A couple overarching observances from the mama/teacher. I have always appreciated teachers and school staff, but homeschool has taken my appreciation to the next level. I am so grateful for teachers, administrators, custodians, cafeteria workers, and those who appropriate funds for schools. Their work is so important. Also, the homeschool life is really hard. In some ways, I've become a working mom. That's both working and momming all the time. I haven't figured out how to balance things, still, and  our house and yard and dinner menu are suffering because  of it, but I honestly feel like I'm doing the very best I can figure out how to do. I'm grateful to have Nate on board in such a hands-on way. He is such a support and a strength to all of us. We're firmly committed for the year, though. And every once in awhile there will just be a sublime moment when it feels so right and amazing. But mostly it's really, really hard and Nate and I both live on the edge ...

The new school year has brought a new adventure to our family. We're doing a homeschooling/public schooling blend. Nate and I put a lot of thought and prayer into it and decided that we wanted more than anything to take the guesswork out of school this year. I didn't feel like I could handle the stress of remote public schooling for all the kids again. And homeschooling allows us to keep things as consistent for our family as possible. We won't have to worry about the runaround of the schools shutting down and then reopening, which honestly may or may not happen multiple times over the course of the year. Addison, oboe in tow, is our only public schooler this year. He's in his first year of junior high. He gets up early, masks up, and goes to school twice a week, and learns remotely the other three days. I like it, because that means he gets to do the homeschool thing with us, at least somewhat, on those days. We get him sometimes for science and history, depending on h...

Last week the kids and I took a trip to Salt Lake on a whim, because we found out the Tracy Aviary was $1 every Wednesday through the end of March. I've always wanted to go there, and Bryn is in love with all birds, and it was a beautiful spring day, so we just had to do it. Sometimes it is awesome to be a stay-at-home mom with no kids in school. We went in the early afternoon and had some time to kill while we waited for Nate to get off work, so I took them to check out the new City Creek Center. It's the new shopping center across from Temple Square. It is so cool. The creek runs right through the middle of the mall. They loved all the water and the bridges, and there were even fish! Walking to City Creek. They wall wanted to wear their explorer hats. Add caption Fish! When the kids got tired of the fish we headed to the food court to play on the dinosaur playground. It was so fun! Leah standing in hot lava. After playing for a good long ...