day-by-day life is so drastically different than when i started this little blog five years ago. 2 kids instead of 3, both in diapers, both toddling around underfoot. i think now of those days and wonder what exactly it was that we did all day every day? now there is school and basketball practice and reading homework and piano lessons and art club and therapies and how did this happen in only a few short years?
(yes, that is a a rhetorical and contemplative question and yes, the literal answer is is that all my kiddos are super close in age, so things like "sending kids to school" happened over only 3 years for 3 kids)
hazel & anders 1st day of school lena started a week later and this is her first day
the fact that i don't sit at this computer very often and definitely haven't blogged very often over the last year could make me want to throw the towel in, but i think i won't do that. instead, i'll start with today... sitting, typing, thinking about where we all are and the latest happenings.
matt
99 balloons world continues to spin and spin and he is the first to tell you that he is "not a good executive director". but this isn't some form of a humble brag, and this isn't true at all either. while he actually is a very good executive director, what he means by that is that some parts of his executive director role are more life-giving that others. (just like every job.) but he continues to find his sweet spot in the areas of vision and story-telling. when you think about the actual mission and vision of 99balloons...like, if you were to read it right now, you would think it sounds like an honorable and good thing and you'd maybe even nod a little before going back to instagram. but what you may not realize at a glance is the big big picture that we truly want to change the world. like major social change for individuals made in God's image to be an integral part of communities and society. no big deal. go get 'em, matt.
he is also starting a podcast called "the atypical podcast" where he will talk with folks doing atypical things and living atypical lives out there in the world and share the conversation with all of us. it's available here.
anders
this one turned 6 two weeks ago. it also happened to be his 100th day of school and he had glued 100 google eyes on a t-shirt for that fun day at school and i wrote in big letters on the back "today is my birthday!"...and then he got a high temperature the day before and my sweet sick 6 year old son wore that t-shirt around the house on his birthday in the most pitiful and sweet fashion. then we were gonna do a quick family fun getaway for the weekend after what would have been his first basketball game and anders got double pink eye and couldn't got to his game and we had to re-schedule that trip.
no school on his birthday. no 100 days of school celebration. no first basketball game. no little family trip.
and do you know what he said about it all...."this is the best birthday ever because i have a whole day with just you, mom". i kid you not. i can't even believe it as i write it.
sure, in the last six years, maybe he has bit a kid at the chickfila play area, and cut my hair when i wasn't paying attention, and whacked matt in the nose once or twice with a basketball or two, and a lot of other exciting & rambunctious little boy memories...but on his sixth birthday, he said that... and that is all i want to remember about his whole life.
he's over half way through his kindergarten year and he has done great! he loves numbers and time telling and money value and beginning coding they do on iPads at school but he just endures letters & literacy...i'll ask him to do some writing and i will look over a few minutes later and he has written numbers from 1 to 240 and not a letter or word is written but he is getting there, reading is coming along and one thing he does understand: practice. so he practices & works hard almost every night on sight words.
and he's fun. really, really fun. he takes piano lessons and doesn't love the discipline to practice but does like the music. he wants to play and laugh and dance and play nerf basketball in his room with you for h-o-u-r-s. he was on a soccer team in the fall and now he's playing basketball.
he had to miss his first basketball game due to a little bout of double pink eye and when he knew he would miss his actual first ever real game (kindergarten 3 on 3, where they keep no score)...he asked, in all seriousness: "will it be televised, so i can watch my teammates". yeah, that one has a little excitement and intensity when it comes to sports.
hazel
she is 7. and to say she likes to read is an understatement. there is a reading program in town connected with the university of arkansas, where you read 15-20 minutes a night for the month and then you put your name in some bucket to get drawn to hang out with razorback athletes or something like that, a prize that hazel really doesn't even care about. but what she does care about is the reading. the first night she read 82 minutes...and wrote that in the little box on the form. i try to tell her we will not be able to sustain 82 minutes a day, every day for the month of february, but she will not have any of it and insists we need more junie b jones and ivy & bean books because she essentially goes through one a day. for valentines day she is hand-making each valentine for her class mates despite me saying "oh don't you want to just go buy some" (mom of the year). she was in her first real play in november. she was the youngest cast member of the musical, elf, jr. if you were to ask her she would say it was one of the highlights of her life, but it was hard and good for her and trying and long hours and she struggled, but she showed such bravery and she did it. and i was so proud of her.
she is also playing basketball right now and matt is her coach. this is quite the adventure...hazel and 1st grade girls don't have the intensity that anders has about sports in even their pinky, but that doesn't stop matt from trying. have you ever tried to teach 6 & 7 year old girls about basketball....a few who have never played or maybe watched the game before? quite. the. adventure.
lena
lena, lena, lena...so much, where to start? well, do you know what an IEP is? if you don't, it stands for Individual Education Plan and for some this is a simple meeting about how the schools can best teach kids who need something different than the typical kid that goes to school. for lena, it's not that simple. she started public school in august and all of october and november was spent prepping for and attending some really intense IEP meetings. essentially we wanted lena to go to school with her siblings and peers and neighbors and to daily be in & a part her community. but the reality of that is not easy. it takes a lot for that to happen and the school district has a way they typically do things...matt and i just aren't afraid to bump up against that to get what our daughter needs. so we did and "bump up against" might be an understatement. hours and hours of meetings with 10-15 people in them.
the end (for now) of the story is she stayed at the school we are zoned for. i drop off all 3 kids at one school. her neighbors and kids in her community see her in the hallways, sit by her in the cafeteria and play ball with her on the playground. this may seem to you like, well of course. but it is actually a beautiful beautiful miracle. His kingdom come...a little of how it all should be.
and that lena girl... she is no dummy...she is happy about this. now, she still has all the diagnosis and deals with all she deals with every day...there is still screaming and banging halls and occasional crying about new things that she doesn't understand ...these are lena's normal. but she is really happy in a way i haven't seen too many times over the last 4 years home from ukraine. she is very aware that she goes to school with her siblings and friends and she likes it. i am so so proud of her.
me
well, in the blink of an eye all three kiddos are in school. it may or may not be a mini identity crisis. i didn't really have this moment in the fall when i thought i would...the IEP process truly consumed my every free moment and i didn't know if lena was gonna stay in school or come back to homeschooling. it was like a full time job, talking to consultants, coordinating paperwork and progress and functional behavior analysis. and now is more of that moment where i look around the house and wonder where they all went? why is it so quiet? and how can someone so young have all her kids in school already?
i don't have any part of this next season figured out....school lunches and folders and homework and activities are not exactly my thing...i was a lot more comfortable with toddlers under foot, temper tantrums and spilled juice and potty training and nap-time...but i am embracing this new place in the journey, even though i am clueless. i anticipate all the struggle and goodness and beauty the Spirit brings to each moment and wait expectantly for all He has for me in the newness of this phase of mothering.
((i just looked through a million pictures from the last year on my computer and the only one i can find that i am in is this one.....apparently my kids will grow up and look back at a lot of pictures of themselves...they will wonder, where in the world was mom? new goal, get in some of the pictures))
(yes, that is a a rhetorical and contemplative question and yes, the literal answer is is that all my kiddos are super close in age, so things like "sending kids to school" happened over only 3 years for 3 kids)
hazel & anders 1st day of school lena started a week later and this is her first day
the fact that i don't sit at this computer very often and definitely haven't blogged very often over the last year could make me want to throw the towel in, but i think i won't do that. instead, i'll start with today... sitting, typing, thinking about where we all are and the latest happenings.
matt
99 balloons world continues to spin and spin and he is the first to tell you that he is "not a good executive director". but this isn't some form of a humble brag, and this isn't true at all either. while he actually is a very good executive director, what he means by that is that some parts of his executive director role are more life-giving that others. (just like every job.) but he continues to find his sweet spot in the areas of vision and story-telling. when you think about the actual mission and vision of 99balloons...like, if you were to read it right now, you would think it sounds like an honorable and good thing and you'd maybe even nod a little before going back to instagram. but what you may not realize at a glance is the big big picture that we truly want to change the world. like major social change for individuals made in God's image to be an integral part of communities and society. no big deal. go get 'em, matt.
he is also starting a podcast called "the atypical podcast" where he will talk with folks doing atypical things and living atypical lives out there in the world and share the conversation with all of us. it's available here.
anders
this one turned 6 two weeks ago. it also happened to be his 100th day of school and he had glued 100 google eyes on a t-shirt for that fun day at school and i wrote in big letters on the back "today is my birthday!"...and then he got a high temperature the day before and my sweet sick 6 year old son wore that t-shirt around the house on his birthday in the most pitiful and sweet fashion. then we were gonna do a quick family fun getaway for the weekend after what would have been his first basketball game and anders got double pink eye and couldn't got to his game and we had to re-schedule that trip.
no school on his birthday. no 100 days of school celebration. no first basketball game. no little family trip.
and do you know what he said about it all...."this is the best birthday ever because i have a whole day with just you, mom". i kid you not. i can't even believe it as i write it.
sure, in the last six years, maybe he has bit a kid at the chickfila play area, and cut my hair when i wasn't paying attention, and whacked matt in the nose once or twice with a basketball or two, and a lot of other exciting & rambunctious little boy memories...but on his sixth birthday, he said that... and that is all i want to remember about his whole life.
he's over half way through his kindergarten year and he has done great! he loves numbers and time telling and money value and beginning coding they do on iPads at school but he just endures letters & literacy...i'll ask him to do some writing and i will look over a few minutes later and he has written numbers from 1 to 240 and not a letter or word is written but he is getting there, reading is coming along and one thing he does understand: practice. so he practices & works hard almost every night on sight words.
and he's fun. really, really fun. he takes piano lessons and doesn't love the discipline to practice but does like the music. he wants to play and laugh and dance and play nerf basketball in his room with you for h-o-u-r-s. he was on a soccer team in the fall and now he's playing basketball.
he had to miss his first basketball game due to a little bout of double pink eye and when he knew he would miss his actual first ever real game (kindergarten 3 on 3, where they keep no score)...he asked, in all seriousness: "will it be televised, so i can watch my teammates". yeah, that one has a little excitement and intensity when it comes to sports.
anders first piano recital, december 2015
hazel
she is 7. and to say she likes to read is an understatement. there is a reading program in town connected with the university of arkansas, where you read 15-20 minutes a night for the month and then you put your name in some bucket to get drawn to hang out with razorback athletes or something like that, a prize that hazel really doesn't even care about. but what she does care about is the reading. the first night she read 82 minutes...and wrote that in the little box on the form. i try to tell her we will not be able to sustain 82 minutes a day, every day for the month of february, but she will not have any of it and insists we need more junie b jones and ivy & bean books because she essentially goes through one a day. for valentines day she is hand-making each valentine for her class mates despite me saying "oh don't you want to just go buy some" (mom of the year). she was in her first real play in november. she was the youngest cast member of the musical, elf, jr. if you were to ask her she would say it was one of the highlights of her life, but it was hard and good for her and trying and long hours and she struggled, but she showed such bravery and she did it. and i was so proud of her.
she is also playing basketball right now and matt is her coach. this is quite the adventure...hazel and 1st grade girls don't have the intensity that anders has about sports in even their pinky, but that doesn't stop matt from trying. have you ever tried to teach 6 & 7 year old girls about basketball....a few who have never played or maybe watched the game before? quite. the. adventure.
hazel in elf, jr...she's the little one in the front
lena
lena, lena, lena...so much, where to start? well, do you know what an IEP is? if you don't, it stands for Individual Education Plan and for some this is a simple meeting about how the schools can best teach kids who need something different than the typical kid that goes to school. for lena, it's not that simple. she started public school in august and all of october and november was spent prepping for and attending some really intense IEP meetings. essentially we wanted lena to go to school with her siblings and peers and neighbors and to daily be in & a part her community. but the reality of that is not easy. it takes a lot for that to happen and the school district has a way they typically do things...matt and i just aren't afraid to bump up against that to get what our daughter needs. so we did and "bump up against" might be an understatement. hours and hours of meetings with 10-15 people in them.
the end (for now) of the story is she stayed at the school we are zoned for. i drop off all 3 kids at one school. her neighbors and kids in her community see her in the hallways, sit by her in the cafeteria and play ball with her on the playground. this may seem to you like, well of course. but it is actually a beautiful beautiful miracle. His kingdom come...a little of how it all should be.
and that lena girl... she is no dummy...she is happy about this. now, she still has all the diagnosis and deals with all she deals with every day...there is still screaming and banging halls and occasional crying about new things that she doesn't understand ...these are lena's normal. but she is really happy in a way i haven't seen too many times over the last 4 years home from ukraine. she is very aware that she goes to school with her siblings and friends and she likes it. i am so so proud of her.
me
well, in the blink of an eye all three kiddos are in school. it may or may not be a mini identity crisis. i didn't really have this moment in the fall when i thought i would...the IEP process truly consumed my every free moment and i didn't know if lena was gonna stay in school or come back to homeschooling. it was like a full time job, talking to consultants, coordinating paperwork and progress and functional behavior analysis. and now is more of that moment where i look around the house and wonder where they all went? why is it so quiet? and how can someone so young have all her kids in school already?
i don't have any part of this next season figured out....school lunches and folders and homework and activities are not exactly my thing...i was a lot more comfortable with toddlers under foot, temper tantrums and spilled juice and potty training and nap-time...but i am embracing this new place in the journey, even though i am clueless. i anticipate all the struggle and goodness and beauty the Spirit brings to each moment and wait expectantly for all He has for me in the newness of this phase of mothering.
((i just looked through a million pictures from the last year on my computer and the only one i can find that i am in is this one.....apparently my kids will grow up and look back at a lot of pictures of themselves...they will wonder, where in the world was mom? new goal, get in some of the pictures))
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