My 2020 Yearly Recap

2020 has proven to be an "interesting" year.  It was the year we had a pandemic 😲 (hopefully, the only pandemic I will see in my lifetime!🤞🍀).  As scary as the pandemic was (it had killed, at the time of this writing, nearly 344K people have died and sickened 19.9M people in the U.S. alone), there were up-sides of the pandemic.  "What?!", you cry! "How could you say that?!  You just told me that 19.9M people have gotten sick from the pandemic and 344K people have actually died!"  While the U.S. death toll and how it had handled the pandemic was abysmal (at best), really, there were up-sides - like:

• It forced a lot of companies to rethink how we should be doing business.  This meant that a lot of people who worked in offices were "suddenly" allowed to telework (a concept that in many businesses here where I live was only a pipe dream for many).  For me, that meant that I was actually able to telework full-time (also once was just a pipe dream for me) for the year.  Hubs was also able to (mainly) telework full-time.  It was quite an adjustment for him (and really for the both of us) but, after a month or so, we had our rhythm down.  Now, I'm actually dreading the day we will need to return back to the office! 😭 

• While many people were out of work, it forced many others to evaluate their lifestyle, find what was really important to them and their families, and showed how we could be together when we couldn't.  For my family and I, we were very fortunate: Everyone was able to keep their jobs and for the most part, our lives went on as normal (well, as normal as one could be during a pandemic).  For some in my family, when the pandemic forced us to stay at home all the time, it drove them stir crazy; for others in my family, well, they just continued on with their lives as if there was no pandemic and just went out as they pleased.  Personally, this time showed me that I was born to stay at home all the time (and really relished being at home all the time); it showed me that keeping in touch with my family and friends was something I didn't quite do when I could see them whenever I pleased and that while not being able to physically see them was not ideal, it also meant that I actually communicated more frequently with them than I used to.  Also, it showed me that the way we lived our lives, we would've been able to survive any fall out should we have lost of our jobs, needed to economize/downsize, etc. And, most importantly, it gave me a taste in what it would be like when I retired (I was able to have many l-o-n-g weekends) and now, I really can't wait to be retired (unfortunately, that is my other pipe dream right now)! 😉😁

• On that note, since we rarely went out (and there was no longer any commuting time), that meant I had a lot more knitting time this year! 😉😁😍 🙌 🎉  So, here's my accomplishments for the year:

• Made Hubs nine (9!) pairs of socks! 😍 🙌 🎉
• Made myself three (3) pairs of socks and fixed an old pair of socks.
• Made a few toys for all of my little ones.
• Upgraded a baby blanket.
• Made a cozy for my Shirka.
• Made two (2) sweaters! 😍 🙌 🎉
• Made a Bento Bag.
• Fix the collar of my Kanpeki na Ume
• Yarn bombed Maryann
• Helped to improve my Hub's cpap headgear.
• Made "snowballs" and "fixed" a tail.
• I was also able to:
• Experiment a little and made a pair of zori for us.
• Knitted in "public".
• Enjoyed all of my knitting accessories that I purchased during the pandemic.
• Blogged significantly more than I have in previous years! 🙌 🎉 (Including noting what I have been grateful for this year.)

• And, while I was able to use some of my stash this year, I also was finally able to get around to:

• Started fixing my yoked sweater (so I can actually wear it!) 🤦

• Here's my new year's resolution for 2021:

• Finish fixing my yoked sweater (the sleeves are taking forever! 😭 🤦)
• (As always), Use more stash!  My goals is to get down to 1 (not overly stuffed) sock yarn box (getting there), 1 polyester box (I need easy to care for yarn for my little ones to have fun stuff to play with and be able to destroy) (almost there), 1 sweater yarn box (need to work on this), and 1 "other"/leftover yarn box (almost there).
• Looks like there will be more sweaters in my near future, especially since I bought so many new knitting books (& sweater patterns!) this year!😉😁 🙌 🎉
• Make Hot Air Balloons! 😁 🙌 🎉

I wonder what the new year will bring ... Hopefully, the pandemic will "end", we'll have a vaccine (that works! and will keep us safe from COVID) and we will finally be able to "go back to" our (new) normal lives and at the very least, be able to safely physically see our friends and family again.🤞🍀