2020 has been crazy and hard… but this literally is how life has gone for us for a long time. I left 2019 hoping for a better year, and 2020 was a much gentler year for our family. It was hard in so many ways, but we are good at hard. Finding the minute things to be grateful for brings joy in the hardest of times, and this is how I manage and thrive in the unfathomable situations.
We could all fill in the blanks of “if you told me a year ago that….” 2020 has changed all of us forever. I miss live music and theater, but it’ll be so much sweeter when it comes back. And I promise you, I’ll enjoy it more forever along with so many other things.
Without further ado, here is my 2020 rewind:
We planted over 700 Christmas trees on our new property. Mt Everett Christmas Tree Farm coming soon (in a couple of years-ish)
We went to Disney World on the anniversary of Brett’s death. Before the holidays, I already began thinking about how we would spend the first anniversary. I didn’t want Wheeler alone at school on a cold January day, so I gave him the choice of where he wanted to go and he chose Disney. It was a fantastic trip that helped us all remember happier memories of times with Brett on previous trips we had taken as a family.
I completed my third half marathon with these three amazing women.
My cousin Morgan’s wedding in March the Saturday before everything was shut down. If I had to chose an event to go into quarantine on, this would’ve been it.
COVID hit and in true Everett fashion he showed us all he was literally created for this pandemic life.
I bought overalls.
We bought a camper to replace our old vintage pop up that a tornado got the best of. We plan on remodeling it maybe next year? Everett loves camping so much and this was the perfect way for us to spend time away from home.
Clay being smug after finding a screw that fell off of his tractor that I told him not to waste his time finding and just buy another one. Isn’t he cute..
I did a lot of walking. 564.45 miles to be exact. It helped so many things. And I highly recommend a daily outdoor walk to everyone.
Everett gave himself lots of haircuts and also got a lot of professional haircuts
Jack on a mini trampoline in a hotdog costume. Just because
Emily and Edward with their masks on that Everett made with straw wrappers.
Everett’s birthday at Great Wolf Lodge
Wheeler turned 21, hunted some things, worked hard on school, and continued to be the best big brother.
Everett has new found passion for photography and videography. He takes a lot of photos. Lots…
We’ve also started building our house this year in the midst of the highest lumber prices ever. Hoping they go down significantly in the spring.
And Everett’s phrase of 2020 that I haven’t previously shared is “Get to hell”. His version of “Go to Hell” that he only says to me when he isn’t pleased with what I’m saying or trying to get him to do. He learned this from YouTube. His delving into profanity is very typical of a young teenager. And with past experiences of modifying Everett’s behavior, reacting to it makes it stay longer and ignoring it will shorten its life span. But in true 2020 fashion, it’s hard not to get mad as hell or laugh until we cry when he passionately tells me to “Get to hell” like I’m a yard dog being shooed from the porch.