October was pretty routine with the regular list of activities keeping us busy. The kids’ school had a special “Grandparent’s Day” at the beginning of the month, which was really fun.
Cordelia is starting figure out how to handle the homework expectations and dealing with assignments being posted on the computer. She’s doing well in her classes and got a great first quarter report card. Cordelia’s volleyball team grew a lot in their skills over the month. While they only won one game during the season, they learned how to play better and be good teammates. Cordelia made it back to the ice rink for a synchro mini-session. We’re not committing to frequent visits to the rink but may stick with Saturday morning so she can keep her friendship with one of the girls. Cordelia is practicing for a piano recital in Nov. She’s also learned several songs on her clarinet for middle school band Christmas recital.
Anthony had a little bit of a bumpy month at school. Hopefully we’ve helped him get some resources to help when the class time is slow. Anthony did an amazing job on his book report for Around the World in 80 Days and his presentation got full marks. Anthony has started to enjoy his Ukulele class and has made up a few silly songs with the basic chords he’s learned. He is looking forward to the piano recital in Nov. Soccer continues with two practices a week.
Lydia is having fun in her school. She got a special recognition for one of her creative writings and she will get to present it at the school’s “authors’ tea” in November. Lydia is working hard through her next level of piano books and has two fun songs for the recital. We switched swim instructors at the end of the month. She was sad to leave her previous instructor but it worked better for our schedule to move to a different time.
Natalie is having fun with her friends at school. With the extra reading and writing we’ve been doing, she’s starting to be able to read basic sentences. Natalie is still continuing in swimming but it’s mostly stroke refinement and endurance. Natalie has been doing great in soccer. She is fully engaged in the mini-scrimmages. Her teacher recommended she move up when the next session starts in December.
Alicia continues to try to balance all her tasks at work. Her one project completed the major milestone. But things are still busy and there’s always this looming fear that she’s forgetting about something that’s going to come and stab her in the back. On the home front after school has been full of helping three or four kids with homework simultaneously. Fortunately during the middle of month she came up with a strategy to manage the time and it’s helped a lot. AWANA continues to be a very successful club year.
At work, Tim has a major presentation coming up in November. It has taken a lot of his time and effort preparing for it. He’s mostly officially transitioned off the project that was causing a lot of trouble. Tim had a bumpy workout month since he hurt his ankle in the middle of the month. Tim’s been doing the school drop offs twice a week and helping with the kids’ school activities. Tim got his 3D printer set up and has started making some new parts for our camping trailer. Tim also continues to help at AWANA by teaching the lessons.
November will hopefully be a little easier since volleyball season is over and we won’t be racing from volleyball to soccer. After Tim’s big presentation he’s planning on taking some time off to work on the trailer more.
