In July things kicked into overdrive and we had lots of overfilled weekends and late nights. We spent the 4th of July weekend with the Powers clan. We went to the Legoland Castle hotel for three nights. We spent the majority of the month managing the construction workers. It was a very painful month but somehow at the end of the month the work is complete with all the pieces in their proper places. We were amazed at the unprofessional behavior / sloppy finish quality, and are happy to finally have our house back to ourselves. We still have lots of clean up and finishing work to do, but all the major pieces are in place. The kids continue with their summer camp activities.
Cordelia is having a lot of fun in her camps. She did art camp, three weeks of Salvation Army camp and finally a baking and animal camp. Outside of camp she worked on sewing a skirt with Aunt Kelly. The ice rink closed for July due to some larger planned maintenance. She has skated a few times at a different rink but it has not been a regular activity.
Anthony did several camps over the month too. The first one was a skateboard and swim camp. That camp did not go very well. But he did two more weeks of archery and also Salvation Army camp and had a good time at those. Anthony is doing very well in soccer and is working hard in his practice and games. He will be closing out his summer league at the beginning of August and then taking a short break until September.
Lydia had a basketball camp that she enjoyed. She also enjoyed two weeks of gymnastics camp with her friends. She also did her first archery camp and seemed to have fun once she got the hang of it. Lydia turned 7 this month! We had a small family party and Cordelia made cake pops for her. Lydia also had some birthday playdates with her friends.
Natalie is doing school at Legacy for the summer. She’s working through her letter boxes and number works. The school had some fun activities in addition to the learning. Natalie also got her week of Grand-camp. She had a lot of fun going to Legoland, the beach, and the zoo. Natalie is doing great in swimming. She is getting super close to having her breast stroke. She can do one or two strokes by herself. Natalie is also continuing in soccer. She’s in the higher level for 3-4 year olds now and is not so sure about playing in a scrimmage or one-on-one situation. We’ll see if she gets more comfortable.
Alicia continues to have a very full workload at work. She’s pushing her projects and other tasks along and was able to make some good achievements this month. Things are still busy but she’s feeling a little more put together at the end of the month, thanks to help from Aunt Kelly. At home, things were very stressful with the house construction. We spent many nights and days working to do our part to make the project successful. The kids have been bumpy this month. With the school break and change in structure everyone has been dealing with the stress and it has led to some tension in relationships. The older two have both expressed feelings of loneliness since they are not seeing their friends. Hopefully as we head into the new school year the kids will make new friends and get into a good routine. In August preparation for the upcoming AWANA year will begin, taking up more home time.
Tiim’s work has remained unfortunately unchanged from the tense interpersonal dynamics. He’s been able to focus on a second project that has given him some relief and hopefully will transition him away from the negative working environment. Tim spent way too many hours supporting the construction workers. He built the bathroom vanities and stained the new bathroom door. He put in lots of late nights and long weekends working to get things ready at the right time. With all this added work, unfortunately family time has been very limited.
We’re looking forward to school starting next month and making new connections. We will be continuing to do house work and get the last parts of the construction wrapped up by painting and doing door trim. We’re praying for wisdom and time management so we get the tasks done but without sacrificing family time.
