August continued the busy streak from July. Tim returned from a week long work trip to Julian. Then a Powers clan trip to Legoland and a special bonus of Alicia’s cousin joining. Things settled a bit before we started our “new normal” with all the kids going to the Montessori all five days, all day from 8:30-5:30. We celebrated Alicia’s birthday with family. Tim had a work trip to Florida towards the end of the month.
An exciting month for Cordelia! After our trip to Legoland she stayed and had her “camp grandma” week with grandparents Powers. Then she started the school year moving up to elementary. She was really excited to be in her new classroom. Two weeks into the school year now, she has been having a great time and is getting used to the new elementary routine. It has been more taxing on her though and we’ve noticed she’s been needing to get to bed earlier. Big news for Corrie this month was her losing her first tooth!!! She was pretty nervous about it falling out but Thursday the first week of school it fell out while she was at school. Now she’s excited about having lost her first tooth. Cordelia has been continuing with swimming practice and gymnastics. Shes getting better with her freestyle/crawl stroke and is starting to learn side breathing. Gymnastics is still pretty new for her and she’s still learning to pay attention and understand what she’s supposed to be doing. Cordelia’s loving heart has shown through on several occasions this month. She actively looks for the needs of others and come to help and comfort them. This is has been remarked on by her teachers at school. It is a blessing to have a daughter who is others-focused and tenderhearted to the needs of others.
Anthony has been doing a great job with his school and is continuing in the same classroom as before. He was very exciting to be staying all day and getting to stay for nap time. He’s continuing his reading and made a big accomplishment in numbers – organizing individual tiles from 1 to 100. He enjoys playing with his friends and has several of the same kids in his class. Anthony is now doing gymnastics as well as swim class. He’s been doing gymnastics now for a year (minus the 4 month break). In swim class he’s continuing to gain confidence, being able to swim the short side by himself.
Lydia started the month at home but she too joined the older kids at school at the start of the new school year. She’s in the per-primary class and has made the smoothest transition from being at home to going to school all day. The first day she walked right into her class and didn’t look back. She’s continued that now going on three weeks! Even at two years old she’s engaging in early learning. Her language skills have certainly developed. At home Lydia and Anthony have been in conflict more. Fighting over toys – which usually ends with Anthony trying to hide in a corner and protect whatever toy he has from his little sister. So we’re trying to work with Lydia on being kind and teach Anthony how to respond.
Alicia has had a very busy month at work and home. Work continues to be full of both technical work and administrative work. It’s been a good opportunity for Alicia to grow her technical skills, though sometimes she feels she’s not completing her tasks as quickly as she needs to. Alicia has kept very busy outside of work two. Nearly every weekend has had something going on. Alicia was very thankful that all three kids transitioned so smoothly to going to school all day for all five days. She was uncertain how well it was going to work out but it is so far been a very good experience for everyone. Alicia and Tim decided that Alicia should continue as Sparks director and as the next club year will start next month, AWANA responsibilities are ramping up!
Tim had a challenging work month. At the beginning of the month, he and his group conducted a round of successful field testing on a customer-funded project. The rest of the month was spent gearing up for a live demo in Florida… unfortunately, he wasn’t able to succeed in Florida, as the ULA rocket launch at Cape Canaveral took priority and his team didn’t get a time slot during the limited time they were on site. That program is now over, with a bit of a lackluster finish. He has a couple of new things on the horizon, so September promises to be an interesting month. At home, he made a nice walnut pony wall top for the master bathroom and has gotten back to work on his DIY archtop guitar. He’s feeling a bit more settled at home now that the remodeling project is nearing completion and some other “honeydo” items are finally getting done. Tim is also continuing to keep up with his new working out routine with our neighbor personal trainer – in between work trips.
As summer comes to a close and the school year activities are coming in to full swing, we’ll hopefully be getting into a smoother routine. Lydia will be having her first “camp grandma” in September while Tim and Alicia take the older kids up to the mountains and meet up with Mimi and Papa. Please pray for opportunities for quality family time and some couple quality time. With the kids at school all day and full time work, there is such limited time all together as a family. Plus with extra weekend activities, our family time is shrunk more. Additionally with COVID closures there’s limited options for date nights, plus the lack of on-site childcare like we had with the Au Pairs previously.
