Last March, I made a pledge not to bombard my followers with COVID-everything. I felt overwhelmed that every news article, every conversation, and every thought centered around COVID-19. I wanted my page to a place people could escape briefly see content that was not related to the virus, and for the most part I think I kept my word. This post, however, is very COVID.
March 16th of last year was the beginning of what we thought would be a two week period of staying home to 'slow the spread'. Never would I have guessed that 12 months later we'd still mostly be hanging out here doing our part. Truthfully, I am glad I didn't know because March 2020 Mandy could NOT have handled that information! Even though I didn't realize what it would turn into, I knew I had never experienced the world around me shutting down as it was. And knew I wanted to document it for the kids. Even though I was trying not to shove it right in your face, I did add a daily documentation of my life at home to my Instagram stories.
Today my family is celebrating a big milestone. Today is the first day any of my kids will set foot inside their school since they last attended March 13, 2020. What started as two weeks of distance-learning turned into 356 days of school at home. In honor today's milestone (and all the emotions coming along with it) I wanted to share what turned into our (first)
100 Days of Quarantine...
Guys... did I seriously lose count on day 4?? Ummm... I'm sure I didn't. Did it feel like it had lasted a really long time by day 4?? I'm sure it did. 😐
The first 10 days we were all about keeping it fun and rolling with the punches. If you know me, you are probably rolling on the floor laughing with that last sentence. I like adventures and I like to have fun (see the mud on day 7) but I hate uncertainty. Businesses closed, kids out of school, husband home from work, scary viruses = lots of uncertainty. My mama had my back though... when I couldn't find flour or bread at the store, she mailed me some!
Do you ever just want to smack your past self? See days 14, 16 and 17. In case you can't tell, I started running out things to post pretty quickly.
Early in our lockdown, I was fighting my way through the grocery store and turned down the canned foods isle... AND IT WAS EMPTY. The shelves were completely bare except for two cans of Bush's Baked Beans. Did I need them? Nope. Did I buy them anyway? Hell yes. I never hoarded toilet paper, but I did panic-buy baked beans. And my family still makes fun of me for it. 😉
In all honesty, day 33 is a substitute photo. The original slide I created had two images in it... one image of my child sitting at the computer doing school work with tears running down her face, and the other was a shot of one of my other children standing on a sidewalk talking to a friend through an open second-story window. It was a day they were struggling. It's part of our quarantine journey, but I will keep those images private unless they ask me to share them.
By day 100 I was sooo over this project, but my family was fortunate in so many ways this past year and we do our best not to forget it. Today is only one of many positive milestones we are starting to reach, and I pray for many more in the months to come.
Wishing you health, happiness, and security.
♥ Mandy