May was a pretty standard month with school and work. We celebrated Tim’s birthday this month. Tim and Alicia got a nice weekend retreat over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Tim’s birthday and a belated Anniversary. We took a glass blowing class, went on several hikes, and had a fancy dinner. As we approach June, the end of the school year and summer activities are starting to come into view.
Cordelia did OK in her debate competition at school. It was a new experience and she didn’t look totally comfortable or confident, but it was a good learning experience. Her class has been preparing for their yearly testing during the month and finished the month by taking the standardized tests. Cordelia is working hard in her ice-skating Academy Prep class. She’s also transitioning to weekly private lessons in preparation for her upcoming competitions over the summer. The AWANA club year is coming to a close and she successfully completed her book for the year. She also had a really fun time making good friendship bonds.
Anthony seems to have regained enthusiasm and enjoyment in school. He’s been working hard with good focus and has been having fewer conflicts with others. Anthony also was doing test prep this month and finished his testing at the end of the month. Anthony continues working hard in his Skills 3 soccer class. He will be finishing his last game of the current soccer league he joined for the spring. His team finished 5th out of 6 teams. Several of his teammates made the experience more challenging than anticipated. In mid-June he’ll be joining a different soccer league with a slightly older age group. Hopefully that will result in more focused play within the team. Anthony finished off his last year in Sparks. He’ll be getting his Sparky award in June and then moving up to T&T next year.
Lydia loves school and it will be sad for her to graduate out of her class and leave her current teacher. Lydia is graduating Kindergarten during June and will join in the school’s annual end of the year celebration. Lydia is looking forward to starting soccer for the summer session. We finally got back to a more regular attendance with swimming and her new assigned teacher seems really good. Lydia is working on getting her legs strong and also continuing to learn the breast stroke. Lydia finished her first year in Sparks and had a fun time with one of the girls at her table.
Natalie has a lot of fun at school. She has several friends she really enjoys playing with. Her class learned about musical instruments this month. Natalie is doing great with her potty training and is getting more proactive about going before it’s an emergency. Unfortunately, potty training also seems to result in more challenges during bed time. She started getting out of bed a lot more and was climbing into the top bunk to be with Lydia. We ended up moving the bunk bed out of the room and got a queen bed for Lydia and Natalie to share. They’re still working on sleeping nicely in a shared bed.
Alicia’s work load is finally starting to settle to a manageable level towards the end of the month. The beginning of May was really busy with lots of high priority deadlines. Alicia was able to get things back into a good flow and things seem to be mostly on track. At home Alicia has been keeping up with the kids and activities. AWANA is now closing on the club year. With just the awards ceremony to complete, things are on the edge of summer break. Of course, Alicia’s brain is already whirling about plans for the next club year. Alicia enjoyed the quiet relaxing weekend retreat with Tim. She made a heart at a glass blowing class and enjoyed the days of hiking.
Tim’s work is putting a fair amount of stress on him. While things are progressing, he’s in a high visibility technical position with lots of people looking to him to provide answers. Unfortunately, some of the projects he’s joining in the middle of the design so he’s sometime stuck explaining things he has no input or background on. Tim added soccer to his weekly workout routine. After watching Anthony playing in the soccer leagues it really got Tim excited about playing again. So, he joined a group of fellow professionals for some soccer fun once or twice a week. On the home front, with the warmer weather and changing seasons, Tim’s been focusing on the gardening and outside work. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern, wanting to start our bigger remodeling project, but we’ve been having a hard time finding a contractor to do the work. Tim made a glass globe on our weekend get-away and also enjoyed the quiet quality time to share together without kid responsibilities.
May had its share of ups and downs. The daily and weekly activities can become pretty draining. In June we’ll be finishing up the school year and starting the summer activities. We’ll also be celebrating Father’s Day. Summer is not likely to slow down the demands and speed of life. We’re praying for the energy and patience to get through the day to day doing the things God wants us to be doing.
