I’m glad that things have been going well for you this year and that your mom recovered without any lasting impacts. I think we are soul sisters, because I also realize how happy I am without a lot of things, activities, or even vacations in life! But I do need a yard and wide open streets to walk on. We are searching for a new house and I know more than ever that I need these tiny nature walks to clear my mind and reinvigorate my body.

I love everything about this list. I’m glad that your jobs have remained stable during this period of time and that you don’t have the need to go on site. As a fellow parent of a kindergartener I have really enjoyed this gentle transition to school for my youngest. We are homeschooling, but it’s been nice not to rush him off to school in the morning. We get to spend extra time snuggling instead.

With the added stress of pregnancy and your dog it sounds like the quiet of home life has been pretty good for you this year. I hope that continues into 2021 and gets better and better each month!

Thank you for your comment. I’m happy to hear that 2020 has given you time to explore your finances and your creative time. I am diving into a lot of creative tasks that I haven’t tried in the past and I’m really enjoying them. I should add that to my list above!

I wish you the best of luck in 2021!

I’ve appreciated being able to ease into the school system with our kiddo without having to figure out commutes and rushing from one schedule to another. We have other time pressures but removing the commute for PiC and for JB helped immensely. We remind JB that we’re so lucky that our jobs lend themselves to our continuing to work and earn a living without being at risk or relying on other people being put at risk to privilege our positions. I wouldn’t feel right if, due to my position in the company, I didn’t have to be at risk but my staff or others in my company had to be. None of us are required to be on site and I’m grateful for that.
I’m grateful that we had this whole year with Seamus without travel. He’s in his last days with us and I would have felt so conflicted being pulled to do our usual travel commitments to see other family when our dog family needed us right here to keep him comfortable and as healthy as possible. Lodging him with even the best of sitters would have felt negligent and I’d have been so torn.
We discovered the joys of short stints in the open air on the trail and the beach. Before all this we didn’t make time for our own little adventures and I’m so glad we had the chance to explore our own world as a small family group and truly appreciate that experience rather than thinking of it as a poor consolation prize of not getting to do something else. There’s something to be said for not having much choice and making the best of what’s left to you to do.

We miss things like in person playdates with dear friends and swim lesson but we have made time for virtual playdates that were just as valuable in their own way and reconnected with old friends whose lives were previously too busy for us to find time for each other.
I also got to spend my pregnancy without nosy parkers commenting on everything and trying to touch me! Yay!

I’ve done my best to give back to help those less fortunate while reflecting on these small good things each month and I hope we always have the ability to help others as much as we enjoy our own lives.

Cheers to a better, brighter 2021!