Hello friends! Today, I find myself with 3/4 of my children at camp. There's a lot less laundry and a ton less cooking and feeding people. So here I am.
Life update. We are well. The children are 12, 10, 8, and almost 6 years old. We are definitely entering a new phase of parenting. And it is so fun!
We can go to a restaurant and actually relax and eat. They can all swim, ride a bike, and make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We have arrived...sorta.
We have spent the past two years homeschooling the oldest 3 (Stephen, Laurie, and George). Caroline has been going to preschool.
This was a pre-Covid decision, but ended up being the absolute best coincidence.
Homeschooling is hard. More on that in a future post?
In big life events news.....
*My brother got married in April 2020, at the height of the pandemic and lock downs. It was dramatic and romantic. And thankfully we were there for it. Our new sister-in-law/aunt is the loveliest person and we are so grateful that she's officially part of the fam.
*We gained 2 beautiful nieces! Stephen's sister had her 1st baby in Nov. 2020 and my sister - her 4th in Feb. 2021.
*My mom was diagnosed and treated for stage 1 breast cancer. This was heavy, and I don't like to dwell on the weeks of uncertainty we went through last October. But God, in his kindness, has restored her health, and she is on the other side of chemo and thriving!
*Stephen's grandmother died in December. She was quite a legend. We celebrated her life and the end of an era at a family graveside service in Atlanta.
*We started a long planned for home renovation in November. We are adding 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a porch, laundry room, and a pantry. I'm going to love the end result, but I'm not loving the process. Stephen is doing most of it himself. He is truly amazing.
Yesterday, I came across an old photo book I had made from my Instagram photos...many moons ago before chat books.
On the front I printed this quote.
"The ordinary acts we practice everyday at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." -- Thomas Moore
Funny how those words resonated with me then (2012) and resonate with me now. I love ordinary days and all that they entail.
George (my only kid home right now) and I went to the farmer's market this morning. We bought peaches, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We stopped by the library. Then we drove through CookOut and got him a hamburger and chocolate milkshake. It's not a bad life being an only child.
The ordinary. How grand!
With my extra time I've been enjoying cleaning and sorting areas of our home that need attention. Monday I took everything off our living room bookshelves, dusted and wiped them down, and put everything back with special care. This is like therapy for me.
I'm old enough to remember a time before the internet, a time when we didn't take our mini computers with us everywhere. I've been channeling those pre-internet and pre-smart phone days. Writing letters, calling friends, walking out to my little herb garden sans phone in the morning.
Even writing this blog post on the internet seems remarkably slower and old fashioned in contrast to social media and phone scrolling. I think it's the whole producing vs. consuming thing that makes it feel more worthwhile.
This was nice, dabbling back on the blog.
How are y'all doing out there?