dry bean soup starter

one year ago today, we started spring break. everything was so uncertain in the world. the ncaa tournaments had been cancelled. being a sports family we know sports stop for nothing. so this really shook us. we knew this was more than just a two week inconvenience. we had a feeling this was more than we could really understand. we had a strong feeling we were in this for the long haul. but it was so hard to comprehend what that would be. a month. three months. a year. any of those options sounded outrageous at the time. 

that friday, headed out to get some things. "some things" this makes me laugh looking back. as someone who likes to be stocked up and prepared by nature i just wanted to have the things we needed on hand so i could relax and enjoy my spring break. 

however, my shopping trip quickly felt silly and panicky all at once. shelves were empty. things were hard to find. i went to sams and target. i stumbled upon a whole lot of toilet paper and bought quite a bit. first because there are a lot of girls in our home and we take a lot of TP! and also because i had heard people were having trouble finding toilet paper and i hoped we could help out if needed.

admittedly, i had no idea what would be really helpful to have on hand. 

i grabbed this bag of dry bean soup starter. 

we never used it. 

and i am not sure what that means. 

i don't know if we ever will.

it is hard to believe it has been a whole year. 

this year was hard and frustrating and overwhelming and hard to predict and a bit scary with all the unknowns. 

it felt like we were walking in the wilderness at times. 

but God was always with us. 

this year was also full of good. 

maybe not was what would have planned ourselves. but it was good indeed. 

this year was slow. full of new and different. and not all of the different was bad...some was surprisingly really really good. 

it was full of home. which is my absolute favorite. 

it was full of love and grace and hope. 

the time with my children is a gift i never could have imagined and am so deeply thankful for. 

we are changed people. things have changed. we have grown. is so many ways. i hope we never forget the lessons we learned this year. we have done things we never imagined. we have survived and even thrived. 

one year later, we have two fully vaccinated adults in our home. our families are getting vaccinated. life is feeling so much different. 

so full of hope. 

we made it. if this year has shown us anything. it has shown us we can do hard things. 

we did hard things. 

we will keep doing hard things.