Photo from one of the last times I was able to write from a hotel room.

The last day of January feels late to be posting a “year-in-review” for the year prior. In all honesty, I wanted to not think about 2020, but I’ve been bursting-at-the-seams to start writing again and the struggle to focus on a topic to write about has landed me here.

We all went through (are going through) a global pandemic, so I won’t focus on that part so much. I do want to reflect a bit on how I most remember 2020.

Jan-October are historically “slow months” for Picture This Clothing so, in a way, we were ready (financially, at least) for the great shut-down/quarantine in March before it even happened.
Our 3-person workshop was able to safely & legally re-open at the end of April. We’re 100% online, and we don’t ever have people coming in-and-out of the shop. It’s a nice, private space.
Ken’s eyesight came back (mostly).
Ken’s auto-immune system is triggered in new, creative (and severe) ways about every three-to-six-months. We’ve found over time, trial, and error, it most directly linked to what he eats and stress. We’ve experienced a lot over the years, but this one was, by far, the scariest yet for me (I can’t speak for him, but I’m sure this was a close-running for not being able to use his legs for the better part of a year). He’s tried every “diet” known to human, from 100% plant-based to paleo, to blood-type-based, to you-name-it. Currently, he’s eating only beef, green tea, and water (removed tequila, chicken and eggs due to an explosion of hives a few days ago.) He will introduce an item each time his body feels stable enough to do so. And we’ll see how it goes.
After a battery of tests, Dr.’s confirmed I don’t have cancer.
To keep it short/sweet: Rather alarming lump(s) discovered, tested, benign. I do think the results you get in the mail would be way better if they showed a % of probability rather than:
“Probably benign”
My follow-up exam was worded more definitively with a simple “Benign”, and that’s incredibly relieving.
Zia did not commit suicide (and CPS did not take her away).
This was by far, among the most stressful events in my life, to date and still a hard one to talk about. Zia (my 11y/o) called the suicide hotline about three months into the pandemic. I didn’t know until (whilst waiting for a call from the breast cancer exam place, and just a week after Ken’s eyesight semi-returned), I received a voicemail from Child Protective Services, stating they had received a complaint about me regarding child neglect and endangerment, and that I needed to call back immediately. There’s a lot of in-between from the Tuesday I received this voicemail and the Friday they came to our home to investigate. When a kid calls the suicide hotline, the hotline-helpers are required to report to CPS if they feel the situation should be looked into. This is a GREAT thing and they moved very quickly. As it lands, I’m deemed a fit parent, and I was gifted the opportunity to get Zia some professional help for challenges she kept completely hidden from us. This could’ve had a far more tragic outcome and rips my heart out every time I think about it. Yet, we’re here. And we’re working on it.

Through this and the events of the world, Cyber-Monday was our best sales day for Picture This Clothing, ever, just barely beating out our previous best day ever in 2016, when we launched with a viral explosion.
We also continued our experimental weekly live-streams on Facebook Live (that’s where our biggest audience is, +100k wonderful community members) through the very end of 2020. This year I will experiment with monthly challenges in our PTC FB group like I used to before we launched Picture This Clothing (PTC). I miss those challenges and how they helped me grow as a human, and I’m hoping there’s a way to tie-together my pre-PTC passion for “tinychallenges” and life-design/career-coaching, with my love of, and purpose with our company.

Oh! Ken and I also decided to get married on the 4-year anniversary of Picture This Clothing (Aug 17. So we just have the one date to remember). We went through a drive-through wedding chapel, kids in the back seat. Simple, masked, and socially distanced. My daughter took a cute photo of us outside the car, in our Picture This Clothing wedding outfits to commemorate the moment.

This year has kicked-off with Sophia (15y/o) and me in a car-accident that totaled our car, but that we walked away from with only bumps and bruises -mostly from the airbags. We’re still experiencing some pain and slow recovery but considering what I believe we could have, or even should have looked like after this accident, I am so grateful for our condition I can’t even begin to put words to it.
(Trigger warning: Photo on Facebook of our smashed car here for those interested in seeing, no gore.)

The driver that caused the accident was also OK.

I know I’m not alone in the ‘downs’ that have happened separate from all the world-events. To those who’ve experienced loss, or trials far beyond my own, please know my heart is with you.
And with that, we continue looking into 2021 with hope and optimism.

On the bright side…
When I reflect on all the crap that has happened, of all the possible outcomes for everything that has happened with our family over this past year, we’ve been lucky enough to land on the best possible outcome each time. I will hold onto that with utmost gratitude and a very sober understanding that this is not always the case in life, and I better damn-well appreciate it. (And I really do!)

Do you have any “Bright Side” stories to share? I’d genuinely love to hear them, feel free to comment or link.

– Jaimee Finney

P.S., PLEASE know this is not a “poor me” post! I debated a very long time on whether to share this stuff or not. But I know sometimes, when you’re “in it”, knowing that other people are, too - helps. <3