One year later

It has almost been a full year since life became very abnormal. Although we were aware of COVID-19 earlier in 2020, our life continued on as normal until March 12, 2020. If I had known they would be closed for months, I'd have gone to the library on March 13 (the last day they were open) and checked out a massive amount of books. We quickly learned that we are not fans of online church services. In our case, our church was only closed for three months. I say "only" because some people have been limited to online services for a full year at this point. So many things have happened over the last year that I never would have thought possible. Our church even being forced to be closed for even two weeks would have seem unthinkable prior to COVID. I fully realize that life has changed more drastically over the past year for many people that for our family. We already homeschooled our kids whereas it's been an unexpected shock for many families to experience virtual learning at home. None of us came down with COVID, none of our friends or

family have passed away from COVID, and Paul's business actually had its best year ever in 2020. But the past 12 months have still felt very abnormal. Spending more time at home than usual has had some positive outcomes such as the kids doing FAR more puzzles than ever before and we played more board games than we'd ever played before, and we've been very healthy!

In the very beginning I don't think I could have handled the knowledge of how long this was going to last. I kept thinking life would be back to normal in maybe 2-3 months. As the spring and then summer progressed I began to realize that normal could be more than a year away. At this point, I'm hoping but not 100% confident that life will be close enough to normal that we will go on vacation in September. The pace of life has definitely slowed down, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Time will tell exactly how much will truly return to normal at some point. Will we ever ditch the facemasks and shields? Will we ever

shake hands with people again? At this point the change I'm looking forward to the most is everything be fully open again - museums, historic sites, national parks, etc. I'm hoping that will happen sometime in 2021, but I realize it might not happen until 2022. Here are some of the main ways life has been different for our family over the past 12 months due to COVID-19.

1. We typically go to several concerts over the course of a year. From January 2020 to the present, Nadia, Ian, and I only attended one concert - the Compassion Roadshow in Wilkes Barre in early March right before everything shut down. Paul and Oliver haven't been to a concert since 2019. Since the middle of March concerts have either been virtual or drive-in events. We watched a little of some free virtual ones in the beginning of the pandemic and discovered that we vastly prefer in person concerts. We haven't experienced a drive-in concert. Some friends and

family attended a drive-in concert by For King and Country in our area, and I heard positive feedback about that. At this point I have no idea how long our concert hiatus will end up lasting. 

2. We also typically attend several dramatic productions each year. I took the kids to see Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom in February 2020, and Nadia and I saw MCS's production of Annie in early March right before everything ground to a halt, but since then, we've only attended one production - Queen Esther at Sight and Sound in Lancaster in December. It was very strange to be in such a large theatre with such a very small audience (capacity greatly limited). We don't have any plans at the moment for attending anything in 2021. We shall see when that returns to "normal." If life is a lot closer to normal by December, I'd like us to go to NYC in December and see a show as part of that trip.

3. The last time we flew in an airplane was May 2018, but we actually hadn't planned to fly anywhere

in 2020. However, of the five one week trips I had planned for 2020, three of them were cancelled due to COVID. The kids and I did spend a week with Aunt Janet in August, and all five of us spent a week in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania in October. As for 2021, I'm planning to take the kids and Milo to visit Aunt Janet for a week in July, and the five of us are hoping to go out west in September/October. Due to COVID, I've changed that vacation itinerary so it doesn't involve any flights. I'm thinking we probably won't step onto an airplane until 2022. Hopefully COVID-19 won't be a factor by then!

4. Even though we "only" were away from church for three months, life at church still hasn't returned to normal. We wear masks or shields. Temperatures are taken for those 18 and under. There aren't any choirs. I haven't attended an adult Sunday School class in a

year. Usually there is a time for people to come forward to the altar for prayer each Sunday morning. That hasn't happened in a year. Usually we shake hands and hug people. Now we just wave from a distance.  We used to pass an attendance pad. Now we sign in online even if we are attending church in person. The attendance has been drastically lower in person as many have chosen to participate only in the online services. Communion is also handled differently. The boys haven't been to AWANA in a full year. This means Ian's time in AWANA ended in early March 2020 as he'll be entering 6th grade this fall. Similarly, his time in the kids' choir at church ended in March 2020 because again he'll be too old for it if the kids' choir resumes at some point in the future. Although there were months when the youth groups were only meeting online, Nadia's experience at church has been closer to normal as she has been attending the youth group at our church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and at another church on Sunday night. 

5. The libraries were totally closed for a few months, and then they reopened just for picking up books you had already requested. That is still the status of the library we had used for several years, but in September I got a card for a different library system, and that other library system is totally open. Discovering there is a library closer to our house through which I can request books from several libraries has been one of the blessings in disguise of COVID-19 for our family. 

6. I redeemed some credit card points last January for an AMC gift card. We planned to see at least three movies in the theatre in 2020. We never entered an AMC theatre in 2020. The only movie we saw outside of our home from January 2020 to the present was one IMAX movie at a science museum in Cincinnati in October. Will we use the gift card in 2021 or 2022, or is seeing movies at a theatre a thing of the past?

7. At least one of our kids has gone to camp at Camp Susque every year since 2014, but the kids ended up going to PMBC because Camp Susque cancelled their camps due to COVID. We haven't been to Camp Susque in 18 months because the other events we had registered for were also cancelled over the last few months. We are scheduled for a field trip there in April. We shall see if that actually takes place. At this point the plan is for Nadia to go to Camp Susque this summer and the boys to go to PMBC. I don't think we ever would have learned about PMBC if COVID-19 hadn't closed many other camps last summer.

8. Not counting our one week vacation in October, we have only been on five field trips over the last twelve months - Reptiland, hike at Hawk Mountain, Dale's Ridge Trail, Refreshing Mountain, and a trip to Hershey/ Indian Echo Caverns; most of these field trips were outdoor events. We went on three field trips between February 21 - March 8 so that means our grand total of field trips from January 2020 to the present would be eight, which is far, far less than usual. We haven't gone on any yet in 2021. I have three field trips scheduled for March and April. We shall see if those actually take place or not. I'm not holding my breath! Since we are studying various countries and cultures this school year, prior to the pandemic I had planned out a variety of cultural festivals for us to attend from June 2020- May 2021 in Camp Hill, Philadelphia, DC, Doylestown, etc. So far every single one has been cancelled, and I'm expecting that trend will continue for the next three months. I do miss our field trips and look forward to the day when I can plan them again without such a high risk of cancellation being present all the time. The upside is that I put a lot less mileage on the van over the last year than I typically do in a year.

9. I never would have dreamt I'd be wearing face masks or shields. I definitely prefer the shield. Although I'm hoping they aren't here to stay for years on end, ditching them is not as important to me as other aspects of "returning to normal." We've also become accustomed to staying six feet apart during the rare times we're in a public place.

10. Nadia has benefitted financially because you can't bring an extra person with you to a doctor appointment, the dentist, etc. This has meant I've needed to pay Nadia for babysitting Oliver more than I would have normally.

11. Although I've homeschooled the kids for the past eight years, I have outsourced for many of the extracurricular subjects as the kids have been in choirs at church and other places, taken art class at MCS, theatre classes/camps, soccer teams, ice skating lessons, swimming lessons, basketball teams, gym class at CWC, etc. Ice skating and basketball ended right around March 12 last year, and since then the kids haven't been in a choir, played on a team, etc. Nadia really misses ice skating. Nadia has been participating in voice lessons over Zoom and theatre productions over Zoom. We've been taking online art classes together. We hadn't planned to join a swimming pool in 2020, but I did join one due to COVID. Paul took the kids skiing once in January, but basically their "physical education" for this school year has been whatever exercise they get while playing inside and outside.

12. When this first started last March, I wasn't feeling the need to be very cautious because the numbers were very low in our area, and since we don't have any risk factors, I figured it wouldn't be very horrible if we came down with it. Once things reopened, we started going to church, the library, etc. In the beginning, Paul was more cautious than me. I didn't even drive the car for awhile because he even took over picking up the online grocery orders as he figured since he was already going to work the rest of us should just stay at home. However in November my attitude changed as the cases began to rise in our area. I began to choose to stay home and avoid indoor activities that didn't seem worth the risk to me such as roller skating. Now it feels hard for me to know when to return to those activities. Thankfully the numbers have begun to decline. Hopefully at some point it will be clear to me that we can resume indoor activities (aside from church). 

13. Although I had placed a few online grocery orders prior to COVID, I certainly have done it more than usual over the past year. During the months when many businesses were forced to stay closed, it didn't affect us that much because the places I usually shop in person were still open. We definitely dealt with shortages on various items more in the past year than any other time in the previous 48 years of my life. It's not as hard to locate items as it was in the first few months, but there are still limits on buying some things such as facial tissues. Aside from food, paper products, and cleaning products some other things that were hard to find were bikes and freezers. The lockdown is the reason I bought far more puzzles than usual as well as two pairs of roller blades for the kids.

14. In the very beginning even the kids in the neighborhood stopped playing together. After several weeks they resumed playing together outside. The kids haven't been inside any other houses in our neighborhood over the last year. Most of the year none of the neighborhood kids were in our house either, but three kids in the neighborhood have been in our house a few times. We also saw far less of our extended family over the past year. I haven't seen my sister Wendy and her kids since August 2019, which is the longest I've ever gone without seeing her. Paul's mom hasn't been in our house since December 2019, and we were only in Paul's parents' house one time since December 25, 2019. Since Paul's family only live an hour away from us, we usually see them far more often than that. We saw my Dad and Margie in August when they were on their way to the Poconos. We saw the Towfighis a few times between June and November. We spent time with Paul's brother, Dad, and sister-in-law two times since December 25, 2019. The boys and I have only been in two other homes aside from ours over the past 14 months - one time at Paul's parents' house and a few times at my friend Tab's house.

15. Holidays were also very different in 2020. The only holiday we celebrated with other people in 2020 was Thanksgiving when we had three guests at our house (Paul's dad, brother, and SIL). The only birthday we celebrated with other people was Paul's mom's birthday in early November which was again a big change. There weren't any egg hunts for Easter last year. We didn't see any fireworks or attend any parades during the summer. Halloween was different in some ways but wasn't as different as the other holidays. I'm not certain what the holidays will be like in 2021, but I do think there will be some egg hunts this spring albeit they will probably be different (masks required, etc.). I still have Christmas gifts to give some of Yvonne's kids because to enter or re-enter the state of Pennsylvania has required either quarantining or a COVID test since the middle of November. We don't know when that restriction will be removed. I hope it's still not in place in July when we hope to visit my aunt on Long Island! Because we weren't going to Great Wolf Lodge for Ian's birthday, we weren't going to see any relatives at Christmas, and we've been home more than usual, those were three of the reasons I bought Milo on December 12. So one upside of COVID-19 was the addition of a puppy to our family.

Life definitely is closer to normal right now than it was in the spring of 2020, but I'm hoping that by March 2022 it's completely or at least almost totally back to normal. Time will tell. The last twelve months were unusual in other ways as well as I think back through what has happened in our country, but since I try to think about politics as little as possible, I'm just focusing on how our lives were different because of COVID-19.