was so bad that I couldn’t breathe well on my own. The day I came home from the hospital, Benny was admitted. We watched my father-in-law’s funeral online, me from home, and Benny from his hospital bed. Visitors were not allowed, and I was still too sick to go see him anyway. Our family was grieving way too many things at once, and our kids were terrified they’d lose us too. We were thankful they did not get sick!
The hospital sent Benny home too soon, and when he went for a follow up appointment with a pulmonologist, they took him straight from that office to the closest ER at a different hospital. He was put through some pretty aggressive treatments and came home nine days later, but there were a few days there we were concerned he wouldn’t make it. He had a talk with his doctor about whether or not he needed to try to get his affairs in order. Forgive this quick summary of our story, but we survived Covid-19. Benny was off work for 72 days. It was a ROUGH time for our family. One of the roughest things we’ve faced so far.
Our kids were rockstars and took care of us. My friend Kelcy created a Meal Train for us and our people rallied and brought us food, sent gift cards and money, and gifts. A couple of my friends made a birthday cake for Zoe, who turned 18 the day after I came home from the hospital. We were enveloped in loving support, and I will forever be grateful for every single person who took care of us through that whole horrific season!
You know what didn’t survive Covid? Some of my friendships. Every time I’d see people in my Facebook feed THAT KNEW US still shouting that Covid wasn’t that big of a deal, or hear our dumb ass president talk about “the China virus” or the “plandemic”, I wanted to scream and punch something. We (the world) lost way too many loved ones to Covid, and I decided I didn’t want to spend my energy on people who would downplay a virus that put me in the hospital for a week and almost took my husband from me. Aaaaand, some of them didn’t like what I had to say and unfriended me on Facebook. Buh-bye!
We spent the first half of 2021 recovering. That year we made the difficult decision to end SEVENS, our long-running ministry and food bank. I went full-time at my job. Pete graduated from high school officially bringing my homeschooling days to an end, as well as my years of teaching at FACE. I didn’t grieve that season’s end because I was truly grateful for it, but I did grieve how it ended. My longtime friend and director of our school and I had a falling out and she made the end of our schooling era pretty shitty. It was such a shock! It was bad enough that Pete decided not to walk with his class, and we had our own celebration at home. A few of our mutual friends decided I wasn’t worth trying to work through the drama, so she got them in the divorce. Ugh. What a painful season that was!
2022 was better than the previous two years. Life evened out a bit for several months. We entered a new season with all three kids being legal adults. We both had job security and we both got raises! I started writing again, mostly for myself – nothing public. We still dealt with some long Covid symptoms, but were vastly improved. The fall of 2022 brought an unexpected medical diagnosis and I started taking my health more seriously. That’s ongoing and I may post more about that in the future. I will say that I am LOVING my water fitness class and the smell of chlorine has become a comfort scent as I make forward progress on my health journey.
I want to share so much more with you, but I’ll save some things for future posts. 😉
So, where have you been? What’s happening in your life? Where are you headed this year?
Let’s reconnect!
Sometimes I Write 