School in a new way

Brenner and Nola headed back to in-person school and had a great week overall. Matt's students returned as well. Things are a bit different but we are settling into our new routine which includes me taking the kids to school, picking Nola up after school, and picking Brenner up from football.....lots of trips into town!It has been wonderful to have a sense of normalcy back to our schedules. We hope the cases stay low in our county but we know folks are watching it closely with the health department.

Why am I starting out with a piece of toast? This kind of summed up our start of the week. Keeping things plain - not too many expectations. Stick with what you know. Even with that - nerves may set in and you may not be able to finish your breakfast. For Nola anyway!

Nola did put on a big smile - she was ready but just a bit nervous.

Brenner heading off to 7th grade and Nola ready for 4th! I love that this picture shows who they are style wise - and they are owning it. You be you and let others be themselves!  The first day went well for them both - getting use to wearing masks, not using lockers much, and carrying a water bottle. One day, Brenner forgot his water bottle and traded homemade cookies in his lunch for someone's milk. That made me laugh because he isn't typically a big milk drinker!

Nola drawing characters from Avatar Airbender. A flying bison? Really? Nice drawings, girlie!

Nola started soccer practice, and as I was walking around the soccer park I saw the picnic tables the boys helped with at church a few weeks ago. Way to go boys.

School year 2020. Brenner's ELA teacher told the joke....a man walked into a bar and order a 2 hurricanes and a corona. The bartender said that will be 2020. Sigh - true - and a weird joke for a teacher to tell - but it did make me chuckle!

Nola, post soccer practice, as we wait for Brenner. Mom of the year? You tell me. Brenner had football practice from 3:15-5:15 and then I made him go to soccer practice from 5:30-7:00. He ran around like crazy at soccer (without his shirt on but that is a story for another time) and still had energy once he got home. I say that it was the right choice!

On Friday's, Brenner only practices until 4:30. So we grabbed Nola a root beer float and heading to the park to hike some trails. She petered out on me fast and gained an attitude. You would think the float would have given me some extra points!

The bottomless pit! We struggle to get Brenner to eat protein - he seems more drawn to carbs and fruit. We keep telling him that he needs to build mussel for soccer!

More food...but I wanted to share that I got some really nice reports about Brenner at football. A mom of an eight grader told me that her son said that Brenner was really good at football. A nice compliment as this kid was a wide receiver that Brenner guards at cornerback (hey I am learning the positions!). Today, our pastor's wife said that she was talking with the head coach who is her neighbor. She mentioned Brenner and the coach said he is a really good player and is always willing to do what the coaches tell him. Way to go, buddy! I am proud of you! (Note - when I ask about practice, I usually get a grunt!)

Prepping some of my flower beds for winter and found this interesting fungus! It was smelly!

Found these in another area. Do you see them? Blueberries. Except that we don't have blueberry bushes. I suspect that it was Nola ditching part of her lunch that she didn't want (she is not as sneaky as she thinks - recall clothes from a couple of weeks ago?). She denied it to my face but we will get the truth yet!

Matt and Nola taunting Mr. Tickles with the drone.

Last hurrahs!

With the kids starting back to school next week, we tried to squeeze in fun and appointments before schedules get more hectic. Nola was with Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck until Thursday, when she had a zoom meeting with her new teacher Mrs. Tucker.  Brenner started football practice in the afternoons, and we were pleased with the social distancing that was being enforced.  So many emails from the schools - but I am so glad to have information rather than wondering what the plan is. Matt also headed back to the office so things were almost back to "normal"....I wonder what it will be like to work in a quiet house (and how long it will last)! My prayer is that all goes smoothly!

Nola glamming it up on her walks with Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck. She looks so grown up!

Nola looks more like what I am used to seeing in this picture!

Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck spoiled her to bits - and of course she loved every minute of it!

While we missed Nola, it was fun to have some one-on-one Brenner time. This is pretty much what life looks like with a 12 year old boy!

Brenner has been obsessed with pulling some loose teeth. He finally got them out a few days apart and noticed the difference in color.

Brenner showing me some of his battle wounds from football. He overextended his back when he hit the sled....luckily (?) we already had an annual exam scheduled on Friday so he was able to get it all checked out!

Brenner has almost caught up to Dr. Swofford. He was 5' 2" and 96 lbs. Only sore muscles from football - nothing serious! He wasn't happy with me that he had to get a shot (because I said no I didn't think he was due for any!).

Nola also had a good checkup too. Dr. Swofford spent some time talking about COVID19. Nola is worried that she will bring it home to us and that we will get sick. We had a great discussion and she felt better (after listening to an actual medical doctor!).

We all got our hair done on Saturday. Brenner and his beautiful mullet (his words not mine) were quite entertaining. Nola was "just a trim" as she wants it down to her waist. I needed the grays gone to hide evidence of the stress! Matt - he came along for the ride and got a trim. We then headed to Cousin Gannon's 6th birthday party for a short hello before Nola had to go to work with the horses :)

Nola fell asleep Sunday afternoon......I suspect a full week of school will have her drained by the end of the week!

While Nola was napping, Brenner helped me in the garden. Then he went to set off the rest of the firecrackers from the 4th of July.

We know some things will be different at school. We are also trying to create as many bubbles as we can (or perhaps avoid bubbles is a better way of looking at it!). The kids won't be riding the bus nor eating school lunch. Brenner wanted a brown paper sack for a lunch box. I said that works if it PBJ everyday. He decided it was not so we found this insulated tyvek brown bag lunch box on Amazon. I swear that if you can think of it, Amazon has it!

A little road trip

Wow -is anyone else feeling this is a really strange time. School is suppose to start next week, cases of COVID19 are going up in our district, we are trying to educate ourselves, and some folks are just being plain nasty to one another. Sigh - we are better than this folks. I heard this song by Josh Wilson this week - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6glQdaQUZ1U. The lyrics really hit home for me - kindness shouldn't be revolutionary.

A derecho came through on Monday to knock out our power and a few trees.

 

Matt will head back to work this week, and Brenner is slated to start football practice. So we decided to go visit family while our contacts were still relatively low! First stop was Grammy Vogan's house. The fish were biting (and Matt showed Brenner how to make his fish look bigger lol!)

 

We had a nice visit with PawPaw Floyd and Grammy!

 

We had fun watching this ant cary off a dead beetle!!!Grammy - what are you feeding your ants?!

 

Next we drove over to visit Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck. We left Nola there (she was so crushed - yeah right!!!) for the week. Brenner was a bit bummed because he has football practice but a good lesson in choices. We were amazed that Brenner is almost as tall as Aunt Theresa! On the way home Brenner asked if we could see Grandma Val because he needed to give her a hug as well. We obliged the request but forgot to take a picture!

 

Photo update on Nola - loving walking Dolly. The Missouri weather was in our favor too - low humidity which made outside time very pleasant.

 

All week we had pleaded with the kids to clean the playroom. It was like a lego factory. Nola said she was ready to give up her Barbie house. At firest she didn't want to because Dad had spent so much time putting it together. True but that was like 7 years ago and he is okay with it going (it was his suggestion I think!). The house now resides at a neighbor's house. The rest of the playroom was finished on Sunday. Perhaps one day it will transition to a downstairs family room versus a playroom. But that makes me sad to think about too!

 

Shhhh.....can you keep a secret? Nola sure can! With her gone, I thought I would do her laundry. I found her laundry basket empty (not too surprising because I asked her repeatedly this week if she was wearing dirty clothes. Despite her denials - I am not new to this mom thing). Well I didn't see any shorts in her closet. She recently rearranged her bedroom so I thought she might have put clothes in the dresser....she had! Nola had shoved her clothes from the past several rounds of laundry in the dresser (one of her chores is to put away her clothes). So I have piled it all on her floor to put away when she gets home. I also found about 50 Hershey kisses wrappers in her top dresser drawer. Nola is the one I will worry about in the teenage years - that poker face she has down pat.  And that whole messy drawer thing - that is totally from Matt (he drives me nuts doing the same thing!!!!!). 

Home again, home again

It was nice to be back home - especially with the unseasonably cool weather. Perhaps we brought it back with us from the UP?! We are monitoring cases of COVID in our county, school district, and hospital capacity. It is really shocking how health care workers, county health departments, etc are getting treated on social media. Every one is trying to their best in these unprecedented times - please show your fellows human grace.

We finally picked Nola's cabbage (she brought the seedling home from school in March and we tried killing it in the hot box several times). We don't spray chemicals in the garden so we suspected it to be bug ridden - but it wasn't! We have all been enjoying it's crunchy tastiness!

We have gotten a lot of rain and these "toad stools" popped up in the front yard. Matt monitored them and they were growing 1.5 inches every 8 hours!

The boys slipped down to finish putting the metal on the cabin - great job, guys!

Nola kept herself busy for hours while I was working. She built this boat and trailer to be a replicate of our Lake Huron trip! A future engineer?

I have been enjoying reading some good books (Thanks for the loans, mom!). Brenner put his hat on me to be funny. I am serious reader!

The flapper is starting to curl - Brenner is very proud :)

Miss Nola.

Nola went to a swim birthday party this week. She enjoyed petting all the animals on their farm! She made it over to work with the neighbors horses one evening - for 2.5 hours. She will miss Erica when she goes back to college next weekend!

We sent emails to former teachers to wish them good luck for the upcoming school year. Please thank your teachers - past and present - they deserve it!

The boys spent Saturday making picnic benches for the local schools to have extra seating outside with the Methodist men's group from our church - check out the video (https://www.facebook.com/NelsonMemorialUMC/videos/3219008218183984). Brenner had asked me to make cinnamon rolls. With all of their hard work - I said sure! Brenner gobbled his up before I could take a picture!

Becoming a Yooper Part 2

That excursion to the Falls took it out of us so we spent Wednesday at the cabin - we were definitely in vacation mode!

Matt and I took the canoe out onto East Lake in the morning.

He caught something!

Loved the clouds!

Remember me noting how easy it was to get onto Trout Lake. This is the dock to East Lake - the swamp/marsh area had wrecked havoc on it!

Later in the day, we took Nola out on the canoe.

Smiles faded as Matt kept switching lures. But she perked up when he started getting some bites. Lots of birds to see and hear. The loons were especially fun to listen to - and we even saw a bald eagle at one point.

Matt and his girls!

Roasting some marshmallows.

Grandma Val and I tackled a couple of puzzles. This one was especially hard (1000 pieces of Michigan birds) and required some extra wine for me!

Mat loves to go on fishing charters so that was Thursday's activity. Brenner was really excited as well! It was a crisp morning.

Gregg our guide with Soo Fishing Charters had us hopping along the water of Lake Huron near St. Ignace. We went out 17 miles to fish.

Our lucky leprechaun at the end of the rainbow. Will she bring us lots of lake trout?!

Brenner getting the first catch.

The biggest fish he had ever caught!

Nola was up next.....

...a bit smaller and she didn't want to hold it.

Later Brenner brought in this beauty. His competitive nature wanted the largest fish.

Grandma's turn!

Nola's next catch was a bit bigger. I think Matt wanted in on the action and had trouble handing the pole over to her....

...I mentioned it so he gave it over to her!

It was a big one! Nola didn't want to hold it but we told her that she would regret it if she didn't! I don't think that she was convinced!

Greg filleting the fish. Brenner was on and on about whose catch was the biggest. So Greg weighed them both - each kiddo caught a 6.7 pounder - a tie! Thank the good Lord because we would have never heard the end of it if it wasn't!

The fillets from the larger fish. They are now in our freezer.

Post fishing bliss for Matt.

Our crew! 

 

We were told over and over about pasties. So to Lehtos we went. Matt, Grandma, and Nola enjoyed - they were not such a hit with Brenner or me!

The boys grilling the trout for dinner.

Friday we headed to Mancelona to see our friend's property and play on Bert their bulldozer. Jenny and Steve have a wonderful piece of property. We can't wait until their retirement home is finished and we can visit!

We spent the night with Jenny and Steve at their home north of Detroit. Jenny and I went to undergrad together - taking many geology courses together. We figured out that we have been friends for over 20 years - where does the time go? We had a wonderful evening laughing, telling stories, and reminiscing about our "younger" days! The next morning - we drove home. And just like that vacation was over!