To my little ones,

You will look back at this time in your life forever. And I hope you remember these smiles above it all.

As much as we tried to protect you from everything around us, we were also honest.

You understood there was a virus that spread across the world. People became very sick, and some went to heaven much too soon. You understood that our way to help it from spreading was to stay home. Stay home from school. From your friends. From hockey and baseball.

Dad and I didn’t have offices to go to. We didn’t have Wild games to cheer on. And you went weeks without getting into our cars.

But in all of this, we kept you close.

We cooked dinner every night, as a family. And you thanked God that Dad was around to help because you knew as much as I tried, I didn’t love cooking.

I dragged you on walks with Lucy every day. And while you didn’t want to go, you were always glad you did because we had extra time together. You told me what you were worried about. And we laughed a lot.

You learned how to play Yahtzee. And as hard as you tried, you could never beat me in Super Mario Bros.

You and your brother had sleepovers in each other’s rooms every night. And while you still had your moments of fighting, you became closer. It started because you had no one else around, but you learned to appreciate each other. And you did everything together.

We made sure to move our bodies every day. Dad had a workout for you every day, and this was your special time, just the boys. You walked the treadmill and shot pucks while you talked about your favorite NHL players. I even got Dad to do yoga with me!

You found yourself bored a lot. But you picked up Legos again. You painted on canvases and organized your bedrooms. You helped with chores and maintained friendships from screens on your iPad.

You complained a lot, but Dad and I understood. We wanted to complain too, but we tried to stay strong. We told you every day that we were in this together. And we tried to laugh as much as we could.

I hope you remember days like this day above all. Here when we laughed in the workout room doing floor sits. I was doing the countdown while you both screamed and giggled.

I hope you remember that nothing mattered when we were all together. And that above all things, your love got us through.

To the moon and back,
mom