chris, megan, henry, bennett, rory & thacker
Well hello… blinked and over a month has passed. But what a wonderful time we have been having. We spent 18 glorious days in Hawaii. It was beyond wonderful and we are a bit sad we are still not there. Island life suits us. We returned running right into where we left off with Wilderness school, swimming, school, and now soccer. Not a lot of pictures have been taken, but we are moving around a lot and keeping our days full.
We are continuing our trend of being out and about- doctor appointments, tests, swimming…oh my! But then I look at the pictures I have been taking and it seems like we are balancing it out with a lot of home time as well. The younger two rarely get out of their pajamas before the afternoon! We have been reading and experimenting in the kitchen quite a bit.
Bennett,
You are 12. You are still our little Benny we love (although you don’t like to be called that) but you are getting much taller and broader (thanks swimming shoulders). You are amazingly kind, gentle, quiet, thoughtful, and pretty darn shy. You have incredible patience with your little brothers, until you don’t, and can let math get the best of you sometimes. You notice things in the outside world that I don’t, but can also walk over a sweatshirt on the floor for days…
This last year has been tough- you like hanging out with friends and not being able to do that on a regular basis made you sad. You would never say anything, but you would occasionally ask when we could see people and it was hard to give the answer of, “I don’t know.” You and your brothers have been ridiculously understanding of the whole situation though- we are quite blessed.
You and Henry are best friends and it is fun to see your relationship change and grow. From what I hear, you are very quiet at wilderness school and swim practice- you need an outgoing peer to pull you into the mix. You are adored by your instructors (I mean, how could you not be?) and coaches. You are not one to cause mischief, although you were caught once by a wilderness school instructor and she just loved the fact that she caught you!
Returning to swimming this year has been fun. Changing practice groups every few months has been hard. I know you will find your place, but being the new kid every few months is hard. You persevere though and just plug along in the pool. You love breaststroke and the IM (just like your Mama!). Watching you swim in races is so fun because you tend to just keep the same pace and crush opponents in the final laps. It makes for a very entertaining race.
Art. This is your passion. This past fall you were signed up for a clay class where you were able to use the wheel and sculpt to your hearts content. You really, really loved it. You put thought into gifts for everyone at Christmas and we all can’t get enough of Bennett originals.
Carbs. These are your love language. Get you a bagel and some toast and you are one happy fella. You also adore homemade hot cocoa and the fact that you prefer it with beet powder (yes that is a thing) makes it all the more you. This year you also have grown to love sushi- but it better not have avocado. Oh and sweet chili sauce- man you love that stuff.
Cozy Rozy. These are your sweatshirts. You have multiple. The original Cozy Rozy has been mended and returned to you multiple times. You so enjoy a nice baggy sweatshirt and some black skinny jeans. I love that something so little gives you so much joy. You love to be snuggly. You make your self a pillow/blanket cocoon every night to sleep in.
Bennett, you are loved so much. Making you smile is a great joy. Hearing you laugh, watching you play with others, and witnessing your creations- all great joys for those around you. Please don’t stop snuggling up to me on the couch, surprising me with a freshly made GD, or constantly having clay on your clothing. Happy 12th Birthday- can’t wait to see where this year takes you.
Or really, just another day of driving. I have felt like I am permanently attached to my car. Luckily it is nice, the heated seat works, and I can listen to podcasts- so really, not a bad place to be.
Feeling a little bit like Groundhog’s day over here- swim, school, eat, repeat- but we did get out for a bit of nature exploring one afternoon. It felt good. The younger two were not excited about this outing, but really had the most fun.
Snow, snow, and more snow pretty much sums up our last week of 2021 and first week of 2022. We sledded, skied, and traversed a mountain pass to sled and ski some more.
Henry and Bennett started their new swim practice schedule, we returned to our studies, Rory and Thacker started swim lessons, and one kid returned to Wilderness school. After what we thought was going to be a full week of returning to in-person activities, we were a little bummed to be home more (and with melting snow- not as exciting a fresh powder to say the least).
This week, Henry gets the award for toughest family member as he had swim practice, outside, while it snowed (Bennett was at art class, darn). Made it harder to talk myself out of a run in the rain after that- thanks kid.
We are still very much into the pajamas all day, game playing, and movie watching portion of winter.
Mama and Dada had a Bennett only date as part of his Christmas present and took him to the Van Gogh Immersion experience in Seattle. It was pretty neat and the fact that lunch was included in the outing was pretty swell as well (Bennett’s first time inside a restaurant in 2 years… he still remembered how to behave, weew!).
We have no idea what is in store for this year, but we are trying to remain hopeful. We definitely are going to be putting more miles on the cars driving from different pools around the area. Vroom vroom.
A little look at what we have been doing to keep ourselves busy. We have worked as elves, we played outside, and spent some time by the fire. It was a fairly good month. We are enjoying the last few days of the year playing in the snow and enjoying the restfulness of no plans. Come January, things pick up for us, so in the mean time, you will find us covered in snow and thawing by the fireplace. Happy Holidays to all!
Our November flew by in a whirlwind of birthday celebrations, swimming, and school work. Thanksgiving brought lots of pie eating and a family get together.
We spent Halloween trick or treating this year and let me tell you, that was a treat in itself. 13 friends together, scoring candy, then trading said candy…I mean, it can’t get much better than that, now can it. We are so incredibly grateful for being able to do things like this again- we do not take it for granted at all.
Not much has been going on, still trying out this whole school year thing. We are trying a new schedule this week that holds some promise. We are having discussions about high school for next year and what that looks like. The kitchen is always a disaster, there are always leaves on the floor, and rain, it seems, is always falling. In brief rain breaks this week we got the garlic planted in the garden and a few things tidied up for the winter- still so much more to do! We went a little stir crazy inside, so being outside was very refreshing.
Onto another week- one with dentist appointments, a birthday, and a big swim meet to round out the week. Seems hard to believe just a year ago we were just not doing much of anything. These baby steps back to normal are very encouraging.
pricklyporcupine 