Month: May 2020

Covid-19, Kate, Lexi, William

Coved-19 week 10

peanutsmiles

Lexi, William and Kater-Taters,

Hallelujah!! School is out. For Summer. After 10 weeks of distance learning, we are done. To say this experience has been a journey is a minor statement. I felt like we started off strong with schedules, a routine and consistency. However, with each passing week and warmer weather each one of those things deteriorated a little bit. We kept trying to adapt and adjust and find something that worked and I think the constant adaptation was the only thing that did work.

Lexi, I know you act differently with Daddy and I than you do at school, but boy am I grateful for all that your teachers do. As hard as these last 10 weeks have been, I’m also really grateful for them. It has been really wonderful to have special 1:1 time with you and be more involved in your school work. I can see areas that you get excited about (Art & Science) and areas that you need a little extra help in (math). Now I know the things we can do at home to give you that extra practice to build up your confidence. Your reading also has really improved a lot these last 10 weeks. We have been much more consistent in read-out-louds and you’re getting better and faster everyday. I’m so proud of you.

William, you have been done with school for a few weeks and I’m astonished at how much you have grown and learned this year. At the beginning of the year, the only letter you knew was ‘W’ and now, not only can you identify the uppercase and lowercase, you can write them and identify the sounds they make. You are thoughtful, respectful, a good listener and very inquisitive about how things work. I am so excited for you to go to Kindergarten next year and really have very little stress or worries about it. I know you are going continue to learn and love kindergarten.

This week, Daddy also started working on remodeling our Master closet. The space hasn’t been working for us for quite some time, so it will be nice to get some drawers and and more hanging space and have things be a bit more organized.

As excited as I am for school to be complete for the year, I’m also a little scared about what this summer is going to look like. We can not continue to ask you guys to brush your teeth 7 times and nobody doing it. We just can’t fight these battles everyday. So starting on Monday, you kids need to brush your teeth, get dressed, do a chore and some of your workbooks before you can play outside, watch TV or play with toys. We need to get into some kind of routine where the basic things aren’t so challenging.

As far as Covid goes—the stay at home order in Minnesota was officially lifted and many stores were able to open back up. Restaurants, salons and experiences that are harder to social distance are still closed, but should be able to open in early June. About 100,000 people have died in the US from Covid at this point with the sweeping majority of them being 80+. As awful as it is to know so many people are passing, it is encouraging to know that most people contracting the virus are recovering at home and it isn’t quite as scary as I thought it was going to be when this all started to unfold 10 weeks ago.

That is all for now my favorite little monkeys. It is Memorial Day weekend and we’re looking forward to an outdoor BBQ at Grammy and Papas. Let’s have an awesome summer!!

Love,

Mommy

Covid-19, Kate, Lexi, William

Covid-19 Week 9

peanutsmiles

Munchkins,

I’m not sure if it was the sunshine and the 70 degree temperature today but this week was a pretty good week. Pushing the school work to the evening has really helped my mental sanity and Lexi is a lot more cooperative about completing it in the evening. Next week will be the last week any assignments are given with the last official ‘day’ being May 29th!!

You three have been really really good about cleaning up your toys. All toys have been picked up every single night since last Monday so you didn’t lose any additional ones and even earned back all the ones you lost–which are all still sitting in a bin untouched, so it shows how much you really ‘missed’ those toys.

The whining, complaining and attitude was maybe a tinch better–but still needs some work. Lexi lost TV & iPad for two days because she turned on YouTube without asking and then lost playing with Luke for the week for lying to us three times in a row. William also lied and lost playing with Luke for two days.

Yesterday, we did a good-bye parade for William’s preschool. We were able to give teacher gifts and pick up all of William’s things and then headed out to the Vossen’s to wish Avery a Happy Birthday. It was nice to get out of the house and also see some friends, even if it was only 20 minutes.

Daddy did a great job of keeping you out of my hair this week so I could work. Last night, I worked from 9:30 until 2:30am (and have done that about once a week). As hard as it is to work late into the night like that, is one of the few times I can actually focus and dig into some stuff without being interrupted or distracted every 30 minutes by one of you kids, have a meeting or be IM’d by someone. It also does help reduce some of my anxiety.

As a result, Daddy works in the evening from 6-11:30 or so while I do dinner, dishes, clean-up, baths and bedtime. It makes for some long days, for both of us. It isn’t ideal, but is manageable and better than you three running rampant.

The governor also lifted the stay at home order and ‘allowed’ people to start gathering in groups of 10 or less with retail stores able to open to a 50% capacity. Salons, restaurants, bars etc… are still closed with the hope of opening June 1st.

Today the weather was beautiful–sunny and 70 all day. You guys literally played outside from about 10 am until 7. You three plus Luke and Anna played in the sandbox, rode scooters, played hide and seek, played on the swing set, played Star Wars and Decendants and there was almost no tattling or crying. Daddy even was able to golf with Uncle Joe this afternoon. It was a good day. Daddy

Here’s to more days like today!!

Love,

Mama

Day to Day, Kate, Lexi, William

Mother’s Day 2020

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Lexi, William and Kate,

One of my favorite things about Mother’s Day is ability to reflect on the indescribable amount of gratitude I have for all of the mother’s in my life, the role that I play in your lives and the role you play in my life.

The photo below was taken at 9:00 tonight, in the middle of our bedtime routine. It is far from perfect. But I love it. It represents our life today. Blurry. Everyone focused on something else.  Full of laughter and joy.

The three of you are my greatest blessings, best teachers, proudest accomplishment, biggest challenge and without a doubt my biggest worry. It is amazing how you three little can bring so much joy and fear at the same time.

To my first born, Lexi, who made me a mom. You are blossoming into a kind, fun and adventurous little girl. Your teachers say you are kind to all of your classmates and everyone always wants to play with you. You have an incredible imagination and love love to play with your toys and have taught your brother and sister how to use their imaginations as well. You watch out for them, but are extremely competitive and always looking for an opportunity to beat them. You’re weary of new people and experiences and are gaining courage to explore new things and almost always love them. I look forward to reading together at bed each night–hearing you learn to read and reading to you too. I love to hear how you process things in the books, how you’re feeling or just general observations.

To William the Badger, who made me a boy mom. I’m in awe of how thoughtful, tender and caring you are to your sisters, friends and cousins. You just do things (without being asked or told) to be nice to your sisters, like taking their laundry up the stairs or stopping playing because you were worried about Kenzie getting hurt. You have a heart of gold. You rarely talk back or have attitude and just go with the flow. You love learning and only want to read non-fiction books or watch non-fiction shows. You love to run, play soccer, ride your bike, play with your sisters, draw, do puzzles, play dinosaurs and cuddle at night. I love how much comfort you find in us laying with you while you fall asleep, often listening to you ask questions or process the events of the day.

To Kate, the bookend baby in my journey as a mom. You are silly, loud, confident, demanding and joyful. I love watching you experience joy in the small things of life, like a flower, an extra treat, or seeing your nooknee. Your eyes dance with excitement and it is impossible not to smile watching your expressions. You move a million miles a minute and will not be pushed around by your big brother and sister. You love bunnies (nooknees), the color purple, Lexi, Badgie, and being outside. I love when you snuggle your whole body on mine, pull up your shirt and beg for your back to be rubbed.

And to my own mom who has and continues to teach me how to create a warm, safe and nurturing environment for you three kids to grow up in. She taught me the importance of family, built and exposed me to faith, showed the importance of friendship, instilled importance of working hard, the value of a good education, giving back to your community and so much more. But of all of those things the most valuable was giving me the space and ability to figure out how I bring those foundational values elements into our home and family.

Your grammy is a pretty incredible woman and I owe so much of who I am and where I am to her. I pray that if I can be even half of the mom to you three that she was to me, we should be in pretty good shape.

Thank you Lexi, William & Kate for being three of the most incredible and happy things of my life. I love you more than you can ever know.

Love,

Mom

Covid-19, Kate, Lexi, Uncategorized, William

Covid 19–week 8

peanutsmiles

Lexi, William & Kate,

Deep breaths are things I often remind myself to do. This week was really, really hard for me and felt I was very close to breaking down. Work is crazy busy right now and the lack of routine is making things a bit challenging. It felt like everything was just unraveling. You three kids were running wild and doing whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. Monday afternoon, I came outside to find you had rattled through an entire box of popsicles. You each ate three popsicles one after another, without asking. Toys, dishes and clothes were scattered throughout the house and the attitude, whining and talking back was out of control and we needed to make changes.

First was the toys. Anything that wasn’t picked up off the floor before bed time became mine. After lots of warnings about picking things up, toys were still all over the place when bedtime came. There were some big tantrums thrown as a result, and I picked up an entire bin of toys that became mine until you could go for a week with all toys being put away each night. But, I haven’t had to do it again yet. You have picked things up every night.

Next was having Daddy or I be near you guys at all times and not having both of us try and work at the same time. This allows one of us to actually focus on work and not be distracted by your constant interruptions. This mostly means Daddy has you for the days and I have you guys at night, since I’m in meetings all day.

Next was sticking to the punishments for talking back, doing things without asking and lying. Lots of timeouts were given and Lexi lost TV for the week for lying about the popsicles and blaming it on Luke.

This isn’t perfect and we still need to work on some sort of routine to help make our days more predictable and figure out a better schedule of work for Daddy and I. But, it is a start.

Considering we are 2 months into quarentene, it feels like you guys are pretty unaffected by it. You definitely prefer going to school and learning from your teachers versus us. You have also made some comments like ‘It feels weird to be driving in a car Mom. We don’t really ride in the car anymore.’ You haven’t been into a store since before we went to Florida. Most stores are asking only one person from a family shops and some stores don’t even allow people under the age of 16 inside. Occasionally, Kate will request that she wants to come to the store with me and says, ‘The Virus is all gone away now. I can come with you’. And William refers to it as the Corony Virus. But given all of the changes that you have gone through, you seem to roll through each day unaffected. You love to play with each other more than ever and have even taught Kate how to play your ‘stories’ and rarely, if ever, complain about not being able to do something because of the virus.

As far as the macro-economy goes–over 36 million people have filed for unemployment as businesses have been forced to temporarily close. More than 80,000 people have died in the United States–with more than 80% of them being 80+ years old. Children have been pretty unaffected–meaning they show very mild symptoms or no symptoms. Our official stay-at-home order started March 27th and is expected to lift May 18th as most business have put plans together to re-open in what the government deems a safe way. This mostly means a limited number of people in stores, closed or limited dressing rooms, employees and customers wearing masks and truly going to a store for a given purpose and not to just shop and browse.

One of the most challenging elements of this whole situation is knowing what to believe and how to navigate as a result. Most of the news outlets are telling the narrative that everyone’s life is at risk, which is different than what the actual numbers reflect. Doctors and people that have different opinions or data than what is being shared in the news are silenced. They post something on social media and their posts are removed in what is being stated as a ‘content violation’. Yet nobody can explain what a content violation is? Or why is it a content violation? Are individuals not allowed to have and share different opinions? There are facts out there stating the US was funding the research of the lab where this virus came from in China. There are rumors out there that big pharma companies are behind this. Politicians are taking advantage of this situation by trying to work their personal agendas into bills that need to pass. Then, there are people who won’t see anyone and think they are going to die if they get this virus, which they might, but pretty unlikely based on the numbers being reported. Then, there are people who think this whole thing is completely over-exaggerated and think we should just continue to operate as we normally do. It is confusing and really hard to make decisions on what is OK and what isn’t OK to do.

Hopefully, our stay-at-home order will get lifted next week and we can start to test the waters by opening businesses up and seeing people more freely and pray our medical systems have prepared enough that they can support the individuals that need the medical assistance.

Love,

Mama

Covid-19, Kate, Lexi, William

Covid-19 Week 7

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Lexi, William & Kate,

The highlight of this week was spending a few days with Kenzie at our house. Auntie Sheila and Uncle Dustin dropped Kenzie off on Sunday evening as they were preparing to go to the hospital to welcome your new baby BOY cousin, Lincoln, into the world. The weather was amazing so you guys had a lot of fun playing on the swing set, in the sandbox, drawing with chalk, running, reading books and just caring for sweet Kenzie.

It was so fun to watch you all interact together, but it is amazing how quickly I forgot how much work little kids are, changing diapers, getting them down for naps, the extra messes they make and watching them like a hawk to make sure they don’t get hurt or put things in their mouths they shouldn’t.

As a result of the extra attention Kenzie needed, I became much more lax about the school work and started doing most of it at night while the other kids were getting ready for bed. But it kind of worked. We also found out that school will officially be over by May 22nd. At first, I was stressed about this as they are supposed to go to school for another two weeks. As I sat on this information the more OK and relieved I became. It is one less thing to keep track of, worry about, and lets be real… it is getting harder and harder for Lexi to focus and be motivated to do her work. We started off doing all of these extra things to keep a routine as much as possible but, now 7 weeks in, we are doing the bare minimum.

Work has gotten much more stressful. Projects are starting to kick off, which means a lot more meetings and the kids seem to be interrupting a lot more and I’m just having a really hard time focusing and being productive when I need to be. I’ve worked late several nights this week in an attempt to get caught up, but I just never feel like I can dig myself out of the hole I’m in. I’m working on finding time to go for a walk, do yoga and just get some endorphins flowing to help with the anxiety.

With all that said, we have so much to be grateful for and continue to thank God for what we have and what we do know.

Love,

Mama