The Circle of Life

Well, it's been a hot minute since I've updated anything here on the blog.  I've popped over a couple times to write and have been sidetracked, I'm sure you can relate.

In my last update I told you I'd gone back to work.  July 17, 2025 was my 2nd anniversary with the City.  There has been SO MUCH drama and changes in those two years.  Our director was fired and replaced and all of our superintendents have retired or been replaced. I've been promoted to office manager, and am currently trying to right the ship within the administrative team.  Replacing people has been extremely challenging, partially because our salaries aren't competitive with the private sector and partially because people lie REALLY well on their resume and in interviews.  The previous office manager hired, and lost, three differed part time people for the same job, over a 6 month period.  I think the one I just hired is going to work out, fingers crossed on that one.

Olivia continues to thrive in the equestrian world.  She's getting to do a lot of traveling with her employers, and has been to several World Shows.  Her employer is very generous and includes her in their team photo shoots, magazine articles and posts.  

She earned her purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in June.  She's teaching several kids BJJ classes a week, has hosted women's self defense seminars and is on the adult teaching staff at her gym as well.

Additionally, she traveled to Australia in July of this year for grins and giggles.  She spent a week in Melbourne and had a grand time.  She had one of those delayed landing situations that required running through the Sidney airport with all of her things to catch her connecting flight.  I was super impressed with how well she navigated things, especially after having been awake and traveling for over 24 hours straight by the time she landed in Sidney.  She had a great time, and got to do some fun animal encounters at the Melbourne Zoo.

We added a son-in-law!!   Lindsey married a wonderful young man, named Ethan, who we all adore.  He is a federal forestry firefighter, and is often out west putting his life on the line in the fires that seem so prevalent there.  They are very down to earth and don't like a bunch of fuss or fanfare, so the wedding was a simple, private event with only parents present.

Then in August, they blessed us with our first grandchild!  Little Hazel Grace was born 7 weeks early, but is healthy and perfect, just tiny.  Lindsey and baby are both doing well, and Ethan is completely smitten with his new little love.  On a side note, someone in our area needs to open a preemie shop because it's crazy trying to find anything like that unexpectedly. 

That's all my updates for now.  I hope you're all doing well.  I'm tossing around the idea of a new blog, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Big Changes!

In my last post, several months ago, I told you all that I was looking to reinter the workforce.  I'd applied for several part time positions and had ZERO response.  Then I saw a full time position in my town's Public Works Department, and applied on a whim.  Well within 2 days I got a call back, followed by an interview on a Thursday morning, job offer by Thursday afternoon and I started working within a week.

My hours are supposed to be Monday-Friday, 8am until 4:30pm, but there's only been 2 or 3 times that I've gotten out of the office on time.  By the end of my second week, the office manager announced that she's already targeted me to be her replacement when she retires in three years.  

We shall see how this all goes.  I do like the co-workers, and I meet some REALLY "interesting" people. The family is adjusting and helping pick up the slack around the house.  The dog seems to be taking my absence the hardest. so he's my shadow when I am home.

In other news, Lindsey turned 18!  It's hard to believe the "baby" is now an adult.  She's been doing a lot of house/pet/farm sitting and has a new thing where she's milking a couple of cows pretty regularly for a family that's traveling.  All this in addition to her position at the museum.   She finished a new 1850's outfit for herself and has a little traveling to Renaissance Faire's with a couple of co-workers.

Olivia's career is thriving.  She's gone for the next several weeks, floating between several horse training centers while the owners are traveling to shows and vacations.   She's also planning her next big trip.  She's heading to Israel in March 2024.

I hope you've had a great summer!  It's hard to believe we're in September!

Weekly Wrap Up - The One With a Graduation

This past Saturday afternoon we hosted Olivia's high school graduation here at the house.  It was not what we'd originally planned, but then again, nothing has been as planned the last few months.  I'm certain that Olivia enjoyed this far more than a formal affair, so it worked out ok in the end.   Dinner was crack chicken sandwiches, macaroni salad, salad, finger foods and of course a huge celebratory cake.

Sunday morning we all went to church for the first time since March.  We attended the 9am service since the later one collides with Olivia's work schedule.   It was different as all the new rules are followed, but it's at least a step in the right direction.  The day was pretty low key other than church and Olivia's work at the farm.  Dinner was barbeque chicken and left over salad.

Monday was pretty low key here.  Bella's with her dad this week, which means she doesn't arrive until after 9:15am.  I worked on laundry, Olivia worked on job searches and online applications.  My younger brother had yet another heart procedure mid-morning.  This should be the final one, and it went smoothly.  I picked up our school food mid-morning as well.  The kids are finding out why people complain about school food, grins.  But, we are enjoying the free milk, snacks and fruits even if the meals are a little lack luster.     Dinner was left overs from Saturday's celebration.

Tuesday morning Bella was a bit later, so we had time for cup of coffee number 2 before she arrived.  It was pretty hot and muggy here.  The poor AC unit ran all day; it's 20 years old and probably should be updated, but that won't happen anytime soon.   Olivia went for a long walk around the neighborhood and noted that the eerie feeling of empty streets is now meshed with an uneasiness. In the evening, the girls were able to return to their BJJ class, sort of.  Class could resume, with no contact or sparring, and it was more of an exercise class than actual jui-jitsu.  Only the instructor and my girls showed up for the class.  They spent a lot of time talking (he's the dad of two little girls ages 5 and 1).  He was sharing his concerns for his kids as they grow up in what looks like a very different world than the rest of us have experienced.  I was happy to hear how my 17 and 14 year old kids were able to speak words of life and encouragement into him, and explain about having peace on the inside, despite the crazy on the outside.    Dinner was a combination of leftovers, and some of the school food meals, I called it a "hodgepodge".

Wednesday morning arrived with a start when the phone rang shortly after 6am.  There was an emergency at the farm and Olivia and I had to bolt out the door.  We got back just a bit before Bella arrived.  The morning was spent working on housework, and applying for more jobs on line.  Olivia and I went back to the farm mid-day to tend to the animals.   We got back to finally get the confirmation from the YMCA about Olivia's summer job.  The good news is, she isn't a group leader (with 9 kids all day every day).  Instead, she's the Assistant Site Coordinator and will be helping with supplies, cleaning and filling in for counselors for breaks/lunches and helping with activities.  The bad news is the Y had one employee test positive for the virus.   Lindsey had a pretty quick turn around, with Bella leaving at 5pm and her getting to her next babysitting gig by 5:30pm.  We had a quick dinner of fried kielbasa, mashed potatoes/gravy and corn.  

Thursday morning Bella arrived on time, and Olivia headed out for her first day of training for her new position.  I dropped her off and then went to pick up groceries.  I noticed that Aldi has stopped sanitizing carts and are requiring you to use a quarter again (this had stopped during the pandemic).  They are still limiting quantities on paper products, meat, canned goods, sugar and butter.   Walmart was crowded, with probably a 50/50 ratio of people wearing masks.  Paper products were better stocked, but a lot of grocery items were still very low, or non existent.  Olivia came home late afternoon, and shortly after her arrival received a text that two more employees at the Y have tested positive.   Her staff group, and her worksite is not housed in the Y, but at a local church, so there SHOULDN'T be an issue, ahem.    The girls headed out to jiu-jitsu in the evening. We had dinner...I'm sure of it, but I'm drawing a blank on what it was.

Friday morning Olivia had to be at work at 8:30am, so we were out the door before Bella got here. I worked on laundry and research most of the day. There's not much scheduled for the afternoon or evening.  I know we're having chilidogs and cheese fries for dinner, but that's about it.

Have a good weekend!

Class of 2020!

The original date for Olivia's graduation with our homeschool group was June 6.  Since that all got squelched due to Covid-19, we decided to just hold a small event here at the house for family members, and kept the same date.  I ordered a cake from the bakery at the grocery store and picked up a few tablecloths and decorations from the Dollar Tree.

We had a fun time celebrating, and I did a brief "ceremony" announcing her and her academic accomplishments and future plans.    As many of you know, Olivia received an academic scholarship to Bridgewater College, however she is choosing not to attend this fall.  She just doesn't feel like that's where God wants her, and we support that.  She'll spend the next year working and figuring out what her next step will be.  She is currently torn between being a K-9 handler in the military and going further in veterinary science.  Having graduated at 17 gives her time to explore life before having to make such big decisions with a limited knowledge/experience base.

Then we celebrated in style with food, good conversation and laughter.

Here's Olivia with my two brother's.  As you can see, she did not inherit the height gene from my side of the family.

Next we have the grandparents, and you can definitely see where the height genes came from. (grins)

The only non-blood relatives we had were my BFF Donna and her husband Mike and the couple that mentors Olivia at the farm.

 Lastly, here we are with our baby girl.  It's hard to believe this season of life is over.

Lindsey was taking all the photos, and we somehow managed not to get any pictures of the two of them on my camera, sigh.

Weekly Wrap Up - Goodbye April

This past Saturday was Olivia's 17th birthday.  For obvious reasons it was a lot more lowkey than usual.  We started her day off with a breakfast of bacon, sourdough French toast, with Nutella and fresh strawberries.  The extended family had sent birthday cards through the mail, so I held those to give her with her gifts.  Her official gift from us hasn't arrived yet.  Disregard her bed head in the first photo.

My brother came in the evening to have dinner with us.   Olivia had requested crack chicken sandwiches and cheese fries for dinner.   Her birthday cake was devils food with homemade frosting, and we also had ice cream that I've been hiding away in the freezer since the first weeks of social distancing.  I've been snatching things here and there when they were available and ended up having some delicious meals for the day!

We ended up watching King Arthur, Legend of the Sword (201) on Roku.  Olivia and I really liked the movie (we're into sword fights and the whole good kicking evil's butt theme.)   We liked the humor, and the valor.  There was a little foul language, with one gratuitous drop of the f-bomb.  However, compared to the DC and Marvel movies, it was very tame.

Sunday was chilly and rainy again.  We had church online with Elevation Church again at 11:30.  We spent the day binge watching Chip and Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper and napping.   Dinner was left over birthday fare.

Monday was an early start, with Jayce arriving at 6:30am.  He went straight to bed and slept until almost 9:30am.  Bella arrived around 9am (her dad's week to bring her).  Olivia and Lindsey got all their school work done early in the day.  Lindsey worked with the little kids on their reading, hand writing and math skills.  I went to pick up the free food for the kids.  Then it was time to do laundry.  You'd think the house would be spotless, but trust me, it's not.  After naptime the girls took the littles for an afternoon walk.  They returned sometime later with a small kid on each of their backs.  Apparently these little kids aren't used to be outside doing a great deal.  We'll have to rectify that once the rainy season is over.   Late evening brought a 2-hour zoom meeting for Olivia and her youth group.   Dinner was flounder, great northern beans, cornbread and pineapple.

In case you missed it on Monday, I also had a blog post about Medicinals in Your Flower Bed and Herb Gardens.  I'm trying to do my part to help people think outside the box now, and for the future.

Tuesday our day started a little later, since we didn't have Jayce; and Bella didn't arrive until 9am.   At 10am, Lindsey had a 2 hour babysitting gig (4 kids) on the street behind us.  Lindsey subbed out to Olivia to watch Bella.   I took Olivia on a longer driving lesson after lunch.  She's improving, but sharp right turns are still a challenge.

I had a graduation executive committee meeting online at 7.  There are 3 of us on the committee.  Last week, we sent out an anonymous survey to try and get a feel for who is/isn't wanting to proceed with graduation if/when we can do one.  We had 10 graduates, one pulled out completely last week...so out of the remaining 9, 5 voted no graduation, 4 voted for graduation to be held.   May 11 is our next full committee meeting, and it falls several days after one of our governor's executive orders is supposed to expire.  That will at least let us see if he extends this particular order and give us a bit more direction as to what we think he's going to do.  I will tell you, I was one of the 5 who voted not to do a graduation at this point, not because I'm worried about the virus, but because it's become to much of a train wreck to be enjoyed.

Wednesday was a lovely warm day.  Both girls finished their school work early. Lindsey took Bella out to play in the sun and fresh air and Olivia decided to sunbathe.  I spent most of the day deep cleaning the kitchen (washing down the cabinets, decorations, appliances, windows and floor).  I went ahead and deep cleaned both bathrooms after the kitchen was done.  I love the smell of a freshly scrubbed home.    Dinner was homemade Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes/gravy and fresh asparagus.   Lindsey has deemed Wednesday as "cookie night" so she made cookies for us after dinner.

Thursday's early morning brought more high winds and heavy rain.  Bella arrived very late (9:30am), which threw my schedule for the morning off.  I don't like to leave home when there's a dad dropping off a childcare client.  I know this dad, and have no concerns about him, but I don't like to leave any room for error.  Typically I'm out the door before 9am to hit the grocery store and be back across town by 10:45 to pick up the school food. I ended up waiting to pick up school food first, then headed to the stores.  Thankfully the heavy rain seemed to keep people in so it wasn't super crowded.

Both girls finished up their Health and Nutrition class for the year.  Lindsey also completed her Consumer Science class for the year.  Lindsey has about a week or so of language arts left, and both girls still have Spanish 2 to finish up.

We had hamburgers (fresh from the butcher) and chips for dinner.  Then we started binge watching the first season of  the Masked Singer, this was SO entertaining!  We got through the first 4 weeks worth of shows.

Friday was my brother's birthday.  Once Bella got here I headed out to the bakery for hummingbird cake.  Then I was on the road to spend the day with him.  The kids got their school work done and took care of the house while I was gone.   We made homemade pizza's for dinner, and then binge watched the rest of season 1 of The Masked Singer.   All we have left to watch is the final show, that'll be tomorrow (we ran out of time tonight).

Have a great weekend!

Meet My Girls

Olivia is my oldest child.  She’s officially “middle school” this year as she heads into 6th grade.  She loves animals, and enjoys music and art as well.  She also enjoys cheerleading.

Olivia’s true  passion is ballet. She is in her 7th year of classical ballet.  She carries herself  totally different when she’s on stage, and it’s a truly beautiful thing to watch.

Lindsey is my 4th grader.   She has the most vivid imagination of any child I’ve ever been around.  She loves building with Lego’s and is  in her 6th year of classical ballet.

Although Lindsey is naturally gifted where ballet is concerned, her passion is basketball.   She attends every basketball clinic I can find for her, and her goal is to make the middle school girls basketball team at our local private school.

Interestingly enough, the basketball and cheer photos were taken the day before the ballet photos.  It’s amazing how different a person can appear, just by the outfit and a little make up.  Regardless of any of that, they are mine and I’m so proud of each one of my girls!

Check out everyone else’s back to school photos, at Student Photo Week.

The Stars of Our Homeschool

It’s Student Photo Week at the Not-Back-to-School Hop at iHomeschool Network.

First up is my 5th grader, Olivia.   She’s my introverted, math loving, hands on learner.   Olivia is learning to be comfortable with who she is, not necessarily by choice but because a great deal of her peers at church and other activities snub her, she’s learning to let it roll off her back with a shrug of the shoulders.  Typically you can find her playing with younger children, and having a great time, because she’s not “too grown up” to be silly.

Next is Lindsey, my 3rd grade student.   Lindsey is my extrovert to the maximum.  If there is no party, Lindsey will make one happen.  She’s my wide open, lets have fun, imaginative/creative child.   Lindsey is very concerned about the feelings of other and if a very passionate child.   She’s also an exceptionally bright child, which can get her into trouble at times, ahem.

These are my greatest accomplishments in life.

Locks of Love 2013

Despite the impending doom of today’s “mega storm”, which as of this writing has never materialized, we headed out for our annual hair donation to Locks of Love.   Between the three of us we had a lot of hair.

And then…there was less, a lot less.

Lindsey’s hair turned out TOTALLY cute. 

Olivia’s hair turned out well, but not quite like I’d envisioned it.  They thinned it, which I didn’t ask for, so now it has lots layers underneath.  I’m thinking a bun is going to be really difficult.

Mine was supposed to stay at the shoulder.  Didn’t happen.  Oh well, it’ll grow back eventually.  Sigh.

10 Years Later

Ten years ago today I lay in a hospital bed after suffering through almost 72 hours of a botched induction.  The last five of those hours were spent in hard labor, with no epidural.  Yes pushing for 5 hours.   The doctor informed us that Olivia was stuck, and that no matter what he did, he would “damage” her.  So he wanted to “wait and see”.

My wonderful Christian nurse was called out to go into an emergency c-section with another woman.  God instantly prompted me to start praying for the other mother and child, and so I lay there praying out loud for this stranger.  My new nurse scolded me “You need to worry about yourself and your baby, you’re in trouble.”  Yet I knew, that this other woman, whom I had never met, was going into surgery to save her child and she needed prayers.   Between contractions, and through clinched teeth I prayed for that woman and baby from the very depths of my being.

Suddenly something changed.  Whatever obstacle had been in the way had moved and the doctor announced “we’re about to have a baby”.   After just a few minutes of obedient prayer for a stranger, Olivia had popped loose and was entering the world.  Then just as quickly the doctor said “whatever you do, DON’T PUSH!”   The cord had wrapped tightly around Olivia’s neck, not once, but twice.  She was blue and silent when she arrived.  

Then God Himself breathed life into her and she began to wail.  Goodness how she wailed.  For the first 6 weeks of her life she did nothing but wail.  At one point I looked at my husband and said “I can’t do this the rest of my life.” 

Today Olivia turned 10.  She’s quiet, and thoughtful.  I can’t imagine what life would be like without her.  I barely remember what it was like before she was born.  She’s taught me a lot of things in these 10 years, far more than I’ve taught her.   She is my hardest fought battle, she is my greatest victory.

Yearbook Time

One of the things I love about our co-op is that we have a year book! I know it’s not a big deal to some people, and life wouldn’t be meaningless without a yearbook.   However, I think it’s nifty that the kids will have something besides my blog to look back at in 20 years.

We are fortunate to have a very talented photographer in our group.  Margaret does a wonderful job!  I can’t wait to see the entire yearbook, but for now here are the girls yearbook photos!   Maybe I’m just a bit biased, but I think they are just gorgeous.

2012-2013

Lindsey, 2nd grade, age 7.

Olivia, 4th grade, age 9.

My Babies (aka–Student Photo Week)

This week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop we are highlighting our students.  You know how moms are, any opportunity to share photos of our kids, right?!

Meet my 4th grader, Olivia.  She’s my musical child.  She loves to sing, dance, play piano and learns best when facts are put to music.  She is my quiet, peace loving child.  Olivia also enjoys chocolate (ahem), tennis, swimming and loves history.

Lindsey is my 2nd grader.  Lindsey is a talker, my how she talks. She also loves ballet, baseball and anything to do with babies.  She’s my imaginative child.  Imaginary friends as well as characters from books and movies frequent our home.    In Lindsey’s imaginary world, anything can become one of her “kids”….even a Nutcracker.

 

I’d love to “meet” your kids as well.  Don’t forget to link up to Student Photo Week and do some bragging too!