Social media is getting to me lately. It always leaves me in a negative space (elections, everything else in the world), so I'm taking a step back. I decided to get back to blogging as a way to chronicle what we're doing.
Ella recently asked me if she had a baby book. She does, but I think I filled in a few months and then gave up. Instead, I pulled up this blog for her. She calls it her baby book! I'm so glad that I spent their first year blogging like crazy. It was such a blur, and I don't remember most of it, so it's fun to have this to look back and see what we were doing.
So here we go...
We moved to Blanco, Texas in 2021. Mark got a job in Johnson City and we landed here. He's working for a great company and he's great at his job, so it's been very nice! The Texas Hill Country is very different from the Gulf Coast. There are water restrictions here! I'd never heard of such a thing. The first summer we were here, Mark came home from work one day and I had the sprinkler on under the trampoline while the kids jumped and got soaked. He told me I had to turn the sprinkler off because we were under stage (whatever) water restrictions and I was shocked. In League City, the city would come once a month to drain the water hydrant in front of our house and the workers would leave it on while my kids ran around and got wet. That would not fly here! It's all about conserving water!
We also moved away from all of our family, which has been hard, but we've made friends here and are doing well. The kids went to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade at Blanco Elementary. We will be homeschooling them for 5th grade. I'm overwhelmed and stressed, but so excited to be able to do this with them. We are on week 2. We started slowly last week and went all in today, Monday of week 2! We've got some learning curves, but we'll get there. I thought we could start with math this morning to get it out of the way but we had a breakdown and had to take a break. We ended up finishing and also did Science and History. We're also using things like grocery shopping to work on math, and a lady at the quilt shop this morning had the girls doing math to determine if it was cheaper to buy 2 fat quarters or half a yard off the bolt. It turns out there are little learning events everywhere we go! We went to Costco yesterday and Mark taught the kids why things at Costco are so much cheaper than HEB or Walmart. They can't get away from learning! It's a good thing they love to learn.
With our homeschooling, we've started tea time at 3 everyday (shout out to Elizabeth for that idea). We have real tea (not Ella- she puts milk in her teacup) and snacks and learn about an artist. Last week we learned all about Vincent van Gogh and the kids loved it! This week we've started learning Michelangelo and they're excited to learn more about him. Once we get past colonial times in history, we'll learn about a President or 2 each week during tea time. It's a fun way to sit down with the kids and learn about something that isn't dreaded math or science! I've enjoyed it just as much as they have!
With homeschooling comes such flexibility. Today, doing 3 subjects, we were done by 11. That was with the math breakdown and break! We'll get to travel more and do more things that the kids want to do. We've only got 7 more years with them and the years are going by way too fast.
Next week Tripp is having surgery to fix a submucous cleft palate. He's been in speech therapy for 7 years and was dismissed from speech at the public school because it was "no longer academically necessary." We got him a private speech therapist, who after 1 visit said, "I think something's wrong. You need to see and ENT." We did, and then saw Speech Language Pathologists and surgeons and it was determined that he needs a Furlow Palatoplasty to correct the hyper-nasality in his voice. We are lucky enough to have a Texas Children's Hospital in Austin now, and an amazing surgeon who will be doing the surgery. With this comes a lot of anxiety and stress. Not only for me, but for the kids, too. Mark is an EMT now, and very comfortable with medical stuff. He's watched videos of this surgery and is familiar with what will happen. The girls wanted to watch the video, so he showed it to them. They are almost as nervous as Tripp is for this surgery. They randomly ask questions about it. We'll take them to the pre-op appointment where Child Life will be there to explain it better to all 3 of them. I do better not knowing what the surgery will look like. I've read about it, and I've read about the recovery process, but I can't watch a video about it. After it's over, I'll be able to handle it from there. (I was the same way in January when I had my appendix removed. A nurse was explaining the procedure to me and I got sick. I have to trust that the doctor will do what needs to be done and then deal with the rest afterward). Mark, my mom and I will be at the hospital with Tripp during the surgery and the girls will in with my in-laws hanging out in Austin. They'll come visit him after he's awake. They're very worried about him! He's experiencing a lot of anxiety as well, but he prefers to talk about it 1 on 1 with Mark and me. Of course I'll update after the surgery, if not before then.
When the kids were babies, updating this blog was therapeutic for me. It helped me to get out everything the kids were doing and just put it out into the universe. I didn't feel like I had to remember everything because I wrote it all down! My plan is to continue that, even if it's years later! They're turning into little tweens and life is getting a little more difficult, so I'm hoping this will help me. It'll also serve as a way to keep family and friends updated on what we're doing, instead of social media.
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