Draw Feb 9, winner: Nels.

This week our challenge comes from Elise Gravel via twitter: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKtivcOncCe/

Did anything positive happen to you since the beginning of the pandemic? Tell us about something nice that you’ve learned, developed, gained, found out, worked on, discovered, or just came to your life.

• Post your entry on Facebook, Slack, or email your entry to francesca.defreitas@gmail.com.
• Please include your name.
• Your entry will be posted here for everyone to enjoy.

Entries this week

1. Alix Dem: More time with my family! At the beginning of 2020, adri and myself wished for more time with our sons and more music in our home.. at the time we were more envisioning taking some weeks off and travel with our tents and our guitares but... last spring was somehow magical, lots of sun and time... adri was working every morning and I was working every afternoon, so we had half a day every day with our little ones for three months! Their bonding became incredible and we got to see them grow... and I will be forever grateful for that time. Same things happen during the summer, instead of going to France (although very sad to cancel), we discovered amazing places in BC and have now amazing memories of adventures just the 4 of us. So even if we miss so many things about our life before covid, our dear friends and all, even if we were super tired when we had to work double shifts at nighttime... we got to experience Time with no watch, no schedule, just us.
2. Eve Gagnon Dolf: 1) I love Elise Gravel 2) More quality, restful time with my family. There were not pressure nor expectations during the winter break holidays as we could not travel and I felt replenished after the holidays. We spent the whole time together; it was the best!
3. Steve Venegas: I got more tattoos
4. Marlene Yuen: 1) Spending time with family. Normally, Ted only sees Ada for a couple of hours in the morning and then an hour after work. This is probably the most time he has spent with her since she was born. 2) Making time to read. Ada struggled reading last year, but since the pandemic, I've been buying loads of age appropriate books (hence need for a taller Billy shelf). She can now read on her own and enjoys it. 3) Gardening. We generally neglected our community garden plot and I was so close to quitting last year, but we made the time to care for our plot and we grew kale, leeks and beautiful dahlias. 4) I learned how to make ginger beer thanks to Francesca de Freitas! I enjoy talking to Ryanne James about her tips and tricks. 5) We also set up our turntable. It was shoved in the back of our storage closet. We cleaned it up listened to old records and some new ones that we bought on Record Store Day.
5. Lauren Venegas: I lost 40lbs!
6. Madalena Leles Cohen: I had a baby, I lost 46 pounds and started to write a memoir book about being abused by the family who raised me.
7. Leigh Greenius: I have an increased appreciation for our apartment - a safe, dry, warm place to live - and our neighbourhood - we are so lucky to be able to go out the door and right onto the sea-walk with many parks nearby!
8. Nels Anderson: Why, Lachlan and I moved in here!
9. Sue Moroney: Our grandson was born
10. Taranasaurus Hex: I didn’t have to spend 3-6 hours of my day commuting to and from work on stuffy overcrowded buses or stand at the stop watching as bus after full bus breezes past me and my baby.
11. Adele Laker-Ball: Purchased a Murphy bed and turned our second bedroom into yoga studio and our home office. We painted and “broke up” with most of the “taupe”. We watched summer sunsets with plenty of trips to Victoria and many excursions to hidden coves with daughter Ashleigh & her partner Dustin on their boat along with their new border collie puppy.We took several road trips, lots of biking 🚴‍♀️ & visited many new places around Nelson. And the best is yet to come.
12. Ron Santos: 1) We got a puppy in August. 2) I found an appreciation of wearing sweatpants everyday.
13. Brianne Elizabeth: have had time to work on my book more (coming soon!) , ability to check in with people more and gain the realization of how important it is to keep in touch, a re-realization on how blessed I am in little ways and also learning how to not worry about the small things at the same time, and yes definitely an expanded appreciation for the safety I feel in this building during these rough times this past year! so thankful for you, neighbours!