Welcome back to my daily writing practice

Day 1

Hey guys, it’s been a minute. 😅

**About the March Writing Challenge: I have decided to try to write a blog post a day for 30 days to get back into the swing of being a writer again, which is one of my true loves in this life, creatively speaking. I'm a mom during a pandemic, so we’ll see how it goes! <insert nervous laughter.> Please leave a comment below and tell me where you are joining me from and how you found my blog; IG, Google, FB, Blog follower, etc. Thanks for joining me!**

❤️This is a big week. Today is Monday, March 1, 2021. I kinda love it when the first day of the month starts on a Monday because it feels like a fresh start. It’s already been over a year since we were aware of COVID-19 in the world and in a few weeks it will be a full year since most schools shut down for a very long quarantine where we were learning how to navigate distance learning and working from home all at the same time. 

I have to say that as a former homeschooling mama myself, “distance learning” was a whole other animal compared to homeschooling. And even though I had previously homeschooled all 3 of my kids (I made my own curriculum when I did that), being on the school’s schedule with zooms and google classroom assignments and deadlines for 3 children was no joke. 

We live in a small town and some of our more “old school” teachers had a very tough time getting the hang of doing everything via computer, but we all made it work. In the fall we were fortunate enough to have our elementary kids go back full time with strict COVID safe practices put into place like wearing masks all day long, only playing with the kids in your classroom at recess (which is hard for my incredibly social 4th grader who has friends in every class), lunch at your desks, lots of hand washing and social distancing while standing in line, etc. 

However, for some reason they put the kids in 7th-12th on a modified schedule where they only went in person for 2 days and they were home for 3. This did not work out for us at all. My daughter does better with a set schedule and it was way too loosey goosey for her as far as when things needed to get done, etc. It was also hard to get help from her teachers during their office hours on the subjects she struggled with. 

So today on March 1st they decided to have all students return to full time in-person learning and we are very happy about that. My daughter is still on the fence about it and was really liking her quiet time at home without her little brothers, but this will be good for everyone to get back to a more regular way of life again. Remember when the schools shut down in March and most people thought it was only going to be for about 3 weeks? I’m glad we are finally pulling ourselves out of the fire and seeing a faint light at the end of the tunnel. 

I have decided that I will start a writing more now that I will have some extra quiet time at home with all three kids at school. This also is a first for me since our youngest is a kindergartner this year and at our school the kindergarteners go 5 days a week. I’m kind of beside myself and don’t really know what to do with all of my free time!!! So my first thought it to write more.

 I am going to try to write a blog post a day for 30 days to dust off my writing hat once again. I feel gitty and energized. It coincides perfectly with stepping into spring as the temperatures are starting to warm up here in chilly Wisconsin, the snow is starting to melt, I can see some grass peaking through the snow as it recedes from the sidewalks and curbs. The sun is shining more and for longer. It’s staying lighter later and no longer feels like it’s midnight at 4:30pm. More people are out and about walking their dogs. My kids have started riding their bikes more and we’ll have more chances for my kids to walk home from school as opposed to me getting caught up in the crazy parent pick up lines at school since it’s no longer 10* F and super icy outside.

It truly feels like a new day. 

Love, 

❤️Colleen

PS: I chose the photo above because I feel like the frozen icicle represents our lives sometimes. Even though we can see it and feel it, hold it up to the sunshine and let the light pass through, we still might be frozen in one place unable to break out without a little help. This is how I felt during this pandemic most days. Frozen in time. Just hanging there waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the sunshine to break through so I could finally melt. It’s ok if your life was somewhat put on hold for a while during all of this. We’ve been through a lot and many of us have struggled more in the last year than we ever have in the past. Especially parents because we had so many other lives to worry about with so much uncertainty. It’s ok to allow yourselves to slowly start melting and find your new path in this new reality. Spring is coming! Some may bloom quicker than others during this time but there is no rush so be gentle with yourselves in the process.

*You can find more photos like this on my photography page on IG, @NatureMama3