It's been a long time since I've nurtured this space, nearly two months to be exact. My time, my energy, my emotions and headspace have been elsewhere and my focus has been on living as opposed to documenting. But here I am, practicing self-isolation and craving the solace of my computer keys in documenting this quarantine craziness, but first I feel the need to fill you in on February...and March...and let's be honest, most of January! My writers apathy was not an indication of their goodness and I'd be sad not to remember the memories made. I'm not going to write eloquent posts about each adventure, there will be no backdating in an attempt to fool my family into believing that I was always on top of documenting our deeds, but this is me doing the best I can to look back at a busy few odd months and say, yes, there was good to be found.
That good came in the form of solitary moments to be sure--family trips to the beach and quiet moments in our home with Reagan the dog, but most of the goodness of the past few months have come from the people around our family who bring so much joy and light and happiness to me. The goodness was a week-long visit from my sister and her kids where we played and beached and ate and talked and still ended up in tears when they left after 168 straight hours together. The goodness was my Runners Club who serve as weekly best friends, confidantes, motivators and therapists. The goodness was baseball season (at least the first week of it) where my three oldest kids left their whole hearts on the field and rubbed shoulders with people--especially stellar coaches--who no doubt have shaped their lives for the better. The goodness came in a surprise trip to Yorba Linda to celebrate our favorite Annie-girls birthday and visit our best Burnett buds, and a trip to see Ellen on her last day of filming (Justin Timberlake was a guest--I nearly died!) And at the very end of our Before Coronavirus existence the goodness came in the form of my angel parents, who surprised Talmage on his golden birthday with tickets to Disneyland (the last day before it all shut down). Oh, and then there was Quinny's first lost tooth, an overnight field trip for T, a memorable date night at the Magic Castle and Cora's big-girl trip to see Frozen...it's been full and beautiful over here.
An obvious extrovert, it's no wonder that people predominately filled my cup of happiness in the last few months and that I'm missing them so much right now. Telephone and Zoom and Marco Polo and all the other apps we are now intimately intermingled with are amazing, sure, but they are no match for a hug, a hangout, or a high-five. I'm going to keep looking at these pictures (maybe a little longingly) and feel grateful for what we have, and look forward to more (in person) memories to come.
