Two Years Later

It's been almost 2 years since my last blog post!  The focus of this blog has mainly been the kids for obvious [very cute] reasons, but I'll take a sec to explain why I haven't prioritized blogging since April of 2020, and it had little to do with the global pandemic that had just begun right before that last post.

John and Sus both went to Windsor Elementary in the fall of 2020 for what started as a hybrid-model school year, where they were at home 3 days a week and at school for 2 with work to complete virtually.  I actually LOVED this schedule of schooling because I had more time with my babies!  I also hated this schedule of schooling because I had to get these kids situated on my computer with our struggling country internet for Zoom classes and online assignments.  When I had access to my computer, that time was often spent grading the work of my online high school students, as I've been so blessed to continue working as an ELA instructor with ACCESS Alabama. 

Eventually the kids went back to full-time school, which was a YAY for no more Zoom, but a BOO for two other huge reasons: (1) I lost that time with them, and (2) 7+ hours a day wearing masks and forced social distance from their classmates.  Which leads to what's really kept me from writing for pleasure here or anywhere: once the school board decided that the kids would still be masked and distanced in the 21-22 school year, we decided it was time to try out homeschool. 

SO, this year I continue teaching my online students, continue my leadership role at church, continue maintaining order and life in my household, add teaching 3/4 of my children (PreK, 1st, 2nd), add leading a homeschool group at my church, and add switching to French Press coffee because there is JOY found in that 4-minute steep.

That's where I am these days.  Busiest season of my life, but by far the most fulfilling.  The Lord has truly been my portion these last few months, in very tangible ways.  I'm unbelievably thankful.

QUICK KID UPDATE:

Susannah is 8 now, and is just as lovely as little ladies come.  She is an ideal student, even now that we're at home; and her enthusiasm for learning is what keeps me excited about our day-to-day!  She wants a puppy super bad, and hopes to name it Oatmeal.  She loves reading American Girl books and thankfully has not asked for a doll....yet.  Susannah is in gymnastics for her 3rd year (not consecutive), and is growing so much there.  My favorite thing about Susannah right now is when I catch her acting her age -- watching her reflection dance so cute and silly, creating imaginary worlds out in the woods, and even being scared (READ: TERRIFIED) of thunderstorms.  She's always so calm and mature that it's really fun to see her act like a child.

John is 7 these days, and is a wild man child.  The boy wakes up at 6 or 6:15 most days and is kind enough to keep our 7am get-out-of-bed expectation without a fuss; but when that clock strikes 7, the energy level in this house goes from 0 to 392 in record time.  Sometimes this wildness about him drives me a tad bonkers, but he's extremely good natured in all his crazy.  John does a wonderful job during school sticking to tasks, and I'm very thankful I can offer him the freedom to wiggle.  The boy also has approx. 5,784 questions about everything throughout the day, so we're in the process of teaching him how to Google on Mommy's computer.  ;)  John tells me a few times a week that he's not getting married and DEFINITELY not having children when he grows up.  He and his best bud Wes Sawyer have it all planned out: "When we're older, we're not getting married to ANYONE.  We're gonna live TOGETHER.  And we're gonna be SCIENTISTS."  John eats more than I do on a daily basis and is football-obsessed.  He loves the Team-Formally-Known-As-The-Washington-Football-Team-Formally-Known-As-The-Redskins-Currently-Known-As-But-Never-Called-The-Commanders and of course Auburn.

Mary is 4, almost 5, and is as sweet as sugar!  This is quite a turnaround from 2 years ago.  I don't remember if I've written about her old stubbornness, but that girl spent a lot of time in timeout and with the spankin' spatula when she was 2 and 3.  But man, this past year of her life, she is the most agreeable, fun-loving, relaxed lil thang!  Mary's learning to read right now in homeschool (it's early, but she's ready), and she actually read her first full sentence last week: SEE ME EAT.  So proud of her!  She's the most particular and not-relaxed about her clothing.  She is modest by choice, not ever wanting to show her shoulders and preferring a below-knee dress or full pants above all.  Any encouragement to wear a tank or shorts or - heaven forbid - jeans is met with extreme resistance.  She's our cutest little Puritan.

Lastly, but definitely not quietly, Clark is 2, and he is a huge, adorable handful.  As the only child with no school to speak of, he spends most of his morning feigning interest in what the big kids are doing and distracting them at every turn.  His vocabulary grows every day, and he's often found singing or rapping to himself.  We attempted to potty train him back in January, and it lasted exactly 3 hours.  It was horrible.  After a gallon of toddler tears and too many fits to count and no incentive that worked, I strapped that diaper back on, and we haven't looked back.  We'll revisit it again this summer when we're not schooling.  He won't go to high school wearing diapers, right?  Clark doesn't know a stranger and is my first kid for whom a leash might actually come in handy.  He's all over the place!

Recent snaps:

Nov 2021: when Pete was hunting one weekend, along with several of my best friends' husbands, we mamas took our kids to the beach for the weekend!  It was our favorite fall weekend, by far.

John has almost caught up.

Christmas 2021

Christmas 2021

Loving our homeschool curriculum, especially when we get to BAKE!

Celebrating John and Mary's first art show with our old co-op (that we elected to not attend this Spring but enjoyed some aspects of it, like this, in the fall)

Mary's art

John's snow globe

In our church's Christmas play, An Out-of-the-Box Christmas, Susannah had one of the main roles and I ended up having one, too, in the eleventh hour.  So fun to help the kids make this play a success!

The packed house at the play!

When the wood stove is rolling out the heat, sometimes we move dinner down to the basement.

On the road to SC for Christmas!

Cousin time is the best time.

A family pic where everyone is looking AND looking pleasant!

After Christmas, Pete and I left the kids in SC and headed to FL to celebrate TEN YEARS OF MARRIAGE!

The one tourist-y thing we did while in FL: an airboat tour of the Everglades.

NYE and back with our kids in SC!  Cannot believe how good God has been to us these past 10 years.

Back in January, we headed to Harrisonburg to see some of our TX family and got there just in time for some snow and some sledding.

This was the first big group project my little students had: a diorama of Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."  Compromise does not come easy, so this was a growing opportunity.  ;)

Also in January, the boys got to go to MONSTER JAM, courtesy of Figgy and Pop!

While the boys were watching monster trucks, me and the girls went to WORK.

My favorite thing about homeschooling is when we can do it outside!

We've had a great group of kids at our new homeschool group!

One of our favorite things to do on Art Fridays is Art for Kids Hub on YouTube!  The kids' drawings of clowns this week (we were reading the weirdest book called "The Clown of God") turned out pretty darn good.

Other than the year and a half of months not represented here, that brings us up to the present.  We're living the dream out here and are so thankful.  This has been the most stretching season of my life.  I'm not sure if Pete would say the same thing for himself, as he's had his own set of changes at work, but my part of this home life the past year has experienced significant change with significantly more responsibility.  In all respects, I should be running on empty every single day.  But I'm not.  Yes, I feel stretched and sometimes scattered, but never empty.  As I said in my little intro, Christ has been my portion like never before.  We're thriving in this new life, myself included, not because we're doing everything right and always prioritizing or planning appropriately, but because of the abundance offered to us every morning in the mercy of Christ.  It brings me to tears, even as I'm typing this.  The goodness of God!  I've never felt joy before like I've felt this year, working in our weakness and Christ's strength.  How real His care for me has become in this great upheaval of my plans.  He truly "holds all things together" (Colossians 1:17).

Right Where We Want To Be

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.