Two years. It’s been almost two years since I sat down and wrote. Maybe it’s on purpose…the forgotten year (or two), but I find myself being drawn back and missing the dreaded “quarantine” period.

Let’s rewind to set the stage. 2020 began with so much hope and joy in our lives. New baby, new job, kids doing well in school and loving ninja. And then the world stopped. We refer to it as Friday the 13th, because Friday March 13th was the last day of school. It was the day the world shut down for us. It was 10 days before my return from maternity leave and just days after I had finished redesigning my office into a space that was workable for work and a “homework” zone for the kids and project zone. It’s like I knew our lives were about to change.

Working from home and with the chaos of children is nothing new to me. What was new was teaching them (and Zach) how to work at home and making the spaces each of us needed to succeed and in reality, that was probably harder on them than it was on me.

I felt so blessed that as I was transitioning back to work, instead of finding a place for Morgan to be or someone to take care of her, we were all picking up the slack and raising her together. For the next three and a half months we were all home all the time.

I micro-blogged these days through Instagram. Everyday we tried to do something just a little special, we watching very little TV, but made great memories….and now I find myself missing it.

I miss the quiet of the highway.

I miss the quality time.

I miss playing games multiple times a week.

I miss Zach being home all the time.

I miss not having to rush anywhere.

I miss people being okay connecting via zoom or FaceTime.

I don’t know that I like people anymore. I don’t know that I want to hangout with others. Maybe I’m just out of practice…I look forward to seeing people. I want to plan things, but when I find myself leaving

I find myself in a funny little spot. 2020 was not bad for me. It had a lot of opportunities–like Zach’s “vacation” or the quarantine or covid–but it wasn’t, in fact it might be my most favorite year.

How do I transition back to the real world? My kids crave all the things they missed…they want to go to school, they want to be at ninja, they want to throw parties and do all the things. I want to be at home, with my kids, with my husband living the quarantine life.