There once was a lady who made plans. Plans for her career, her family, and her life in general. The kids would go to school while she would go to work some days (she worked in a library, a job she looked forward to each week), and she would continue with her studies, and write in the cracks as well. She even bought a book all about making plans and wrote a list of 100 things she would do in 2020.

Then one day, she saw a meme on the internet about beer, and some kind of virus. She had no idea what this all meant, and assumed it was something funny the ‘young people’ were on about.

By the next week, she knew what the meme meant, and that she and the rest of the world were about to experience living through a pandemic. Was this a movie? A TV show?

She could no longer go to work, and her kids could no longer go to school. And that book she bought about setting goals and making plans, she scoffed and hid it under a pile of other books. Ha! What was she thinking making all those plans?

For the next while she stayed home, supervised her kid’s schooling, and made quick trips to the supermarket. She watched TV and ate a lot of snacks. She washed her hands. A lot.

There were some sweet and funny moments, and she grew a deep appreciation for all the schoolteachers that have ever taught her kids. Her littlest son become fascinated with fairy tales and she gave him the book of French fairy tales her grandfather read to her when she was his age.

They went for walks, bike rides, and played a lot of table tennis.

Then one day, she decided to open the book with the lists of goals and plans. What she found was that while many of these did require putting on pants and leaving the house, many didn’t.

#3 Read Cloudstreet

#8 Write 5 poems

#29 Practice the guitar

#30 Submit 6 times to The School Magazine

So, she got on with the list. She wrote a poem about eating almond croissants and sent off a story to The School Magazine. Her guitar practice is going well most weeks, and Cloudstreet has moved to beside her bed.

She still wishes she could go to work, but her kids will be back at school next week, and things are changing day by day.

Hopefully, she will get to do #31 on the list which is to visit her favourite tree in the Sydney Botanical Gardens during Autumn.

She knows it must be changing day by day now too.