Summer 2021 Update

I've been rather quiet lately. Life has been rather full, and I'm getting used to the new normal. We moved back to Central NY in the end of January 2021, and the kids have been very involved in school, sports, and making new friends. It's nice to see them adapting and thriving in the middle of change. The new place has extra room for working remotely, and the girls share a room. Derek (13) and Elinor (10) are attending the public school, as the local school has an excellent instrumental music program. Fiona (now 7) transferred into a small Christian academy where she is doing really well. Academically, they all seemed to do pretty well for starting in a new school (for a second time, since they switched to 100% remote public school last fall back in Farmington). All are expecting to be fully back in person this fall.

Derek and Elinor took an extended visit to CA to visit my sister and bond with their little 2 year old cousin, while Fiona enjoyed having a leisurely time at home in the peace and quiet. Fiona is an avid reader and disappears into the world of reading for hours at a time. Fiona also recently lost her two front teeth (they were wiggly FOREVER). Elinor enjoys biking around with friends. Derek just started up marching band, he's playing drums. During the summer, when they are in town, Derek and Elinor are both participating in a service-oriented program in our town with other neighborhood kids called "Bridge House" during the day. They do a lot of fun activities in addition to helping out and sometimes get tips for serving visitors. My favorite part about it is having a quiet house while they're out, since I work from home. We've done some camping over the summer, and I've had a few opportunities to visit my family in MD. We finally had the memorial service for my aunt/second mom Nancy who passed away last fall. We had a baby shower for my sister. I even convinced Mike to try out rock climbing while we had a week without kids and he took to it more than we expected he would. Mike and I have also been meeting people in town and at the church we've been attending; Mike loves setting up game nights.

We are looking forward to see what the future will bring!