Day 2036 | Tri-Bead Crafting
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Robbe made 25 tri-bead candy cane ornaments today. And one tri-bead heart. That’s some serious crafting. He’s so proud to be handing these out to his classmates. I hope they love them just as much as he does!
Day 2035 | This Christmas
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This was a cover on a catalogue that showed up in my mailbox. It captured exactly how I’m feeling this year. Let’s home Christmas 2020 comes through for us all.
Day 2034 | A New Phone
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Chris and I traded our five-year-old iPhone 6s for fancy new iPhone 12 Minis today. We’re, like, really high-tech now. Above is my first photo with my new phone. You can tell the difference, right? ;)
Day 2033 | Holiday Lights
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Tonight was our first annual family Holiday Lights Extravaganza. We got takeout, ate in the car, and took in the best holiday lights Eau Claire has to offer. Chris and I saw a lights + music show for the first time-we actually saw two! It took us 35+ years. The boys experienced this type of festive production at 6 and 9. Lucky ducks.
I didn’t take any photos, but here is our holiday lights display. Not bad, right? Chris did a really great job.
Have you been keeping up with the book donation project? Don’t forget there’s a separate blog on the bottom of this page!
Day 2032 | Cursive
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Check out this sweet cursive handwriting. Pretty impressive from a third-grader, right? For some reason I really love that they still teach cursive. Chase has even been working on perfecting his cursive signature.
Day 2031 | Christmas Bug
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This guy loves Christmas. Like really loves it. He fits right in here.
Our sweet neighbor has been supplying the boys with an endless assortment of Christmas activities and Robbe, especially, is living his best life. So many Christmas crafts, so little time.
Day 2030 | Walkable City
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When we moved to Eau Claire, we prioritized living downtown because we wanted to be close to restaurants, bars, local activity, the post office, etc. Now I’d like to add reliable auto body to the list of must-haves in a walkable city environment. When you wake up to a flat tire, you don’t have many options but to walk over to your neighborhood auto body with a wagon and ask to borrow their air pump.
I added air to the tire, drove the car (and the pump) back to Rick’s and then walked home while I waited to hear about the repair. Is it normal to get excited about this kind of stuff? Very adult, right?
Side note: I started a separate blog for the book donation project. The first day was a big success (thanks to all of you!) so I decided that I needed to document our journey. Join us for our daily progress here (scroll all the way to the bottom).
Day 2029 | Give a Kid a Book Project
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The boys have been working hard getting ready to announce a big community give-back project and we’re excited to share it with you first.
Click on over to the Give a Kid a Book Project page here on my website for all the details (there’s even a homemade video!). We’re hoping to spread the love this holiday season and appreciate any support you can offer.
Day 2028 | Mt. Simon
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We took advantage of a beautiful Wisconsin day and hiked up Mt. Simon (again). They’re just my favorite people.
Day 2027 | Happy Thanksgiving
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There sure is a lot to be thankful for these days. Let’s try to focus on that. Hope you all had a nice day yesterday—even if it was a very different sort of holiday celebration.
Day 2026 | Breaking Ice
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Poking, prying, and chucking newly formed ice is oddly gratifying. I’d highly recommend it.
Day 2025 | Early Christmas
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For the second year in a row, we put up our Christmas tree early (the weekend before Thanksgiving). Last year, we justified it by saying that Thanksgiving was so late that we wanted to have it up for a full month. This year, with Covid sucking the joy out of pretty much everything, we just wanted to extend the holiday spirit a little longer.
And it worked. Christmas tree decorated while watching a Christmas movie and drinking hot cocoa. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Day 2024 | Just the Two of Us
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Since the beginning of September, this guy and I have had two solo days together every week. Before this, we haven’t had any significant time alone together since he was 22 months old. Who would have thought solo time would come back around for us? Leave it to Covid.
It’s hard to say what the rest of the school year has in store, but for now I’ll try to focus on how lucky I am to have an eight year old who still looks up to me and can laugh at all my crazy.
Day 2023 | Invisible Bench
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Chase and I discovered that we can bring our own invisible bench with us anywhere. He thinks it’s hysterical.
Day 2022 | The Calm Before...
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Today was my last day of kid-free time…for who knows how long. Chase had his last day of in-person school today. Robbe continues on through Friday and then he’s home with us, too. Right now the school district is saying we’ll be back in-person on December 10, but I think that’s probably optimistic when we consider what’s happening in our community (and state) currently. I’m guessing we’ll be remote through New Year’s. But that’s just a guess.
For today, I ran a crazy amount of errands and checked as many things off my to-do list as possible. I tried to appreciate the silence: one thing that will be in short supply in the upcoming weeks. (Notice the pile of abandoned Pokemon cards in the photo above.)
It’s not going to be easy, but I don’t think it’ll be terrible either. We know how this goes. We’ve done this remote learning thing under much worse circumstances and we had fun along the way. Plus, I’m hoping there will be lots of extra time for festive crafts, Christmas baking, and holiday movies. #brightside
Day 2021 | Big Reader
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Robbe finished all thirty of these books and was so incredibly proud of himself.
Day 2020 | Fall Piano Recital
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Another Covid first—a virtual piano recital. The boys really challenged themselves with tricky pieces and pretty much nailed it. As sad as it is to not perform in person, it was fun to include some folks who wouldn’t have been able to attend otherwise. It was nice to see the other students play as well and still feel connected to that community. We’re so thankful to have stumbled upon Ms. Abby—she has a gift for teaching, that’s for sure.
These are some photos and videos I took before the actual recital, so everyone can enjoy their pieces. If you can’t see the videos below, click here for Chase’s and click here for Robbe’s performance.
Waves in Sunlight
Black Cat Waltz
Day 2019 | Virtual Reading Group
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This guy looked so handsome waiting for his reading group to start that I forced him to let me take a screenshot. They say they grow up too fast and you don’t really believe it until you see a photo like this.
Day 2018 | Stroller Walk
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Reason #53 not to get rid of your stroller: the perfect book hauler to/from the library. Robbe pushed it the entire way. I feel totally complete as a family of four (seriously, there’s no question about that), but they would be adorable big brothers, wouldn’t they?
Day 2017 | Kids are Weird
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I haven’t taken any photos the last few days. That makes blogging tough, you know? I did find a gem from last week when Chase walked with his coat like this for most of our afternoon stroll. I’m not sure why, but it must have made sense to him.
