At the start of the pandemic, our youngest had just turned 3 and our oldest was 5 and would be graduating from kindergarten in a few short (or long) months. With a lot more time together at home, we soon started playing games at the end of the day to simply have fun, but an added benefit was that it helped alleviate mine and my husband's mounting stress. Laughter is a great stress reliever, so in my opinion - the more you can laugh as a family the better!

Some of the first games we played early on were Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, but in my opinion Candy Land gets old pretty quick and my youngest didn't always seem to have the attention span for Chutes and Ladders. Still, they're both great games for this age. After all these months, we still play games together regularly and we're often trying new games as the boys grow and develop, but the ones listed below are family favorites.

Yesterday I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Hooray! It's a milestone.

If you’ve followed me along over the past year, you will know our family was devastated at the start of the new year when we contracted Covid from the pod teacher in the very first week. To make matters worse, we were the only family out of five families who contracted it. I still have nothing nice to say about that teacher. Although 2021 started off with a punch in the gut, I swear the mental load, anxiety, and stress of knowing we had Covid and having contracted it under such unfortunate circumstances was all worse than the actual symptoms. Thankfully the boys were 100% asymptomatic and we were fortunate to receive the antibodies infusion early on, although we'll never really know how it may have benefited us.

Back to that vaccine... Hallelujah! Ed received his second Pfizer shot last Friday and I received my second yesterday. I'm hoping the availability of vaccines for adults and children 12-15 which was just approved this week, will help all of us get back on track to something more familiar, more desirable. Fingers crossed.

For anyone hesitant about getting the vaccine, I can tell you my husband and I had ZERO side effects to both Pfizer vaccine doses. On the day of our shots, we each took Tylenol before bed as a precaution, but never developed any symptoms aside from minor soreness at the injection site. (Caution: Per CDC guidelines, you should not take OTC medications before your injection.)

​Fourteen months into this pandemic and I can say firsthand that Covid was mentally and emotionally A LOT worse than receiving the Covid vaccine.

Sincere gratitude to the scientists and researchers who have spent countless hours on developing these vaccines. Vaccines save lives! Thank you to all of the medical professionals who have given of themselves beyond measure during this truly devastating time.