As usual, I am far behind over here, but such is a busy life with 5 kids and a full-time job. Said kids all passed their grade levels last year, whew!, we had a fun-filled summer vacation, then they all started back to school within the past 2 weeks. We are now in 3 different schools for the duration with Della starting high school and Lana starting middle school, so that’s a big change, too!
Here are pictures from the last day of school in June and the first days of school this month, but I’m not going to photo dump everything from summer in here. So sorry, that would take forever. I’ll mix a couple summer fun pics in that I might not have posted on social, but our vacations (late winter/early spring break in Florida, Canada in July, and St. Thomas in August) would be entire posts all their own and I just don’t feel like doing that. 😁 But that little Instagram box in the right sidebar here rotates through all my Instagram pictures so they’ll pop up over there, and if you follow me personally on Facebook then you’ve seen most of them there, too. And if you haven’t, just use your imagination! 🤣
Last night of K grades!8th grade promotion ceremonyLet the summer fun begin!They all played school together the very first day of summer vacation ❤️Kicking off summer break with family movie night!Last day of school – bring on summer vacation!!Happy 1st day of summer!Nigh-Night’s birthdayAnnual night-before-school block ice cream wagon!Actually finishing our annual Harry Potter movie marathon before school started!Summertime funFirst days of school – back at it!
The kids are now all out of school for summer break, and I love it! Yes, they bicker and get on each other’s (and my) nerves sometimes, and yes, I’ll shout at them to be quiet while I work at home full time sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love summer vacation, and we’ve got a good one planned this year. Here we come, #summervacation2023!
Annual peonies for teachersLast night of K4 for us ever!Campout Day fun…… with s’mores!Last day of K4!True feelings shine through… 😉Best friends!Last day of school for the big kids!Summer fun has begun!
2022, you gaveth and you tooketh away. You gave me a dream job when I didn’t even ask for it, yet you took my last living grandparent from us.
2023, I feel like you’re telling me you’re here for me to prove myself. If to no one but myself. I want to be the absolute best at this job that I possibly can be, while never sacrificing anything as a mom. The kids have always been my top priority, and that will never change. But I can not only successfully have 2 full-time jobs but excel at it. I’ll prove it.
2022, thank you for all the good and for keeping us all safe and healthy. 2023, may you keep us safe, healthy, and happy, and let the good times continue to roll.
ALL 5 kids are in school this year, and that just sounds crazy to even say.
The night before Della and the twins started school…
I still can’t believe the twins are in K4, going through those doors every day, just like their siblings. It definitely feels like the time is right, but it gets me daily seeing them run up the sidewalk to their door each morning with their little backpacks bouncing, then bounding out to me again after their morning session is done, just like the big kids always did.
The oldest and youngest started on the same day.
I love that time is moving at the perfect speed for me, too. It doesn’t feel like the days have flown by in a blur since each one of the kids was born. But it doesn’t feel like an eternity has dragged on with each one either. Everything feels like it is moving just right and I’m soaking up every day. I’m not sure why that is or why I feel like time is on my side when everyone else watches it race past, but I’m grateful for the cosmic juju that’s allowing it to be so.
The twins entering and exiting school by themselves for the first time!
The 2.5 hours the twins are gone in the mornings have allowed me to try to climb the steepest job learning curve I’ve had in 20 years, too, which has been both amazing and daunting at the same time. Some days, I’ve got this and am ready to tackle many, many years of it. Others, every email I get defeats me and I feel like I can’t conquer the seemingly simplest things. But that’s to be expected, so I’m not worried about it. Plus, it’s wine!
Finally Lana and Morrison’s turn!
These kids are incredible, plain and simple, and I treasure every day with them. Every walk to and from school, every joyous hug when they come running out of school, even the “meh”s that often emanate from the 4th grader. Thank you, time, for these days to cherish.
I’ve been thinking for a while now what to write for my annual year-end post, and I honestly have no idea this year. After meeting COVID in 2020 and having life as we knew it flipped upside down and all around, this year was kind of – meh. We knew that the only way forward was through, so that’s what we did.
Not to say it was a bad year, just nothing really exciting. A look back ~
The Good:
Despite having COVID earlier this month (well, all of us except Lana, somehow!), we are all fully recovered and appear to have no lasting side effects so far. Ryan’s taste and smell aren’t back to 100%, but thankfully none of us had very serious symptoms.
Ryan’s job is secure.
Our houses are still standing and in working order.
In-person school is working out great for all the kids, even with a couple quarantine periods. Middle school has been much less scary for me than I imagined. 😉
Science! Ryan, the big 3, and I are now all fully vaccinated against COVID, and I got my booster just last weekend. The big kids were in between their 2 doses when we got COVID, and I fully believe even having that little bit of protection from the first dose helped them. They all barely felt worse than a bad cold. The poor twins were hit pretty hard, but fortunately they are better, too.
The big kids moved upstairs and the twins moved into their own bedroom for the first time in their lives!
We’ve paid down a big chunk of debt, which always helps one’s sanity.
The twins were potty trained this year, which also helps my sanity and allows us so much more freedom to do stuff as a family. No more diapers!
I lost my shit WAY fewer times this year than last year, which I’m sure everyone has appreciated.
The Bad:
I lost both my grandmas this year. I didn’t see either of them very often anymore, but knowing I’ll never get to again stings. I will be forever grateful that I got to have one last conversation with each of them before they died, but I’ll always wish I could’ve been there in person to say good-bye.
The global pandemic caused by COVID is still raging, and I don’t know that there’s really any end in sight. At least not for a while. Which reminds me, I need to get some new masks.
Politics in general, racism, unnecessary hatred, war. All topics that I’m not going to touch right now but that I’ll just leave there.
In looking at my list, I’m very thankful the goods outnumber the bads. That’s the sign of a pretty great year, right?
I will say, this winter break has been one of the best times I’ve had with our kids. This Christmas was exceptionally fun and magical, and I’ve just had an incredible level of happiness the whole time. We tracked Santa and loved all the preparations for him and the reindeer, we’ve played lots of games, had a couple movie nights, gone ice skating for the first time for the kids, walked to the beach to hunt for sea glass, and just hung out all together. The twins get a little bit easier daily, and watching all 5 of them play together and interact more as people instead of kids and babies is amazing. We got very lucky with this bunch, that’s for sure.
Here is a pictorial look at this winter ~
All at home to start the month thanks to COVID
St. Nick
Sick little COVID boy
Lana did school at home all month except for a day and a half
Grandma couldn’t come up because of our COVID timing, so I took all 3 big kids to the Nutcracker for the first time.
I had one of my grandma’s wedding rings made into my own – my engagement stone and setting on her band. I love it.
So there’s 2021 in a tiny nutshell. Not overly good or bad, but there. Like I said last year, this recent history has taught me to have an even more take-each-day-as-it-comes outlook than usual, which I think has helped me, personally, immensely. I do feel much more stable and optimistic going into 2022 than I did going into 2021, so we’ll see what it brings.
Good-bye, 2021. Thank you for everything, but it’s time to move on. Hello, 2022 – we’re ready!
We took our 4th annual fall trip up to Eagle River with our good friends last month, then 2 and a half weeks after that I took the kids down to Peoria for our family holiday. It was so great to spend time with everyone again after not having the big, fun family gathering last year.
So no, we didn’t spend Thanksgiving up north, as the title might imply, I was just trying to be efficient by combining all these pictures into 1 post instead of 2. Or lazy, whichever.
So, so much to be thankful for, not just on Thanksgiving, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this one (go ahead and click on each picture to open it up larger).
4th year in a row in Eagle River in fall – so much fun!
NO, I’M NOT PREGNANT AGAIN! I just wanted to shout that out there, because I know that’s where many of your minds jumped as soon as you saw that title. Have no fear. And yes, all babies are miracles, but we’ve had plenty. No, this is something far, far better for our family right now.
THE BIG KIDS FINALLY MOVED UPSTAIRS!!!!!
Yes, that deserves to be shouted in all caps, because if you know me at all, you know how long I’ve been waiting for this. Oh, you don’t? Well here, let me explain…
On December, 31, 2013, Ryan stood in the kitchen and promised me that 1 year from that date, we would have a finished room upstairs (we turned our attic into a giant bedroom for the kids). At the time, we only had Della and Lana, so it was going to be the girls’ bedroom, and the second downstairs bedroom would become a guest room/playroom. I even painted on the wall leading up the stairs to the attic “Della + Lana’s Room ETA: 12.31.14”
Total cosmic jinx.
Fast forward to December 31, 2014, and there was no room up there. Not even close. Ryan had knocked down the only walls that needed to come down up there, but I think that was about it. I honestly can’t remember. This was supposed to be the easiest project of the entire house, since it was simply building a room that already had a full skeleton. We didn’t need to rip into any existing walls, replace any old wiring, nothing. Simply start from scratch and go. Ha.
Morrison came along the following spring, still no room up there. The twins came along after that, still no room up there. It was getting a little cramped in here, but nothing crazy. Many more people have lived in houses much smaller than ours and survived splendidly. We’re all healthy and happy, just cozy.
But lo and behold, some of the stars finally aligned in some miraculous pattern, and on October 27, 2021, IT BECAME THEIR FUCKING BEDROOM!! (see, i told you i’m behind on this blog…)
Sorry for the swear. We’ve just been waiting a REALLY long time for this, and my heart almost exploded with joy that afternoon. The kids had a half day of school, and I spent every minute I wasn’t walking to/from school rearranging, moving furniture, carrying furniture upstairs. It was exhausting, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I got them up there! Ryan did all the dirty work, I did the minor lifting. Teamwork makes the dream work.
So the big 3 now have a gigantic bedroom upstairs (the bathroom will come much later), the twins have their own bedroom that is also a playroom, and there are no more cribs in our bedroom! All toys are out of the living room, and the house finally feels like our home again instead of a nursery/daycare/insane asylum. It was touch and go there for a bit. 😉
The Christmas tree is finally back in its right spot!
