We’re ready for an epic #lakelife weekend. The temperature is supposed to reach the mid-80s and we’re excited about doing all the warm-weather activities. I’ll be on a tech break, though, so don’t expect to hear from me.
Looks what’s growing in one of our trees! Two baby robins. So sweet, right?
The final piece of exciting news from the weekend? We planted the garden at my parents’ lake house. I’ve been more and more intrigued by a “real garden” for some time and now we’re going to have one! Hopefully. We planted potatoes, green beans, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins…the list goes on and on. It’ll be a learning year, that’s for sure, but I can’t wait to see what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully something does! I’ll be reporting back, don’t worry.
My nieces had their dance recital yesterday. And for two of them, it was their last-ever. Sniffle, sniffle.
Dance has been more than just an extracurricular activity for them. It’s been such a big part of their identities and now that chapter has come to an end. To say we’re proud doesn’t even cover it. We’re thankful to have been local for the last five years to be able to experience so much of their passion in person. Congratulations, ladies. You were beautiful on stage—as always.
There’s so much to report from this weekend! Since I don’t usually have much to share during the week, I’ll spread out the excitement, but I’ll start with the biggest news of all: I have a new nephew! The boys have a new cousin!
This is what meeting a new family member looks like in 2021. I can’t wait to meet this little nugget this summer but for now virtual hangouts will have to do. We’re sending all the love and hugs we can their way. We’re just so excited!
Have I told you I’ve been substitute teaching at the boys’ school on and off for the last several weeks? I’ve enjoyed being back in their school more than I can say and it’s been fun to see how excited the boys get about me being there. Let’s just say, however, I don’t think I missed my calling. There’s no way I could do what teachers do. Today I was with a group of 4th and 5th graders (those grades are combined at our school) and it was rough. So many were so kind and thoughtful and helpful, but a challenging handful soured the experience for me and probably everyone else in the class. Overall the day was fine and I’m so happy to have given that teacher a break. That makes it all worth it.
Think an extra happy thought for a teacher in your life right now, would you? They need it.
p.s. Yes, that’s a Coke bottle on a desk. It was for a science experiment, I swear!
It’s been a long time since we’ve stepped foot in a library. We’ve been doing holds pick ups for months now but we actually got to walk in and browse books yesterday. It. Was. Glorious.
Our library is in a temporary location for the next 15 months (give or take), so we couldn’t walk there this time around, but I’ll take it. The three of us enjoyed reuniting with our old friend, the library, even more than I can say.
We’ll be saying goodbye to our friend Richmond tomorrow. He went from being a terrified little guy to such a fun and friendly presence in our house. His ability to chase a ball at full-speed is second to none.
I hope he finds a forever home that gives him the love and attention he deserves.
In my long history of momming (9 years), this ranked up right up there as one of the toughest years yet. I’m happy to report sleep-deprivation wasn’t the culprit this time (which seems to have caused most of my angst in those early [crazy hard] years), but it turns out that a worldwide pandemic comes along with its share of challenges as well.
I feel emotionally, physically, and mentally spent but also hopeful, inspired, and motivated as I reflect on the past year of motherhood. I’m so ready to move on and move forward, but as I do that, reflecting on where I’ve been seems just as important. I want to shed the anxiety, guilt, sadness, and fear that enveloped so much of the last year, but I don’t think shoving those emotions into a box and pretending everything is fine now is going to do the trick this time around. I’m actively trying to figure out a way to work through all of that, but in the meantime, focusing on how far I’ve come seems helpful.
Things I hope my boys learned from me this year:
Patience: everything was tougher this year. Everything.
Determination: if we stick to it, things will get better.
Resilience: we can’t fix things we have no control over.
Empathy: if we all just think about how the other person feels, decisions become a lot easier.
Kindness: staying kind when things get bumpy is a life-lesson worth strengthening.
Inclusion: racism is real and takes real work and self-study to overcome
Strength: we’re so much stronger together than as individuals.
Gratitude: so many people gave so much of themselves and for others this past year. So inspiring.
Flexibility: I’m pretty sure this one needs no explanation.
Handling disappointment: I find this to be a particularly tough one to watch your kids go through.
Sacrifice for others: of course I wanted to be traveling, and eating out, and seeing my family…but this challenge was bigger than us and we could only do our part, but that had to be enough.
Hard work: homeschooling wasn’t easy. Remote learning wasn’t easy. Sometimes I expected more out of the boys than even their teachers did. They rose to the challenge and are better for it…I hope!
Compassion: even if from afar, support became such an important crutch.
Love: on the worst of the worst days, love is about the only thing that pulls you back out again.
I’m sure the list could go on and on. This year was tough, but we’re all tougher for it. I’ll take the lessons I learned and continue to weave them into my every day life moving forward. I hope the tiny humans that call me mom will take some of these lessons and make the world a kinder place. I challenge you to do the same.
Happy Mother’s Day.
This is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time: a CSA-style flower subscription! For three weeks in the spring and all summer (starting in July) a local flower farm delivers a surprise bouquet to our neighborhood food co-op for us to pick up. So fun, right? We’re only on week two (which went to my mom because we’re splitting the subscription), but I can tell this is going to be a highlight of my summer.
Robbe ate his first bowl of cereal today. Is that weird? I’ve just never felt like cereal really fills them up so I’ve always offered different options. For some reason, today was the day. We dumped cereal into a bowl, added some milk, and Robbe ate it like a champ. It turns out he is a fan of cereal, but opts out of drinking the milk at the end (just like his mom).
I’m still not convinced cereal is a good school day option (it just doesn’t seem like enough!), but on a remote learning day, it’ll do the job.
As an aside, Chase (the nine year old), still hasn’t eaten a bowl of cereal with milk. We’ll see how long his streak lasts.
I haven’t taken many photos in the last couple of days but I did find this gem from Robbe’s birthday when I was looking through my camera’s photos. This was the first time the boys played musical chairs. Adorable, right?
The thermometer hit 80 degrees at the lake house this weekend. As if we weren’t excited enough for summer already…this weekend really sealed the deal. We paddleboarded, we paddleboated, we hammocked, we gardened, some of us went for boat rides, all of us enjoyed the sunshine. Two crazy members of my family (Chris and Robbe) even jumped in the lake. Nothing better than a short vacation packed into one regular weekend.
Look what I finally put up! A family photo collage. This has been on my list for ages. It’s 5’x3’ and just perfect.
This was part of our remote learning set up today. Whatever works.
Another Covid first…a virtual baby shower! Even though we might all be a tad over Zoom hangouts, this one was really fun. Such an outpouring of love and support for my sister in law and my soon-to-be baby nephew (and my brother, too). I was beyond happy to participate and help in a bit of the planning. It was more fun than I ever would have thought a virtual shower could be and I’m just so glad to have had the chance to celebrate that little nugget. We’ve already got our plane tickets booked for the summer!
The last time we saw these folks was right before the whole world shut down (March of 2020…you might remember). We thought it would be fitting to have them be some of the first friends we hang out with now that we’re all vaccinated. It was really really lovely. I miss friends.
Another cat photo, I know. But isn’t he so handsome?
That’s not why I posted this photo, though. I wanted to share Richmond’s description on the humane society’s website (click here if you don’t believe me - you have to scroll down through the cat photos to find Richmond). Read it first, and then I’ll comment on why this is blog-post-worthy.
Richmond is a three year old special guy. He is neutered so his adoption fee is $60 plus tax and license if applicable. Richmond is sleek and a medium sized cat. He is special in the fact that he has chronic nasal discharge. He has been on multiple antibiotics but nothing seems to clear up his nasal congestion. The many veterinarians that have seen Richmond do not hear anything in his lungs. He is a healthy cat overall except for a sneezing fit or big booger once in awhile. Think of it as having a very drooley dog that you have to wipe up after. Richmond is looking for a home that doesn't mind a little snot here and there and that will keep up on regular veterinarian checks to make sure he doesn't get a upper respiratory infection. Once you get to know Richmond you will see he just wants love and attention. Apply at www.eccha.org/adopt. Foster mom says that Richmond is a very special friendly guy.
Sounds like a total dream, huh? This bio makes me chuckle so much. Almost none of this is true. He is on one medication (that I mix into his food) and he does sneeze sometimes (pretty rarely). He is definitely nothing like a “drooley dog” and doesn’t leave “snot here and there”. Full disclosure: he has had three sneezes (over the course of a week) that end up sneezing up phlegm. It’s much less terrifying than it sounds, I swear! Also, that last line mentioning me was just added, by the way—that wasn’t there before. He is honestly such a sweet, social cat. He might just be my favorite foster cat so far.
I think it’s safe to say that Richmond won’t be going anywhere any time soon. At least with that description.
I’ve been on the look out for this style of lawn chair for longer than I’d care to admit. I always figured I’d run across them at a secondhand store for mere dollars. And then, I was searching on the Target app for something else (as one does) and I spotted them! The portable bag chairs that have taken over the lawn chair scene are just terrible for my back. They’re so uncomfortable. I needed the familiar shape of a strong, firm seat from decades past. Target even had a loveseat style! Can you handle how cute that is?!? I can’t wait for Wisconsin to finally turn the corner on spring so we can put them to good use.
Chris and I often make fun of ourselves for how many photos we took of our cats before we had kids. Now that we’ve got cats back in our lives, I understand how it happened. They do the craziest, cutest things, you know?
Apparently Robbe feels the same way. I let him use my phone to snap a photo of Richmond and now my camera roll looks like the screenshot in the collage on the right.
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