The lovely Kim at Life as Kim shared her Highs and Lows of 2020. I thought this would be the perfect year to document my thoughts and feelings. The last time I wrote my answers to these questions was in 2014.
My Highs and Lows of 2020
1. What was your happiest event?
Not really an event but we visited my brother and his family in August. Like many other families this year we hadn’t seen them for over six months at the time. We had a great day together, laughing and even singing. It felt like we all really let our hair down because we really appreciated that moment of being together again. At this point in time, I have no idea when we will be able to visit them again.
2. What was the saddest thing to happen?
Not seeing family was sad. The saddest thing about that was telling Ethan he couldn’t see his nanny. Before the pandemic, Ethan would stay at nanny’s every Friday night. This was so we could at least get one night of uninterrupted sleep every week. When the lockdown hit this stopped. Telling Ethan there was no nanny’s because of the virus was devastating. He cried his eyes out. We were on facetime to nanny at the time to try to help Ethan understand. All three of us ended up in tears.
3. What was the most unlikely thing to happen that actually went ahead and did?
Darren drove us to Disneyland Paris. The week we went into lockdown was my 40th birthday. We had planned to trip to Disneyland Paris to celebrate. This of course was cancelled. When Disneyland Paris opened up we kept an eye on the new covid measures they had in place. We knew we would feel safe if we went and Darren said he would drive us there. It was his first experience of diving in Europe and I’m so proud of him. Having a Disney fix was a real highlight and was needed by all of us.
4. Who let you down?
I have learned through life not to expect anything from anyone that way you can’t be let down. We all had enough going on in 2020 I’m glad to say that on top of that no one let me down.
5. Who supported you?
My mum is always at the end of the phone. Darren, I couldn’t have gotten through this year without him. My friend Teri who I met on the school run when Little E started school. And my Disney friend Zoe has always been at the end of a text when we both need to moan about the first world problem that we can’t get to Disney.
6. Tell us what you learned?
More so than ever to take each day as it comes. Coming from a planner this has been a hard lesson to learn. But I embraced last-minute planning with a last-minute booking to Disneyland Paris and Butlins. Having had so many things cancelled in 2020 we will be last-minute bookers for a while yet.
7. Tell us what made you laugh?
Lots of memes and videos made me uncontrollably laugh. There was one where the person threw their 2020 diary over a fence and into a field. It really summed up how I felt about our calendar and plans. There was a hands, face, space video which was quite rude too but it really reminded me of my brother. I clearly needed to laugh as both of these videos had me laughing with tears. I’m sure there were other moments throughout the year as we had to learn to enjoy the simple things.
8. Tell us the things that made you cry?
Ethan getting so upset about not seeing his nanny was heartbreaking. I have never known him to cry like that. We have meltdown crying but this was heartbreaking for sure.
I cried in relief when Darren was put on furlough. The thought of having to work and home-school both children on my own was overwhelming. Especially when one of those children has additional needs and loves and needs routine. This in no doubt put Darren forward for his redundancy but we know that having him home this year was needed.
9. Tell us three things your child or children did to make you feel proud.
Ethan adapting to all the change, very much feeling like he was taking it all in his stride. But he made routines out of our everyday lock-down routine that had to be adhered to. Also being able to use the McDonald’s closure to our advantage. We have been able to break his once a week habit to more or less once a month.
This year we had to have the discussion with Little E that her brother has autism. It felt the right time and I had big plans to tell her over a lunch date. With lots of explanations. In the end, the discussion happened at bedtime because it was the right time. It was a very brief conversation and no explanations were needed. This year the bond between our siblings has continued to grow and Little E is such a superstar with her brother.
They both learned to ride their bikes without stabilizers. This was something I really wasn’t expecting. When home-schooling wasn’t going too well I set Darren the challenge to get Little E riding on two wheels. It turned out Ethan was ready to make this step too. I’m excited to say that we have now been on family bike rides together.
10. Tell us the things that made you proud of yourself.
That I got through 2020!
11. Tell us the challenges you overcame?
Every aspect of 2020 challenged us in ways that we were never expecting. We all had our different challenges it would take me forever to list them all here.
12. Tell us the things you would like to change about your life in 2021.
I want to say that I want to lose weight in 2021 as one of my lows of 2020 was putting the weight I lost in 2019 back on. But I have decided that 2021 will not be about weight and eating. I want to get fitter and move more. I sit on my sofa so much and 2020 has highlighted this no end. I’m hoping if I can move more in 2021 my moods will improve and with it my overall mental health.
Blog wise I would like to make it more about our family again. I have written so many reviews over the past few years that it doesn’t give me the time to fully share our adventures. I hope I can catch up a bit in 2021.
If you have read this far of my highs and lows of 2020 thank you. I might have rambled a bit! It has felt good to write them down. Do your highs and lows of 2020 sound similar?
Thank you for the mention and I loved reading about your year.
Wishing you all the best for 2021 x