Back to "normal"

 Our first full week back to school was a busy one.    Every night had something going on!  Mercer had baseball tryouts for several every day after school.  My Tuesday night classes resumed.  Isabella's "usual" Monday thru Wednesday schedule had also kicked in.  

On the 3rd night after tryouts ended, the teams were posted around 10 pm.  Interestingly, some of the players who were on the team last year did not make the team this year, and there were some Varsity / JV swaps!  (The roster last year was huge - and may be part of the reason that the 8th graders didn't get much play time.  Todd said that it was inevitable that the roster be pared down this year.) I'm sure there are some feathers that got ruffled.  I got nervous at first because there was a cluster of names beginning with G and he wasn't in that cluster.  Thankfully, the list was not alphabetical.... and... Mercer made the JV team again.  WHEW!  I do feel bad about some kids who were at tryouts / worked really hard and didn't make it - including M's training partner.  

There is a new coach; he obviously came in with a fresh eye.  We are excited about the season ahead and hope it's a good one!   Team photos and photos of Mercer forthcoming... they took pics already, but we haven't heard anything yet about orders.

Isabella was supposed to have her violin performance at her school's talent show that Thursday night, however, it was cancelled - along with everything else in town - due to tornado warnings.  There were devastating tornadoes that swept through Alabama and continued through Georgia.  10 - in total in our state that evening (9 in the Metro Atlanta area) and ravaging a town south of the city where there were homes destroyed, two lives lost and many injuries.  We are grateful that nothing happened near us.  

The event was re-scheduled for this week - just happened this past Thursday night.  She had been practicing the "Can-Can" on her violin.  And - somehow she got into her head that she needed to NOT look at what she was doing... maybe close her eyes and feel the position of the notes on her violin.  

So... she started practicing blind-folded!  (Watch "America's Got Talent" a bit too much??!!)  Her music teachers sent us this photo during one of her lessons.  Ha!

She decided that at the Talent Show, she WOULD perform with the blindfold on!  So, that what she walked up there and started to do.  But, unlike at home where we can pull her blindfold down, she had to do it herself on stage... and she couldn't get her bow set properly. 

She started several times and the wrong notes were coming out.  So she stopped.  Looked a little defeated.  The crowd cheered her shouting "You've got this" and she pulled down the blindfold / began again.  

People recognized the song and started stomping / clapping to the beat... continuing to cheer for her.  It was really heart-warming to see this community come around her!  

At the end of the show they brought all performers back up to recognize them and the MC's - who did a great job keeping the flow of the show going / telling groaner jokes.  

It was a really cute show!  We had a LOT of juggling to get everyone there on time b/c of an urgent-care visit earlier in the day, baseball practice pick-up and an across-town meeting.  But - whew - Todd and I were there (on time) and enjoyed seeing her persevere AND seeing the support of her school community! 

She had a couple of other great things happen since the last blog post.  At gymnastics, she was FINALLY able to do a back handspring on the mat (her teacher called me in to video, but it was hard to catch.  Here are a couple of screen shots in progress!)

AND - she got to ride the horse Chevy that she has been wanting to ride for a long time.  They trotted and she controlled him -- "steering" and winding him through the cones.   

He was the biggest horse there (15 hands) at the stables for about a year... but we just learned that there was an even bigger horse that they got this week at 17 hands.  She may have a new goal once they get the horse acclimated to the stables and the children.  ha.

In other non-kid news, we hosted a Soup Night & bonfire at our house in honor of our neighbor Mike who passed away last winter.  He has been to many of our soup nights and he - himself - would host bonfires every season.  It was a fitting event to gather his friends from the job he worked at here in Atlanta for so many years of his life + a gathering of some neighbors.  

The date in January was chosen because at his home church here in Marietta, a neighbor arranged to have a Mass dedicated to him and this was the date - although far out - that they got it on the calendar.  We went to the Catholic church service, then headed to our house following the service. 

There was a crowd of about 30 people - many we did not know, but some in the "industry" we knew of or had met at some point in time.  There was some cross-over of our former co-workers who also worked with him...  so it was nice catching up with those folks too. Two cross-over workers:  Dave pictured between Todd and me... and Cecilia in the center of the couch and soup night MEGA attendee / close friend + her "grown up daughter" now in college... who has always drawn pictures in our guestbook at Soup Nights from her time as a young girl to even now.  

Mike was moved back up to Michigan (where his family lives) before he passed... and his funeral service was held up there. This was the only "event" held here in the area for the Atlanta architecture community & Marietta neighbors.  Connie, his girlfriend for at least 15 of the years he lived here (she moved to NC several years ago).... she came into town (seated on the couch).  We saw in the sign-in book that others travelled too:  a family who is not pictured here / left early but who drove up from Jacksonville FL and a guy who flew in from Texas!

 

We received many words of thanks for letting them all come together.  Connie's sister, Julie (pictured next to Mercer) was especially emotional and grateful for this event to help provide some closure. It was a TON of work cleaning after a 3 year hiatus on Soup Night, but even Todd said he was glad we did this.

There's not much about Mercer in here.  So, how about an unusual photo:  when your 14 year old needs a quiet, dark place to chill......

Out with 2022. In with 2023

Wow - 2022 had some really major things going on!  Namely - the attack on the Ukraine.

The was is still droning on, unfortunately.  (speaking of drones....)  There is reports of Russia fighting with drone missiles and them ALL being shot down - which is also reported to be an embarrassing blow to Russia.  From an article published on January 1, they're speculating at least another 4 - 5 months:

Russia does 'not plan to end the war,' Ukraine official says

Battlefield losses have done little to alter the military plans for Russia, which still envisions capturing all the Donetsk province and using the Donbas region as its land corridor to occupied Crimea, a Ukrainian spokesman told media members.

"They understand that they will lose, but they do not plan to end the war,'' said Andriy Chernyak, spokesman for the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate. "We are considering the possibility that they may (attack) at the same time from the north or the east.''

Chernyak said Ukraine's military intelligence estimates Russia may lose up to 70,000 troops in the war over the next 4-5 months.

"And the leadership of the occupying country is ready for such losses," he added.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Covid is still active.  People are not AS concerned about it - but it is still continuing to have variations / still taking its toll on people across the globe.  It has been quite some time since I've reported on Covid.  But - looking back to the end of the year in December 2020.... the official number of deaths in the US was 350,831 (another report shows 384,000 US deaths in 2020). There were an additional 460,513 deaths in 2021 for over 800,000 in the US alone.  And - although it has slowed down in 2022 - there are now 1,090,000 deaths in the US.  (World-wide there are almost 6.7 million) 

I went back to the New Year's post from a year ago.  The blog post says that the previous 2 years (2020 and 2021) felt like "survival" and that in the new year (2022) I wanted to live more intentionally... and incorporate more self-care.  Sadly, that did not happen.  

At the beginning of Christmas break - late December 2022, my goal was for more self-care (without reading the blog post).  

At least, so far, I am incorporating it.   I am happy to report, that before Christmas, I started back on the headspace meditation program + have also added in-person yoga for (over the past 1 1/2 weeks since we returned home from our travels to North Carolina.)

For a few days after Christmas, we went to North Carolina to visit my mom.  Todd was working / didn't have vacation time so, just the kids and I went up.  I worked on window treatments the1st day. (covering up that bright half-round that shines in the bedroom!)

She also gets to watch the sun set every day from here... which I don't remember / wasn't visible at the previous house. 

We all went to her previous house on the 2nd day to clean out some old papers & stuff.  The kids thought it was funny to see things I wrote from early elementary / math tests and even some old report cards.  (Why did she keep math tests and early writings from elementary!!??)  

Here, I keep the kids art & stuff, but maybe I'll pare through some more of it now!  The previous house- crazy - how empty it is, even with the dining room table and some of the other furniture still in place. 

We welcomed visitors both days:  Eddie & Michael stopped by briefly.  Aunt Becky stopped by.  And - mom's new neighbors stopped by with their little puppy as well.  (which made Isabella happy).  

We also had "Christmas" at grandma's house.

  

We put a puzzle together (well, all except for ONE PIECE!)  ha ha.

We solved "cat crimes" (a new game Isabella got).

We ate a lot. 

Mom is in the process of having a garage built, but unfortunately, there was a delay and no concrete 'til after we left.  

Things are shaping up at her house and starting to feel more like home.  The "stuff" that she brought over since we were last there really does make it feel home-y!  

Here are a couple of photos I could find from the last time we had family Christmas there in her previous house.  It honestly didn't seem like "that" long ago, but I had to go back 9 years. 

This is before Aunt Sandra passed away. I wish we had a "real" photo instead of a photo with those fake teeth, but honestly, we were always sitting around / having a good time.  

Once we were back home, we started the work of unpacking, purging and cleaning up Christmas decorations. 

We went out to dinner on New Year's Eve.  Mercer has stopped liking pasta now too apparently.  (ugh)  

Todd tried taking our picture since he wouldn't pose.  It's a weird candid.  

But - he did agree once were were outside the restaurant to smile.

 

We played some games off-and-on after dinner 'til it got close to 12:00.... then we all sat and watched a FOOTBALL GAME?!

(UGA was playing Ohio in the Peach Bowl.  The game came on around 8 pm. Georgia pulled to a 1-point lead around 11:50 at night. (42-41)  The thing to watch was to see if Ohio was going to score anymore points to regain the lead.  They did not.  The game wrapped up literally at 11:59!   We flipped the TV over to New York and saw the count-down to the ball-drop in Time's Square. 

That was it.

(M- twinning with the dog!)

We were so tired (and it was raining), we did not light up our "little" fireworks 'til the evening of the 1st! 

Last week, I eased back into work with 4 days - only 3 days with students.  (Mercer & Isabella had an extra day off.)  It was a nice way to get back into the swing of things last week.  I also hit a local mexican restaurant that is my new fav 2 times last week - one with book club group / one with group of folks from work to celebrate our administrator who is moving to a new school.

I don't know where to put this - but to document.  We had stinky water on NYE. In researching online - could have been iron bacteria?  (from the description of how it smelled).  I called the water company.  They suggested we try something to see if it was in our hot water. It was really foul.  I ran to get a test kit / we tried out the 1 (bad) bacteria test that was in there.  Negative, thankfully. If it was the iron bacteria, that apparently is not harmful.  We still called a plumber to see what was up, while drinking out of jugs / bottles of water. But the plumber kept cancelling and our water smell went away, so...?? 

I don't know where to put this either:  boy in a box...

Mercer has been (cheating) putting together a puzzle found in the basement of my mom's old house now that we're back at home.  

It has 2000 pieces... carefully packed back into the box in large chunks!  He keeps talking about how easy it is.  Yeah - when AT LEAST 1500 of those pieces are still intact!!   

(3 pieces missing.  Really?!)  well, the puzzle is 30 - 40 years old, so... not too bad!

UPDATE:  after we put the puzzle away (again - in chunks) we found the 3 pieces UNDER the puzzle.  Ha!

Tomorrow starts a "normal" week...  we are 100% back to the grind.  

Baseball tryouts are next week for the high school.  Isabella has a talent show.  I'll have to probably start grading again soon.  

"Back to life... back to reality" is really setting in.

Here's hoping 2023 is a GOOD year!  NOT a "survival year!"

I have kept an oatmeal cup lid on my shelf at school.  (It's kinda gross b/c it's just laying there - not washed off!)  But I kept it / I like it b/c it says "You are what you REPEAT."    Love that!

I'm going to work really hard to do the meditation and yoga.... creating a routine.  Repeating it.  I've got the rowing machine.  I will also do that regularly.  Repeating / creating a routine...

"remember who will benefit from you doing this" is what the meditation app has said a couple of times so far.  My family.  My students.  Me.  

I will prioritize trying to take time for myself.  Employ self-care.  For. Real. This. Time.  

Christmas happenings + some other things...

Our elves were up to no good leading up to Christmas.  Isabella got a kick out of all of the mischief that they got into.  We're not 100% sure but we think that's a hershey's kiss the elf is squatting over... ??  they rolled the living room that night too.   

Another night, one of the elves strung up the other elf. 

 

As revenge, the one that was strung up, duct-taped the other to our glass door!     

We made preparations to get in the spirit of the season throughout the month as well - outside of the craziness that the elves were involved in.

Todd and Isabella set up Rose Marie's village that she passed down to us. 

Todd took Isabella to the church's live nativity one rainy afternoon too.

As a family, we drove through the "Lights of Life" at a nearby college.  We go just about every year (through the free part.)  We've done the other parts before - the pay parts -but they're pretty juvenile.

Our 14 year old was NOT happy about driving around / looking at lights, unfortunately. 

.

We invited some of Isabella's friends (from swim team) over to help make gingerbread houses (out of graham crackers) 

It was a total mess, but the 3 of them had fun.  

We made Mercer participate... and he was not happy about being there either.  :(

See a common theme developing with the teenager?!

Mercer participated one day at the church to help out with the food bank mission.  He also went to a youth Christmas party / gift exchange.  He was the only boy and was grateful he did not end up with hair or make-up products!

I did get him to pose in front of the tree for a photo, though, so that we could make Christmas cards this week!

And - as far as I know - I actually got cards done / sent out "on time" - at least before Christmas!)  He was compliant maybe because the dog was taking some of the focus!

I (by myself) went to a church service called "the longest night" several days ago and said special prayers for friends and loved ones who have suffered loss.  It's sad and reflective, but such a powerful service.

We - as a family - went to the candlelight service Christmas Eve evening. We were trying to make it to the 4 pm children's service, but couldn't get there in time.  It worked out, though, because it seems like Isabella was enamored by the candles and the dimmed lights in the church (as well as the singing of Christmas carols in the service).

Afterwards, I - SORT OF - got the kids to stand for a photo "dressed up."   Yay - more pics in front of the tree!

Nope not this one:  "Noogie"

Nope.  "Face plant" into the couch...

Nada.  Back turned.

Close - looking at Todd instead of my camera.

And... finally: close enough.... ONE of them is looking my way.  Done!

Todd smoked a ham during the day.  He also made cookies. After church, we decorated them before turning in for the night - leaving some for Santa, of course.

Oh, what a long night it was.  Our little was so excited that she wouldn't go to sleep.  We finally cut off our lights around midnight (our room is across from hers and we kept hearing her open the door to check to see what had happened in the living room).  I was wrapping presents in our closet 'til past 1:30 and we set an alarm to both get up at 3 to finish the preparations.    oy!     

The elves departed, the stockings were filled, there were LOTS of presents under the tree and our little one was awake before us - of course!

We opened gifts and made (another) absolute mess.  :)

The teen got mostly clothes with a few things scattered in for fun (like a Bob Ross chia pet - the photo would have been better had Mercer just not gotten a haircut earlier in the week). 

He also got an anime character that I thought looked like him.  

And he got a display case to hold game balls and tournament rings.  

The little got some electronics (as her big gifts) including a chromebook - so she has her own device to play games and do homework on - instead of she / I sharing our home computer.  She also got an i-pod (which is a music player - but she can also message Todd on his i-pad.)  

She may be a little disappointed, because at first when she saw it... she thought it was a phone!  whoops. 

We cooked some more food - prepping for a Christmas dinner, then played one of the new card games that we got from Santa.  

(We used the "save the children" china - we've had longer than we've had kids... and... there are some more of the passed down items: green stoneware pieces and hand-blown glass goblets... Isabella felt very fancy using these "grown-up" water glasses!!  Oh - and using the blue gurgle-pot as well!)

Hip Hop got a real (dried) chicken's foot for Christmas.  No time for a photo, as he grabbed it and scarfed it down under the table!   crunch-crunch-crunch!

We finished the evening with some apple cranberry pie then went to bed tired, full, and grateful.

(The morning after empty tree, but still love the light and warmth!)

- - - - -

Some other things from this week: 

The kids made Christmas lists.  Isabella had already told Santa a few items when she saw him in person, but I talked to her about writing an actual letter - checking in with the big guy / see how he's doing.  Not just go in for the "ask."  She did... and she surprised me at how sweet she was towards her brother!

  

M brought his list down Christmas Eve morning.  Cute because he drew a photo on the front.   (oops... it said for Santa's eyes only.  I *may* have looked at what was inside.)  ha!  

Isabella and I dropped off the letters that day.  It looks like they pretty much got what they asked for  They BOTH have been pretty good / we've been proud of them this year.  (Behavior and grades for the little one.  Grades for the big one.)

They have both earned a movie / dinner out... to be "cashed in" perhaps after Christmas?  (Mercer may choose another reward for his good grades... t.b.d.)

Isabella had some money from her Florida grandparents for Christmas.  She used it towards the "Harry Potter Experience" that was here in Atlanta.  

There were items from the movies o n display + some information about the design of the sets / costumes and graphic design - that I found interesting. 

The most memorable part of the experience, though, were the hands-on components like casting spells and making potions - digitally, of course.

Mercer has not decided what to spend his money on / towards yet.

I wanted to make an orange cake for Isabella's birthday this year.  Didn't happen.  I wanted to make it for mine.  Didn't happen.  So I finally did so this week and used these cute candied oranges that I got suckered into buying... because they looked cool.  They were honestly too sweet.  The orange cake was good, but if I made it again - it would be without the candied oranges on top.

Our neighbor has a dead tree in their front yard.  This year, he decided to light it up!  (random, I know!)  Kind of funny to look at every night while doing dishes at the kitchen window...and we've done lots of dishes lately!

Mercer threw baseball practice with a classmate / did running drills in the cold, drizzly weather each day leading up to Christmas in preparation for baseball tryouts in early January.  (Which means I got to cart him back-and-forth each day... run errands / write Christmas cards in the car, etc)  :)

 

It was a great alternative to Todd having to throw with him during his lunch-time hour, though!   Although, during the work break (Christmas Day / day after / etc)... Todd DID have to throw with M.  Oddly, one day they went to a nearby baseball field and saw a spray of water at one of the county facilities. Reason I include that here - because we had DAYS of constant BELOW FREEZING weather.  (lots of warnings for frozen pipes!)  it was crazy cold here!! 10 - 15 degrees at night... 20-30 as highs during the day.  We - gratefully - stayed BUNDLED UP in our house snug as a bug in a rug! 

Before it got soooo cold, Isabella had a make-up horse lesson with a different trainer (her trainer's husband was out - again - for major surgery).  It was cold, but bearable- in the sun.  Glad to get it in before the cold snap!  Glory was a new horse that she got to ride.  

Glory likes to trot.  This trainer let her go for it after seeing her skill which was kind of cool!  (The trainer is in the arena... just a-ways away.)  Isabella was pretty happy!  

Parting photo from this week:  purple-blue hair in the morning light through the shades...