Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

social distancing

The things that helped me

It’s easy on January 1 to want to put the past behind us (especially when the past is a year like 2020), but as I was reminded by Sarah Bessey (a favorite writer of mine), there were things that helped us get through 2020 that I want to carry into 2021. She shared her list via email newsletter. (If you want a copy, I can forward it to you and then you can sign up for her monthly words! Or click the link to sign up.)

Here are a few things that helped me:

  • My Peak Challenge. I joined this program last year when it started in February before I knew how much I would need the structure and accountability for my health and fitness journey. The program includes monthly workouts and meal plans (the latter of which I followed very loosely because it’s set up for one person with lots of leftovers throughout the week and I cook for a family of four). I bought a tiny bit of equipment (bands, running shoes) and could do all the workouts or modifications at home. This is a plus for me because I hate going to the gym. I also connected online with Peakers (what we call ourselves) all over the globe. The program also raises money for charity. It’s a win-win-win for me and I’m back for a second year. (I get no compensation or reward for telling you about MPC. I just love it!)
This is a photo from April. The shirt has seen a lot of sweat since then.
  • A coffee subscription. I’m very particular about my coffee. (Read: snobby.) And I love supporting my local coffee shops. Every month bags of locally roasted coffee arrive at my house. I am always supplied with the coffee I love to drink and I’m supporting a local business with a regular purchase. (I happen to love Square One. If you find a local roaster you love, consider a coffee subscription!)
My preferred coffees are decaf because of my anxiety, but all the coffee from Square One is gooooood.
  • Sending mail. Forget the past few weeks of mail nightmares. Sending and receiving actual physical mail was a highlight of 2020. I’ve always loved this but I seldom take time for it. In 2021, I’m pledging to mail a letter to someone once a week. (If you’d like to be a recipient, send me a message with your address. I’ll put you on my list!) Postcards are an especially simple way to send a little note of care or encouragement. I was pleased to learn about these beauties from Ink & Willow. (I did receive a sample of these postcards to review. My opinion is independent of the freebie.) These hopeful messages you can color and send to others is a simple way to let people know you’re thinking of them. (I particularly love that they aren’t all Bible verses. Some are song lyrics; others are quotes from inspiring writers.)
  • Reading. (And the library). This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but one aspect of reading I want to take into the new year is reading what I enjoy. Maybe that’s a no-brainer, but I still feel pressure sometimes to read what I think I should be reading. There is a place for that, and I do want my reading to educate me. But toward the end of the year, I just need to read for fun. I binged on cozy mysteries and my mood improved. Our family has always been prolific users of the public library, and 2020 was no different. I will continue to support them with my donations, late fees, and loans.
  • Supporting small businesses. This ties in to the coffee, I know, but it goes beyond that. I made a decision a while back to no longer buy books from Amazon because I have two really great independent bookstores nearby. I ordered all my books this year from independent bookstores. (If you don’t have one near you, check out IndieBound. You can shop the site just like you would the other site and your purchase will help independent bookstores around the country. I made one purchase like this.) Beyond bookstores, I tried to purchase Christmas gifts from local shops or online stores that are tied to small businesses. And we committed to eating takeout once a month from a local restaurant. All of these things make me feel good about how I’m spending my money and how I’m investing in the community.
  • Hiking. We did SO MUCH hiking this year, even when it was cold. And we plan to continue monthly hikes during the school year and, I hope, weekly hikes in the summer. Being outside refreshes me, and we have a plethora of parks and conservation areas within a short drive of our house, so there was no shortage of places to explore. We’ve barely even started. (You can find most of our hiking pictures on my Instagram.)
  • Puzzles and cross-stitch. Both hobbies help me focus when my brain is trying to lead me in a hundred different directions. I completed two cross-stitch projects this year and started a third. That’s more than in previous years combined. While my family isn’t as crazy about puzzles as I am, they do make room for my obsession at the dining room table and occasionally join my quest. Between me and Santa, we’re covered for puzzles this year.
One of the cross-stitch projects I completed and framed to give to a friend.
  • And like it or not, but video calls helped us stay connected with people. We could have done more than we did, but we participated in games with friends and family, toasted with friends on my birthday, and had family video chats that felt like being together. I don’t want to let distance or social distancing to be an excuse not to connect with people anymore.

There are probably more things, but this is a good list. What helped you get through 2020 that you want to carry into 2021?

What we’ve been up to: yellow phase edition

Two weeks ago, our county moved to the yellow phase, which in our state still means we’re to take precautions but we’re not as limited to our homes, workplaces and essential errands. The transition hasn’t meant big changes for our family, and I’ve still been logging some of our activities just to remind myself how we spent these days.

Here’s a recap for you about what we’ve been up to.

Summer

Even though the official start of summer is a few days away, we’re in full summer mode here. As in, the kids don’t have any more school and we had to create a new routine to get us through these days so our brains didn’t melt from all the YouTube. I created a weekly checklist for the kids to complete. They each have a copy, and at the end of two weeks, they’ll get a reward of their choice. It’s going better than it was without the checklist but not always as great as I’d hoped. But they did help me clean the bathroom and weed the garden. We had our end-of-the-school-year dinner from Chipotle. We booked a cabin at a state park for later in July to take a short vacation because all of our previous vacation plans for the summer are not doable.

Garden

Things are growing! Including weeds! I have been out to weed the garden two or three times. We have speed mulch that we got free from someone’s yard that was mostly leaves and sticks and mulch that our neighbor who owns the business behind our house had his lawn company dump on our concrete slab. Phil built a trellis for our snap peas. I still worry that we put things in too late to have any chance at a good harvest this year. I transplanted two volunteer tomato plants. Two potato plants have popped above ground. It is consuming my time and attention and I’m not sorry.

Hiking

Weekly, we’re trying to get out of the house and take a hike. Without going too far from home because of bathrooms and such. One week, we went to Lancaster County Central Park and did a loop path that took us past a creek, under a covered bridge and into the woods.

Another week, we walked a paved path next to the Conestoga River.

Both took us nearly an hour and sometimes the kids complain about it, and it’s always a monumental effort to get out of the house. Always worth it, though.

Virtual adventures

During normal summers, we like to take day trip adventures because summer is when we have more family time as the four of us. This year, we decided to still try to have virtual adventures. So, we listed a bunch of places we wanted to “see,” wrote them on slips of paper and pulled one out of a hat. Our first adventure was to The White House. We wanted to explore online and make some kind of food related to the adventure, so our daughter created a White House themed menu based on some of the favorite foods of presidents. We had garlic butter steak bites (inspired by William Howard Taft’s love of steak), leather britches (green beans with bacon inspired by Andrew Jackson, with a side of commentary about the pitfalls of his presidency) and the Kennedy family brownies. We watched Inside The White House on Amazon Prime. Our next adventure is Sydney, Australia.

Our White-House-inspired meal

Books

Our son is back devouring the next Harry Potter book because he wants to earn the Lego Harry Potter video game. We placed a pickup order for the library.

Errands

We went to the school to pick up the kids’ things. They both saw their teachers. I also went to my school to pick up my personal things. And I cried the whole way home. My driver’s license expired during quarantine, and I was able to renew it online, but I still needed to get a new photo ID. All the PennDOT offices were closed until early June, and while I really wasn’t looking forward to venturing out, I did it and it wasn’t too bad. We also dropped off the library books we’d had for months. And Phil took our daughter to buy running shoes. He also returned our son’s lacrosse equipment.

Miscellaneous

I cut Phil’s hair one Sunday because it was getting too long for him to feel comfortable while working. I only do one style, though, so he’s rocking a new look that nobody hates.

Before
After

The kids needed new clothes for summer, so we shopped online. When it came, everything but one pair of shorts fit and that was only because the store had sent us the wrong size. I may never shop with the kids in a store again. And a friend came over for a (no, really!) socially distanced visit on my porch. We attended a socially distant prayer meeting for racial justice with people from church. And for one stretch of 24 hours, both Phil and I were puking because of something we ate, we think. It was not a fun time for us. We’ve been taking almost nightly walks through the neighborhood. And a house in a nearby development caught on fire one night and we watched the smoke billow from our porch. It was close enough that the air around our house was thick with smoke.

Not clouds; smoke from a nearby house fire

What we’ve watched

Some of these as a family, sometimes just as adults. Lego Batman. Just Mercy. Anne With An E. Poldark. Good Omens. Good Mythical Morning. Ultimate Tag. The Titan Games. The Big Flower Fight. The Office.

Noticing beauty

I was sitting on the porch one night reading and there’s a bunny that hangs around our yard. It hopped around the yard and paused on the side porch. I got up to go in for a drink or something and saw that something was underneath the bunny. Then 3 baby bunnies hopped out from under our porch and a total of 4 babies were feeding from their mama. I ran inside and said, “Come quickly but quietly.” The kids were not interested but Phil and I stood in the kitchen and watched this happen for a while. Then the mama got spooked and the babies hung out in the yard and I wanted to know where they were staying, but eventually we decided to leave them alone and stop watching. It was marvelous.

Running

And exercising. There’s been a lot of both. I’m working on a 90-mile challenge in 90 days, and I’m already a quarter of the way there. This is what that looks like.

So, what have you been up to?