leaning into the sweet

He asked me to trim his sides. A couple swipes with the clippers I realized I forgot to put the guard on and instead of a trim, I was buzzing his sides. Under different circumstances I would have felt terrible. Under quarantine – I couldn’t stop laughing in my shock. He laughed too.

Yesterday one of my kids needed an essential medical procedure. The night before I stayed up late making us masks since we’d be leaving the house. I’ve never worn a facial mask. Yesterday was a first. Everything about the appointment was surreal and somber. Smiles and welcoming greetings were covered by masks and an acute awareness of every interaction.

We’ve been sheltering in place for about 24 days now. I’ve been journaling daily and keeping a private instagram where I collect photos and captions from each day to print as books for my kids. A lot of processing. A lot of normal. A lot of surreal.

I’ve tried writing a post about the last few weeks, but for now I am going to keep my words and thoughts in the hidden pages of my journal and private captions. I miss recording life here though. This blog is still one of my favorite places to look back at life and remember, so for now I am simply going to share some pictures from the last few weeks.

The pictures won’t seem all that different because our day to day life doesn’t look all that much different – for a homeschooling, work-from-home family. Life is, however, very different in a million ways.

And that is where we are – laughing at bad haircuts while also healing from medical procedures in the midst of a pandemic. We are painting murals while our hearts are ever aware of and broken for the suffering and pain in our community. We are finding sweet moments to lean into in the midst of the bitter ones.