Before the year ends- Recap of my 2020

As 2020 is coming to an end in a few days, its time I rewind this year and talk about things that made me happy and content and some not so happy moments too. So read on. 

2020 started on a very happy note for us. We had been to Delhi for the New Year’s celebration with our friends and had an amazing time partying the night away as we welcomed 2020. Following few days were spent shopping and enjoying the Delhi chills before we headed back to the bay. 

Life was going smoothly in February and March as we were waiting for the school break and making plans for summer holidays. Kids were preparing for their annual day and I attended some events related to work and at home front I was busy managing my family and my sanity.

March announced a national lockdown and we all got stuck at home. While I was happy in the start, thinking my husband would finally get a break from his hectic work schedule and spend more time with us, this happiness was short lived. My husband is from Shipping & Logistic industry and this sector falls under essential service’s, so he had to step out every day and while I expected workload to be less, it was the other way round. With less to no staff in some offices, workload for my husband had mounted and it was early mornings and late-night work again. So practically I had spent the entire lock down alone with kids at home. 

This started affecting me mentally after a month when I got absolutely drained of my energy with all the work and no help at all and yet had to make sure to keep my kids entertained as they too were stuck in a situation with no fault of theirs. Since my kids are too much into art and craft and activities, thankfully I had ample of supply at home to kick start with. But gradually the stock began to deplete and so did their interest. I asked my husband to take a few days off to stay with us as his company would for sure bring a lot of change in our otherwise rigmarole of daily life. My husband understood my plight and took some days off from work. With him around the kids got more time to spend with their dad and as a couple we enjoyed some good time watching Netflix and chilling. In this time of lockdown, Netflix and late-night Maggie had become our mode of entertainment.

I also decided to get back to my blogging seriously. While I had started my blog in 2018, I was not regular with my writing. From May onwards I started discussing topics to write about with my husband, friends and cousins and took a dive again to write some serious content. While writing was going well, I had to do more for my blog to grow.  Thankfully some good opportunities did knock my door and I grabbed them with both hands. I was invited to be a part of parenting podcast and I recorded a total of 4 episodes, 2 in group discussion and 2 solo where I spoke on topics like helicopter parenting, mindful parenting and how to keep kids physically fit and active in the time of lockdown. I also managed to get 2 interviews for my blog where I interviewed an experienced and vintage blogger “Rahul Prabhakar” (Read here) and also an author “Nemat Sadat” whose book I read at the start of 2020 and loved it immensely. This interview is yet to come up on my blog, but you can read the review of the book here. My kids also got to model for Nykaa Fashion which led to more such opportunities. The cherry on top was when my Instagram page was also featured by a Media Agency as the top 10 most promising Micro and Macro Mom bloggers.

I also participated in a lot of blog hops as my aim now was to make my blog a bit more known and to be a part of active bloggers. This was very helpful for me as my blog DA increased and through blog hops, I came to know about many opportunities in the blogging. Like in October I came to know about Blogchatter and their “My Friend Alexa” campaign which aimed at increasing your Alexa ranking and the foot fall on your blog. I pounced on the opportunity and got writing. I hit the highest blogs written in October with a total of 9 blogs written in a month. 8 were a part of “My Friend Alexa” (Read all the blogs here) where I spoke about some interesting facts about my passion- Books.

I also got back my lost friendship with had fallen flat due to ego issues. I couldn’t continue like this and though it’s time I go ahead and rekindle the friendship which was as old as 23 years. With both of us missing each other, a single phone call made everything right and we started off from where we last left.

But end of October saw a loss of my Mother in Law who had been suffering for a long time now due to her kidney failures and dialysis. After braving her illness for 6 long years, she finally succumbed to it. She left us with some fond memories which we shared specially in this lockdown when, after unlock phase 1, we had started staying with her on weekend’s so she gets to be with kids. We celebrated birthday’s of each and every family member with her by our side. We sang, we danced and made memories. While the loss was grave for the family, we found happiness in the fact that she finally was at peace after a long struggle. 

The loss and the following month saw a drop in my blogging activity since we had to move houses to stay with my younger brother in law who was now alone. The time was tough as husband got busy with work despite being emotionally down and I was shifting houses all alone. 

The one thing that lifts my husbands’ spirit apart from family is his time with his friend in Delhi so I planned a trip for again to Delhi to end the year on a cheerful note. So here I am, all packed and ready to board the flight in next 6 hours and yet writing this blog before I see you all again in 2021. 

Wish you all a Happy New Year with a hope of better 2021 and an end to the pandemic.