April has been somewhat temperamental this year, and isn’t quite sure if it’s spring or winter come again. We’ve had both warm days and cold rainy days. This month was mostly normal, aside from spring break where the kids visited Grandma and Grandpa, and Tim & Alicia spent a week away. AWANA is approaching the end of its year and we are finishing books and preparing for the summer. We’ve made some progress on our home renovation and are hoping to get a contractor started soon.
Cordelia has had a busy month. In addition to school and continuing to work at as a mother’s helper in the neighborhood, she participated in another ice skating competition this month. She won 4th place out of 6 competitors, her second competition at the Aspire 2 level. She had a fun time over spring break hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa. She also got her first retainer, which is exciting (?).
Anthony is having a fun time at school as well. He’s continuing to be diligent at his work, choosing most days to be proactive and get his homework done so that he has more free time at home. Anthony is also continuing to excel at piano; he’s starting to play some more challenging songs and is enjoying it. In soccer he is continuing to work hard at practice, although there have been some conflicts between his game schedule and AWANA. He’s continuing to be a great brother to his sisters, consistently showing them kindness.
Lydia is continuing to have fun at school, as well as at her gymnastics class which she attends with a friend from school. She’s been doing a great job this month getting herself started in the mornings; she even earned an alarm clock with her proactivity and has been getting herself up in the mornings with little to no help. Lydia continues to improve with her swimming skills; she has learned all of the 4 main strokes and is workjng on streamlining and efficiency. She’s also continuing to work on piano, although she is perhaps less motivated than her siblings.
Natalie is continuing to flourish at school. This month she is slated to finish her “phonics boxes” and is all set to begin working on her phonics book, a major achievement of which she is very proud. She’s continuing to work at swimming on trying to synchronize her hand motions and breathing for breast stroke; she will get there and she’s working very hard at it. She’s half way through her soccer session, which ends in June. She said she wants to try out ice skating over the summer like her big sister, which will both be fun for her and will help to keep us all cool :).
Alicia continues to be very busy. At the end of the school year she has a lot of AWANA paperwork to make sure that everyone is receiving the awards they earned. She’s continuing to work on that, as well as staying focused on Cordelia’s skating and making sure she gets to all of her lessons and classes. She was able to take a work trip back to San Jose this month, which was both productive and gave her the chance to check out our old stomping grounds. Work has been very busy and tasks keep piling now that she’s the primary point of contact for her group. She also enjoyed a week with Tim up in Oregon and Northern California, seeing Crater Lake and the Lava Beds National Monument.
Tim’s work continues to be a source of stress but also a bit of satisfaction, as he’s finally put together a complete system and has moved on to testing and qualifying it. At home he made some carnival games for the AWANA end-of-year celebration and worked on cleaning up the workshop in preparation for trailer renovations after the Sequoia trip in June. He is trying to stay on top of the weed and grass growth in the yard and keep things looking nice. He’s also looking forward to the end of the AWANA year and a break from teaching.
In May we’re looking forward to the end of the AWANA year and the approaching end of the school year. Tim will be celebrating turning 44, and we’re hoping (still) to get our bathroom project under way. We feel caught in the tension between wanting to improve things and trying to be content where we are.
