300 Days of Sunshine

I found a twist tie in my desk drawer the other day and I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.  Why , you ask, would a twist tie trigger this reaction?   Allow me to provide some context.  In the beginning of the pandemic our screening process for entering work was to get a temperature check and receive our color-coded twist tie for the day to proudly display on our badge, showing we were safe and screened for COVID-19 with the best technology known at the time.  Every day was a new twist tie, and hence we collected dozens (maybe hundreds) before technology evolved and vaccines ensured a new level of safety.  The twist tie was symbolic on so many levels.  It gave us permission to enter the sacred territory of front-line healthcare when many friends were working remotely from home.  It was an emblem representing the family we belonged to for that moment in time when taking care of people with COVID was everything.  It was frivolous (and ridiculous...

Grace Bay Beach When we started growing our family, we always said that we would be the family that traveled with kids.  We would be the kind of parents who incorporated our children into all the things we loved to do, rather than putting our lives on hold to have kids.  We would courageously brave early flights, disrupted nap schedules, and time zone transitions without hesitation.   We agreed that we valued introducing our kids to worldly experiences, different foods and cultures, and teaching them about the awe and wonder of the world.   Ady traveled to about 8 different states before age one (including an upgrade to first class) and used her passport when she was still small enough to travel as a lap infant.  She was the tiniest aficionado when it came to the routine of planes, trains, Uber rides, and even a cruise ship.  Then Meredith was born and the pandemic hit, and along with all of our other great ambitions and plans for our family of fo...

It was a weird year for reading.  (Well, it was a weird year for everything, as a matter of fact.)  There were periods when reading fostered self-care, inward reflection, and a much-needed recharge for me, but there were also times when my mind was so preoccupied with the stress of the pandemic and all the unknowns that I couldn't concentrate on reading a real book, and I found myself having to go back and re-read entire chapters.  I was in a funk for a while when nothing I read was really outstanding, but then I finished the year with a few incredible and heartfelt stories that left me feeling invigorated.  I read more poetry than I ever have before, and I looked for stories told from a different perspective than my own.  Sometimes nonfiction was exactly what I needed to feel grounded, while other times I was looking for an escape, like fantastical realism or a novel set in a completely different place and time.  Historical fiction still seems to be the ge...

Christmas tree in Sayulita, Mexico This Christmas felt different.  In true pandemic fashion, I found myself languishing through much of the regular holiday activities, questioning whether all of my time-consuming, elaborate traditions were really worth the time, and asking myself which activities would truly bring joy to my family and which would just add unnecessary stress or expectation.  This Christmas I thought a lot about my triggers and was keenly aware of the holiday atmosphere I was creating for my children.  I reflected on Christmases past and the moments that were most memorable, and my mantra became being present with my children and laughing off the things that didn't go as planned. This Christmas felt different because we also celebrated Jaycob's 40th birthday with a trip to Sayulita the week before Christmas.  Also in true pandemic fashion, the trip I had envisioned for years did not come to fruition, but instead we found the perfect little gem of a des...

Here we are again, right back to eerily similar circumstances to a year ago when we were mobilizing all resources to manage a winter COVID surge that was so much more devastating than anyone had anticipated.  This past week as we expanded the walls of the COVID unit yet again, cramming two beds into private rooms, counting the crash carts and oxygen tanks and N95s, transferring nurses from the orthopedic unit and ICU to cover the steady flow of COVID admissions, and making plans for allocation of resources under New Mexico's crisis standards of care, the thought on everyone's mind was, "Again?!"  How can we possibly be doing this all over again?  I don’t even know what to say. I don’t think anyone in healthcare right now knows what to say.  We’ve done so many things right with scientific research, controlled studies, developing treatment protocols, practicing collaborative care, rolling out the vaccine (and boosters), securing PPE, slowly opening and encouraging...

Happy last day of August!  Where the heck did summer go?  (Ady has started saying "What the heck?", but she thinks that it is a very naughty word that she is only allowed to say in the car and not at school.  Lol!) When does summer end for you?  Back to school (which was August 16ht for us)?  Labor Day?  Fall Equinox?  More importantly, when do I have to stop wearing my white pants, and when can I get a pumpkin spice latte? Summer babes A few tidbits about life during the past few weeks: 1. The Olympics are usually my favorite event of the summer every four years, but they seemed to get lost in the shuffle a bit this year.  I'm still sort of in disbelief that we actually pulled off a worldwide gathering in the midst of a global pandemic, but it sure was a nice break from the regular depressing news stories and COVID positivity rates.  My family liked watching the gymnastics, swimming, running, and volleyball, and how cool was it to see skateb...