Well. Once school and BSF and all of the after-school activities began, I quickly realized I had no time left for blogging. Now that I'm also working a "real" job, there's been zero margin. The holiday season was hard, and I didn't manage my time well. But I'm determined to correct that in the months ahead.
There are so few pictures on my camera roll from this fall. It's getting harder and harder to document our life because my teenagers prefer not to be documented. I'm trying to honor their boundaries, but I'm hopeful to capture more in the months ahead. In the meantime, here is a very brief snapshot of fall.
Mason got dressed up and went to homecoming. Can I just tell you how IMPOSSIBLE it is to clothe a guy who is a size 28 in the waist but requires at least a 34 in length, otherwise he's treading water?! It's impossible. That size doesn't exist. It's not even something you can order online. I have tried. So we had to get a bigger size in the waist so the length would fit, and then I had to take them to the tailor to have the waist taken up.
One of my least favorite things about traditional school is the dress up days. Red ribbon week. Pink week. Storybook character day. It's endless, and it wears me out. Once upon a time I had more energy for it. But not now. It's not such a big deal in middle and high school. But elementary school is another thing. Thankfully Ellie is not big at all on dressing up. She never said a word to me about storybook character day. And I knew about it, but I was so busy with everything else that I forgot to talk to her about it. So when I dropped her off in carpool that morning, she was the only one in a uniform and not dressed up. But she didn't care. She marched through the day like she owned it. We largely skipped over red ribbon and pink weeks, too. Then came Halloween.
Hannah Kate decided she wanted to dress up. Fine. What do you want to do? Next thing I know, she's sending me an email with an amazon link. It was a pig ONESIE. A pig. A ONESIE. I have no idea where I went wrong, and I tried to explain to her that we are not those people. But she ended up with a pig onesie. Then she decided to dress up with her friend. I reminded her about the said onesie that had already been purchased. So her friend wore a Winnie-the-Pooh shirt. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is 8th grade.
Ellie, on the other hand, made all of my dress-up dreams come true. I told her the same thing. Decide what you want to be and find the costume. Yes, I completely realize how terribly risky this was. But when she showed me the costume she picked out, I couldn't add it to my cart fast enough. She was the cutest little Dorothy ever! As fall gave way to the holiday season, we once again packed shoeboxes. We can't wait to find out where these go!
1995-2012 - unknown to us but known to Him
2013 - Honduras and Peru
2014 - Ghana and Togo
2015 - Philippines, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali
2016 - Philippines and Chad
2017 - Mexico
2018 - Panama and Ecuador
2019 - Panama
2020 - Mali
And then came Thanksgiving. Because of my work schedule, our trip to Georgia was much shorter than usual. But we were so blessed to spend two really good, really full days with my family. I have just a few pictures of the girls helping Mimi in the kitchen and the spread we enjoyed at lunch. I have absolutely no pictures of our time with my brother and his family and our cousins.
