By Judith Roberts
Every morning I love going to Facebook memories and seeing glimpses of my past last year, two years, 10 years, and even (showing my age here) 15 years ago. I love seeing these memories, remembering the good times – and even the bad.
Because we all remember (or maybe we blocked out) what we were doing March three years ago. We were all in quarantine.
I’ll never forget that day Kyle and I picked our elder daughter up from school – her last day of school for that academic year and the following one, but we didn’t know it just then. I tried to phrase it as exciting and a novel concept, telling her spring break had come early and was being extended indefinitely! What fun!
She saw through the charade immediately and burst into tears. She wanted to see her teacher and her friends. And she didn’t have that chance to say goodbye.
We spent the following year and three months fairly quarantined in our household due to family ailments that heightened our COVID risks. We spent a lot of time outside, a lot of time masked, and a lot of time together – and that part at least was very, very good for our family.
I’ve never been the person who wanted to be a stay-at-home mom or homeschool. It’s just never been part of our family culture, but for a year and three months – it was. Our elder daughter was old enough to do virtual learning through her elementary school, but our little one was a preschooler. She really wasn’t capable of virtual learning at the time.
I can’t say I homeschooled her, because I certainly didn’t follow any curriculum. Every week, we would pick a topic to study – the planets or farm life or sea creatures, whatever tickled our fancy. We would watch educational videos, create crafts, read books (SO many books) and talk about what we were learning. My daughter can rattle off amazing facts about Jupiter because we spent two weeks learning about the planet.
In fact, she loved that time so much that she still talks about it with great joy. “Mama, remember when you taught me school and I didn’t have to get up early and we just read books together? Can we do that again?”
I’m so thankful she remembers COVID in that way. Because for me – like many of you, I’m sure – 2020 and 2021 were incredibly stressful years. We didn’t know what was going to happen to us physically. We didn’t know what was going to happen to us financially. We were all in this unknown bubble, separated and afraid.
But for my little ones – they have good memories. So when I see my Facebook memories from 2020 and 2021 pop up, they remind me that while there was fear during that time and definitely uncertainty – there was also hope. And home. And love.
