The End of Pandemic Year 2

Nearly two years in, and we find ourselves in the worst of the pandemic. No one is unaware of this news, so I will just move on to my obligatory reflective last post of the year. It's a blogger tradition!

This picture was taken before the plague struck the house. Oh no, not Covid, something better: Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Covid was out there taking up the spotlight, but old HFMD was like, "Hey guys, guess what? I'm still around too! Don't forget about meeeeeeee!" Everyone is now better, but not without fever and throwing up all over everything. Happy holidays!

Meanwhile, "The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening"

The girls and I made cookies which were... maximalist. Besides cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, this was the only holiday baking I did. Usually I can pawn this stuff off on my coworkers, but for the second year in a row we haven't had our cookie exchange. 

I finally got plastic down to kill the grass where the new garden will go - this is a continued expansion in preparation of opening the flower farm in just a few months! It looks foreshortened in the picture, but the area is 18' by 25' and should give me at least 75 linear feet of growing space.

Another great winter sunset

Mary and Jason went to the Natural History Museum and saw the dinosaur bones.

The last two photos are from my parents' neighborhood in Williamsburg, Virginia. Again the weather continues to be oddly warm, and it hit 70 degrees several days. The camellias in the south are always beautiful; I haven't been able to keep one alive here in our colder microclimate. 

At the beginning of the year I wrote out "Things I Started in 2020 That I Want To Continue." Here's the update:

1. Walking: My walking time was drastically lowered once I started taking Cora to daycare in the mornings starting in April. I did spend a lot of time on trails this summer, however, training for the half marathon I ran in September. 
2. Audiobooks: I listened to 26 audiobooks this year, which contributed to my highest reading total ever. I'll have a reading post coming up soon.
3. Minimizing ongoing projects: Does starting a flower farm count as minimizing projects? Even so, I consider this goal a success. I didn't start any large crafting projects, and refrained from buying patterns, yarn, or craft supplies for projects I wasn't ready to start and finish right away. 
4. Separation between work and home chores: I mostly kept to this. I still do laundry mostly on the weekend, and kept cleaning the kitchen to the morning and after work. I do mostly vacuum during the work day though, since my kids overdramatically freak out if I vacuum with them in the house. 
5. Reduce/eliminate social media scrolling and choose inputs intentionally: While I still have a way to go with this, I am getting better. I deleted my art Instagram account, leaving just my personal account where I only follow people I know in real life. I also unfollowed all my Facebook groups and moved the app to a hidden part of my phone (I still need to keep it to give away and sell items, and to manage my flower account.) I subscribed to blogs and mailing lists of artists I like.

Setting goals and reading about others' goals is one of my favorite parts of the new year, so that post is upcoming. There is so much potential, and it's fun to dream. The year rarely works out how we imagined, but there's no reason not to enjoy the feeling of a fresh new year!