Can you believe we're officially halfway through 2020?
What a year it has been.
Most of my energy's been focused on keeping Ethan (now almost 10 months old!) healthy, happy, and alive. All the plans I had for our business baby has taken a backseat, and to be honest, a lot of it has just disappeared. I won't bore you with the details of how covid-19 has affected our very small business, but we have definitely needed to shift gears around here.
I'm learning that it's ok to have things up in the air. I'm learning to see beauty in the broken, and learning to look for the good things.
Here are some positive things that have happened to us the past six months:
Ethan's gotten to spend more time with his grandparents + his dad. My parents officially (as of today) shut down their business early due to covid-19. They worked hard + selflessly at their little convenience store for 17 years, and now are moving on to a new chapter. My dad got his first ever "salaried job" as a transit driver a few months ago (praise Jesus) + mama is planning to help watch Ethan for the time being. Jisu's been working from home, so during his mini breaks and in the mornings, he's been able to bond more with the little one. I'm really thankful that all of us have been able to watch him grow.
We have really been able to have meaningful, open conversations about race and equity. There has been a lot of unlearning going on + we are continuing to keep our eyes/ears/hearts open. We were able to donate proceeds from last month to Reclaim the Block, Know Your Rights Camp, + Minnesota Teen Activists. We are finding ways to become better allies, and figuring out how to best support our Black communities.
We have obviously been working less, but in turn, I've been able to focus on motherhood. I knew I'd never get this time back with Ethan -- but when he slept/ate/played, I couldn't help but think up business plans and then end up feeling major mom guilt. I've started to become more intentional about being a mother now (I think) -- I am more focused on him when I get to spend time with him, and then when I get to catch a break (like now, while my mama's cuddling with Ethan), I get to blog (which was a goal for this year -- blog twice a week...ha. how naive was I?)
Despite having less work to do, we've actually gotten to do a lot of meaningful work. Got to work with a couple of my favorite brands + have also gotten to provide free design work for small brands.
I know there are more things, but I actually can't remember because 1) I stopped using a planner, since all of Jan-June, it would have said "feed ethan, play with ethan, keep ethan alive" on it everyday. 2) mom brain is real, because i basically do not sleep/eat like a normal human being. But good news, I will be better at remembering because I bought my planner + it starts in August.
We are prepping new products to come for the fall + have been working hard to make work easier -- not sure what everything will look like later, but I'm ok with that. I just wanted to hop on real quick to say hello + thank you. I hope everyone is staying safe + healthy. Wear a mask when you can (protect yourself + everyone else around you!), and remember to keep fighting for justice.
We'll be doing a moving sale soon since we're moving into our home in a couple months -- we'll be doing grab bags of all the things, so stay tuned!