I am one of those people who fall into the typical, cliché category of all things “new year”. I do reviews, I make resolutions, the works.
While most might see 2021 as the year that “life got back to “normal”, it was a very challenging year for my family and I. Not bad, but just challenging. Especially the latter half of the year.
However, through all the challenges 2021 gave us, my family stuck through them together. We are stronger, closer, and more loving because of them.
Life did begin to look more normal compared to 2020. Drew and I were both vaccinated three months into the new year and so we felt much more comfortable to do “normal’ things. However, going back to what was normal was also a struggle for us. Going through 2020, made us realize that we needed to slow down a bit. We needed to take sometime on a regular basis for our selves and stop squeezing in every single thing. Finding a new balance was and has been tough. We are usually big “YES” people, but now we have realized the value in saying “NO” as well.
We did manage to throw a first birthday party for our sweet Hazel. Poor girl was born during the craziest year of my lifetime and had barely met any of her family. So we were grateful that we were able to throw a fun shindig to celebrate our beautiful sweet girl. Right after her first birthday, Hazel started walking and it’s been full speed ahead for her since then. Seeing Hazel’s personality develop has been so much fun! She’s a very shy kiddo at first, but once she is comfortable, she is one of the silliest kid’s I have ever met. She had a bit of a scare with being hospitalized for about four days for oxygen issues, which was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced, but we’ve got her asthma under control now and feel good about how we are moving forward with things.
For Evelyn, preschool got more “normal”. She’s absolutely blossomed this year and it has reminded me about how important in-person school, and social interaction is for kiddos. She’s becoming such an amazing little person. 2021 has been very good to her. We enrolled her into a great ballet academy and she absolutely loves it. She might be battling a little bit of stage freight but her passion for ballet continues to grow. We took her to the Nutcracker and she’s been going on and on about how she wants to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. She took private swim lessons this past summer and has become quite the little fish, her favorite thing to do this summer was jump off the dock at the beach house. She’s so curious about all the things. She asks us these questions that we can’t believe she thinks of. She’s also so empathetic and caring about others. The world is so lucky to have a soul like her in the world.
Giving my daughters one another has been the best thing I could have ever done for them. They are so sweet together and I am having the best time watching the two of them grow their friendship, what a blessing! This past year has been more joyful because of the two of them together. Evelyn is great at looking over her and teaching her new things, while occasionally cautioning her to stay safe and out of trouble. Hazel’s whole world revolves around her big sister, always trying to keep up and find ways to join in the fun. It’s amazing to watch the two of them together.
Drew and I, on the other hand, had a bit of a rough year. Not as a couple, but we just had a lot of things we were faced with. Nothing we couldn’t handle but we both felt like we aged a lot this year.
Moving back into a semi normal life was a bit of a random struggle. Figuring out what we both felt comfortable with, respecting each other for not necessarily moving at the same pace as the other, it was all about finding a balance there. However, we had a full bottle of champagne the second we were both fully vaccinated.
Drew got a fantastic new job, I couldn’t be more proud of him. However, he went from working from home for over a year to going back into the office and at times working longer hours than we were used to within a week. It all happened very quick and we didn’t have enough time to mentally prepare ourselves or the girls for that big change. So there was a big of a struggle to find our footing within the new change, but I feel like we finally have. Thank goodness. August and September was a bit rough and chaotic.
We lost our first baby, our fur baby, Tessa. That was incredibly tough and I’m so grateful we had each other to lean on during that time. We still miss her dearly and are not used to her absence in our home yet. She was the best pup ever and we feel blessed to have had her with us for as long as we did.
We did gain a niece though at the end of October! I have nieces and nephews on Drew’s side of the family but this is the first time I’ve had it on my side of the family. It has been so much fun watching my baby sister become a mum to her own kiddo. We are all just a big pile of goo for sweet Blair Marie.
At the end of October, we faced the first time one of our children had a serious health issue. With the way everything went down, the first portion of Hazel’s hospitalization and ambulance ride, we couldn’t be together. Drew had to be home with Evelyn and it was so hard for him not to be there and rely only on my communication with him via my dying cell phone. It might be dramatic to say it, but it was a terrifying time for us. After that first portion, Drew was finally able to join us in the hospital and that definitely helped. It was only four days but it felt much longer and it left us extremely exhausted. I still feel like we are catching up from all of that.
Then we lost Drew’s grandmother, the matriarch of his family, in December. She was 93. While this wasn’t a huge surprise, it doesn’t diminish the loss. Like many older relatives, her role was the heartbeat of the family. Not that the family won’t continue on without her, but she was the biggest force keeping everything pumping and flowing. She hosted many of the key holidays and events in the family, she kept you in touch with distance family members, and was just a wealth of family history and traditions. When you think of all that, it was a huge loss.
Despite all these challenges, we’ve been blessed. My husband and I are healthy, our girls are thriving and growing, we have a warm house to sleep in, yummy food in our bellies. What more could we want?
I have high hopes for next year though. I have high hopes for my business, for our home, for our family. I hope we get to travel some next year. I am excited to show the girls how different the world is from our little town and I hope to teach them to embrace and appreciate all those differences. I want to put more focus into Delovely Details now that we are out of the infant stage of life. I hope to get more house projects done and start some of the bigger ones too. I’d really love to have a couple, maybe even a few weekends away with Drew too. My biggest wish, is that we just all stay healthy.
We will see what 2022 has in store for us, I hope you’ll join us for the ride!
Photos: Joy Theory Co.
My Outfit: Morning Lavender
