Setting the stage… this is our life.

We are just a family like you. We have gone through every emotion you have inside COVID-19; struggling with accepting the new normal, desperately wanting more connection, and trying so hard to do the right thing even though the right thing felt wrong. But we did it

We are also business owners. My husband and I are owner operators of an exterior home remodeling company. We aren’t hobbyists. Our business is a multi million dollar business and our work and efforts support not just our family, but our office manager, all of our install teams and our supply chains. We have felt tremendous pressure since March to keep things moving. We needed to find a way to restructure how work gets done, where we find new business, how we draw the line between who does what, and how to change our advertising so it was relevant. But we did it.

We are also parents. We have a daughter moving into 3rd grade who struggled with distance learning in a surprising, and all encompassing way. The force of her will… her desire to resist 100% of the items asked of her wore me out. We weren’t a “school is finished by noon and then we play” sort of family. We were a “keep trying all day to get something done or at the very least stop interrupting your mother because she is trying to stabilize the business” sort of family. It was absolutely brutal and we hated it. We cried every single day but we got through it. Barely.

June 2nd was the finish line. The last day of school. Our chance to drive by the school and drop off materials. We said goodbye to her teacher and breathed that deep breath of relief that comes from knowing the battle is over. Then we dropped off some kindness with a friend and went home for dinner and a guilt free night of TV. We were positive that the coming week would be better.

But at bedtime we got the call that lightening struck my mother in law’s condo. My husband reported there were 10 firetrucks on site, behind every window was a swirl of black smoke and he asked us prepare the guest bedroom. Just after 11 they arrived in a puff of fire smoke and carrying 5 boxes of food from the burnt out freezer. And just like that we had a new roommate.