The Grind

I was going to write a happy and upbeat post about the kids going back to school, but it turns out they weren’t actually that excited about it. Everyone is fine, but transition from summer has made a lot of them kind of grumpy and needing more sleep. However, Gilbert finally switched from Spanish into…

Back to School

It’s so fun to be able to go into the kids’ school. Today, a beautiful Friday, I was able to walk up the hill to the younger kids’ school to volunteer in art class. It was fun to see the children drawing the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Tidal Basin, etc. They all were in good…

Omicron Wave

Well, after dodging Covid for two years, despite some traveling and hanging out with friends, and kids’ sports (most of this stuff was our family unit, and mostly outside), it finally caught up to us. Harlan started feeling a little sick on Wednesday last week, asking me for a tissue more than usual and wooling…

Skiing Copper Mountain

For the last few days, we’ve been at Copper Mountain during the day, and hanging out with our cousins at night. We have had a lot of snow. From Thursday until Saturday morning, it snowed and snowed. I think all told, we had about 12-14 inches of snow. We had a little trouble getting out…

Halloween and a Strange Week

Last week was weird. We lost a lot of momentum but are getting it back this week. Halloween was a blast. The boys loved their costumes and trick-or-treating with friends. Because it wasn’t a school night, they were able to hang out later than normal. Seamus spent a good chunk of the evening with his…

Back to School

Well, I took a long break from blogging after summer. I do have one more beach trip to report on, but it will have to wait. It was a fun one! Today, I want to write about our back to school 2021. Seamus and Gilbert are in middle school, which is great for them. They…

Camp Drop Off

This weekend was so busy! We had a BBQ with friends on Friday night, then the boys had their baseball playoff game on Saturday morning. One of their teammates hit a grand slam while Gilbert was on third to cinch the championship game this coming weekend. Seamus and Gilbert both had a couple of hits…

To Blog or Not to Blog

As you may have noticed, I’m having trouble with a regular blogging practice these days. Part of it is that the kids are older, and some of the stories are their stories, and I don’t want to violate their privacy. Part of it is that I’m stymied on writing in a lot of ways right…

Spring brings Changes

What a long year. This spring has felt good because it seems to be that every day I hear about someone else getting vaccinated and that’s one more person protected and potentially seen soon. It does start to give me some envious feelings, because I’m not eligible yet, even though I’m still working in person,…

Back to School

Thank goodness the kids are back in school part time. It was huge for their moods and happiness this week. We, having had a break from kid activity, were able to focus on some of the work they’ve been missing and help them productively. We also had energy for a family bike ride, and Patrick…