A New Beginning…

Today marks a new beginning with my blog.

My life, like many others, was hijacked in 2020 by the Coronavirus pandemic, but also by the passing of my parents who I had been focused on caring for the last few years. Their health and well-being had been a primary focus in my life for the last 2-3 years until Mom fell ill in January of 2020.

Mom spent a month in the hospital and then two months in Hospice before passing at the end of March 2020. In the meantime, Mom was primary caregiver for my Dad who was 18 or so years into an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Therefore, when she went into the hospital, we placed Dad in a memory care facility while we concentrated on helping Mom in her end of life journey.

While we were dealing with the loss of Mom and figuring out how to manage her death and final arrangements with Covid restrictions, I got a phone call from Dad’s facility, where we had been unable to visit for almost a month due to Covid restrictions, telling me that Dad had contracted Covid! He was ill and struggling for 4 weeks, without us ever being able to see him or ascertain any degree of confidence in his care, when he finally passed from Covid, 28 days after Mom.

It was truly an unexpected and horrifying experience. I spent a large part of the rest of 2020 dealing with the business of grieving both my parents, handling all the financial arrangements, emptying and selling their final home, disbursing their property to my siblings and finally in November, planning their joint funeral. All while dealing with the emotional strain of this pandemic and helping our middle son and now daughter in law plan their beautiful August 2020 pandemic era wedding. It was a year that I never wish to revisit in my lifetime in any form!

To say that I was stuck emotionally in 2020 is an understatement as well. it was a challenge for anyone, without the added elements of weddings and funerals. I can see now in retrospect that I was likely even a bit depressed at times and I clearly did a lot of carb-centric stress eating and led a more sedentary life than usual.

But, I am happy to report that my life is now trending in the right direction in 20201 and I am happy to have the time and energy to devote to my blog again. I am working out again, eating much better, losing weight and feeling more positive about every aspect of my life. I still am chafing against the restraints that this pandemic presents, but feel hopeful that there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.

What you, as my blog readers can look forward to are the following things that I am focusing on now that I have so much more time to do the things that I am most interested in:

-Organizational posts – I have recently, due to the extensive time we are all spending in our own homes, done complete re-hauls of many aspects of organization in my own home that I’d love to share with you. From closet and kitchen organization hacks, to recipe and even online photo 0rganization and management.

-Artistic/Creativity posts – I have been working on Shutterfly memory books, exploring watercolor painting, learning my Cricut Maker machine to personalize home products, signs and gifts, and creating a grandkid creativity station in my basement.

-Kitchen posts – I have just begun a sourdough starter from scratch and am embarking on a bread baking adventure that I would love to share with you. Additionally, I have several cookbook ideas that I am mulling over and trying to decide which concept will be the first tackled. Additionally, I have purchased a great recipe management software solution and am in the process of getting all my recipes organized and online in easily printable and shareable format.

-Gardening posts – For the last few years I have helped my eldest Kaitlin with planting and maintaining a large backyard vegetable garden and I am hoping to share our lessons learned with you. Also, I am a member of The Garden Club of American and am a candidate in their Judging program to become a Floral Design judge, so sharing my Flower Show experiences is a definite happening here on the blog in years to come.

I think that’s all for today, I just wanted to share with my readers that I am back blogging again and that you can look forward to more content from me in 2021!

I hope you all are beginning to see that light at the end of the pandemic tunnel as well and are ready to embark on embracing creativity in some way in your own life. I’d love to hear from you!

Kathleen