Much Needed Vacation

Starting back at the beginning. When it was first announced that we would be under Quarantine it was only going to be for a couple of weeks and then we would return to our normal lives. With this information I immediately felt some relief from all the stress that had built up slowly over the past few years. To back up a bit, four years ago I decided to get a job at the Elementary school where my youngest attended at the time. After accepting that my kids were growing up way too fast and now they were full time in school I decided I too would get myself a full time job. I wanted something that would bring in some extra income but also would allow me to have enough of a flexible schedule that I could still be around for my children. It wasn't long after starting my full time job that I realized what an adjustment it would be. I find it so crazy that I will be going on year 4 working full time and I am still adjusting. Being a stay at home Mom for 12 years and then entering the workforce was way harder than I imagined. Don’t get me wrong I love my job and the kids I get to work with. I also love my co-workers but my reality was less than perfect. With that said, I was running on low for way too long. The idea of being able to have a few weeks off of work sounded refreshing and  for a brief moment I felt relaxed and happy. But only for a brief moment. The very next day we received news that by Governor Bakers orders we would remain in Quarantine until April 7th. All of a sudden I felt trapped. My anxiety began to rise in a way I hadn't felt in a while. My chest began to tighten, breathing became cumbersome. The walls seemed to begin closing in all around me. From that day on it was all down hill. I didn't even get a week of relaxing. Determined to make the most of it I did what I know best, make a list. A list of ideas on what we could do. Try to embrace things and accept them for what they were. The first thing I decided to fill my time with was exploring my hand at sketching. Art has always been something special to me but I had never really done much myself regarding drawing and painting. It was a fairly new experience and surprisingly I found that I had a hidden talent for it. I spent two weeks sketching, painting and dragging my kids into it with me. I followed a favorite author Jarrett Krosoczka on his daily Youtube drawing videos with my children. It was fun to explore this new talent and to see what I could do. It became annoying to my family and to go along with my high spirited personality I quickly became bored and obviously needed to move on to the next project. That's for another post though. Enjoy some of my art work and some that we created as a family. It definitely helped distract me for a short period of time.