What can I even say about this year? Overall, I feel grateful because it could have been so much worse. Is that a weird way to think about it? It’s like comparing our situation to others and being grateful for “our hard.” Our hard didn’t include a baby or a teenager or a missionary. Our hard didn’t include employment challenges or working from home. Our hard didn’t include major health issues or excessive distance learning. But of course our hard was still HARD for us.
Brandon had a really busy year! He’s been in his role as General Counsel for a year and a half and just added Corporate Secretary to his plate at Clyde Companies. Then we had the opportunity to go in with three other friends to open a Crumbl franchise. That one store turned into four before we knew it (all in Wisconsin) and our initial investment doubled. Brandon’s summer was filled with late night meetings getting those started. The first store opens in January 2021 and the other three by April 2021. If Brandon isn’t working, he is skiing, golfing, boating, watching sports, playing with the kids, reading or doing house projects for me. He single-handedly figured out how to completely re-do our basement bathroom including new tile and plumbing! During quarantine, we were grateful to have a boat this year, until it broke, got “fixed” and then broke again. The first “fix” involved Brandon watching a lot of Youtube videos. He learned a lot about how boats work, which will undoubtedly come in handy, but it ultimately didn’t fix the problem and the engine eventually threw a rod and had to be completely replaced. Overall, we got towed into the dock three times this summer! We did get it fixed in time to take it to Bear Lake in August. Brandon had some random, unexplainable health stresses, but no real answers – likely related to how his body is reacting to stress, but he has managed it well without much complaint.
My full-time job was trying to keep the family from complete emotional breakdown for a lot of the year – managing their physical & emotional needs or refereeing on an hourly basis. Quarantine and distance learning was a good way to solidify the fact that I did not want any more kids!! When everything shut down in March and the kids were home from school and the grocery stores were emptied, that felt like a lot to deal with, but we hunkered down and figured it out. Brandon tried working from home for about two days, but that wasn’t going to work for any one of us! Thankfully he had an office at work that was a much better (and quiet) work environment. Distance learning took about 1-3 hours per day depending on the kid, and each one took a turn playing with Carson while I helped the others with their schoolwork. We had a daily schedule (that included lots of extra movie time) and daily family activities with the big kids after Carson went to sleep. It took all my energy and I was exhausted, but we survived. The kids miraculously learned to get along better – this was my biggest blessing of the year, by far! They are much better friends than they were a year ago. The most exciting change for us this year was an addition on the house over the summer. We added a large 3rd car garage for the boat and an attic above that we can access through Kendall's room (the added storage has been my favorite part). We also added new cement in the back and around the side and got an in-ground trampoline. In September, Brandon and I were on a scooter ride and I came across a birthday sign in a yard. It made me think about how much celebrations have had to change this year. Then a business idea came to me that might actually be manageable to take on with my already full-time job. I felt a passion that I haven’t felt in a long time and I started dedicating much of my time and brainpower to getting a small, local business (Utah County Yard Signs) up and running. It’s a yard sign rental business where people pickup the signs at my house, set them up themselves and return the custom signs for $35 (competitors deliver & set up for $75 minimum, which is priced too high for the market). I was confident that people would be willing to drive to me and set it up themselves to save some money. I opened at the beginning of November and have had great success. I hope to be able to pay off the business in 5 or 6 months! This year, I really enjoyed hiking in the mountains with friends (no kids allowed), starting a small business, and eating my feelings! 20 pounds later, I am hoping I will have the mental, physical and emotional stamina to lose them in 2021.
I wonder what the kids will most remember about this year? In my opinion, the absolute hardest part of the pandemic for the kids was not being able to be with their friends/cousins on a regular basis. During summer, the kids were able to play with their friends outside (six feet away) and that meant so much to them! To have the kids learn how to play outside with friends was actually really great! We were also able to go to the pool and do many outside activities all summer long. When school started in the fall, and we were faced with a decision on what to do about school, the kids were willing to do anything to go back to in-school learning – even if it meant wearing a mask at school all day. They have been so resilient to wearing masks and having things change at a moment’s notice. The executive order in November was hard because not everyone following the rules – our kids were sure we were the only ones (the order was to only socialize with those in our immediate household for two weeks). In retrospect, the quarantine meant that we were able to get together with our Parker family for Thanksgiving.
Rachel has been a trooper staying home more and getting along better with her siblings. She has particularly struggled with Andrew, but I am starting to see them be friendlier and do more together. When things shut down in March, we decided to allow Rachel to text some friends/family on her ipod using an email address. She has been really responsible and we’ve been impressed watching her handle having a “phone” (that only works with wifi). As the oldest, she has an added pressure to help more and be a good example. She is really maturing and loved Jr. High for about a month, and then it lost its luster. She complains about school daily, but gets good grades and manages her schedule and homework well. She loves her extracurricular activities after school. In June, she decided to stop competitive gymnastics and try out for a club soccer team. When she didn’t make that team and decided to stick with her AA Rogue team, her passion for volleyball also came back. That’s tricky because soccer & volleyball are the same season! This year she was able to play both, but she’ll need to choose eventually. It was a bit dramatic trying out for the Jr. High volleyball team. They had only one night of tryouts and she didn’t make the cut (not only that, but her younger cousin and a bunch of friends from school made the team). It was heartbreaking for about a week, but then a few girls must have dropped out and they offered her a place on the “C” team. She had a great time, made some new friends, and really improved her game. She convinced us to let her try out for Club 801 Volleyball and she also made their “C” team for her age division. She has been responsible and diligent helping to pay for Club volleyball. She still isn’t sure if she loves soccer or volleyball more, but that will come eventually.
Andrew loves being at school and getting whatever jobs he has done quickly. He continues to excel at piano and even tried out violin in the fall. He changed piano teachers since Grandma & Grandpa are leaving to serve a mission in January 2021 (foreign affairs mission in Los Angeles). He continues to love sports so that he can add jerseys to his wardrobe. His spring soccer was cancelled, but he was able to do swim team in the summer with HAST (no swim meets, but he continued to improve). He had a fun soccer season in the fall with the Thundercats and he has started with Think Swish basketball the last couple months. He loves to read the Harry Potter books with Brandon every night (they are on book 5) and he is rereading the other books by himself.
Kendall had a hard time navigating being in the middle of the big kids and the “baby”. She often feels left out or not as good as the big kids, but she also didn’t want to be doing the baby stuff either. She is figuring it out and she has a sweet, unique relationship with each sibling. She is pretty happy and content being home and playing with all the trinkets and small toys in her room (she even started locking her door while she was at school so that Carson wouldn’t disturb her things). She continues to practice piano and is interested in science and other cultures. All the kids are amazing readers, but Kendall loves to read out loud to me every night.
Carson’s energy level is 11 out of 10 all waking hours of the day. My “in-house babysitters” were getting tired of him and my neighborhood babysitters were quarantined. It was a happy day when we could do some outside babysitting with neighbor girls during the summer! Carson loves to play with his people all day long (family plus Ryan, Luke, Gavin, Ezra, Ruby & Margo). 3 year-old Carson seems more manageable and easier to reason with than 2 year-old Carson! He has a fantastic personality and is actually a really fun little boy. He is constantly singing, making up songs, and asking people to play with him.
We ended 2020 with a big bang and I tested positive for coronavirus just a couple days before Christmas. Not only that, but I unknowingly exposed Kacie & Cindy’s families which meant that none of the Hale’s or Parker’s could be together for Christmas. Not only that, our family would be quarantined for two weeks – the kids entire Christmas break! Brandon, Andrew & Rachel also tested positive and our symptoms included: headaches, backaches, fever, body aches, loss of taste/smell. We are grateful that we all had relatively mild symptoms. The hardest part for us was staying home together for 14 days without being able to be around anyone else.
If you would have told me this time last year that our family would be quarantined together for a few months or anything else about 2020 (toilet paper & hand sanitizer shortage, standing 6 feet apart, wearing masks, getting Covid at Christmas, etc.), I honestly would not have thought that our family could have gotten through it. But here we are, doing our hard things all under the same roof and are even closer as a family. Phew! Time for a long winter’s nap – if only!
