Wrapping Up My Jesus Year

 33 was good to me. 

People call it their Jesus year. A year of personal growth. 

And boy was that true. 

In this past year, I have relaunched my career life in an even bigger way that worked best for my family. In my own time, so I can still be present. It wasn't always easy in pandemic times, but it's been wonderful to contribute again financially. 

In this past year, I have grown spiritually. Drawing closer to Jesus and my faith community. I even managed to stand up and talk for 30 minutes about my faith in front of a lot of women in what was truly one of the most meaningful weekends of my entire life. 

I have deepened friendships, read a lot of books, watched a lot of shows. Both live and on screen.

Fulfilled some dreams and dreamt up some more. 

33 was a good year. 

And I am excited to see what 34 will bring. 

Walking out of this Jesus year hand in hand with my love, no real clue what's ahead but I've got reasons to celebrate anyway. And I love birthdays. 

The First Big Outing

 We took the kids on an outing on Saturday. 

Since March, C has been to Home Depot once. M went to Target once. But that was a long time ago now. We went to the museum once, without Husband. We have been to Mass. And playgrounds. But that's it. 

So we decided that it was time to try a full family outing. And we are so glad we did. 

We went to see a children's show that was less than an hour long. We sat at a table 6ft away from other guests and the capacity was limited. 

We bought these tickets on a whim a few weeks ago and I think we were probably the first tickets sold since we we in the front row center. Which was absolutely perfect! 

After the show, M wanted to take her picture with Rapunzel. (It was Rapunzel in the Wild West) I will say that the Wild West theme worked well since everyone in the cast had their bandana mask and it was thematically appropriate. The whole experience felt very safe. 

Afterward, we went to Red Robin for Linner. It was 2:00. The kids have been wanting to go out for a long time and none of us had been to a restaurant or bar since the virus started. Husband has gotten us take out but that's all. I had my birthday burger to use and we figured that it was as good as time as any to try eating out again. 

Because it was 2:00 there was almost no one there. (Masks were required until you were at your table.) So it also felt very safe. And more importantly, it was so nice for us to do something as a whole family. We really needed that. It felt so good and normal. 

And now we are enjoying our last 2 weeks of summer. Today would have been our first day but they pushed it back. That was actually why we bought the tickets to the play, we saw our school's play on March 12, right before Spring Break was going to start. So we figured seeing a play right before Spring Break Summer ended was appropriate too. 

Painting Bees

Last night I had the chance to go to an outdoor paint night with my friend. Actually, everyone who was there was wonderful but I specifically went with my friend. We both have no visual art talent but it was really fun. 

It was a fundraising event for our high school youth to go to camp in the fall. Since they couldn't go in the summer. 

I had so much fun and I am so thankful for the time with other adults. It was the exact break I needed. 

 

Life Keeps Moving

 I think nearly everyone around here has power again. There are maybe a few that don't but all of our friends now do! The line trucks from all over the country have been doing good work. 

We have been playing croquet. (Or crochet as C calls it, or kerplunk as M calls it. And yes, I laugh every time!) 

We went to an outdoor concert featuring some friends in a band. They play yacht rock and it's a hoot. It was a benefit concert for the charity, they normally have a speaker in the spring but... COVID. So this was a way to get some donations. We had a nice physically distanced time. 

We started building up our mask stamina today. Doing a little bit of work to start our brains thinking again and wearing our masks while we do it. It's not anyone's favorite. 

Luckily we have a few more weeks to get used to them before it's full time. 

All The Things On Friday

 Friday! 

You guys, I don't know what the news is showing where you live but Iowa is just absolutely destroyed. We are so very lucky because there are still so many people in the state without power. There are linemen working around the clock but Iowa isn't built for hurricanes. Our houses aren't built for them and our trees don't bend, they break. (Or just completely uproot.) 

The huge trees are just on the ground. Businesses are closed. Without power, no one can get gas. (To drive further to get supplies or run the generators if you're lucky enough to have one.) And this is during a stupid pandemic so some supplies are scarce anyway. And this storm also happened without any warning or time to prepare. 

Our governor declared a huge chunk of the state a disaster area, including our county. We have close friends without electricity and no repair date in sight. Pray for Iowa, please.  

If that all wasn't enough, they decided to push the school start date back two full weeks. Which on some level is good. But it's super frustrating because just when we thought there was a plan... there suddenly isn't. 

The good news is they hired a new kindergarten teacher. And while this extra two weeks has nothing to do with our school (it was actually the public school who changed their mind and since we share busing we have to follow along) it is nice that she'll have some extra time to prepare. 

I just hope that we can still go to school. That's all I want from life right now. For them to go. Lord, Jesus can we find a way to deal with this virus? 

Here's a little Friday funny. 

Today is also a great day because it is our tenth wedding anniversary. 

This life, together, it's pretty great. 

We got ourselves some family pictures as our gift, and this is an early sneak peek. It makes me so happy. 

We are celebrating COVID style. Which means with no real celebration at all. But we will be together so that's good. 

The Derecho

 Oh, I am so thankful to be writing this post today with POWER! We are some of the lucky ones who already have power restored from the Derecho. 

Have you ever had one of those? I hadn't. But it's a "widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm with hurricane-force winds."

Monday started out pretty great. A small group gathered together for our first rosary in forever. I got to hold a tiny squishy baby who is the most living miracle I've ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on. I have prayed for this little man specifically since his momma got a positive test (and for the idea of him for even longer than that!) so it was so wonderful to hold him! 

We talked, we played, we prayed and I brought home two very dirty sweaty children. After we had lunch I popped M into the shower and then I popped C in right after. I told C he needed to get out, and he commented on how it was getting dark. I also really wanted to shower and considered hopping in for a second, then decided that I should probably wait since I could see the darkness approaching. There was a severe thunderstorm warning across the river so I decided it maybe wasn't a good idea.

We all went downstairs and M ran our to close our gate since I didn't want it waving around in the storm. She came back in and we were standing on the three-season porch together when a huge gust of wind went through. It was like nothing I'd ever seen and it had been perfectly still when M was outside. 

I told the kids they needed to go to the basement. I brought them down with a flashlight and LED lantern just in case and then I came back up. 

Husband had texted that his work had them sheltering in the stairwell. And some branches fell in the yard. I sent a text out with a picture. Then I ran out and moved our grill so it wasn't in the middle of the patio. This turned out to be a good move!

And I was watching... and it just kept getting worse. More and more things were flying through the air. Branches, huge ones were falling. We lost power at 1:49. 

By 3:00 things had calmed down enough that I let the kids come upstairs. It was still windy and drizzly but not crazy. Neighbors were outside and surveying. 

See that piece of splintered wood? It was standing completely vertical and jammed into the ground on a point! 

We were honestly so lucky! These huge branches were long and heavy but it wasn't the whole tree! Our house sustained no major damage. The gutter on the side of our garage got bent. But there were a lot of shingles in our yard that are not ours! And there was a lot of widespread damage. In our town, the top recorded wind speed was 86 mph. And I believe it. 

Monday was National S'mores Day, and we celebrated without power because why not? We also grilled the steak I was saving because no way I was going to let that go to waste. 

The most nerve-wracking part was that one branch pulled out the electric wires from our house to the garage. Our neighbor is a firefighter and he came and talked to me about how when the power was restored it could arc and start a fire so we should "keep an eye on it." Ahahaha. Or worry about it is more like it. 

We packed a "go bag" just in the absolute worst-case scenario and went to bed. 

Husband took a bag of meat and our strawberries into work yesterday to put in those freezers. He came home with ice and a Yeti cooler to keep the rest of the stuff in the freezer okay. I had already tossed what needed to go from the fridge and kitchen freezer. (The chest freezer was holding very well!) 

The power came back on last night at 10:45 so almost exactly 33 hours later. Not too shabby. There are still a lot of people here in town without power so we are very fortunate! 

With little to no warning, this Derecho could have been so much worse. Not surprisingly for 2020 everyone has been talking about how this storm, causing so much damage is "unprecedented." Just like everything else. The good news is I fully forgot there was a virus for about 24 hours! So that was actually kind of refreshing. 

Anyway, yay for power! 

Life is Good!

One day at a time right? 

We are just all smiles. Hanging with our dog friend. 

We've also been getting ready for school. The jumper matching headband came in this week. And both kids now have their school shoes. 

It's hard to stay on top of what we are going to do. So... we are just taking it all one day at a time. And smiling. Lots of prayers and smiling! Even in uncertainty, life is good. 

School

A little funny to start this off. 

So school is supposed to start here soon. I am sure, like most places, your plan has changed 97 times and probably it will change 20 more times before our kids step foot in the building... or not. 

In a strange new twist, both M's teacher and aide have put in their resignations. 

M's teacher was a year away from retirement. M's aide is the sweetest human on the planet. She is a single mom who has been working two jobs for years, and she was offered a great full-time job with benefits. And I am so happy for her and proud of her making the hard decision to leave. 

But that means we are 3 weeks out from school and M's class has no guidance. There's no one making cute door decorations with my daughter's name on it right now. Or even praying for her successful start to school. 

I know that God has a plan, I am excited to see it unfold. But I am really sad too. There's been a lot of focus on the big kids. SATs are rescheduled. Proms and graduations are canceled. And I am sad for those kids.  (I mean, the meme about getting graduation by sitting in a shower curtain outside while someone reads the phone book isn't actually all that incorrect, but still, it's a milestone.) 

But I haven't heard a whole lot about these kindergarteners. Last years or this years. They missed a huge chunk of the fun stuff. They're still learning how to learn and what school really is. And let's be real, even if these kids get to go to school, which is looking less and less likely, it's not going to be the kindergarten of old. 

I mean, it already was way more academic than probably it should be. But now there's no carpet time. No learning how to wait for the black crayon from the communal box. No hugs or high fives when they suddenly "get it." No silly songs or games. 

And so my heart just aches. For those summer birthdays or kids on the fence, I would certainly hold them. Why not wait a year and see what it looks like next fall? For all of us, parents who were going to launch their baby or their oldest and have been praying for 5 or 6 years that school be a great safe place for them, may their hearts heal a bit too. 

No one wanted this. No one asked for it. 

All kids are going to make sacrifices and adjustments. But at least the big kids understand how to roll with the punches a little. I am super sad for the littles that don't even know what it should look like. But here we are. Everyone's schooling is going to look a little different, my guess is even homeschoolers will have to adjust a little with resources and field trip options. Here's to hoping it turns out just fine! I am sure it will. 

August Already

Wow, 2020 has thrown us some curveballs, hasn't it? But, still, August arrives. Back to school will happen. What will it look like exactly, I don't know? But it will happen. 

We are just going to make the best of our August. 

We are dog sitting for the week, and bouncing between the two houses is our plan. Our house has toys so the kids were definitely ready to come home this morning! 

This first week has some lovely weather and I am looking forward to what August brings!