A year that was post… and what a year that was. I learned more than ever, I loved harder than ever and I worked harder than ever. Somehow this post from last January, Se7en Rules to Live your Life by in 2020, turned out to be somewhat providential.
The horror of a three week lockdown, quickly turned into… well we all know, a lot longer. It has been hard… raising several teens is not as easy as folk might think, just feeding them is a full time job. Turns out raising teens through a pandemic is a whole ‘nother story!!!
Well kudos to ALL the moms of teens, well done… and I have to say, I am proud of my gang. They did well. It was not easy and they did it… and they have had to figure out a way to carry on despite whatever the world tosses at them. In a season of their lives where friends count for everything and social gatherings are their norm… their day to day disappointments built up and up and yet somehow they pushed through. I am genuinely blown away by their ability to adapt and their ability to sustain and work on friendships.
Luckily for us we homeschool and so, while our school looked nothing like our usual school (I quickly realised just how little of our homeschooling actually occurs at home), we tend to learn on the “out and about” a lot. Turns out we did masses of school, we didn’t take mid-term breaks we just kept on rolling, because routine is an altogether good thing in times of trial. We normally take the summer off and we are on a long well-earned summer break at last. I am gathering my strength for the next school year and I will be blogging all about homeschooling during January.
And the Hoods…
Hood 1: Had a wonderful wedding and and then moved across town… who knew that we wouldn’t see the happy couple for months and months on end. And yet, they survived… and it’s all good.
Hood 2: Was able to attend college mostly and organise his work online… he survived and thrived.
Hood 3: Conquered her first year of college, after the massive disappointment of no college classes and the adjustment to lessons online, and then classes again. Had a part time job, lost it (thank you Rona), got another… it was an on-again-off-again kind of a year. Loads of dissapointments, loads of achievements and finished full of smiles.
Hood 4: Settled into online learning, and ran and ran and ran… desperatley missed seeing people, and made up for his lost time with people, by getting a summer job that he absolutely loved.
Hood 5: Survived homeschooling, survived learning on line… and discovered the mountain… he ran up and down the mountain several times a day… he took the pup, they ran and ran… and they were fine. Of all of us, he got the most bitten by the “fix things round the house bug”… and fix all the things he did. Until the summer of being sixteen arrived and he was thrilled to be out of the house with a summer job.
Hood 6: Hasn’t seen her friends for ages, it has been tough. She did a photography course online and she did so well, loads of school… loads of making and creating, loads of trying new things and new ideas.
Hood 7: Kept on running, kept growing taller and taller… and has discovered the world of programming and all things computer-ish. Luckily she has a tech minded big brother, because with that I absolutely cannot help her…
Hood 8: Reads and draws and reads and runs and draws and reads and runs… he completed his first full length nanowrimo, and absolutley loved it!!!
Previous Years…
So love reading your yearly sum ups each year 🙂
Thank you Erin, what a strange year it has been… hoping for better days soon… Hope you all have a wonderful 2021.