2021 Year in Review

2021 was certainly not the year we hoped it would be.   I think the whole world can agree on that.  

First up are the pictures of the kids from the beginning and end of 2021.

Reading, Watching and Thinking

• We read Harry Potter 2-7 with D between the end of the school year (1st grade) and Halloween night, when we worried D would get a spoiler from friends.   Over the summer we had quite a few successful car naps for Dd while one of us read Harry Potter aloud.  Everyone was happy.
• Together, Jack and I read Piranesi and reread Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke.   We also enjoyed the fifth Cormoran Strike book (which is actually by JK Rowling).   It seems that nearly every good book is made in to a show these days, and we got to watch adaptations of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell and the Cormoran Strike series.
• Sometime in the middle of the year Dd's insistence on reading truck books eased up and we got to diversify a bit.   In December he liked reading (reciting) Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes to us and was just getting in to his first Magic School Bus book.
• In October my book club of lovely people restarted.   Instead of hosting in our homes we met at restaurants with outdoor dining.   I particularly like Pachinko, a historical fiction book set in Korea.
• After fourteen months of steady progress on my Kindle I finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes, from the Outlander series.   I really like this series, but these books are quite long and I read many other books simultaneously based on many priorities.   It's funny that I read it a pace that was almost real time for the characters.
• D read dozens of Warrior Cat books, some Spirit Animals, Spy School and Wings of Fire among other things.
• This makes us sound like extremists, but D watched his first movie in a theatre in December.  It was Godzilla vs. Kong for a birthday party.   We never got around to it before the pandemic.   Dd saw his first movie (at home), which was Moana, and he's been singing it ever since.
• We have a google home smart speaker in the kitchen, which we use for music.... on repeat.
• I'm not sure this really fits in but the most annoying task of the year, at least for me, was switching off of Verizon to a cheaper carrier.   Last winter we switched to an MVNO reseller which was about 1/6th the price of Verizon.   We always put our phones on airplane mode at night and that contributed to us both having bizarre problems with group texts, photo texts and notifications for things that happened while our phones were on airplane mode.  I got a new phone (technically Christmas 2020) and the issues followed me on to the new phone, which defies logic.   We talked to a ton of customer service people, factory reset my new phone and put in an annoying amount of time.   In the end we switched to Google Fi, which works and costs more than the MVNO but still way less than Verizon.   
• D got to be a fun competitor in many board games.  Just ask his grandparents.  Popular games this year were Citadels, Monopoly and Ticket to Ride.  We started playing a little chess at the end of the year.

School, Work and Learning

• D finished out first grade with a return to in person school in early April.   Even though this only meant in person time from 8 - 10:45 four days a week, it was a big improvement over not leaving the house.  He had a couple of virtual classes in the afternoon, including PE, art and music.  In his 1-2 split class of about 18 kids, only 4 other kids opted for in-person school.   I think this was more about logistics than fear.   With both of us working from home one-mile from his school, pickup was still on the heels of drop off.   Second grade had a good start and with all of the disruptions of covid, we feel grateful for his teacher and school.
• Dd moved up to preschool at the beginning of the school year.  Aside from a closure after Thanksgiving due to the very first case of covid in the daycare, he attended regularly, unlike 2020.   As noted in covid lifestyle update he has brought home a ton of colds in the first half of the year, but none of note in the second half.
• In the summer Jack started going in to his office 1-2 times a week.   We suspended that few times based on case counts.
• We both stayed at our jobs.   2022 holds some exciting changes for us both - more on that in another post.
• D started online piano lessons in November.  I'm really excited about it and for now the online format works really well for us.  
• Jack and I psyched ourselves up to spend a few Saturday evenings studying (math on Coursera for me and a new kind of modeling software for him).   It was probably about 4 hours total, but it's more than nothing.
• After frustration with a the backlog at a local bike shop, Jack learned how to replace the spokes on his bike wheel by himself.   He used a sturdier gage so they shouldn't break as often.
• D went to six weeks of day camp, including a fun Harry Potter art camp and one in the Arboretum that had a two week long session with the same kids, as a covid precaution.  

Travel

Again we stayed (99.9%) in the state of Washington.   This was a result of time and pandemic constraints, but now it's also a point of pride that we didn't despoil the planet much this year.   

This year also brought an unusual number of trips consisting of various subsets of our family.

We've done our fair share of camping with little kids, but this year kind of broke us.   We cut short a two night camping trip with friends in June after sleeping only from midnight to 4:30 am.   Some kids sleep okay while camping, but Dd is not one of them.   I think we have finally learned our lesson about avoiding camping near the summer solstice for at least a couple years.   Then in July, we bailed on our reservation at Lake Wenatchee state park and booked a hotel in Leavenworth after I looked at the temperature and the reports of mosquito activity and contemplated our trip from June.  I immediately moved from dread to anticipation and rather then spending hours and hours packing and arriving at dinner time, we were enjoying a hike by 1 pm on the first day of the trip and then showering and eating at a restaurant.

• Packwood AirBnb and White Pass snowboarding (January) - Dd had a cold and so only Jack and D went.

• Sequim (February) - We dug our car out of the snow and headed out. - Snow and Sequim
• Shelton overnight (May) We had a great bike ride with our friends and camped in GG's yard, for what turned out to be one of our last visits there. - Memorial Day weekend
• La Push and Lake Quinault (June) - Jack and I went away for a week without the kids! - 10th anniversary trip
• Middle Fork (Snoqualmie River) Campground (June) - solstice camping, as mentioned
• Leavenworth (July) - the hotel hit the spot

• AirBnb on a lake in Lynnwood (August) - My parents and sister and the kids and I played at a lake while Jack played baseball. - 38th birthday
• AirBnB on Camano Island (September) - Camano with bikes
• Dosewallips State Park Yurt (October) - Dd turns 3
• One night in Ridgefield (SW Washington) at my cousin's farm.  We did dart across the state border to an NBA game in Portland!

• Motel in Ashford, by Mt. Rainier (December) - Again, we left home in heavy snow.   We snowshoed a bit and caught up with our friends since all the kids had been away from school (and hopefully covid) for a while.

Home

At first I thought we hadn't done many projects, but after listing them out I feel a sense of accomplishment.  2021 house projects

Buying stuff isn't the same as a project, I know but it can be quite satisfying.   My two favorite home related purchases of the year were our massive fruit bowls and our awesome Dyson vacuum.  The off-brand vacuum we bought a year ago is literally only fit to be a child's toy (Dd is in luck).  I also broke out my new sewing machine and made some Christmas bags with it and found the perfect storage spot for it on the stair shelf.

In our home we also have two furry captives who often hang out on our bed.   We finally have established a habit or pulling up this pretty cover over the bed during the day so that it is fur free when we take our turn in bed at night.  

Health

D and I spent the spring coughing, which wasn't fun and made pandemic life tough.  He actually got a doctors note saying he'd been cleared of covid for this ongoing cough in order to attend school.  I had a series of health scares that I think I'll write about another time.  

Jack and I were vaccinated as soon as possible in April and boosted around Thanksgiving.   D was vaccinated in November as well.

Friends and Family

• Jack's grandma moved out of her house and in to an easier house in early December.
• My parents bought a new boat in August and gave it the same name as the previous two boats.
• Other family members had various surgeries and bumps and falls, but everyone got through them okay.
• It now feels totally normal to have fully outdoor gatherings with most friends and family.
• My parents started babysitting once a week again after they were vaccinated in the late winter of 2021.   Jack's mom and stepdad also babysat often on weekends or when we were double booked.  
• Babies born to architect classmates: Cygnet to D&C (New York), Elwood to M&N (Michigan), Emery to L+1 (New York)
• Babies with non-architect parents (younger siblings to D's peers): Nolan to K&C (Germany), Eloise to M&V (Seattle), Jack to R&J (Seattle)
• We sent out Christmas cards for the first time, using this family picture.

Recreation and Sports

• Jack got to play baseball again.   He played on two teams which sounds tough (for me) but really did translate to more flexibility about missing some games to make family plans.
• D played coach-pitch baseball (with Jack as coach) in the spring and soccer in the fall, with two practices a week.  The practices and most of the games were walkable, so that was nice.  
• I swam laps some and taught D to swim.   https://aglie.blogspot.com/2021/08/d-can-swim.html   In the fall my parents or I took Dd swimming most weeks, which is still just getting him used to putting his face in the water.   He said things like "I live in this pool" and "I want to stay here forever."
• I raced (sailing) on my parents boat a couple of times in June.

Food

We ate less dairy on the whole this year.  Cashew yogurt is pretty good, it turns out.  Another favorite new food was the Keto nut granola (grain free) from Costco.      

In September we started getting a weekly delivery from Thistle, which makes delicious salads.   It's been nice to have a quick healthy lunch option.  They're even vegetarian, which feels good too.

We've tried so many meal kits in the last six years and watched many of them fold.   This year we loved Homegrown (from the local sandwich shop) and gave Gobble a try.    We hardly go to restaurants these days and I actually prefer the meal kits two take out, with the exception of picking up a PCC pizza.

Imperfect Foods has been a reliable grocery (mostly produce) source for us for over two years now.

We tried both Beyond Beef and Impossible Burgers (meatless meat) and now they are in light rotation.

Climate Conscience 

This needs to be on everyone's list nowadays.   In the fall I started reading (and finished, in early 2022) a book called Under the Sky We Make which was really powerful.    We have work to do in 2022, but the changes we made in 2021 were:

• getting a dedicated laundry drying rack for the roof and air drying much more often up there in the summer.   We've always had drying lines and a rack in the basement but we don't attempt to dry towels and sheets down there.   Solar and wind power make it a breeze :)
• using wool dryer balls after I read that they help efficiency.  They also prevent bottom sheets from tying themselves in soggy knots.  
• starting to use the setting that stops the dryer automatically when it detects that clothes are dry.  In five years I'd never noticed that our inexpensive dryer was that smart.   Now we've stopped habitually over-drying loads.
• doing a better job recycling a few things:
• my sister pointed me to a site called Terracyle where you can recycle directly with manufacturer and find recycling programs.   We started saving our daily wear contact packaging for special recycling.   They are too small for municipal recycling to deal with them. https://www.terracycle.com
• we used the Seattle Public Utilities special collection service to recycle Styrofoam and a few other things from the basement