Well, the longer I went without a post, the more I put it off. So here we are, trying to catch up 4 months worth of life.

With the girls unable to receive a vaccine (even now), our lives stayed isolated and simple through the last four months. We considered sending them back to school in October when the case counts were going down, but expected a spike through the Holidays even before Omicron arrived, so we planned for late January for a return to daycare.

When the Omicron variant showed up, we were exhausted but dutiful. We closed the doors, I stayed home with the kids, and we hoped to avoid getting sick. As of March 2022, none of us (to our knowledge) contracted COVID.

We had the opportunity to go to the Rock City Lights during December right before the COVID case counts went haywire and took our family. It was a great time for everyone and we had a blast.

We also were excited to have our Annual Christmas Cookie tradition with Gigi. Ember was a big help (apparently far more help than I ever was) and has been invited back for next year.

Ember explained that she KNEW Santa was real because she had a meeting with him last year, so of course we needed to schedule another one this year as well.

We had family over for Thanksgiving (Harris for lunch, Gigi for dinner) but our Christmas plans got shuffled due to sickness and COVID exposures. We had a great time even if it wasn’t as planned.

We had a BIG snow (4″+) and then another one (3″).The kids had a blast.

We celebrated Kevin’s birthday and he and Ember had fun with sparklers.

Suddenly, at the end of February, we saw the COVID case numbers dropping and decided it was time. The girls went back to daycare. We are having them stay home with me on Wednesdays, but otherwise we all pile on the car the rest of the week and go to school. Both girls have done an amazing job of transitioning back into school after almost 2 years at home. I am so proud of us all for making the most of such a challenging time.

Some days after school we all visit the little kid playground together. Every morning Ember walks Zora to class and every afternoon she walks with me to get her from her class. It’s adorable and I’m so glad they get to be in school together for the spring and summer before Ember heads to Elementary School in August.

We have been so lucky to have grandparents nearby. Kevin’s parents watched the girls 2 days a week for the last few months and I know everyone enjoyed their time together. Gigi comes by to visit on our Wednesdays at home and soon Ember will be spending the night with grandparents as well.

I’m so happy to have such a sweet family and support from friends. We are looking forward to getting “back to normal” but I will never forget the time we spent together and I hope it has built a strong foundation for the girls.