Since Wilson decided to potty train 10 days ago, it seems the milestones keep flinging themselves in our faces and three years and almost three months after our last baby was born, it is really hitting me how much my family is this solid unit moving forward at break-neck speeds.

Before, as we kept adding person after person (after person after person? did I do that right?), we had to revert continually and learn how to be a new family as a unit of 3, 4, 5, 6, and then 7. Each time we revisited the newborn stage and the teething stage and the crawling/walking/running stages, only to start all over again when the next little new person came along.

But for three+ years now, we’ve been working through those early stages for the last time, and even though this isn’t news to me or you, it’s hitting me in all my feels lately.

Case in point, today in the mail we received information regarding Truman’s Kindergarten registration for this fall and I about fell over when I opened the envelope because how can my littlest guy be so big? When I made that same comment to my husband he promptly reminded that my biggest little guy is about to get info on MIDDLE SCHOOL registration and then I really did feel the shock in my physical body because, what? Are you serious? Already?! Again, I’m here every day, day after day, raising them and helping them and watching them but somehow this growth still manages to sneak the heck up on me.

Ask my kids and they will tell you, one of the questions I ask most often is, “Did you grow last night?” because they honestly appear taller some mornings than the night before when I kissed them goodnight. How do they do that? I have yet to solve the mystery, but if their ever-creeping-highwater-pajama-pant-legs are any indication, I really am on to something.

In addition to nonstop growing, this moving forward as a Family of Seven means we’re actually reaching stages where we can really get rid of baby stuff. I realize I should have started that process a long time ago (I have done some) but a year+ of house reno added to almost a year of a pandemic and you know what, sorting through toys and gear just hasn’t been a priority much less a possibility amidst all the chaos and people in this house that needs such organizing. But I do want to get to that task and we made a giant leap this week by kicking our highchair to the curb.

Now, I didn’t cry but it was bittersweet to see it go. We’ve had that thing as long as we’ve lived in this house and all five kids have used it over the years. But for months now Wilson has been eating meals at the island with the rest of the Bigs and even though she’s a holy terror mess maker while doing so, it really is much easier on my back than lifting her into that seat. Normally we give away our baby gear or sometimes try to sell a bit through FB, but not this time. That thing was nasty and even if I took my dad’s power sprayer and a gallon of soap to it, it wasn’t going to be worth trying to salvage. So it went “buh-bye” and we had to have a little Marie Kondo moment of thanking it for its service through all those meals and messes along the way.

And on we continue to roll, into a year that seems poised with firsts and lasts, all of which come with some happiness and some mourning and sometimes a mix of both because that is the privilege of getting to fill the roles I do of forever getting them to the next step.

This is a hard list to write in a normal year and I think one thing we can all agree on at the end of this insane ride of the last 123 (typo; leaving it) months is that 2020 has been anything but normal. So how is a list of 25 things, both big and small “accomplished” going to go? I have no idea but I committed years ago to doing this annual round up, so here I am to claim the tradition, even in the midst of chaos.

1. I came through 2020 with my head and my heart both still intact. Pretty sure that should be the first thing on the list and really could be the only thing on the list because riding the waves of this COVID-year coaster has been so head spinning and heart breaking, just making it to this day is accomplishment enough, don’t you think?
2. I became an ardent mask wearer. I’m not always an early adopter in life but I was this time because I believe in science and I believe in epidemiologist experts and we’ve been wearing masks in public since, I don’t know – April? Plus this fall I’ve witnessed with my own family how mask wearing works and has kept them safe at school. My favorites are the 5 for $25 masks from JohnnyWas that started out as buy one/give one to essential works.
3. Started walking daily in mid-ish April. Didn’t miss a day until November when I had to take 10 days off after tweaking my knee (whilst trying to avoid, of all things, a Lego). I listened to music, I listened to books, I listened to my friends on Marco Polo, and sometimes I even just listened to my own breath and heartbeat. I needed a way to keep active and sane and thankfully I live in a place where I can get out and do that away from groups of people. Post knee injury, I’m learning to be OK with not doing this every day and still feeling OK in my body and in my brain; balance (mental and emotional, not just physical) is a forever practice.
4. Threw in some running this year, too! Social media eventually pissed me off so much this fall that the only way I could process was to run it out. I started low distance and awfully huffy (why am I suddenly a mouth breather when I run?) and worked my way up to a nice 3 mile distance before aforementioned knee injury. I’ve only run a couple times since then but hope to keep getting back to it more and more in the coming year.
5. Voted for the first woman (and woman of color) Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris! What a joy it was to place my absentee ballot for her, even if there was no chance of my district falling their way. I am overjoyed at the prospect of all that the Biden/Harris administration will accomplish and am so grateful that we finally have a woman in the top leadership in this country.
6. Said a tearful and unwilling goodbye to my hero, Ruth Bader Ginsberg in September. I sobbed for the loss of her battle with cancer and the profound example of justice, determination, and impact that was her life and life’s work. May her memory be a blessing.
7. Rebooted my yoga business in a new way for a new year. I haven’t taught an in-person class in almost a year and a half but this fall I started recording classes that are now available for purchase and download from Grounded Sky.
8. Taught six sections for Bellevue this year which included two at the very start of the shutdown in March, one over the summer and fall, respectively, which was a helpful, lighter load, and then back to two this winter like I had to start the year. I realize that’s confusing, but we run on 10 and 12 week terms, so it’s not the traditional semester system and you flip the calendar in the midst of Winter Term, so it’s not an easy count to make or explain.
9. I read 80 books. I had a huge slump at the start of the pandemic, so I’m really pleased that I was able to recover that and read so much this year. Combining audiobooks and my walks helped a ton here.
10. I wrote 46 blog posts. This definitely came in slumpy to end the year. It has felt harder to wear my heart on my written sleeve in the midst of so much division and Internet suckage this year.
11. Introduced my Big 3 to Star Wars. That franchise has never been Ben’s cup of tea, but I grew up with a brother who loved it, so I had some background knowledge going in and we were gifted Disney+ last year for Christmas anyway (which we didn’t use nearly as much pre-pandemic as we did after sh!t started) so we went for it. Big! We made it through all nine episodes (in order by release date, thank you very much) before summer came and then shortly before Christmas break, we enjoyed both seasons of The Mandalorian. Such a delightful rabbit hole to fall into with them.
12. Joined a new book club that met weekly online for most of the summer months and has continued to do a few monthly online gatherings since school started. I did not know everyone well (or even at all) in the group before starting, but I greatly appreciated their time and insights in our discussion and getting to know each of them better.
13. Finally experimented with temporary hair color. I’ve been wanting to play with that for some time now and if 2020 itself wasn’t the best year ever to just say eff it and find a little joy via hair dye, when would be? I have so far used purple (loved it!) and blue (didn’t work as well and turned my dang hand blue instead when I was blow drying it after the fact), and still have a hot pink left waiting for me in the new year. Ridiculous but fun, which was very much needed this year.
14. Saw Bonnie and Taylor Simms in concert at The Lark for Valentine’s Day and saw Waitress performed at The Lied Center the first weekend in March, and then that was it – no more live music or shows the rest of the year, obviously. But we did live stream concerts from The Talbott Brothers, Tobe Nwige, and Rising Appalachia which were all very different and sort of a band-aid to my live-music-loving-heart. Hoping our postponed Trevor Hall tickets for next spring actually get to be a thing, and I hope to see both RA and Towr’s live in 2021, too.
15. Learned how to make killer, from-scratch broccoli cheddar soup. It’s phenomenal.
16. Participated in a Zoom book club video/podcast/round table for our church with two former HC Lit professors along with our two pastors in a six-week read of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It was such a pleasure to partake in the discussions plus I loved all the effort our church exerted to keep folks connected this year in new and creative ways with this being just one example of how they did that.
17. Went six months without wearing jeans or any real pants beyond leggings, PJs, or workout pants/shorts. I don’t actually know if that’s an accurate statement but it really was a significant part of the pandemic/year before I bothered putting those on again and I feel like six months is an honest estimate.
18. Watched way more TV than normal, including the entire SERIES of Parks and Rec, The Watchmen, The Mandolorian (both seasons), the docuseries On Pointe and season one of Little House on the Prairie (those last three were all with the Big 3 or some combo of them). I’m saving a re-watch of Schitt’s Creek for the long cold months of Jan/Feb 2021.
19. Painted the final walls of the reno project in the basement (remember when that started over two years ago? Pandemic life slowed us down on that front, too, but now all spaces are totally useable if not 100% done). This included two coats on two sides of five damn doors in the new hallway down there.
20. Discovered the sheer amazingness and utter shocking WHOA of using a foam roller. A friend suggested it after I started running again and she was not wrong. I love that thing and use it all the time!
21. Went to Harlan County Reservoir for the first time. We splurged and rented a cabin near there last minute before the 4th of July so we could escape the boom-booms in town and while there we drove over to the lake and discovered that we just love it for day trips which we continued to do throughout the rest of the summer.
22. Used the “snooze for 30 days,” “unfollow,” and even “unfriend” buttons a fair bit on social media this year. Boundaries and mental health are important and social media is often not helpful in these realms.
23. Still haven’t found a way to fix my sleep so I don’t wake in the mid-to-early morning hours. And trust me, I tried a LOT of things this year including staying up for an entire day/night/day to try to reset my system. Didn’t work but it was interesting to accomplish. Of course, this was before 2020 really turned into 2020, and I figure most people are struggling in some ways with sleep and anxiety this year, right? Perhaps not the best year to try to “fix” what has been a lifelong issue for me.
24. Learned how to drink black coffee. Don’t get me wrong, I still love a fancy concoction from a coffee shop and I also still doctor up my own at home with random forms of sugar and milk (like eggnog this winter? yum!) from time to time, but for the most part, I now just drink plain coffee. I feel like such a grownup!
25. Bought my first-ever case of wine. Not even one bit sorry about my choices. The backstory of how we found this (I may have accused my husband of not knowing who Snoop was) and how three of my friends also bought cases is just too funny not to add it as the last (and always one of the hardest items on this list) to write. (One of those pictured here belonged to a friend, I promise!)

That’s it, folks. An odd collection of musings for an equally odd year. I know 2021 isn’t going to be an instant fix, but here’s looking forward to some good things coming as we know they must be after the muck and mire of 2020.

After being a relatively calm germ zone for the first seven weeks of 2020, our house got hit HARD in the final week of February. In fact, I haven’t been this ready to be done with a particular month in years (the last was back a few years when we had a really nasty April, I believe), so I’ll be honest – I’m not thrilled that this February happens to come with an extra day.

It started with poor Mr. Lincoln who woke up in the middle of the night last Thursday-into-Friday and from there we entered the most bizarre virus holding pattern I have ever witnessed. It looked like this: someone gets sick middle of the night and is terribly ill for somewhere under 12 hours. Then comes a night of calm followed by a good day (we played baseball as a family the day after LT was sick), but then that night another person would fall sick, in the middle of the night of course. And Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It was NUTS.

And even though we had high hopes that someone, anyone, of us might escape the madness (I can’t even tell you how many times I washed my hands, how many Clorox wipes we used, and how much laundry I did), it just wasn’t meant to be.

All five kids, both parents. Down and out over the course of eight days.

See why I’m ready to see this month GO? But that wasn’t meant to be because of course this happens to be a Leap Year.

Actually, though? That might be a good thing. Since our last woman standing (RL) was in agony yesterday, that meant we had today to have our first All Clear day in over a week knowing that that’s it. All she wrote. No shoes left to fall with this virus.

Even though it feels like my brain/heart would have liked to mark this Leap Day with something(s) special, I’m plenty good with what we had instead; in fact, no pukers and sun shining was plenty special, thanks. Instead of worrying about any fanfare, we treated today like any other Saturday – watching Lego Masters, going on a family walk to feed the ducks, and about 10 loads of laundry for me to process (Lord in Heaven; so much laundry, even when we don’t have gross sickies in the house). After the last eight days, typical, low-key, even a little hum-drum was a welcomed, happy change of pace.

And now? Cheers to my month: March!

Does anyone else remember that feeling from childhood when time stretched on forever and days lasted weeks or sometimes years? How about from your early 20s when you thought 30 seemed old and how it’d be ages before you were 40? And then did you blink and find yourself suddenly 37?

Yep.

Me. Too.

I think any adult, especially one upward of 30, would agree that you get here (whatever your age/here is) faster than you think because that molasses time really is reserved for the young only. As you age, time only speeds up, and days/weeks/months can fly by, even though something all parents (especially those of the stay-at-home variety) know is that those days can also still be forever long and challenging.

This week started off for me with illness – something no mama has time for ever but hard as we fight it, our bodies just know the best way to slow us down and force us to rest. In a way, that’s OK because B and I already don’t try to cram every bit of joy and holly jolly into the month of December, so a little fire-throat-induced-reprieve early in the month was doable.

For two days.

Then, suck it up Buttercup – it was time to dive back into parenting and life.

As I explained to a few folks I saw yesterday, being upright was basically happening against my will and the fact that I was dressed and had my hair curled was only because I was faking it with coffee, to which a wise friend responded by saying that she’s been doing that her whole motherhood and all I could think was, YES, Sister, YES.

Because ready or not, like it or not, we are of the age where time flies and life (thankfully) just keeps coming at us full speed. With this many little people along for my ride, I need a little extra fuel in my tank and not just on the weeks where I’m trying to recover from a germ bomb. I promise, coffee isn’t the only form my fuel takes, but by golly, it is today. And probably will be tomorrow, too.

Honestly? I’m OK with that.

Because by “faking” it, I don’t meant that I don’t enjoy the journey; I just want to make sure I’m awake for it. 😉

It’s no secret that we’re Sleep Sticklers and have been forever and ever. This has earned us some awe, some confusion, and some disbelief over the years, but for real: since RL entered the picture, HD has been an EARLY riser (5/6s for years now, but trained to stay in bed and not turn lights on until 6:30), which means we’ve been going strong for seven years now of early to bed because 1) our children are tired and 2) we are tired. There’s no staying up until even until 7:30 on a regular basis for any of them because Mama don’t play when it comes to the fact that they need sleep and if we let them stay up late, they are STILL going to get up EARLY (sorry for all the shouty caps and long, crazy sentences. My brain is as tired as the rest of me right now.).

Case in point? The Big 3 got to have their first sleep overs last night and now this morning we are all already in fall out mode with meltdowns and irritability.

This is, of course, entirely our own fault.

A few months ago we planned a date night in Omaha and rather than stick the grandparents with all five children for dinner and bedtime, we farmed a few of them out to very kind, very gracious, very helpful friends for their first-ever not-with-grandparents night away.

Based on the reports and pictures, everything went great. There were a few tears from a few kids, but everyone made it for the long haul, including Ben and I who drove to and from Omaha for dinner and a concert in a total of 8 hours.

And even though he’s better, Truman’s still fighting off germ bugs and it would appear Wilson is, too, so let’s just be clear that the Welschies 7 are on the Struggle Bus today.

But the children in particualr? They are a whole new level of exhausted and we’re only halfway to bedtime at this point. I know no one expects a lot of sleep from a sleep over, and we have zero qualms with what transpired for them last night (seriously: if you housed one of my babies last night, I give you nothing but the utmost praise and thanks!!!). But you give my oldest an inch and apparently he’ll take a good four hours to go to bed and STILL get up at 5:45 the next day.  This means the rest of the day is going to be a true test for all of us. Tomorrow will be much the same. Because as anyone with an Early Riser will tell you, it doesn’t matter how late you let them go; their bodies are still going to get up at the (bum) crack of dawn. So now have to try to keep our eyelids and our attitudes skyward, because, parenting. And adulting. They just don’t stop for the tireds or birthdays (HBD, Husband! I love you always, even when exhausted.)

At least we still have a tiny sense of humor this morning (check with me by 5:00 today. It might be dead by then) and managed to document our “tired faces” for the camera, including eye masks for me because my bag and circles have bags and circles at the moment:

Coffee, anyone?