Summer 2022... kind of.

I have gotten really bad at being a blogger and have not been great at updating literally anyone. Ever. 

Sigh. 

I'll get better. Someday. At least I'm pretty sure. Until then, let's talk about what has been happening around here lately. I feel like it's so much that it is hard to keep up but I'm really trying. 

1. Kindergarten Graduation

Lucy officially graduated kindergarten and she was so excited. She had a pretty good school year and could not love school more. She's starting to read books, mastered her sight words, is a whiz at addition and substraction, enjoys art, has adorable handwriting (though she writes her 'y' backwards and it's the cutest), cannot rhyme anything to save her life, and make great strides in speech therapy. 

This was also the year that she started physical therapy and has been doing such a great job. She has some progress to make, but she LOVES going to 'exercise class'! She will continue with speech therapy next year and already misses her kindergarten teacher, her speech teacher, and her friends. 

2. School is out.... for summer

I don't post about the bigger kids much because 1. they hate it and 2. they are literally busy all the time and I don't always get pictures. I need to really try harder because I'm finding my memory is starting to slide a little more. 

But.. Olivia finished 10th grade with amazing grades. She did so great in AP World History, she loved biology, but her journalism class was by far her favorite. She learned a lot from her teacher who I hope becomes a mentor for her because that was a great last minute change to her schedule back in the fall. She's working two jobs this summer, flying through books at breakneck speed, and getting her license as soon as we have time to do it. She even managed to go to Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston for school. Jackson finished eighth grade and is literally chucking deuces at the hell hole that is middle school and is heading to the high school next year. He learned to crochet, play Dungeons & Dragons, and is literally the funniest kid of our bunch. He has my sarcastic personality and I always have a good time hanging out with him. Him and I are doing the DC/NYC trip next spring break (same one I did with Liv), so we at least have that to look forward to. Penelope finished first grade like a boss and is an amazing reader and is excellent at math. She's hoping for "harder math" in second grade. She gets that from her dad because math is the absolute worst. And we already talked about Lucy. 

3. We all scream for ice cream

You know summer has officially started when the ice cream truck starts it's weekly visit. We planned last week entirely around it coming and it was worth it. 

4. Plans?

Normally I have some kind of plan for our summer, but this year I'm stumped. I really WANT to go on a roadtrip but honestly, we need to work on paying down debt and putting money away. I'm really struggling with the "be a responsible adult" versus the "we only get 18 summers, they grow so fast, life is short so take the trip" argument. In my head, of course. I haven't settled it and I really need to make a decision soon so we can appropriately plan and people can take time off. 

If we don't do a roadtrip (which really would be a bummer), I guess we can do some short day trips on the weekends or something. I don't know. I just hate being the only one really delegated to any of this because of our group, I'm literally the last person who should be in charge of anything. I can't make decisions, I can't organize thoughts, and god knows I can't remember anything. The thing about cognitive impairment is that learning to live with your newly acquired shortcomings is really hard and incredibly frustrating. It's like running into a table as you walk by, multiple times and knowing full well that if you just move over a little you would be fine, but you continue to run into the table and it makes no sense. 

So that's my life. 

Hopefully yours is going better, or you at least have any kind of idea of what's happening next. That would be nice. 

Urine & Scat = coolest words EVER.

One of the best parts about being in school is no doubt, field trips. I am usually the parent who volunteers to help out on the field trips, and that's kind of fun. I love watching my kids interact with other kids and see them learn in a new environment and see how they are when they are when they aren't with me. I don't always get to see that and it's fun.

Sadly, Jackson's class was going on a field trip to a nature center and the plan was to snow shoe. Now, something I'm not into is nature and snow shoeing sounds like the worst time ever. So obviously I was out for chaperoning that one. BUT, Matt is outdoorsy, and owns proper winter gear, and his jacket zips up. (Mine currently does not because Penelope is living in my uterus.) Matt has actually never been on a field trip so doesn't know what he's supposed to do, but I am trying really hard to get him more involved with kid things because I think that's a good thing.

Matt was a bit reluctant, but Jackson was absolutely THRILLED that his dad was going to come on a field trip with him and his class.

The day of the field trip, it turns out we don't have enough snow to snow shoe and it was actually pretty warm out. Lucky jerk. Every time I end up on an outdoor field trip, it's freezing and raining. Every time.

But Matt went. Jackson made me confirm with Matt several times to make sure his dad was going to be there. Thankfully, Matt was on time and was such a good sport. Matt tells me they had a great time learning about "Scat and Tracks". Apparently, Jackson's most favorite thing of the whole trip was learning that another word for poop is scat.

Jackson tells me his dad was the coolest because his dad found a woodpecker and the kids thought that was pretty awesome. Overall Jackson had a really great time and when I picked him up from school, he wouldn't stop raving about how great it was that Dad came on his trip.

My cute little explorer, looking for scat.

But the best part? Is now Jackson looks for every opportunity to use the words scat AND urine. He tells me when he's scatted on a daily basis now. I don't think he can tell you a thing about animal tracks but now he's fascinated with poop. He even checked out a book at the library today because he heard from a kid it had illustrations of dragon scat.

No, I'm not even kidding. This actually exists and he is in love.

I think he has one more field trip this school year and I think it's bowling. Unfortunately, I think it's after I have Penelope so I will do my best to get a sitter and see that I can go. I always wished my mom could have gone on field trips with my class but she always had to work. Totally understandable. I hope my kids appreciate all of the time I spend volunteering in their class and at their school. I know Jackson appreciated Matt being there on his first field trip in first grade.

New Stuff... and stuff.

I'm going to promote myself just a bit (because I can and I will) and then tell you about stuff happening.

So today I got a few Etsy shop things done and listed because I hadn't had time the previous week so here they are.



From left to right: The Tangerine Friendship set of 6. I totally love this paper and the flowers so I made a set for myself. I have quite a few notes to write to some friends and so these will be awesome. Then my new thing is doing card duo's, so instead of a set of 6 and the lameness of only buying one... you get TWO cards. So I have my With Sympathy ones because I seem to be using a bunch personally, and then the Easter Duos. I know not everybody is into sending cards for Easter, but I totally am. And the reason I did Easter duos is so I could send Easter pictures of my kids to the grandparents.. genius, huh? I might not get Easter cards to everyone this year but I never forget the grandparents and great grandparents. And $3 for two homemade cards is a steal, people.

So go to my SHOP and buy stuff.

In other news... I have the My Chemical Romance/Neon Trees/the Architects concert happening on Tuesday. I don't know if I'll have a post for you or not since I'm leaving Superior way early. We'll see.

Saturday we had Jackson's birthday party at the Children's Museum, and I'll share pictures of that soon. He had an awesome time. I was kind of bummed out that over half of the people I invited didn't come. Now, on the RSVP I specifically put "regrets only" on there because I know people hate to RSVP. I don't know why because it's RUDE AS FUCK NOT TO (and any person who's ever hosted a party should know that). The other thing was that I am basically paying for these people to get into the museum... so if nothing else, it's a free day for you and your kids. Like... take me up on that offer homies. I don't know. I'm just getting annoyed with people not RSVP'ing. So when I say "regrets only" I assume that you are coming if I don't hear from you. It's just really annoying to plan something and then have people not show up when you think they are.

I mean, the people who came are awesome and they are SO good to my kids and they are great friends of mine. They really are. And I think everyone who came had a great time and I know my kids did so that's all that counts. And my brother took his lunch break at a weird time so he could make a quick appearance- and Jackson was thrilled.

With that being said, yeah. Matt and I spent an HOUR trying to open his new things. He got some new little trucks, this interactive map toy, a cool truck that talks and he can "fix", bug catcher stuff, superhero flying plane thing, and our friends gave him a $15 gift card towards a big boy bike. So yeah. We couldn't afford to get him one (even though I really tried hard.. it just didn't happen) so this will help. I'm hoping in the next payday or two we can swing it.

Um.. what else. Oh. So last week was his 3 year old checkup and I sent Matt because I had to work. Well it turns out he hasn't grown (at all) in the last YEAR. Yeah. Here I was just thinking he's short and little. Um, no. He hasn't grown. He's in the 3rd percentile for height, 4th for weight and nobody knows why. He eats like a little pig for crying out loud. So what is happening is that he is going to the hospital on Thursday for lab work because his doctor wants to make sure that we don't have an underlying problem. So.. I'm sure it's all going to say he's normal and that in fact, he's just a little guy. But then in the back of my head I always worry something else could be happening. I'm sure it's not, but I'm a bit irrational like that.

OK. That's me and my Sunday ramblings. OH! Before I forget- I'm a guest blogger today for Kate and you should check it out.