Updates, Updates

 There have been a lot of changes, around here. That happens when you neglect a blog that used to be your life-blood! I blame social media. Nobody wants to read essays, anymore, unless it proves their political views to be correct. 

Here are the highlights over the last 18 months: 

I turned 40! I published my first book of poetry (you can find it, here). 

Brandon and I celebrated 20... and then 21 years of marriage. 

Our oldest daughter graduated from high school, went to BYU, came home during the pandemic to finish her spring semester, and then became a missionary! She was called to Resistencia, Argentina, but due to the pandemic, she did home MTC and then was reassigned to San Antonio, TX, where she is currently serving. In fact, just this past week, my husband and I went to San Antonio to be with her as she went to the Temple for the first time. It was an amazing experience! 

Our second oldest will graduate from high school this coming school year! She is in the process of applying for colleges and has finally narrowed down her choices: BYU, BYU-ID, Yale, UPenn, and Carnegie Mellon. She has many options and has worked really hard to be able to kind of pick and choose where she goes for her secondary education route. 

Our oldest son is now a Junior! He plays football and had kind of a bummer year, this year. He contracted a pretty severe case of mono and has been unable to play in any games, this season. Luckily, he's on the mend and was just cleared to play last week. He's also getting his driver's license next week (wha?) and is busy with school and work (both he and his sister work at Chick-fil-a, just as our oldest did!). 

Son numero dos is in 8th grade this year and he is part of a string quartet (cello!). He also plays football, but thanks to sharing a room with his older brother (or something), he has contracted mono and won't be able to play for the rest of the season. 

Our 6th grade son got braces this year and is still playing the violin. He wanted to play club football, but we weren't able to sign him up in time. He spends a lot of extra time cleaning bounce houses for our bounce house business (Flint Hills Rental!), and although he's not a huge fan, he doesn't mind because he gets paid. Ha!

Then we have our 3rd grader! He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints back in March, literally one week before the world shut down (well, the United States). He also contracted mono, but bounced back from it rather quickly! 

Then baby girl started Kindergarten this Fall. I'm not sure how this is possible, since she was born just a few years, ago (haha). She loves being able to ride the bus with her big brothers and experience school --even though it looks so different from what we're used to. Our school district offered online-only school or a hybrid model. We chose the hybrid and so our kids only go to in-person school 2 days a week and the other 3 days are remote learning from home. They provided every student in the entire district with their own iPads (which is awesome!) and so all of our kids are able to do their work and attend their zoom meetings without much inconvenience. So far, so good!

Baby boy is almost 2 years old. IT IS CRAZY. I mean, I just gave birth to him last month, right? He's a fireball of energy and keeps me on my toes. He still nurses at night and naptime, and so he doesn't sleep consistently through the night, yet. He is sweet, though, and I adore his little face. As difficult as the transition was to add him to our family, we can't imagine our lives without him. He's been a true blessing! 

Hubby continues to work really hard. He teaches 5 classes at Kansas State University in the College of Business, helps run operations and tutors/teaches for an ACT Prep Course company, helps sell software for another company (customer service based), writes articles, teaches online early morning seminary for our stake, runs our bounce house business, is on a city board, helps run a local entrepreneur-based non-profit group, is in the running for a big community project and does the grocery shopping. And mows the lawn, and usually cooks dinner. He's kind of tired. LOL 

I am teaching 12 piano students, oversee the kids' remote learning, and I'm the Primary President in our ward.  I run the household, spend way too much time on social media, dream and read a lot, and wonder why I don't have more time in the day. Ha! But honestly, I am busy. It's hard to list what I do every day, but it includes a lot of dishes, children, and survival. 

We haven't done a ton of travel over the last few years, but we have managed a few family reunions, and we've been able to host family here in Kansas. Life is still difficult and we are making our way through the very best that we can. 

I'm hoping that I might be able to use this blog to write, again. I feel the need to start expressing myself through writing again, and I need to practice. I've gotten out of the habit and I feel that my abilities are waning, a little bit... I also need a place to vent my views about politics, religion, social matters, and my personal journey. Since this blog has never been popular (and I don't see myself sharing much from it on social media), I feel it might be a somewhat safe place to write. We shall see! I've always loved this little blog of mine. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. 

Have a great weekend, dear reader!