Hi Honeybee Fam! It’s been a minute since I’ve posted a Let’s Talk post so I’m excited to chat about all kinds of randomness that’s been on my mind today. While I love sharing all the shopping, fashion and lifestyle inspo posts here, it feels good to share some random thoughts and connect with you girls! These posts are meant to be a place where we can all chime in and connect more with whatever random topics we have here as I always love hearing what you all have been experiencing too!
Back to School! (praise be!)
Let’s just kick off the first topic with the best thing to come of 2021… that the kids are back in school! Let me say it again because it felt good…the kids are back in school! If you have kids, are they back to school yet? How are you feeling about it (I’m sure most of us are ecstatic!)? Our kids had their first day of full school last week. Which is bananas if you think about it since they only about 4 more weeks left in the school year…. but i’ll take it at this point! I think we can all agree this past year of navigating the “new norm” had some truly frustrating moments. Ava and Luca were home everyday at 10:30 and with sports being cancelled, it was challenging trying to keep things “normal” for them. I kept reminding myself how lucky the hubby and I are that we both work from home and have some great neighboring families that kept the kids spirits up through this past year. I am truly grateful for that! A few months ago the sports came back and I can’t tell you how good it feels to feel somewhat normal’ish again.
This last year has definitely been a gentle reminder to all appreciate the simplest things we took for granted before and I have to say that I am SO proud of Ava and Luca. They really have been such troopers this year learning to adapt and roll with whatever changes came their way (and trust me, that felt constant). I’m especially proud of Luca and how he’s handled it all since he is so little. In the beginning, it was really difficult for him to comprehend what was happening and why. It was challenging trying to explain to 5 year old all the changes and new rules he needed to follow. I think he’s had about 5 different teachers at school this year (lawwwwrd) but he just really has been a champ and I’m so so proud of him.
Are We Ready to Travel Again?!
After 365+ days without traveling I finally got back on a plane recently. I will say the flying and being in the airport wasn’t the part that I was particularly anxious about. It was more about the activities with the large groups once we arrived that made me a bit anxious. If you follow along on instagram you girls saw that I went to Tennessee last week for my best friends wedding. I knew this trip was coming for over a year and also knew there would be over 130+ people there. After A LOT of back and forth… I finally decided to get the vaccine. Now this is not a plug to “influence” anyone to get the vaccine or to not get the vaccine (It’s a personal choice that everyone has to make for themselves). I contemplated it for months (because it is so new) and ultimately decided to get it. I knew I would be traveling and with a very large group for several days so I felt like it was the responsible thing to do for me and my family.
A lot of you had questions when I shared on stories a couple weeks ago about which one I got and if I had any side effects. I got the Pfizer vaccine. The first shot I had no reaction (just a sore arm) and then the second on I felt a little achy and tired about 24 hours and that was pretty much it. If you have other questions feel free to drop them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.
We are looking into a couple trips this Summer but haven’t officially booked anything yet. I want to do a full blog post on our Tahoe and Yosemite trip we did last year if you’re feeling more a road trip because it was awwwesome! Are you girls ready to travel and have anything booked??? Would love to hear if you do!
Navigating Family
Lastly, I usually like to mix up the topics for these posts and keep it lighter (and will do for the next one) but another thing that has been a challenge this year was is navigating family and everyones comfortability level. In the beginning especially, I remember my mom being really frustrated with friends and family in her life that didn’t feel comfortable with getting together. I kept reminding her that everyones level of comfortability is all over the map and you just have to learn to respect that.
It has been really frustrating (in my family personally) as I feel like I’ve missed out on a full year of seeing some of our family members because they just didn’t feel comfortable meeting up (even in backyard settings). I’m so bummed we missed out on this year together but ultimately they’re entitled to feel how they feel and I’m doing my best to try to remind myself of that. Have you all experienced this too? Would love to hear how you’ve been navigating this.
Okay, thanks for listening to me vent and apologies again as I didn’t intend for these all to be pandemic related topics today. They’ve just been on my mind lately and feel free to drop topics below too that you would love to hear about in the new Let’s Talk post!
I think navigating the past year has been super hard for most people. My comfort level with seeing people has been little to none, mainly because both my fiance and I are at high risk due to health issues. It has been very hard for us to miss out, but at the same time, we wanted to be safe. I have known a couple of people who passed away from Covid and also have several young, healthy friends who are dealing with long-term side effects from getting it. That scares me to death, honestly.
It has also been hard to feel like we have been “left behind” by so many people that we know who thought we were being “too careful”, and they have continued to get together throughout the last year. There are some people, friends and family, that we haven’t seen in over a year and that has been so hard, but at the same time, the risks just felt too high.
I am still not sure how to navigate this new world yet.
Thank you for sharing this Tracy! You truly have to do what feels right for you and that just breaks my heart to hear you feeling left behind.;(
Sending love your way and hopefully things will start looking up soon! xo
Hi Andee, always love reading your “real life” posts. We were very fortunate to have our extended family want to get together a lot during the pandemic so it felt kinda normal for our boys. Plus, our boys are homebodies, I’m not the one that constantly needed to be social and go out! Lol I’m super thankful that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m vaccinated and excited to travel a lot during this year! Keep up the great posts:)
Thanks A! and so glad you that you guys got to be close with your fam this past year. I feel like is rare.
and yessss feeling so much better seeing some light with all the progress we’ve made! xo
I am so fortunate that my mom is close and although we went a couple months without seeing each other we all started to feel more comfortable. For the most part my family and friends have all been pretty normal. Other than more backyard events for us and no travel my hubby and I said we made it through on a personal level pretty normal. Business was a totally different story but hey, everything can’t be perfect, right 🙂 Thank you for sharing and making us feel normal to have the same questions/issues.
thank you for sharing too! Always love hearing how you girls are navigating everything as well! We’re still waiting to see my in laws ;(( They’re afraid to travel still.