Fairy Stone State Park

Over the kids’ long weekend, we drove south to Fairy Stone State Park in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. We had a cabin to stay in, which was good, because the 4 hour drive took seven and a half hours (we did stop for a great dinner in Woodstock), and it was raining when we…

Harlan’s Fifth Birthday

A milestone has been reached. Our youngest child is now five years old. I’ve been thinking how nuts it is that 20% of his life has been lived in pandemic times. His birthday last year is what the kids refer to as “The Last Fun Day.” However, he has had a lot of fun between…

A Quiet Christmas

Normally, Christmas prep to me means lots of parties, events, activities for the kids, etc. I did miss the Scottish Walk, the work party, and other events we’ve enjoyed, such as visits to Union Station with friends, downtown walks, and so forth. However, the city did send out the Santa Fire truck this year, and…

Cookie Boxes

Have you seen all the gorgeous cookie recipes going around the internet? I can tell I’m finally starting to de-stress from the semester, because rather than feeling like baking cookies would be one more ridiculous thing to put on myself, I’m reading cookie recipes and thinking of planning a cookie box for our close friends/neighbors.…

Time Marches Along

Looking back over what I had planned to do was interesting. So far, the two days of school were great. They had online learning on Thursday and Friday. Their teachers hosted a Morning Meeting so all the kids could log in and say hi to each other, hear each others’ voices, and check in with…

Preparations for Boston/Cape Cod

We’re off on our vacation for Boston/Cape Cod! After we got Seamus from camp, we spent the next two days getting ready. Packing in bins is a good approach for us, but since Porter and Harlan had a half day camp today (don’t ask…), we couldn’t leave out at 4:00 am. That ended up being…

Groundhog Day

Yesterday, as you know, was Groundhog Day, so we celebrated! Porter, unfortunately, got hit by the sore throat/fever that had already taken down Harlan and Seamus, but he’s so sweet, it was hard to watch. He laid on the floor, then retired to his bed and slept for a long time. Meanwhile, Gilbert had a…

Halloween Edition

Halloween was HECTIC! Lots of logistics, but we survived and had fun. There were class parties, preschool treats, early dismissals, soccer practice, costumes to make or rewash, argh! But in the end, everyone was happy and halloween-y. We did our usual gathering with the other neighborhood kids before heading out. We didn’t cover nearly as…

Finals Week is Here!

Finals week is here, which means I usually try to lay low–the constant stress and high anxiety of campus gets to me. As it is, I worked both Saturday and Sunday this week, and in two weeks, I have to work Saturday and Sunday again. Harlan was in a bad mood just now, but he…

Cape Cod: The Drive North

On Tuesday, we took the three older children bowling, which is it’s own blog post, but I probably won’t write it. The best part was Porter doing his happy dance and lugging the ball around. The worst part was a stunning display of bad sportsmanship. In the afternoon, we packed our bins. A blogger I…