Back to School 2022

The new school year was stepped into this year with some reluctance, excitement, and hope, plus a fair helping of anxiety. I have learned to try to get things sorted prior to the start of the year, but also to entrust it all to God's care.

Johanna and I bought her school supplies the first week of August and they were all piled ready to go, with the reusable items from years past. The smell of crayons filtered into the scent of lead shavings as I pre-sharpened her pencils and despite having the supplies all together I know it wouldn't be enough to gently transition Johanna into 4th grade. Johanna does not transition gently. So I braced myself for the intensity. Johanna has had a good but intense first week. She is in the 4th grade at St. Mark, and she got the teacher she had been hoping for: Ms. Middleton. Johanna reread the note Ms. Middleton sent out over and over again, and Johanna was full throttle as we did the "Classroom Visit" day. Johanna sought out familiar faces and greeted all of her classmates by name. 

Monday morning came early and it was still dark out when I first said "Good Morning". We are getting back into the swing of the routine, with a few bumps, a few tears, more hugs and erratic appetites. But we are looking forward to the new year and all of the opportunities to learn and grow.

Bridget is at Catonsville High School in the 10th grade. She is looking forward to a stable, more predictable year, and more art classes. I took her shopping for clothes a few weeks ahead of time and we picked up a curling iron. We also scheduled a haircut, which turned out fantastic and Bridget says it feels great too. She was asked to manage the JV volleyball team, which started up before school. She has a few friends on the team, and when the coach found out she was Megan's sister, they were excited to have Bridget. Bridget laughed and said isn't nepotism great. The team provided a good transition to schedules and interacting with friends. I still have to contact all of her teachers to make sure they have her IEP info, and hopefully start on a good foot. Jim drops her off in the mornings and she rides the school bus home in the afternoons.

Megan and I sat down in July and went through all of the college to-dos. She scheduled her advising meeting and we were not at all impressed with the process. Finally she got one scheduled (virtual), but the advisor didn't show. It was stressful.  I sat down with her and we went through Nursing program pre-requisites. We weren't very adept at the system but we nailed down a solid schedule that included condensed versions of the two of the nursing program pre-reqs. That schedule would allow her to apply to the nursing program in Jan and complete the nursing program in 2 years. She and I discussed it and because she took most of these classes during senior year she felt like she was ready and could handle it. the schedule also gave her off on Friday. She was asked by her high school AP Bio teacher to nanny for her 6 month old, Hazel. The schedule would mean that she could nanny on Fridays.

Then 6 days before the semester started she got a call and an email saying that the condensed classes were canceled due to low enrollment. The well-made plans were junked and she was stressed and demoralized after some discouraging email back and forths with CCBC. She and I sat down and reworked her schedule getting into the few classes that were still open. When it all settled the schedule turned out doable and opened up her Mondays. She is now nannying for Hazel on Mondays and Fridays. The new schedule does mean that the ambitious 2 year RN goal is probably not possible anymore, but we put it in God's hands.

Summer Vacation Pt 2 - Maine 2022

 Thursday was our big outing to Acadia National Park: (3 hour drive)

Sieur de Monts nature center and trails along the board walk

Little Hunter's Beach, with a beach of big sea tossed rocks that echoed when you walked on them, amazing sedimentary rocks and cool layers exposed by the elements.

 

Cadliac Mountain with great views of Bar Harbour, the ocean and the coast

 

Next we drove through Bar Harbour and then out to find a place for dinner, Helen's Restaurant, before we headed back to Bridgton

Jim got us home safely in the pitch black and rain.

Friday we went to Conway, which I kept saying was in Vermont but is in fact in New Hampshire, because Jim wanted to visit a brewery. We had lunch and he tried a flight of beers, we walked the town and stopped at the LL Bean outlet.

The girls squeezed in a hike from the 2nd trailhead near us, and we made tacos for dinner. That evening I brought the girls into town for a last night ice cream. The big girls and I ended the night with a game of Progression.

Saturday we said good bye to Maine and we headed south to Massachusetts and visited Aunt Deb. She hosted us for a pizza lunch on fine china rimmed in platinum and pink linens. It was so good to see her.

Then we drove into Boston and stopped at MIT to visit Josh. He showed us his rollercoaster project and gave us a tour of the dorm and then the main buildings on campus.

We hit the road again, stopping for dinner at Subway,  GPS cut out on the George Washington Bridge in NYC so we had to reroute ourselves to get back on track. Jim drove the final leg home, finally getting back at 1 AM.

Our Maine trip was such a lovely get a way. I will treasure our time together as family.

Summer Vacation Pt 1- Maine 2022

 It all started with a book called The Penderwicks. The girls each read the series and the thought of Maine was planted in their heads. When conversations of vacation would come up year over year, Bridget and Megan would both suggest Maine. This year we decided to look into it. I jumped online and searched house rentals and quite quickly found a beautiful place at a very good price. I showed it to Jim and we decided to book it, hoping it wasn't too good to be true.

Our vacation was August 6-13.  The drive from Baltimore in the minivan with the 7 of us was long, but we packed lightly and managed it well. With 4 stops it took us a little over 11 hours. The house we rented was in Bridgton, Maine on Solitude Lane by Moose Pond at the foot of Pleasant Mountain, and it did not disappoint. Maine smelled of pine trees and had a fantastic understory of ferns. The house was situated in the woods with a deck, fire pit, small gardens and lawn. the rooms were all big enough for our family to gather together or find a private spot to read or relax.

Jim and I shared the master with a fancy master bathroom and soaking tub. Rachael and Megan shared the front bedroom, and Bridget, Emma and Johanna shared the upstairs bedroom. We settled in for a good vacation.

Visit to Fryeburg, Mass at St Elizabeth Ann Seton church, flea Market, and lunch at 302 West Smokehouse.

Mini hike on trailhead at Pleasant Mountain before a simple dinner of sandwiches

Monday trip to Portland ME:

We started at the Cape Elizabeth Headlight and enjoyed the views. We grabbed some gelato, and then we scrambled on the rocks, enjoying the breeze and the tidepools. 

We headed to the Old Port for lunch in a tavern along the main cobblestone road and then we took a ferry over to Peaks Island. Romped on the little beach and then back over to the mainland. We walked the old town streets and did a little shopping. Before heading back to Bridgton. 

Renting kayaks from SkiHot at the end of the road and ferrying the paddleboard and kayaks from our place to and from the community beach/launch area. It rained just as we got going, but it felt great on a hot day. Moose Pond was clear and cool.

That night we played Mexican train dominos around the big green dining room table.

Breakfasts of Captain crunch, private spots around the house for down time, moments on the deck, reading in the sun room.

Improv with Johanna: Two at a time we drew characters names from a bowl and then we had to act out a scene together. It was hysterical

Visiting Bridgton: the bookstore and antique shop, and Reny's general store (our neighbor Jim's cousins own Reny's)

Maine offered a feeling of openness and timelessness. It felt grounded in nature and time.

Making a home- Writing love on hearts

 We've lived in our brick rancher for almost 22 years. We moved in during the Fall of 2000, when I was heavily pregnant with Rachael, Emma was a talkative 2 year old, and Jim had a dark head of hair. We had moved from our townhouse in Aurora, CO with the help of family and friends in a Uhaul truck, 6 months earlier. We leased an apartment while we looked for a single family home to buy.

July 2000

Our house wasn't the house of our dreams with a wrap around porch and turn of the century woodwork, but we immediately loved our brick rancher and began to put our stamp on it. Over the years that stamp got bigger. We painted, and updated light fixtures, removed wall paper, removed bushes, and added planting beds. Home ownership gave us the ability to adapt our space to our growing family. We finished the basement, and I can remember painting the walls blue as I listened to Christmas carols and supporting my pregnant belly in anticipation of Megan's arrival. Before refinishing the wood floors, we tore off the living room's wood paneling revealing the fireplace box. Jim and I built a new mantel and trimmed the fireplace after returning from the beach. I was pregnant with Bridget at the time. There were many bedroom swaps and room painting that happened over the years as our family grew. In 2011 we took the wall out between our kitchen and dining room and redid the kitchen top to bottom. I still love our big kitchen drawers, deep sink and peninsula. The biggest change of all was the addition. We found out we were pregnant with Johanna, and we decided new bedrooms and a better traffic pattern for our main floor would make a big difference. 9 years later the office has come in very handy and the circular floor plan makes hosting so much better. Our house has been the place of many smiles, laughs, and love. Lots and lots of love. These physical changes were only a faint shadow compared to the family that was built and is being built here. Every room has markings and memories of them in it, that make it home. Our home.

It makes me smile. I'm so grateful to have had the ability to make so many memories. I'm aware I might lose some memories as I get older, and I do see myself getting much older in this house. But I believe that the feelings will linger well past the memory, those are written on my heart. I'm also confident that they are written on Jim's and the girls' hearts too. I look forward to experiencing waves of joy with  unexpected reminders.

The smell of gardening does that for me. When I weed the planting beds and get a hold of Creeping Charlie, the scent hits me and I let it linger. I am bathed in the love of my Aunt Mickey. It makes me feel content and safe. She spoke of Creeping Charlie with such disdain, that it is ironic to me that I enjoy it so much now. I spent many many weekends of my childhood at Aunt Mickey's tiny bungalow on Longview Drive, just around the bend from my grandparent's house. She was and is one of my favorite people. She had so many skills and was so put together. Proper in diction and manners, and dress. She was a gifted and generous seamstress. She was competent and independent, and could be stern and sometimes scary. She also had a big laugh and loved her family; her love is written on my heart. She was an unmarried woman, successful, modest, fun, and so generous. She suffered a stroke, when I was a young teen and she became dependent on that family she loved so well. We weren't always the best at repaying her for everything, but having the chance to help her get ready in the mornings when she lived with us was a blessing, and witnessing her frustration which she sometimes raged at briefly but most often laughed at her situation, limitation or struggle, was a gift. She was the epitome of grace. Getting a speeding ticket with her stifling laughter next to me in the car after I picked her up from the Senior Center is still an experience I smile over.  Every generation needs an Aunt Mickey. 

A few of our girls have mentioned that they don't want to have children, and part of me feels sad because I know what an absolute blessing children have been in my life, and I want that for them. Then I think of my Great Aunt Mickey and the gift of attention she gave to me, that safety net she was to many, and what a great life she lived. I think of the series of unmarried Great Aunts up and down our genealogy and I am content that each of my girls will take part in the writing on hearts, whether or not they have children, and hopefully some day the scent of some ordinary thing will remind them of home and the love it bears.

Summer Things- Mid summer catch up

 Our summer has gotten off to a fun start. 

Bridget took a trip to NYC with her Girl Scout Troop, received her Girl Scout Silver Award and celebrated with a party.  Her silver project happened during the pandemic and she sewed tons of face masks for the Cotactin Furnace Historical Society. She and I attended their festival back in Sept 2021 and brought a large supply of historical fabric inspired masks right as their supply was depleted. It was a well-deserved award.

Johanna wrapped up her 3rd grade year with Field Day and was soon in the pool doing summer swim. She has swim meets most Saturdays and is getting faster as the summer goes. Johanna also attended Howard County Girl Scout Day Camp for a week and came home singing all of the camp songs. She also did St Mark Drama Camps for 2 separate weeks. With Harry Potter and Encanto themes.

Rachael is working at Weiss Grocery in the bakery and making visits to Boston to visit Josh. She was so glad to be able to volunteer at HCGSDC on 2 days that she wasn't working.

Megan is working at the farm, bottling olive oil and is returning the favor to the Kureks as the driver to the farm. Joseph and Michael drove her to work previous years and now it is her opportunity to drive Katherine. The slightly rusty, no AC, crank window car is doing the trick.

Emma is working in the McKeldin section of Patapsco State Park this year, and is running art programs. This year after getting small craft certified she has added Canoe and Paint events. Megan joined her on one and had a blast.

We had a good 4th of July in Catonsville at the Shumakers. A good number of people/cousins were out of town and there was more coming and going but still a lot of fun. I missed the handing out of rocket pops while I was picking up Josh and Rachael after work, but I did get to eat one. Josh brought his fire spinning tools and did a demonstration for the party. It was pretty cool. Uncle Erik queued up some fire themed songs as Josh performed. For the first time I walked Johanna down to the high school with the bigger cousins to see the fireworks. It is an amazing show!

Then the next weekend amid near constant rain, we helped the Brinks set up for Crab Soup in their back yard. Jim headed over early on Saturday to help get the soup going, while I did a very rainy swim meet with Johanna. The rain turned more to a drizzle later in the afternoon and we got to enjoy the party. Megan held a good number of new babies, Bridget hung out with the young teens and Johanna got to swim in the pool after I went back home to get her swimsuit. Emma and Rachael were able to come by too.