Well hello there.
Do you happen to remember, over a year ago, when I struggled and strove to catch all the way up on this blog so I could (and I quote), "just [post things] as they happen instead of months later."
Oh, early 2020 Rebekah. How naive you were. And now I am a full year behind. A YEAR!
I tried to think of a way I could sum up succinctly what this last year has been like, but how can anyone succinctly sum up a year of isolation, of loneliness, of dread, of anxiety, of total exhaustion, of being stuck at home every day with little children?
My best hope is possibly this picture that Abby drew of me:
Or, possibly, this photo that Jacob snapped of me when I was not looking. Not looking because I was asleep on a public park bench. Looking homeless. Because why not? All of my dignity was long gone.
No, there's no way to adequately and succinctly describe it. My best option is a highlights reel. And what a reel! When I look back at these pictures I can't believe how tiny my kids are.
Soon after I dropped off the face of the earth stopped updating the blog, we ended our 2019-2020 homeschool year. And what a year! The previous year I had determined to school during the summer, but not this time. I was very seriously burned out. So we celebrated with a cookout, introduced my kids to Flashlight Tag, and built a giant fort downstairs for everyone to sleep in.
But the end of school didn't stop this little reader from learning new things every day! She is a bright little miss.
Soon after the end of school, we were all enchanted watching the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch and, the following day, dock at the International Space Station. For several days afterwards we just had to get out our rocket ship and don mixing bowl astronaut helmets.
And then hot, hot, hot summer days arrived. They were difficult to survive without trips to the pool or lake, but we managed. Mostly we made a lot of homemade popsicles.
Our meager garden supplied us with a few days of snacks.
Abby perfected her leaping acrobatics.
Jacob, working from home and watching from an upstairs window, couldn't resist coming down and sneak attacking us one day, launching us into an epic water fight.
One day while putting away groceries I stubbornly and stupidly carried too many egg cartons to the fridge and dropped a dozen eggs. And then stepped in the mess. Yes, this makes the highlight reel.
Abby turned seven!
She asked for roller skates and was very excited to try them out!
For the first time in her life, Abby couldn't have a birthday party. Hers was the first child's birthday we had to handle during the pandemic and it was a sad one. Instead, we made everyone butterfly wings and had a butterfly tea party in the backyard.
Thomas learned how to ride a bike! We got out Abby's old bike just to see if the size was right before we bought him one. The training wheels were off of it already. We had him sit down on it and before we knew it, he was zipping around the neighborhood! It was a very Thomas way of learning how to ride a bike.
Of course we then had to buy him his own bike that he could be proud of. He rides his bike almost every day and he is really quite good at it!
Independence Day arrived and, just like all of the holidays before it, we had to be creative. We gave the kids shakers and kazoos and had our own little parade around the neighborhood.
We went on a family trip to the beach when I was absolutely reaching the breaking point of my sanity. This was an amazing and delightful trip that probably deserves its own post.
I took on the huge task over the summer of decorating the girls' bedroom. This also will need its own post, but here's a sneak peek:
Before we knew it, the summer days had drifted away and it was time to start up another year of homeschooling.
I started formally teaching piano and Abby is one of my students. She is very, very good! Again, this will need to have its own post someday.
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| Abby's "magic hat" that she wears when she is learning a particularly difficult piece of music |
Autumn came and with it came an overabundance of apples. For the first time in my life I canned homemade applesauce and apple butter and they were both delicious.
In October I read Bunnicula aloud to the kids while they carved our jack-o-lantern.
And then we ate dinner outside by the light of the pumpkin!
On Halloween morning we ate jack-o-lantern pancakes.
We donned our homemade Star Wars costumes and posed for pictures!
We left candy out on our porch and apparently many other people had the same idea. We walked around our neighborhood and enjoyed a socially-distanced trick-or-treat from the bowls of candy neighbors left out.
Then it was November and time to put up the gratitude tree!
And then this little boy turned five!
I was hoping to get a better picture of the cake but sometimes when you are five it is very hard to wait for dinosaur cake while your parents take pictures.
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| Putting together his robot dinosaur! |
Then it was time to put up the Christmas tree. And since I no longer have little babies, it was a great year to surround the tree with an electric train!
The first snow of the season came on December 16th.
We had a delightful Christmas, different though it was from usual.
Winter was its usual dreary self, though even more so without family and friend visits to brighten the days. It dragged on and on. I sat inside with my puffiest coat, hat, and mug of hot herbal tea and waited for spring.
Jacob is much better at playing with the kids in the snow. Check out this amazing snow fort they made together!
Then a special little someone turned three!
She asked for rainbow cake and a scooter, and she got both.
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| She really zips around on this thing! |
Generally I think Valentine's Day is just about the most ridiculous holiday ever invented, but with everything my kids had been through the last year, it felt important to make it special. I remembered the year before was when we hosted an epic Valentine's Day party for our favorite homeschool families, and my kids were going to be sad when they thought of that. So I stayed up late and decked out the kitchen, excited to surprise them in the morning.
We had heart pancakes for breakfast and heart sandwiches for lunch and dressed up in reds and pinks. We made homemade cards for each other and were reminded of how lucky we are to be isolated all together.
And then we capped off the day with a delicious platter of chocolate fondue.
Even though they are weeks apart, St Patrick's Day felt like it came right on the heels of Valentine's Day. So I stayed up late again and decked out the kitchen again.
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| You may not know that the byproduct of leprechaun magic is rainbow candy, so when they have to use their magic to spring the traps it makes a huge candy mess everywhere. Luckily this is one mess that the kids are happy to help clean up. |
Possibly because I felt guilty over all the rainbow candy and Lucky Charms that my kids ate for breakfast, we ate spinach muffins and broccoli for lunch.
In mid-March we got a minivan! I avoided it for many years but I am officially a minivan driving mama now.
And then it was Jacob's birthday. We celebrated with a day trip to Shenandoah National Park - which, again, will need its own post because it was amazing - and with homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Easter! Stuck at home alone for the second Easter in a row, we dyed our Easter eggs and then played games in the backyard. We had egg hunts and egg tosses and egg rolling races.
And then finally - FINALLY - spring arrived again.
Those Star Wars costumes came in handy when May 4th rolled around! But this time Lydia chose to be "Good Darth Vader Baby", whatever that means.
There was an epic battle against a Sith Lord at the library!
And that just about catches us up except for the biggest news of all, which is this: we are moving. We just found out last week and I am still reeling from the suddenness of it and the overwhelming thoughts of everything we need to do in the next few weeks.
I never like to name specific cities on this blog, so I will just say that we will still be in Virginia but about three hours south of where we live now. Jacob has accepted a position as Library Director for a tiny little county, and we are delighted. In many ways it feels like everything we have been looking for and hoping for for many years.
I don't have many details yet as we are still trying to figure things out, but last weekend our family traveled together to look at the town that will soon be our home and along the way stopped at this overlook to stretch our legs:
Our new home is somewhere in that valley. I don't know exactly where it is yet and I don't know how we will get through the long "to do" list waiting for us, but someday I will update this blog with all of the details.
It just might take a while. 😉
