The Luckiest No Matter What!

Dear Nolan, HAPPY HAPPY NINTH BIRTHDAY!!!! WHAT?!?! I can’t believe it. This year yours is my last letter I’m writing. I am knee deep in the middle of birthday week and a lot of other busy things and I am pooped, but in a good way.  I barely saw you today. I had to teach all day today so I came downstairs early to spend some time before I left. Carter and I worked on a red-eyed tree frog project while you were watching some TV. We said goodbye to each other. When I got home, you were just two or three minutes away from leaving for baseball practice. Directly after, you had soccer practice. You got home at 8:15 and got ready for bed. The end. Wednesdays are quite nutty right now. I say all that because there was a time, not very long ago, where we had nothing to do and nowhere to go. The thought of there being a day where I’d hardly see you was laughable. There was also a time, longer ago, when you were tiny and basically never left me alone. Again, if someone would’ve told me that ...

Dear Judah, HAPPY NINTH BIRTHDAY! Nine feels so big… way bigger than eight. I can’t deal with it. You and Nolan made me a mom and will always make your birthday extra special to me as well. It’s funny how even though nine years have gone by there are some things about you that are just you. Those are the things I hold the most dear. This Year I feel like you and I have made huge gains this year. Working together is hard for us sometimes and boy did we have to figure it out! Online school shoved us together and we did a lot of hard work, compromising, and listening to figure out how to make learning positive for both of us. I love working with you- seeing you excited when you get a question right, hearing you remember things from days or weeks ago, finding and correcting mistakes. We do things differently, you and I, but we’ve been able to get into such a good groove of sitting down and working together and I am beyond grateful for that. Judah, you’ve been working so hard this year, SO ...

Dear Carter, YOU ARE SEVEN. WOWEE! You are not my oldest, but somehow you are getting old too and I’m having a hard time accepting it. A YEAR OF CHANGE This year from six to seven has been huge for you… full of so much change. When you turned six, you had only been in school in person for a few weeks. You had barely seen anyone, tried anything, got any socialization. Fast forward a year and each day you are coming home telling me about some new pretend game at recess, a new friend you are playing with, a new thing you’ve learned. It is truly mind blowing sometimes. During recess, you bing around playing with many different groups, but probably your favorite thing is to make the girls laugh or play games where there are teams chasing each other.  In other school news, you do not fit into the mold of traditional expected behavior. Sitting the right way in a chair is hard for you; sitting in a chair at all is hard for you. Being still and quiet for long periods is hard for you. I can ...

Dear Preston, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This birthday seems really special, I think, because it’s the first one you’ve really been talking about and looking forward to. We even have a countdown on the wipe board near our calendar. This will likely be the first birthday you will remember and your understanding of getting older and getting bigger is more for this birthday than any other one you’ve had.  GOODBYE THREE! B eing three is often very hard for both the kid and the parents and you were no exception my sweet boy. I think you were our hardest three-year-old, which is actually saying a lot ;) This last year or two have been filled with a lot of big emotions, tantrums, destruction, and many unkind words. We have ALL (this includes your brothers) been very patient with you and have really been trying to teach you how to label your feelings and be able to handle them in a way that doesn’t hurt people or things with your words or your body. It surely hasn’t been easy. I say all of this not t...

As I was scrolling the other day, I saw someone writing down things they wanted to remember from this pandemic time. It's obvious this time in our history will be wrote about profusely. I can't predict the future, but I have a feeling this time in my life will be monumental... something that will have definitely shaped who I become. I decided I wanted to take some time to write down some thoughts about this time in my life. To tell my own story.  What I Will Remember About the Last Two Years: The Earliest Days I remember first learning of the pandemic. It became a topic of conversation with anyone you came in contact with. I never thought it would even come to the USA. If it did, I thought it was going to be no big deal. Maybe my naïveté was a positive so that I didn't go directly to freaking out and losing my mind.... that took a few months to come.  Another big moment from the earliest days was when my kids went to school on Friday March 13th, 2020. I knew it was their la...

Nolan, Judah, Carter, and Preston had their half birthdays back in early November. I always have the best intention to give a little update on what's going on in their lives at that time, but here I am in January doing this. Always better to do than not.  The biggest thing for all four of them lately-ish is the pretend return to normalcy that we are all experiencing. I will continue to call it pretend because the precautions my family are continuing to take are still a lot and if you step foot into a school around here for a few minutes, you will know that things are very much NOT back to normal. The transition back to school full time for N & J, the actual real starting of elementary school for C, and the starting of daycare for P has been a MAJOR shift around here. In other news... Nolan: 8.5 Although online school was not for anyone in my house, Nolan did really enjoy being able to do things at his own pace. He always had an amazing attitude about doing work. The most challe...

HAPPY 2022! I'm entering slowly, taking small steps with caution.  My family is keeping this weekend low key: trying to squeeze in last moments together before the hustle and bustle of real life starts Monday again. This winter break has been one of the best- a lot of togetherness, and an excellent balance of work and play. It has all felt so good for my soul and I can tell it was just what #hundtboysx4 needed too. It's time for my #oneword of 2022: PLAYFUL! PLAYFUL: The Why Throughout 2021, I continued to feel as though my sons were needing something more from me than I have been able to give them. Was it my time? Energy? Patience? Kindness? Yes to all (duh). What these things all have in common is the desire of connection. What my boys want more than anything, is me. But a better version of me than I've been showcasing. After a challenging day of supporting my boys through online school or, lately, a day full of learning for them and teaching for me, I don't have much...