Little Glimpses into our Life

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I’ll start with some pics from the last few weeks of homeschool life. A couple of highlights included dress-like-a-book-character day at CC, a Challenge B field trip to explore Ralph Moody (the author who wrote Little Britches) related places, and Mock Trial Boot Camp. Please note the amazing banner Micah is holding on costume day – I sewed it myself. Ha! Micah was very appreciative and thankfully didn’t look at it too closely.

Other happenings include a playdate at friend’s house so that I could have some relaxing time solo, a sick day for Micah with a little cold, a visit from Auntie Mel to help with weaving, lots of chess with Uncle Joel, watching cousin Matthew’s play (he was a hilarious Sheriff Nottingham!), reviewing games and playing chess with Dad, and a quick solo trip for the boys to go say hello to neighbors on Halloween. Micah also does a lot of Risk Legacy playing, even by himself. And I am back to doing some walks as my foot seems to be healing decently.

Last weekend we were able to host a friend from Safe Families for the weekend. We played lots of games, enjoyed some outside time, and did a lot of LEGO, including making mini-figs representing each of us. Things went extremely well. Micah also went to graduation to get his green belt that Saturday. Here’s a video of him sparring his coach and here’s one of him breaking the board. Micah’s putting his first beads of sweat on his new belt in the one that looks odd. =)

This past Sunday the boys had the opportunity to play percussion in church with part of our children’s choir. We were missing a lot of families, which was a shame, but the boys really enjoyed trying out the cojone and djembe. They’ve been taking lessons with Mr. Kyle. Here’s a link to the service. Their song is at the end (1:12:21).

We have also had our first snows. This meant we had to bring in all of our remaining produce and we could enjoy hot chocolate.

Another Guy Weekend and Retreat for Mama!

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Amy and I try to get up to the mountains to retreat twice a year. The timing on this one fell on the heels of a very busy season for our family, but we didn’t want to wait too long. The weather becomes more and more unpredictable as time passes. In fact, we had gorgeous weather in Winter Park until Sunday morning when it began snowing. Thankfully, Amy braved the mountain roads like a champ to get us back safely.

We stayed at an airbnb for the first time and had a lot of great food, including something called, “chimneys”. My foot has still been bugging me, so we were a little more cautious in our hiking excursions this time. But, of course, we still got out there! We love hiking and processing all about life throughout the weekend and always return home feeling very refreshed.

Meanwhile, the guys enjoyed a day on the Reservoir. Micah had much to say about the weekend upon my arrival. Sounds like they had a great time together, as usual. =)

A Full Couple of Weeks

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We’ve had a pretty full fall season thus far. Mike arrived home from India, and the next weekend I enjoyed our church’s women’s retreat in Breckenridge. Our church was hosting Family Promise families for two weeks starting that weekend and our family took on a new role providing breakfast and lunch foods for them, so Mike and the boys spent some time setting things up at church while I was enjoying those mountains. The guys also enjoyed lots of good food at home and at a new-ish restaurant nearby. =D

The following week Mikey was off to Minnesota. But the boys and I had a nice week. Occasionally Micah feels the need to send Mike pictures of his meals. And sometimes I feel the need to just snap a picture of them hanging out together. The new sheet-curtain situation is working very well, even though it does need to be shortened a bit. We also went to church to provide a Family Promise dinner one of those nights he was gone. Pictures aren’t usually allowed (and not really my style), but I did snap a quick one of a bunch of books we brought over to add some extra diversity to the church library. On Friday, we hosted some friends for the day and really enjoyed that.

Upon Mike’s return, we hosted siblings from Safe Families for the weekend. It feels like it’s taken quite a while to get this scheduled. It’s such a gift to be able to serve together and to open our home. Things went really smoothly (I mean, don’t get me wrong, we had our fair share of coaching to do – both for our boys and theirs) for our first time together and we’ll be continuing to build this relationship in the coming months. Much of our time together was spent playing games and LEGO. On Saturday night we all made our own personal pizzas. And on Sunday, they joined us at church. The older of the two boys already asked his grandma when he could come back to our house again!

And here are some pictures of the crazy antics the boys have been up to lately. They use a rope to tow one seated person on a skateboard. It’s crazy. I don’t love it. But I’m trying to say, “yes” to risks that aren’t utterly insane. =)

Back to “normal” life…

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I’m not really sure we ever have a normal pace to life, but here’s a quick few shots from what poses as normal life.

Featured below are pics from time with buddies (neighbors in the backyard on a Sunday afternoon and celebrating a birthday boy with a game of spoons after a delicious meal together); Micah playing chess; Micah getting Red Zone ready for everyone to watch as much of the Packer game as they showed; Micah at his desk with his new pictures framed in the background; Micah’s perfect score on a geography quiz; and some pictures from my walk during piano lessons this week. Such a beautiful day!

While Mike worked in India…

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we played in Colorado with Grandpa and Grandma. My folks drove out for their fall visit to overlap with the two weeks Mike would be working in India. We had a little bit of time all together at the start of their visit, but most of the time he was in India. My mom ended up flying back home for some meetings in Wisconsin, but my dad stuck around until the Saturday Mike flew in. So we ended up only having about twelve hours of time on our own. What a sweet, sweet gift this was to us!

We spent the second day they drove out finishing up some school (this is Micah watching the Introductory Logic videos with Ethan) and tracking their whereabouts on our map.

Here are a couple of pictures from while Mike was still in town. This included the first of two Packer picnics.

They arrived on my mom’s birthday, but we didn’t do the official celebrating until Sunday afternoon at the Melting Pot.

We were able to connect with Mike at some point during most of his days in India. It’s never easy, but it was nice to have little touch points at random times throughout his visit there.

One of the lovely things about my parents’ visits is that we can just experience daily life together. We kept up with school the whole time they were here, and my dad got a few pictures of us doing that together. We also did a lot of just regular life around the house. And my dad and Ethan went birding most mornings. Micah joined at least once, but he was pretty content to stay back at home.

They also joined us for CC and my dad got some pictures of regular rhythms there.

We also always get some projects done around the house while they are here. My mom made us curtains and a new pillow cover for downstairs. My dad put up the curtain rod for Micah’s *eventual* sheet to separate school from Lego. He also helped each boy to do some framing and matting of pictures to decorate their desk areas. Micah also worked with my dad to build a bug hotel for our backyard.

My mom spent some time working on crafts with each of the boys. E learned how to weave (Auntie Mel helped with this, too) and Micah learned some of the first steps to knitting.

Other highlights included Packer picnics, chess with Uncle Joel and a visit to Boulder to see my Dad’s sister and her family. I hadn’t seen my cousin since a couple months after Mikey and I got married.

We also had the pleasure of celebrating my Dad’s birthday with hime before he left for the solo drive back home. I think this was the first time since before college that I was able to be in person with both of my parents on their birthdays. That was very special for me.

The following morning we snapped a few pictures before saying goodbye until Christmas! We were all so very thankful to have this time with them.

Life Lately

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Before I get to a post about life while Mikey was in India, I’ll get us caught up with some regular life rhythms. The order won’t be quite right, I’m sure, but it covers the beginning of September 2022.

We’ve continued to make little updates to our home. We finally replaced a very old piano bench that was shedding pieces of faux leather all over. We got a lamp downstairs and switched around the guest bedroom.

Mikey went fishing with our dear family friends. It meant that I had the whole morning and much of the afternoon to myself. I spent some of it reading, some of it prepping for school, and some of it cleaning. But it was definitely glorious to have some time solo at the house. =)

We enjoyed some time with Reggie (always a treat!) and also got out to play tennis together nearby. I snapped a quick pic of the boys staying up reading one night. It’s a sight that makes me so happy! And Uncle Joel has been coming over on Friday afternoons to play chess with the boys. They are LOVING this extra special time with him.

Mike traveled a lot in September. He had his annual guys’ trip, a trip to NY for the Primal Path kickoff event, and a trip to Minnesota for his work picnic. (Not to mention India) In the meantime, he played in a golf tourney and got his second hole-in-one ever. Pretty exciting. Micah wrote him a note after one of those trips to welcome him home. We had run in our friends’ fundraising run and my foot has been sore ever since. Lame. But worth it. We also went to a second reception for my cousin at a park up the street. It was lots of fun. A ridiculously fun thing happened there: the boys were sitting at a table with every one of their teachers for this year (except tutors from CC and their piano teacher). They each had their Sunday School teachers at the table, me (obviously), and their drum teacher. Mikey was home in time to enjoy our annual church service and picnic at Long Scraggy. He always manages to squeeze in some fun with the boys while he’s home. He got in a workout with Micah and replaced his old bike. He also has been spending every morning with Ethan doing the Primal Path study together.