TWENTY SIX + TWENTY SEVEN

 2021 Weeks 26 + 27

June 26-July 9

It took a bit to reorient ourselves back to normal life after our trip. We did manage to make it to church the next day, due to church not being until 11:30. 

After working from home for 15 months, Leland went back to work in the office at the end of June. It has honestly been really hard on me. Having him home all the time was so nice. He didn't have 2.5 hours of commuting a day, so we both got more sleep. He took an hour lunch everyday, which was a huge help with getting the kids down for nap. Overall having him home helped me feel way less overwhelmed, and being plunged back into solo parenting for 12 hours a day has been really hard. I've felt like I'm in that drowning/survival mode. Knowing how great working from home was, it has been hard to go back. His work will allow him to work from home again but only a couple days a week starting in August. It has us thinking and evaluating what we really want our family life to look like and how much freedom working remotely gives us as a family. 

The girls were very happy to resume their routine of meeting him as he gets off the train though, this time with the boys along too. 

Moses hit three months and suddenly became fine with us putting him down to sleep. It has been really nice to be able to get some things done again. 

We've spent a lot of days outside in the mornings before it gets too hot. 

Forest School with friends. 

We visited the Treehouse again after about 18 months. 

It was Julian's first time! Lots of firsts for Julian as we're coming out of the pandemic. 

They want a picture by every single horse. 

He reminds me of Adele when he sleeps. And he discovered he loves chewing on blankets. 

Library trip

We've been doing lots of hikes to catch up. 

Baby Boy visits. How I love all these little boys. 

Since the 4th of July was on a Sunday this year, the big kids and Leland went to the fireworks on Saturday night, and we all went to the parade on Monday morning. 

Red white and blue for church. 

Our city's parade is not good, but there is lots of candy so it is the kids favorite day of the year. 

After the parade, Leland took a turn staying home with the babies while I took the big kids swimming. 

Little Angel

I finally found a great sourdough sandwich bread. 

And the kids had their first horseback riding lesson. 

Adele has been begging to do Kindergarten so we went ahead and started school for the year. Esther was wanting more summer break but I assured her that if we started now we can have more days off throughout the year. As I mentioned before, with already feeling overwhelmed with Leland being gone, I've felt more overwhelmed with homeschool this year. I feel like anytime anyone speaks to how difficult it can be to homeschool sometimes, people tend to just tell them to put their kids in school (please refrain from doing that). Homeschool feels hard because I want to do a good job. I want them to be smart and school to be fun and for us to do a ton of fun projects. The reality is that I don't have the capacity to do every fun thing or make everything perfect. I'm trying though. We're starting slowly and will be adding in more subjects as the weeks go on. 

Sweet Adele. She loves learning, and is very eager to do school. I usually lose her attention pretty quickly but she is picking up so much just with short simple lessons. Her enthusiasm makes everything better. I'm excited to delve more into her interests this year and see how much she is capable of. 

I can't believe Esther is so big and already in second grade this year! I think being homeschooled has shaped her personality in a lot of positive ways already. She can befriend a child, or adult of any age. She isn't afraid to be herself and love herself. She has a wonderful imagination and has so much time to play. I am excited that she will have more outside of the home learning opportunities as things open back up. I think being around other kids and having more adult mentors is going to be really good for her. 

More pictures of our favorite baby. 

I probably won't do any formal school lessons with these boys, aside from morning devotional. Just lots of opportunities for pretend play, reading books together and habit training. They will probably join in on most of the projects and some of the lessons I do with the girls, and join us for all the field trips.