Our one and only hike we managed in January 2022, despite having plans to do about a dozen more.
Thirty one days into the new year and we've been through the wringer. At least it's felt that way. The hits have kept on coming. We started the first day of the new year out excellent, with cheap champagne toasts at midnight and sledding with family during a snowstorm. We had one solid, regular work week before things took a turn.
I developed a cold. Actually, symptoms were of a sinus infection, cold, and influenza all put together. I was miserable. Being the proactive person I can be, I immediately tested for Covid and went about life when I tested negative. Then, we learned our entire family had a possible Covid exposure, so we all tested. Again. Immediately after receiving negative results, and still having symptoms myself, we were notified we had a close contact Covid exposure. So, back to testing we went. For those keeping track, this was two plus weeks spent in quarantine due to possible exposures.
But we live in Iowa, where quarantines aren't a thing, so we had to manage as best we could. It basically meant I could run my business, my husband could go to work, but since we aren't assholes, we stayed at home to prevent any spreading we could possibly do. Then, just as we were out of our Covid quarantine bubble, we were hit with the stomach flu. This adventure has lasted just over a week for us and hit every single member of our family, including the dog, plus shut down daycare.
Now, on this last day of January, I'm slowly losing my mind. We have done absolutely nothing with this month other than drinking an insane amount of teas, watching shows that I'd never in a million years usually watch (Virgin River and Emily In Paris tops that list), and have seen zero friends or family. Next weekend will be the first weekend since Christmas I'll get to spend in person with a few of our family members and it's for a funeral.
If I ever find myself homeschooling my children again, I'm revisiting this to remind myself to book a cabin in a faraway place for the entire month of January. That way, at the very least, I can have interesting Instagram pics to look back on and not the same dust covered TV stand I've capture over and over again just to prove I've watched entirely too much TV this month. Through all of this, I've managed to complete dry January, but let's be real. It's likely because I've either been too sick to drink, too stressed to remember to grab a drink, or too zen from all of the tea drinking. Here's a hint, it's not the third option.
All I'm saying for this month is, maturely: January can suck it.