How did we get here??

Day 1 of Coronavirus Homeschool and my head is still spinning a little.  I'm sure everyone else feels the same around here!  There we were, chugging along through March, had all our ducks in a row for summer plans, looking forward to celebrating Matt's and Gray's bdays and going to the beach for Spring Break, getting settled into spring lacrosse and BAM!  Everything has changed.

Before we got here, this is how things were going...

We had one of my favorite gatherings ever-- the Newlywed Game party.  So many laughs, a little angst, lots of stories and getting to know each other better.  Love celebrating Valentine's Day this way!

The celebrations kept rolling.  Due to Matt's work schedule and the boys being away for the weekend, we celebrated Allie's Family Day and Valentine's Day early.  Cake and gift from China for Allie, treasure hunt with Valentine gift for everyone.  This year, candy and $ were popular choices.  Everyone had their things they were trying to save for.  Joshua- shoes (always shoes), Julia- fish, Gray- spending $ for Wyldlife camp.  Allie- well, she always wants $ for gum.  Nevermind her bucket of 6-8 packs.  We gave her a Frozen 2 dress instead.  :)

This pic of Allie in her new dress at preschool is a little more meaningful now, given the current medical climate.

Somehow I have no picture of this, but on actual Valentine's Day, I was thrilled to finally get to go to IKEA for the first time.  My friends joined me, including Susan from Greenville and her daughter.  It was such a big place and bit overwhelming.  I had moments of wanting to reorganize and decorate my whole house, but ended up using my gift card to replace some of our ratty towels and deciding to be okay with the furniture we have, since I was really okay with it before I saw all the shiny new stuff!  

Then the boys were off on their adventure to Windy Gap.  Last year, if you recall, Gray contracted a stomach bug from some fellow campers and threw up on the bus ride home and almost the whole group ended up with that bug and/or flu.  It was one for the books.  This time I was feeling cautious, but happy to see their smiling faces and hear about their fun times when they got back.

Unfortunately Joshua did end up getting some respiratory virus and though he wanted to tough out the week for lacrosse tryouts, ended up home a couple days.  I headed to the high school without him for an introduction to 9th grade curriculum.  It was hard to believe it was time to think about high school, but comforting to see so many familiar faces there.  We went back a few weeks later to register for classes and all went smoothly.  Joshua was accepted into their Engineering Academy and will follow those course choices throughout his 4 years.  Looks to be challenging, but hopefully will guide him on to a good choice of college for whatever type of engineering ends up sounding most interesting to him.

Joshua ended up missing less school than we thought because lo and behold, we finally got a snow.  Just when we had all but given up hope that we'd get any flakes, we got a beautiful snow, albeit a light one, that was enough for a day of fun sledding and snowball fighting with friends.  

We also got in a poker night with some of our favorite families.

 And the kids got extra friend time playing at the park, at homes, and the ice skating rink.  Not bad at all for that little bit of a snow, turned long weekend.

 The boys found out they made the lacrosse team and began practicing.  Somewhere in there, we headed to the school to wrap up the winter sports with an award night.  Gray got a championship shirt for the frisbee team's success against their division schools.  And Joshua received the biggest trophy they give out-- the Sportsmanship Award for his team.  This season was such a character-building experience and did not go at all the way he hoped.  We even went out on the bad note of having the last game canceled when he was all set to get to start.  This helped make the season a little better in our minds.  Thankful that he displayed a good attitude, even through his frustration.

 It was such a treat to celebrate Lisa's birthday with a trip to a restaurant we've never been to, which served all sorts of delicious crepes.  Then we headed to Lisa's fav-- the thrift store.  Allie loved it and would ask when we got separated from the group, "Where's the party?"  We found quite a few great deals and I sure do love a bargain!

We also got to celebrate little Molly's birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  Allie was sooo nervous and reluctant to try anything.  For about two whole minutes.  Then I made her try a game and there was no stopping her after that.  She was swiping, putting in coins, feeding tickets left and right.  She could not get enough.

Meanwhile, Julia was having major inner conflict over the games telling her she had won, say, 2 tickets, but the machine giving her 3.  This was seriously troubling to her heart.

Matt's work schedule was a little different this month so I had Allie instead of subbing a few Thursdays.  One such day, I decided to take my first solo trip to Aldi.  After hearing Jeannie rave about it so many times, this was a long time coming.  Clearly from the picture below, I found some things that worked for us.  I wasn't even through at this point.  I think it took me about 15 minutes to bag it all up.  

 Then we got warm days and did a lot of playing outside, walks, etc.

 The trampoline became popular again.  And apparently it makes you so hot, you are willing to jump in only bathing suit bottoms...never mind the neighbors walking dogs on the trail a couple feet away.

I don't really know what's going on here.  

 Gray still asks us to carry him up to bed sometimes.  I can make it to the steps and that's all for me!!

Allie loves her time with Matt so much!!

That brings us to the last week of school.  We had quite a bit of excitement.  First, I had a job interview at The Expedition School on Monday.  I had enjoyed subbing there and was thinking that since it's in Hillsborough and the TA hours would enable me to be home long enough to get everyone to school in the morning, it would be the best fit for trying to work longer hours next school year.  The interview went well and by the next day I was told I had the job.  Now that was quick.  The tricky part will be starting work end of July.  Lots of logistics to figure out!

Next exciting moment-- some wildlife came to preschool.  Allie was great about joining right in with the other kids to pet them.

 Next exciting thing- the boys had their first two lacrosse games.  The weather was perfect and watching both boys on the field together, often passing to each other, playing such a fun game is just the best.  The team was so happy to get two victories.  In the second game, the Hillsborough Sports network even did a play by play.  I shared it with the boys the next day and they were in awe.  They thought hearing their names and their friends' names was just the coolest.  So fun!

 Thursday, I spent the day subbing in an extremely difficult classroom and trying to monitor the growing concern at work and in the schools about the coronavirus.  I signed up to sub Friday at Julia's school in order to help teachers get material ready for closing.  By the end of Thursday, they had called everything off for 2 weeks plus spring break.  Friday was another whirlwind of a day, bebopping from class to class at the school so the teachers could meet.  I had one class of each grade level and my head was spinning by the end.  But no time to rest, because the girls and I were on to the 2nd lacrosse game after school, and after that I had a ladies' night.

Finally the weekend came, the kids were home for the time being, and there was time to rest and process.  We spent Saturday eking out the last bit of outings, as Julia had her last ice skating lesson for awhile and the boys had a youth group park trip.  Sunday we went to church and did a movie with friends, which had been in the works for months.  And that was that.  Monday (today) would be the start of the (relative) isolation.

I made up a homeschool schedule and we started Day One.  The kids got their school stuff done for the most part in the morning.  Julia enjoyed a group chat situation with her classmates and teacher.  Allie even got some lessons with me.  Then we had 3 hour afternoon recess and I got a walk with friends.  The kids reconnected with each other a bit.  We had some bumps, such as when I came home from grocery shopping, supposedly to a house of kids starting schoolwork and instead found Gray having a near meltdown about the way his milk was going on his cereal, while Julia found that she needed help on her schoolwork the moment she read the first problem, and Joshua had just woken up and was tearing apart the house looking for his lost ipod, which in fact Allie had hidden in a throw pillow.  But overall, it's nice to slow down.  I'm sad about all the things scratched out on my calendar.  I'm most sad to probably not get to watch the boys play lacrosse together anymore this year.  But I think there will be blessing here too.  Now just praying for Matt, as he has a difficult job that will probably get a lot more demanding and critical as the weeks go on.  Thankful that God loves us so much and good can be found in the hard places because of him.

2020 in Pictures....so far

We breezed right through the new year and into February before I sat down to update the blog, so I've got quite a few pictures to share!

We ended the year celebrating Julia's 10th bday with lunch with Nanny and Pa...

And then a sleepover with a few friends.  This girl is still crazy about friend time.  She can be very low energy at home sometimes, but give her another little girl and she is happy, silly, and sometimes hyper.  Her other favorite things are creative projects, anything nature-related, Raven, and the beach.  She cannot wait for her Florida trip with Nanny and Pa this year and the chance to do a surfing lesson, which is one of her possible career choices when she settles in Hawaii one day.  :)

Joshua continues to work hard in the new year.  He has kept up the olympic weight lifting, though it's been a little harder with basketball season.  He has breezed right past me and is getting quite strong.  We hope this will be an asset to him in sports and with general mobility, which can sometimes give him trouble because of his bad leg.  He's also learning internal strength by pushing himself to do hard things.  

We are so thankful for our neighborhood friends that we can spend time with!  This year we got to do New Year's Eve together and we all managed to last till midnight.

 First item of business in 2020 was to use some gift cards from Christmas.  These three loved getting Starbucks treats.

Julia started a few private skate lessons to help her get some of the skills she didn't pick up on in the group setting.  She was excited to pass Level 2!

This is the only picture I got of this fun night.  A few of us dragged our husbands to see Little Women, which was so good, and then went to a little Mexican restaurant and finally got the Bakers over to the famous Wooden Nickel for their inaugural visit.  The wings really are so good!

Joshua has now finished up his basketball season.  We are proud that he worked hard to make it onto the team.  It was a humbling season-- and as Matt pointed out, Joshua is already pretty humble.  Most games, he wasn't able to play very much, though he did well when he was out there.  The team lost most of their games.  And then sadly, when it was the last game of the season and the coach was going to let him start, the game was canceled due to weather and the other team forfeiting.  Hopefully he learned a lot and will keep working!

The girls continue to endure all the sporting events, which is made a little easier when friends are there...or you are Allie and make friends with whoever you can find!  I think this girl was a visiting team fan, but hey- she has a screen to share.  Note the rapunzel braid.  It's a good look for her these days.

I've continued to sub on Thursdays and Fridays, so Matt and Allie get lots of bonding time.  They sometimes end up at the coffee shop downtown or the Wooden Nickel.  She loves it when she gets to see "Daddy's friends" too.  She is getting the princess treatment!  Meanwhile, I am getting experience with lots of different classrooms. I still love the self-contained preschool class a lot.  I also enjoyed seeing an additional school last week where the kids' cousins happen to go.  Fun to see familiar faces.  My latest adventure involved a sudden tornado warning in which we had cram into a teacher bathroom while I read the kindergarteners a story and tried to keep them calm.  Never a dull moment!

These two.  Stuck on each other.  

Soon after school started back up, the kids got a long weekend off school and we made the most of it.  They got to cash in their Christmas gift of a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  We arrived close to bed time, but had the whole next day to play.  After an expensive trip to the expansive breakfast buffet, we hit the slides.  Well, some of us did.  The little one was more into lounging than playing.  We didn't sleep too well and all the people and noise were a little much for her.  Plus she just likes to sit and eat snacks poolside anyway.  The other day she asked me, "Mom, what does "lounge" mean?" I told her lay around and not do much.  She said, "Oh yeah, that's me.  I love to do that."

 Joshua was maybe just a little too old for the park.  He had lots of fun but then it would get a little repetitive for him and he'd be restless.  The middle two wanted to stay forever.  Gray would literally bound around the park like he was Mario in a video game and Julia was tearful at first because she was intimidated by slides that she loved a few years ago and couldn't understand why, but by the end she'd gotten brave and begged us to stay till night.

We returned from our trip and had a Chinese New Year celebration with our big adoption group the next day.  She was still a little grumpy from the adventures and no nap.

 Thankfully, she perked up.  It is always a special time to see so many families like ours and celebrate the most special Chinese holiday.

 We even got to see Susan and family, who have moved away to SC.

And lest you think that we didn't get enough fun in this long weekend off from school, we had the privilege of seeing the US Figure Skating Championships exhibition night.  Wow, what amazing talent.  It was sooo good.  I don't even think there was a single fall.  Everyone was having so much fun out there and showing their best stuff.  

 And the reason for going in the first place, Joshua's friend Katelyn, who got to skate with her synchronized skating team.  So fun to watch!!  Thanks, Runkles, for having us!!

Caught this one studying up for next year.  (the book is Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come)  We will register her in the spring and have meetings this month and next for registering Joshua for high school.  Are we really there?!?

Gray enjoyed a frisbee season full of a bunch of friends and fun.  He had some great catches and loved being out there running around with his buddies.  The team had a lot of good wins too!  

 Our friends encouraged us to try a library trivia night and it was great!  We had a good showing, but finished behind a few families.  There were some tough questions, but perhaps our biggest challenge was communicating quietly and kindly with each other.  ;)

 I don't know if other families go through phases like ours, but we went through a major My Little Pony phase last weekend.  Gray and Julia were bonding over remembering the good ol' days when they used to watch the show and then Julia got out her ponies and she and Allie enjoyed playing them.  We have near constant sibling angst so it's pretty blissful when they are enjoying each other--especially the middle two.

And now our final fun memory of the last month or so...the rec center Family Valentine Dance.  I was so pumped about this because dancing is so fun and we were going with a bunch of friends.  I forced the kids to learn some line dances in preparation- the electric slide, boot scootin' boogie, git up, old town road, and wobble.  We ended up with a day off school Friday for weather, so we had plenty of practice time.  There were tears and shouting, but also laughing, pushing through frustration, and success.  Joshua surprised me and gave in pretty easily.  Then the night of the dance, they all did so well.  Julia was most reluctant to dance, but she joined in several times.   She is so self-conscious these days.  Allie was the dancing queen and didn't want to stop ever.  Gray loved the food and balloons and danced a few times, giving it his own flair.  Joshua danced the most and even did a few slow ones with his friend Katelyn.  Matt and I had a great time together and with the kids.  Definitely want to make it an annual event!

Our celebrations continue this week as we have Valentine's Day festivities and Allie's Family Day.  I have been reading through some of my writing from our China trip 3 years ago and it gets me all teary.  Can't believe she's ours.  I noticed this morning that this is still a common scene around here... but she's gotten a little bigger.  :)  So thankful for her.