Come What May and Love It!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Back home

Day three of 2013 we said goodbye to Kerri, Jeff, and our cute cousins and headed home laden with books and goodies for the trip. It is SO, SO neat to live just a few short hours from family.

Thank you Keffi and Jerr! We love you!

At home we spent a last few moments with the Christmas tree. . .

. . . and then my little helpers began packing it away.

To remember: KD's favorite Christmas song is "jing-gl-in', jing-gl-in', jing-gl-in wock" and her little voice saying, "Chwismas" is one of the sweetest things ever.

One more weekend and then a whole new year really begins.

The past year and a half, Sarah, Timo, and Caden did school online through k12.

This fall, Sarah wanted to do 2nd grade at the elementary school.

The boys and I continued with k12, but in addition, Caden took computers and band at the middle school and Timo did library and P.E. at the elementary school.

And now, once again, the only thing that is constant in life - change - has come knocking.

Timo is starting full time at the elementary school on Monday and Caden will go to the middle school at the semester change.

It's very difficult for me to let go of the good things of any given situation.

There were many good things about having the boys and Sarah at home. I get a little teary just thinking about not having them anymore - even getting on the k12 site makes my eyes get wet. Yet I know that it is time for me to put some time into other children, Jeremy, and things like. . . well. . . fixing dinners, laundry, and cleaning the house. That sounds so lame. . . excepting the part about the other children and my spouse.

So that is my most important New Year's resolution. . .

To put the extra time I'm now going to have, into strengthening relationships with ALL the members of my family and not letting my list of "to do" things get so long that I run around like a chicken with my head cut off. . . again, just like a year and a half ago.

Here's to sitting down and reading books with my 2 youngest,

watching Taffy at her gymnastics class,

having a snack ready for each wave of children as they come home,

going on walks with Jeremy,

taking some time to learn a new song on the piano,

actually giving regular piano lessons to the kids,

going to the park with the younguns,

shooting hoops outside,

going to library story time,

actually having a moment to plan and ponder,

going to the store in the morning instead of when I'm exhausted at night,

the possibilities are endless really.

So, welcome 2013. We're going to make you a good one.

Friday, January 4, 2013

LA Zoo

The 2nd day of 2013 we headed to the Los Angeles Zoo.

Fiona wanted to see an American zoo before she heads back to Germany in June.

Caden got hold of the camera and took MANY wildlife pics.

Here's 2 of his best.

The gorillas were a favorite.

Although it's kind of freaky to see a creature that looks at you with intelligent eyes, all shut up in an enclosure.

And kind of sad when it's huddled up in a corner in a fetal-like position.

(Sarah and Taffy are demonstrating)

Here are some monkeys of our own. . .

We unanimously voted the playful otters and the baby "pig" that ran around crazy for 5 full minutes our favorites.

It's been many months since we've had an outing all together,

and it was fun to share it with cousins (who have an awesome stroller to boot).

Walking around enjoying each other and the surroundings, my mind wandered back over the decade and a half that we've had children. It used to be a little blonde Jaycie, in the same jacket KD is wearing, riding on Jeremy's shoulders as we had adventures down in the gully.

And there used to be a bunch of little kids to chase after in the museums, zoos, and aquariums of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Flint, Houston, etc., etc. instead of a bunch of teenagers who are as tall as I am.