Overdue Update and Start of School for One Kid

New town 5 hours away from our long-time home in Chicagoland, August 4, 2018. 

New part-time, work-from-home job, August 6, 2018. 

Start of Kindergarten for our oldest, two weeks later in August 2018.

Covid awfulness of 2020-2021.

Temporary shut-down of Elijah's school, May 2021, with hopes it would reopen. Its permanent closure was announced in December 2022, despite our very best efforts.

My joining the School Board for the said above school, Spring 2021. Which carried into a totally different School Board but still a non-denominational Christian school, up until early July when it too closed. Sadly!!! (God is in control, not us!)

New school for our oldest as he entered 3rd grade, August 2021.

Start of Pre-K4 for our youngest, in the midst of masking and Covid restrictions still, August 2021.

An ongoing freelance job to add to that other job, May 2022.

Start of Kindergarten for our youngest, August 2022. He was happy to be at the same school as big brother!

Another side job to add to that one, September 2022. 

Start of 2nd grade for our youngest, August 14th, 2024.

Still to come... start of 6th grade for our oldest, September 3rd, 2024, as he enters yet another new school and a whole new adventure! We are praying and hoping this is a successful year for him as he grows, challenges his faith, and makes new friends!!

It was soooo strange for Elijah to stay home while Caleb went off to school!

Grateful for their bond (when they're not fighting... which is fairly constant these days!). Caleb misses big brother's presence at school, but this too shall pass!

LOL our little ham. He was worried he'd be late for school and kept saying "hurry up!!!", not realizing I'd left plentyyyyy of time for pictures, haha!

Our little future builder sure is obsessed with roller coasters! He cannot wait to build his own amusement park in our city one day and he draws them on paper constantly, acts them out in the air as we watch, makes them in Creative mode on Minecraft, and talks fairly obsessively about them!!! This all began when we went on our big family vacation this summer in early June to northern Kentucky, and after days at The Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter, his favorite was hands down the hour drive up to Cincinnati for King's Island!!! We were not prepared enough for his obsession, thinking he'd want to only go on little rides, but he hit 48" basically just as we went there, and he loved the couple of roller coasters he got to go on! He cannot wait to go back and go on even more!!!

We love you, sweet Caleb! Can't wait to see all the ways you learn and grow this year in SECOND grade!!! Time sure does fly! 

I'll hopefully remember to update more often and will post pictures of Elijah's first day, as well as our vacation, soon! Hope you're doing well, the few who might still read this page! ;)