TIME - 2020

 We keep a reusable wall calendar that holds 3 months of time on it.

There are only 3 more days left on it to fill the calendar and only 1 day until the end of 2020.

I've been watching this calendar fill up with crossed off days since early September.

I remember putting this up when school had just barely started and feeling like it would take forever to fill.  Yet, here we are already - a full last quarter of the year.

It's been quite the year with COVID raging, the election drama, and the 

Black Lives Matter Movement taking root throughout the country.  

I would not say this year has been easy.

I would not say this year has been free from worry.

But it has been full of time.  We've had plenty more time due to the school schedule changing.

I've been home from school more - either teaching from home,

or getting home earlier due to the changed schedule.

Anders has been learning completely from home.

Kuba is home 3 school days a week 

And Anna is always working from home.
So, all in all, it's been a home kinda year.  
Perhaps that is the word of the year for me,

H O M E,

We've come together so well honestly,

all of us finding our way among each other.

Kuba has been busy drawing his own set of Pokemon.
He's up to 53 cards right now.  He keeps himself super organized all in a navy blue folder.

His pokemon inventions are clever and imaginative.
He's also been completely swept up in the fun of doing Pokemon battles,

and all of us have probably played more Pokemon games this year than walks outside with the dog.

We do the dog walk daily.

Anders has been super busy with his online learning platform for high school - VTVLC.

He's organized, eager to do the right thing, and has been impressive to say the least.

I know it's stressful for him, because the program is rigorous and he has so many classes.

But he only has 2 more weeks and he's finished Semester 1. 

Amazing really.   I want to throw him a party when he finishes. 

Friends are still in our picture this year, but looming around the edges versus in the forefront.

The pandemic has insisted that we have space.

So space between friends we have.

Kuba sees friends only outside, skiing, sledding, playing.

Anders too, walks with his friend Charlie, and then sees his other friends when they go to sports practice, first rowing and now nordic skiing.  The both meet up with their friends on computer though.

They play games together - which they completely love.

Anders in particular plays all sorts of games with his friends on line.  

We recently bought them a new gaming computer/laptop just so they could have a better way to play.  

I think that was a good decision during the pandemic.

Anna and I have done an amazing job keeping contact with our family friends.

We've created lots of ways to connect.

We have had zoom happy hours, pie and cookie swaps, jaunts outside like meeting up for a fox hunt, 

and lots of sharing via social media and texts.  
In some ways the connection is stronger because it has had to be more intentional.  

I do feel a stronger sense of both home and connection to others.
A paradox for sure.

There's so much more to say about the year, but for now, this is the post I could muster.  

I'll be posting again about 2020.