Acker Country Living: 2020

Thankfulness abounds here these days. Don't get me wrong: I've had many a LORD-SAVE-ME-FROM-THIS-MONOTONY moments, but the overall theme of this season has been thankfulness. For the sake of looking back on this post years from now, here's the basic synopsis of this spring: social distancing/isolation due to the COVID-19 unknowns. The world is an eerie place with so much closed down and strict guidelines of keeping the hell away (min. 6ft.) from any passersby, whether on the sidewalk or the grocery aisle. In fact, leaving your home at all is frowned upon altogether.

Despite all this -- really, because of all this -- our thankfulness (referring to my immediate family's thankfulness) has only increased. We're thankful for this land we found and built a house on 2 years ago because it gives us all the space we need to run around and find adventure and fun without the concern of running into others (see, what an eerie idea that is, amiright?). We're thankful that our "crazy" idea of stacking pregnancies one right after another has turned into the sweetest best friend group of playmates who, though they certainly miss their friends, are totally content with their time with each other. We're thankful that Pete's job is secure and he's been encouraged to work remotely often, which has absolutely spoiled us -- we love having Daddy around more! A happy marriage, good-natured children, a freezer full of meat (mostly courtesy of our on-site Hunter-Gatherer), actualy SPRING WEATHER (!!!) Pete's before-it-was-trendy prepping tactics, and a billion other little things elicit thankfulness above all other emotions-- thankfulness to each other, but mostly to the Lord for using this dreary season to draw this out of us.

I've got more on what I've been mulling over down at the bottom of this post, but I'll break up my stream of consciousness with some pics from the past few months and some kid tidbits in between:

BLOKUS has been a fun, new addition to our games. Our mantra each time the box comes out is, "TAKE DOWN DADDY! TAKE DOWN DADDY!" because Pete is merciless. This particular night, Pete was gone, so me and the kids thought we'd up our strategy a little bit with some practice. You can see here how focused some of us were.

Me and the girls had a GIRL DAY back in January where we stopped at a donut shop (pictured) and went to Target where we learned the tough lesson of "we don't just buy things to buy things."

As mentioned above, Pete began prepping long before the coronavirus warnings.

The 2 biggest kids have had the best time going to Awana at a church around the corner from us. Two of their best friends, Robin and Kole Rice, go every week with them while the littles and grownups get to spend time together. Absolutely one of our favorite things from 2019-2020.

Back in January, I hosted a brunch at the house for women called a "Regift Exchange." It was SUCH a good time -- 30 women from all different groups I'm a part of (I invited 50...hehe) came to regift something they'd been gifted that they didn't want while eating and visiting. Definitely an annual tradition now!

These are Susannah's best friends from school, Jane and Georgia. They're so precious together!

Poor Clark hasn't sold out to the Redskins just yet

Clark's first time in the grocery cart back in February!

We surprised our cousins at their basketball games earlier this spring and brought the SPIRIT!

Poor Than kept looking over at John during his game because he really just wanted to play with his cousin, not a dumb basketball!

True statement for all these little cousins looking up to their role model, Charis.

Susannah's 100th Day of School costume was on point.

On our way to Auburn back in February, we stopped in Greenville to see Katie, Brian, and Addie.

Back on the Rolling Plains with the whole crew! Pete had a conference there this year, and once we heard about it, we were all sold out and absolutely going with him.

We stayed with my fam the Northcutts who we all love so much. Those 3 big kids are obsessed with Melissa and Van and are ready to go back to do nothing other than play with them.

Spent too much money on new Auburn t-shirts before we left.

THIS FACE ON THIS BOY

Susannah is all about the portraits right now, and she is sure to include my "expression lines" on my forehead every time.

Special relationship with our oldest and youngest

These 2 generally have a special relationship, too

Sleeping on me is such a rare thing for these kids, so I absolutely asked Pete to take a picture of it to capture the moment!

And thus begins the pics of quarantine to present. Shortly after the governor called off school for the rest of the year, our elementary school planned a car parade of all the teachers to come around to see as many kids as could be out on their route (while maintaining that 6ft distance from others). We have some wonderful friends who were going to be in the parade who let us use their front yard since they definitely would not be driving out to where we live. It was sooooo sweet to see the excitement of both the teachers and the kids to see their teachers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Happy hour during COVID-19 looks like this: 6+ ft radius separation outdoors with wine, booze, and lysol wipes in the center.

Picnic lunch for Mary's 3rd birthday!

Lunch was real fun for this guy until I taped down Clark's plate

Formal dinner for Mary's 3rd Birthday! The sweetest day celebrating our youngest girl with the biggest personality.

Sweeties

Susannah dressed up as Barbara Badjokes. Who is Barbara Badjokes, you ask? Keep scrolling...

Every Friday, Susannah has "Cookies With Cotten," which is a time her teacher, Ms. Cotten, has set up for all the kids in her class to get on Zoom together. You can see there are 2 other participants each week who don't necessarily make an appearance on the screen.

I slacked this year and did not come up with an Easter basket for Clark to match the rest!

This is what church looks like for the kids (and us) right now: SCREEN TIME! Screen time is rare around here, even during COVID, so this has been kinda cool for them -- though they've all said they miss going to church so bad. We all do so bad.

Easter Sunday! Everyone still dressed up. Well, not Pete, but that's why he's not in any pictures.

Gorillas are John's current obsession. Gorillas and volcanoes, actually. Pictured here, John and Mary are on the lookout for any gorillas that may have escaped the Norfolk Zoo and made their way to our house to bust down our door and beat us up. Our conversations about gorilla come up totally randomly about once a week and go like this: "How far away is the closest gorilla? Where do the rest of them live? If a gorilla were to get out of the zoo, how long would it take that gorilla to get to our house? How many punches would it take for a gorilla to break this glass door? Is Daddy or a gorilla stronger?"

Pete's first turkey of the year, and John was with him when he got it! Such a fun morning for these guys.

Sweet Susannah was too picture perfect one evening for me to not snap a quick pic of her! Susannah also learned to tie her own shoes a couple weeks ago, so these are now her go-to kicks because she's so proud of herself.

This boy is TOO BIG!

Meet Barbara Badjokes. During this quarantine, I've really missed connecting with my best friends' kids! So I decided to create a character to send them videos to just be silly with them. So every few days, they get a video from Barb telling them ridiculous stories and super cheesy jokes.

The sweetest ending to this story that Susannah wrote about what's been going on with us these days.

Susannah has been WAY into her Bible lately. I'll include here what I wrote in this pic's caption on social media: "The night before Susannah started kindergarten back in the fall, we gave her her own bible. We told her, “you’re going to learn to read this year, and this is the most important book you will ever read.” We didn’t press her to read it at all after that, so she’d take it to church sometimes and to Awana sometimes, but it was most often found in the bookshelf. Yesterday morning, however, Sus opened it up and realized how many words she knew in there now. And she has not put it down - outside of sleeping and eating - since. She reads what she can, asks me to read parts she can’t, and underlines allllll her most favorite lines. I didn’t enjoy reading my bible until I was in my mid-twenties, and Sus is just drinking it up. We are not pushing or demanding this of her; rather, the Lord is stirring something in her at the ripe age of six, and it’s a really beautiful thing to be a part of."

Clark will be 11 months old on Wednesday, and he's still not crawling. He's just super happy sitting in the same place and hollering until a 6 year old or a 35 year old come fetch him or what he needs. When we put him on his stomach for practice, he ends up backed against a wall somewhere in distress. Here's hoping he gets the hang of it soon!

Alright, now for more words on the thoughts in my head and tugs on my heart.

I started reading Hebrews just before the coronavirus was labeled a pandemic and the world shut down. I hit chapter 3 right after school was called off, and it hit me right back, right in verse 1: "...you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus..." (emphasis mine). Those 2 words, consider Jesus, struck something deep in me. The world was entering into a pandemic where we had no history or new information -- READ: nothing -- to tell us what we could expect. So many what-ifs, so many anxieties, so many changes, so many THINGS to consider. The plate was overflowing, and still is. So this basic instruction to consider Jesus resonated. There are a million things that could (and often do) draw our focus away from Jesus. Nothing is more worthy of our consideration than Jesus, and while we should be wise and thoughtful with issues that arise, worries and anxieties become idols so quickly! So in the presence and unavoidability of the abundant information and misinformation right now, we who share in a heavenly calling must consider Jesus above and before all else. And as we do that, as we prioritize Christ above all else, we can take the promise from Isaiah 26 to the bank: the Lord will keep us in perfect peace, those whose minds are stayed on Him because we trust in Him (v. 3). This is easier said than done, but it's worth every effort, not just in what we receive from the practice (that peace) but the glory it brings to our Father in Heaven. He's the only worthy frontrunner, and anything else that we allow to compete with Him is trash in comparison. So as we continue on with alllllllll this STUFF we're dealing with in this, oh gosh, election year and pandemic and whatever else because there's always something else, let's first and most often consider Jesus.

2019 Finished out strong since my last post. Here are the literal bullet points on the kids:

Susannah started kindergarten and is killing it! She's a rockstar student and is excelling, as we figured she would. I regularly remind her (in all seriousness) that it's okay for her to not be perfect and/or the best at something; to which she generally replies with a nod, "I know, but I want to be." Her mother's daughter.
Sus also lost 2 teeth now, the second one just this past week.
Susannah turned SIX in November and is inquisitive and an absolute sponge, hungry for knowledge about all things. She's been asking a lot of great questions about God the past few months, and that's been so sweet to talk about. She's told us a handful of times that she really wants Jesus in her heart, and while she's not totally sure on what that means just yet, I pray as she learns more and begins to understand it the desire becomes a decision!
John started preschool and kind of likes it on most days! He loves friends and he loves his teacher, but he recently told me, "I don't think I'll go back to preschool. It's going to get harder, and that won't be any fun." He loves learning as much as Sus, but he'd rather not try.
John's also been taking Ninja Warrior classes this fall and has gotten really good at that stuff! He'd like to try soccer in the Spring since there's no track and field for his age -- he just wants to run really fast and get medals!
John is also the first person to ever discover a loose tooth before it's actually loose. (Because it's not fair, you know.)
Lately, John says, "That's not fair" approximately 47 times a day. He's not into the fact that Sus gets to do stuff he can't yet. And of course, Susannah is LOVING it.
Mary is the most hilarious and mischievous child this side of the Mississippi. She has a love of donuts, but she never asks for them -- just talks about them often. She's a smart girl, so it's probably her way of getting the people with the money and drivers licenses to get their minds on donuts, as well.
In one of her tumbles, Mary bumped one of her front teeth hard enough to turn it gray. If she loses a tooth before John because of that, IT WON'T BE FAIR.
I've prided myself on not having kids who throw fits in public; and as in all things parenting, it seems, God sent me Mary for a solid dose of humility. Mary wailed the entire time we were waiting in the pickup line (a line of people on the sidewalk, not of cars in a drive) a few weeks ago because I couldn't stop the wind from blowing.
Clark is the sweetest thang! He smiles as much as John did as a babe and is super chill. He can do no wrong!
Clark started rolling over last week, which is about a month behind schedule. Ha! He's just too content with life as it is.
Lastly, Clark's eating solid foods and lots of it these days, which is mainly because he stopped gaining tons of ounces between each appointment like he started out doing. He's the picture of health and so happy and sleeps so well, so that was kind of surprising to hear. But we're hoping packing in extra calories and fat will get him back on track asap!

As for me and Pete, we just celebrated 8 years of marriage last week! It's always so fun to look back over the years and remember where we were 8 years ago compared to where we are now. I vividly remember crying on our honeymoon because I was so scared I'd get pregnant before we wanted to, and Pete was all 😳😳😳 at the crazy woman before him, if you can imagine. I laugh at that now because man, having kids is the BEST! They drive me absolutely bonkers at least twice a day, but the life they breathe into me and Pete is incomparable.

Now for pics! Here's a random assortment from the past 4 months:

Church kickball game back in August

In Smithfield with my sister Katie and her daughter Addie

Susannah's first day of kindergarten!

John's first day of preschool!

John kept saying, "I'm winning! I'm winning!" Not by the looks of it, boy!

Sus started ballet this fall, too!

Took the kids to the county fair. This was the only good pic we got, while Pete, John, and Mary were on the ferris wheel.

The big kids have been doing Awana this year at the church around the corner from us, and they LOVE the program almost as much as they love their vests!

At our Acker Family Trip to the Eastern Shore

At the pier on our vacation -- beautiful sunset!

Tooth #1

For Christmas last year, Figgy gave John and his BFF cousin Than tickets to ride a real-life train this fall. I could not resist getting him dressed for the part.

All the boys on the way to the Cass Railroad!

We took a trip with some our best friends to Wintergreen this fall -- all of us under the same roof, and it was one of the funnest weekends ever!

Family selfie at the top of a mountain

Apple picking

Mom and Dad came for a visit, and the first thing the kids wanted to do was to put on shows downstairs in the basement. Everyone got a front row seat for the entertainment.

Buddies

Sus and some of her friends at the pumpkin patch on a field trip.

Sweet Sus got the citizenship award at school

For Susannah's birthday, I gave her a Panera gift card (because she's obsessed with Panera) so that she could pay for herself and 3 friends on a girls night out! (The moms were there, too, which was so fun for me)