Catching up - it's gonna be a process!

 I obviously have lots of catching up to do, but I'm going to start with the past week.  It is Faith's senior year and she is due to graduate from Minneota in a little over 2 weeks and she is a busy young lady!

Here are pics of a few of her activities and her final moments of them. (*crying, not crying)

National Honor Society

Senior Awards Night w/ her bestie since preschool, Grace

 Choir

Senior Class performance of "Lollipop" - Joe messed with Stanley and this is them laughing after

Concert Band

Ian - also in band and not to be forgotten ;)

These don't get any easier - yes, I cried a little, but that was Jason's dad's fault

Elena (cousin), Faith, Joe (boyfriend), Sam (cousin), Ian

Happy Anniversary!

 26 years ago today we stood in the front of our family & friends and professed our love and commitment to each other.  I had just entered the Catholic Church at Easter and was excited to start our lives together on "the same page".  To this day, I feel that the decision to be united in faith, if even just going through the motions at the time, was something that was going to be important in our family.  And it certainly has been!

Marriage is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, twists and turns, moments of feeling safely buckled in and then times wondering if you are going to fall when things turn upside down.  

Not every day is happy, not every day is loving each others faults, but it's the gift of grace and turning to God in your moments of human weakness to soften the emotions and realize that we are not meant to fill each others hearts...we are meant to help each other get to heaven.

Maybe it's turning 50, maybe it's hormones, maybe it's mid-life crisis, maybe it's wisdom and letting go of the past, but this year has been a time of deep self-reflection, healing and finding genuine joy.  I have had to dig into wounds that I have covered, lies I have believed and hidden for the sake of a happy, healthy marriage.  But we all know that hiding hurt or pretending it doesn't exist only allows it to fester, and when do festering wounds surface?  When we are weakened mentally and physically and neglect our bodies to the brink of not being able to fight them off anymore.

Thankfully for me, I have a soulmate who sees me beyond all that, who assures me that I'm enough and invalidates all the lies those wounds try to push me to believe.  I know it hasn't been easy for him and that my up and down emotions have him wondering where to hide, but I know that the Holy Spirit continues to prompt each of us to keep fighting to understand each other and keep the devil from driving a wedge in every little crack.

As the years pile up, I look back and recognize the joy of living in the moment but being excited about the future.  I also now find joy in the moment but freedom in letting go of any expectations I had for the future because of my faith that God has a plan for me and it's way better than what I had planned for myself.

Back to "nOrMaL"?

March, April & May were definitely months of transition and uncertainty, but we made it through pretty well but were glad when distance learning was finally over!  After school was done, we had about a month of nice leisure time where we weren't stressing over school and our activities were basically non-existent and we were able to accomplish some things to keep from being bored.

June brought more activities as the weather started to cooperate and the last couple have weeks have begun to feel like a slightly new normal...more activities with lots of new rules and guidelines that are very difficult for kids to follow.  It's just not in their nature to social distance, or touch their faces, or wash their hands every time they do and heaven help us if down the road we have to make them wear masks!

With all that, it's hard to not get worked up with all else that's going on in our nation, and even our state, and I have to turn away from the news (and even my favorite late night talk shows) and turn my focus back to what matters most...my family and my faith in a God that's bigger than it all.

Work has started to resume back at the office for Jason & his resurrected horseshoeing business has been a great side income for us.  We were able to finally purchase a vehicle that we can fit our whole family in, after the reverse in the transmission went out in our old
Suburban nearly 2 years ago when we moved.

As we begin the month of July, we are grateful for our health and work that provides for our family.  The older kids are finding work to keep busy and earn money for their constantly & rapidly emptying wallets, but they are learning the value of a dollar and how to work for what they want.  A.J. and Faith's activity schedules are starting to resume with Strength Training, Baseball/Softball and skills training for the (hopefully) upcoming football/volleyball seasons.  So next week, we will get to be back in the bleachers to watch some baseball games and continue to enjoy what we can when we can.
Stay safe & hope you are finding your way back to our "new nOrMaL".

Our first outing since lockdown

My aunt and uncle were up from their home in Texas and invited us to their cabin in the woods in Northern MN while they were up.  It was our first family outing since the lockdown and first big trip together (in one vehicle) for about 2 years.  (It's a longer story that involves a broken transmission.)

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we all had a great time to spend with family we don't get to see as often as we'd like.  We all got our fill of fishing and the kids loved being able to drive around on ATV's and scooters and just going down to the lake to enjoy the water.  I tried to get pictures, but they were all running around having fun (and I tried to keep away from my phone) so I just got a few.

           Jason & Bella in a giant floating island   

               

 Noah kayaking solo - I think that's Ian in the paddleboat fishing

 Catching lots of "snot rockets" to help the smaller fish re-populate after a freeze out

 Faith and Laney in action

 Bella helping Aunty Rita drive the pontoon

AJ rockin' the scooter ;)

Out of the mouths of babes

This little girl made sure my day started off on a wonderful note. 

Every morning, she wakes up and goes out to the dining room where hopefully, her bowl of chocolate Malt-o-meal warm cereal awaits for her to be slurped up through her straw bowl.  She will usually then, come back to bed to snooze more, depending on the time she crawls out of bed.  

Today I got out of bed before she came back and was in the bathroom when I heard her come back in.  When she realized I was not in bed, I heard her disappointment when she moaned, "Awww!"  I opened the bathroom door and asked her if she wanted to crawl into bed to snuggle and she perked up and exclaimed, "Yeah!"  We curled up under her blanket and after a couple minutes, she turned toward me & nuzzled in close and said, "I luh you Mommy".  I didn't fully hear her and said, "What?" and she said it again in the sweetest little voice..."I luh you Mommy".  My heart melted and I squeezed her with a huge grin on my face as I said to her, "I love you too baby".  I can't think of a better way to start the day!

A missed post...

(I knew I had written something in between, but I didn't post it for some reason.  This would have been a post from last month - still not frequent posting, but it's something!)

Today ends a 4-week stretch of doing distance learning school at home with the 2 younger boys.  It actually only amounts to 17 actual days of teaching, but it certainly seems longer, especially when I think that we're only half done if we end up doing this until the end of the school year.

Summer fever has already struck them, especially after a 5-day Easter break, but I think that will improve as the weather does.  It's funny how we can spend time outdoors during the winter, but when we have cold spring days, nobody wants to go outside because "it's too cold!"

What I've learned through this process...
- The more organized I am for school, the messier my house is.
- When we do clean up more than usual, it only lasts for a couple hours.  I cringe to think of what was in my carpets now that I have all hardwood floors that need to be vacuumed/swept at least every other day.  I really should invest in a robot vacuum that could work for me at night.
- Distance learning works for our family but leaves me little energy to do much else. Thankfully half of our kids are self-sufficient for their schoolwork!
- Bella's vocabulary is improving by having her siblings home all day and she loves having them around! I do as well because they have more energy to keep up with her when I don't.

Updates

On my last post, I stated I had more time to post...apparently 2 months went by faster than I can type.

We survived 6 weeks of distance learning and I was fairly pleased with how it went in our household.  Don't get me wrong, there was a definite learning curve and getting into our groove, but once I realized that for Noah, learning starts better with a couple of familiar silly morning songs, our days went a little better.  School at home can be challenging with younger siblings though, and Bella sometimes slowed the process, but it sometimes produced a laugh.  Here she is "helping" them with their PE class.  She might be a good coach for " The Biggest Loser" one day...

This whole experience has had its ups and downs, but overall, I would say we have had it pretty good compared to what some are going through.  Both Jason & I have been able to do a majority of our work from home so our incomes haven't changed.  Actually, in the last couple months, he managed to re-start his farrier business after a 15-year "retirement" from it and that has been going well thanks to social media and word-of-mouth.  His groundskeeper itch has also been scratched thanks to an opening with a guy who has his own lawn care business and that Jason knew from his time at MHS.  The downside with working that much gets you this tired...

With those additions and less money spent on activities, we hope we can catch up where we've gotten behind and try to improve on some things that have been put on the back burner.

My favorite moments about this time has been watching the kids grow in their relationships with each other.  There is actually less fighting than I thought there would be and I catch them in small moments doing really sweet things together.  There have been games played, lots of trampoline time, sidewalk chalk drawings, lounging in the sun, and bike rides.  Don't get me wrong, everyone has had more than their share of excess tech time some days, so there is some guilt that comes with not having the gumption to fully take that option out of the picture, but sometimes Momma just needs a break!

When it gets 80 degrees in April and this is all you have for a pool.

Bella's way of enjoying bubbles                       When tired hits you hard

 Our most recent family picture taken at Easter. SuzyCat was not amused, lol!

During this time, we are counting our blessings and trying to appreciate our time together.  We miss seeing everyone more often, especially during times when we are normally together as a family.  At this time, the restrictions are beginning to lighten, but we anticipate that things will get worse before they get better again, so we take each day as it is and try not to worry too much about all that's going on.  We try to stay safe and be responsible to keep the most vulnerable safe, but also caring for their physical and mental needs.  We are trying to "catch up" on the things that have been put aside because we know that soon enough, we will be back to a life of crazy, but that's just a given with a family of 8.  To everyone out there, we miss you, we love you and we hope to see and hug you soon!