New Normal... Again!

 I finished up my glorious week home alone for Spring Break and then the kids joined me and we had a great time at the beach and celebrating the birthday boys.  Then it was on to a new normal for some of us. 

The girls are now getting to go to school every day except Friday, every week.  It's so nice to have that consistency for them and NO zoom classes.  I can't tell you how relieved I have felt to not have to worry about Allie doing online kindergarten while I work.  

The boys are still every other week but they are doing fine with that and Gray gets to do his lacrosse conditioning at school every Monday-Wednesday now, which is great for him.  

My new normal is wonderful.  I am teaching in person every day now and I love it so much more than zoom school.  Every day has been a great day.  It was surreal seeing the kids in person at first and I love to just get to interact with them more than the quick minute we got online.  They have been so flexible and well-behaved too, and it's been no problem having to be the only teacher in the class part of the day.  I am really thankful to be at this stage now and hope we never go back!  

It can still be a little hectic trying to coordinate rides for the kids in the morning and trying to get to work on time while making sure they are good to go at home when Matt works, but so far they have done a great job of getting themselves ready and thanks to Robyn and Matt's parents, we are able to get them all to school each day.  Now we have registered Gray for high school, will soon sign Julia up for middle school, and have made a few plans for summer...and as we creep into May it's sinking in that this crazy school year will be over in a few weeks!  

Here are some pictures from the last month...

It was kind of chilly and windy at the beach, so we didn't do a whole lot of ocean time, but the boys enjoyed driveway basketball a lot.  They also passed the time watching March Madness and shark movies while I read or did puzzles.  It was a relaxing weekend.

Happy Birthday to Matt!  We went down on his actual bday and unfortunately, I had the typical 2nd covid shot symptoms of chills and aches and felt really rotten.  But we went out to eat and tried to be celebratory!

I'm not sure anyone stayed in the water for more than a few seconds, but nice to be on the beach anyway.

These two can't resist all the sensory experience they can get!  

The beach house had a showing one day we were there and so we headed out to lunch and walked at a sound-side park.  This guy is getting so grown up.

We did putt-putt a few times on our trip.  The little one didn't want to play but was perfectly happy climbing around on the rocks around us and watching.  Such a 4th child she is.

We also did putt putt on Gray's birthday.  We let him be our program director for the day and we had a great time.  This particular place installed a little train ride to take you to the first hole that was new since we'd last visited.  

Lemon bars for his bday dessert!  Gray is 14!

Our first stop on Gray's bday was "Aunt Kathy's" aquarium.  We hadn't been here in years and it was so fun to see Kathy and have her take us around to see all the animals.

We remembered seeing "Nimbus" the albino sea turtle when it was first brought to the aquarium.  Julia was little then and had a stuffed animal she adored that she named after this turtle, who is so big now!

Our last day at the beach was beautiful so we went out to the ocean before we left and were rewarded with an extended sighting of dolphins playing in the water.  So cool!!  That was our last visit to that beach house, as it is sold and another soon will be built!  What great memories we have had there with family and friends and each other.  We had to talk Julia down a bit from some drama over this change when we first arrived, but after a day or so, she settled in and had fun.

We got back from the beach mid-week and had some fun celebrating upcoming Easter with egg hunts.

Then Joshua and I had not that much fun celebrating homecoming on a freezing cold, windy night at the high school football game.  Joshua did not love the clothes, which we had to borrow since he has no outfits that aren't athletic, the corsage, and especially not the sash.  And we were both shivering, teeth chattering standing out there, wishing we were not!  But we did it and it was nice that his friends voted for him.  

Gray was thrilled to get to do a sleepover this year since last year's got canceled.  He had his best buds, who are just such fun and interesting guys.  They chatted with us about all sorts of topics as they ate Gray's chosen menu of steak, salad, and boxed mac and cheese.  Then they did an escape room kit, played some video games, and went off to the loft for the night.  How easy birthday parties have gotten!

On Easter, we went to a church in person for the first time in forever.  It was a little crazy that morning trying to throw together clothes for everyone.  We had washed Joshua's homecoming clothes and set them out to return but retrieved them again to wear for church.  Julia had to borrow some things too- from me, now that she has grown so much!  We made it out the door and it was great to worship "live" and see some good friends too.  Then we headed to Nanny and Pa's for a delicious lunch and egg hunt. 

Cousin time

These two cuties, looking at old pictures.

Egg hunting fun!

The next day, my parents arrived for a visit.  Besides our brief Christmas Day visit, we hadn't really seen them in ages so it was really great to have them back like old times.  We celebrated Daddy's birthday...

Gray's birthday...

and Matt's bday.  A week or so prior, Matt had sold his beloved Challenger and he loved this memento of it from my parents.

Yay for time with Mimi!  I went back to school that week and it was great having her and Daddy around to help drive kids, play with kids, etc. in my stead.

Allie is so thrilled to have her buddy Molly at school with her now that the two cohorts are meeting together every week.

We had an end of season lacrosse celebration and Joshua loved being back with the team for a bit.  It's a really fun group of guys and many of his oldest friends from when we first moved back to Hillsborough are on the team.  Fun to watch them grow and play together.

And fun for me too, to have some great friends as fellow team moms!

Last weekend Julia headed to Florida for her 10 year old trip with Nanny and Pa that was canceled last year.  She gets back tonight and has had the best time doing EVERYTHING there is to do down there.

She discovered she's not so fearful of rollercoasters anymore.

She got to go to Disney for the first time, plus Harry Potter World, Sea World, and more!

She got to swim with dolphins!  She wants to become a "marine mammalogist" so this was especially up her alley.  What an amazing experience!!  I think she has completely talked her grandparents' ears off, but the last couple days has lowered her rate of words a bit, so she might finally be worn out!  We sure have missed her!

Spring Break is HERE

 I'm sitting in my quiet house, catching up on the one show I watch (This is Us), which I haven't seen since the end of last year, working on Gray's birthday scrapbook, and enjoying this two week spring break even more than I imagined.  Because my school is on a different schedule, I get two weeks off and this week has been so wonderful, just getting to be at home doing mom/housewife stuff!  It took the weekend for it to sink in that I could relax a bit.  I don't think I realized how tense I was just from trying to always keep up with the bazillion little schedule things that happen every day...all the online classes for me and the kids that I'm constantly panicking I'm late for, activities for the kids that are ever changing due to weather/covid, Matt's new work schedule that is different each week again, kids going to school in person some days and not others, figuring out transportation.  And then the waiting to see how/if life will change with school decisions for my school and the kids' school.  It was making me a little crazy and often not able to sleep well for all the stuff running through my head.  

This week has been such a blessing!  And thankfully, after spring break a lot of the above craziness won't come back.  I will go to school every day to teach.  The kids' school schedules won't be adjusted anymore this school year and the girls will be done with zoom school.  Some things will be more challenging- I'll have to leave the house before the kids go to school every day- but overall there will be much more regularity and much less computer teaching!  And I am so excited to see my students in person!!

So that's my update.  As for the rest of the family, here's what's been going on with them.  Matt is finishing up orientation at his new job.  After many days of computer classes, he's been on his floor nursing for several weeks now.  He's also occasionally filling in at his old job at UNC, which makes for a lot of work days, but he's thankful it's still DAYS, not back to night shift.  He enjoyed helping keep the stats for Joshua's home lacrosse games and we were so excited to watch the team make it to the top 8 in the state for 3A lacrosse.  

Which brings us to Joshua, who really loved being on his high school team this year.  He loved playing with his closest friends, plus some old buddies who he had gotten to know when he was playing in 7th grade and they were in 8th.  His coach is great and he loved traveling to games with the team, particularly the bus ride home after a win.  He loved getting to play a lot in certain games when it was a blowout and it was exciting that he got several goals in these games.  It was a little tough not getting any playing time when it was a hard game, but he still enjoyed cheering on his teammates.  He was a little lost when it ended, but looks forward to continuing to get together with the team in the off season.  It might be a little hard for him to welcome his little brother into the group next year, when (gasp!) Gray starts high school.  Can't even believe it.  

Our snuggle bear is almost 14 and looks forward to celebrating at the beach, followed by a sleepover with a few close friends.  He has had his challenges with zoom school organization, but we are making it.  Every other week, he goes over to the school for lacrosse drills with his coach from last year.  He wishes they could have competitive games so much, but I'm glad they at least get this.  

Another version of zoom school, Gray style, surrounded by his baby blankets.

He's built quite a collection of his "cat books" (Warriors series) this year.  Has refused to read anything else.  He's a one-of-a-kind, our Gray.

Julia has really impressed me this year with her independence and ability to keep up with all her schoolwork with little help from me.  She is making a lot of strides in math, which is her toughest subject, and is well on her way to finishing up her elementary school days.  She has certainly found her passion in ice skating and will soon add some training for a synchronized skating team to her schedule.  She continues to love time with her best bud nearly every day and is always looking for ways to make things pretty...whether it's crafting, decorating her room, putting makeup on Allie, or organizing her stuff.

Yay for having time to fix Julia's hair this week!

Julia's sickly fish finally reached the end of his life and was lovingly buried with a sweet note.  She was kind of relieved it was over after lots of stressful trying to save him.

Allie continues to thrive in this crazy kindergarten year.  She is a social butterfly at school and can't wait till after spring break when the whole class will come to school together, including her buddy Molly.  She is doing great with her ice skating too and though she's cautious, is able to pick up new skills quite well when she gets over her fear.  Her favorite place is still "together" with whoever will hang out with her.  So glad she doesn't have to do school at home while I'm away at work!  

Passing Level 1 ice skating.

She's not afraid to stand out!

Studying her Bible's map:  "I'm going to see if I can find God. 

Oh, I think I found him.  Is he wearing a little jacket?"

Other happenings this last month...

Chinese New Year with our adoption friends!  We made dumplings, ate lots of great food, watched a Chinese movie, and chatted.  Fun night!  It was also Allie's Family Day, so she got to decorate a cookie cake her own way and open a gift- a bracelet we got her in China- and we watched her video of her first year home.  Love her so much.

We had our annual Valentine's Day scavenger hunt and the kids got popcorn making stuff and a bunch of marshmallows for s'mores.

Matt and boys took on a huge job repainting the truck.  It got a bit tense, but they did a great job!

We took our first family camping trip since 2008!  It was great weather and great company, with Jeannie and fam joining us.  We had a nice big tent we borrowed from the Stewarts and lots of new camping accessories Matt had been collecting.

Allie behaved (and looked) as if she lived in the woods.  She ran around barefoot and filthy, happy as a lark.

Yes, Gray is walking Raven via her leash attached to his hat.  Raven was mostly a good girl and even could roam our big group campsite unleashed.  The long hike in which we encountered many dog "friends" was another story.  She slept in her crate right outside our tent and soon settled in to camp life once she realized we were all staying for awhile.

Kids love their cousin time.

Hiking on Saturday.  

I enjoyed reading/sleeping by the fire.  At this point, I think all the adults laid down for a bit while the kids played with the fire or walked down to the lake.  They also liked getting in the hammocks and playing ball.

Joshua was a great help putting up the big tent and then put his small tent up alone.  He enjoyed playing with the cousins, but also trying to make his own fire and whittling wood.  Probably the most exciting part for the kids (and maybe some of the adults) was making s'mores each night with the Valentine's variety of marshmallows, plus some other fun fire cooking, like roasting pop tarts and vegetable kabobs.  Matt made a big breakfast every morning too!  We had some fun time by the fire each night, telling stories with each of us adding a line (hilarious...Maddox and Allie often brought the same storyline of "and then I was swimming with the shark and the shark ate me and I died") and playing "telephone", which is always interesting when you have little ones participating.  We had a great time and are ready to camp again!

We celebrated these guys with Nanny and Pa last night.  Nice dinner, games, gifts, and a crazy good cheesecake!

And here's the latest phase of covid life: improvised ping pong.  Here's to us keeping the ball bouncing through the last quarter of school!