Toby is FIVE!

Marshmallow bar graphs... math: check :-D

The following progression made us laugh out loud. It's hard not being the birthday boy. He wanted to use his credits to have Mom fish him out these balls from the claw machine. He rushed over to Toby afterwards to let him pick one <3 It was a good day.

Toby's been asking how many days until his birthday for like 60-some days now, and it finally came! What a sweet, funny, smart, full-of-personality and imagination boy he is. He plays well with pretty much all of his siblings (though it's sometimes hard to abide that littlest one when he's fiercely displaying his Twos.), but Toby and Opal, whom we have named "The Wonder Twins," are so funny to watch sometimes- they play so well together. Toby loves so many things- having me print out Paw Patrol and Power Rangers coloring pages galore (somehow this is infinitely better than coloring books of the same themes), coloring, having me (or a sibling) draw him pictures, being read to, playing on our playset, talking about Jesus and the saints... We are incredibly blessed by this amazing little person.

We love you, T-Man, our Little T, our Sweet T... to the edge of the universe and back again and back out and in again... ("google times a google")

Brooklyn Wildlife Trail Race

Sandra and me pre-race. For a warm-up, we jogged right down the road to where Ann and Seraphina are buried- it was special to know they were so close.

(All below photos taken from the Arbor Rock website) My friend Sandra asked me to run the Brooklyn Wildlife Trail 6 mile Race with her last weekend. It was the first trail race for each of us- and a lot hillier than we'd expected! But it was a neat course through the Ice Ice Trail. We had a beautiful day for running- it was in the 50s when we first got there. Out of the 92 women who ran, I got 8th overall and 3rd out of 21 in my age group (57:58 for a 9:40 pace- did I mention it was hilly?!)

It was a lot of fun though, and I'm already looking for a possible fall race. I like to have something to work towards. And running is so therapeutic for me.

Starting another school year

We started our 2019-2020 school year last Wednesday. The big two started cross country with our Holy Family Homeschoolers group, and they've had practice either in Verona or up near Madison every single week morning from 8:30-10:30, which has thrown a wrench into our plans just a bit. Though our first few days are always on the lighter side anyway, so we can ease into things and not burn out from the get-go. Next week, their practices switch to afternoons, which will be nice. Things have been going well so far though, and I feel like with six days under our belts, we are already finding the rhythm of our new school year routine.

I even dug out my good camera for these pics, but after looking at them on my computer, I thought my cell phone would have done a better job. They're really grainy. Bummer. Well, at least we got them! This year, we have grades 7, 6, 4, 1/2, Kindergarten, and Official Distractor (Joel takes his job seriously). Joel in these! LOL. (Abigail had just told him that only the two of them were going to stir for a minute) Abigail set up this lovely prayer table for us to use during our morning prayer/scripture reading. Here we go! Wishing everyone a grace-filled school year!