Sanity Restored

We were abysmal at picture taking this month, so this is a text only post. So sowwy.

Normally, May is non-stop busy with end-of-the-school-year activities, events, concerts, etc. 2020 put the kibosh on all that, now didn't it? Fortunately, restrictions were lifted a bit on May 1, so the kids have been able to hang out with friends.

They're enjoying seeing other people more than they ever have! Our house feels like Grand Central Station most days, and I know the friends' homes are the same. Aani and Ava are running between friends' houses all day every day. Anders and Addie less so, but they still get enough friend time to make them happy. Last night I made dinner, and no one was home except Nils and me. We ate like empty nesters, but eventually a couple of kids trickled in and ate with us.

We're still sticking close to home, not venturing out much at all. Nils continues to work from home. It will be a sad day indeed when he has to go back to the office. I decided to stop working at the clinic. Things are too weird right now, and I felt that I'm better off being here for the time being. I really did like the job, and the people especially, and am thankful for the experience.

YouTube: We invested in a course a few months ago to help propel the YouTube biz. 9 years ago, we made $12 one month and couldn't believe it. Thanks to Nils' dogged persistence and drive, it's now making a little bit more than that. It's mystifying to us. Anyway, this course really gets into the nuts and bolts of how YouTube works, and it's all mostly over my head, but I'm hoping to dive a little deeper into the background. It's too much for just one person to manage, so I wanna be more helpful to the talent (Nils). :)

I signed Ava up for cheer. She's been in tumbling for about 5 years now, and I figured she could put those back tucks and handsprings to some use on a cheer team. She's excited, and we've never done anything like this before, so it should be an adventure! It will help keep her busy for the next few months. She gets frustrated sometimes when she feels like she has nothing to do during the summer, so this will fill some of that extra time.

Aani is making a quick work of becoming a teenager. Her 13th birthday is in a couple of weeks. She's always been eager to be bigger and older, so we better buckle up for this one. She loves hanging out with her friends- she's gotten close to several kids her age that live on our street- how lucky to have so many friends so close by. She's getting into clothes, makeup, and hair. It's fun and weird for me, because Addie couldn't care less about those things. Kids being different, who knew?

Addie loves playing Animal Crossing, drawing, and hanging out with her friends. She makes a single chocolate chip oatmeal cookie almost every day. She loves the Avatar the Last Airbender series, which is now on Netflix. She's watched it twice through already- it's been on Netflix for 2 weeks. She has a garden of succulents on her windowsill in her room. She listens to 40's music and show tunes regularly.

Anders has had some adventures this month. He went to the Salt Flats with some friends- they got  stuck in salt water and had to have the friend's car towed out by a crazy tow tank thing. This involved running 2 miles across the salt to the nearest road to flag someone down. He and some other friends had a campout last weekend. I feel good about these sorts of things. He's a 17 year old boy and needs to get out and experience things like getting stuck in salt water, and use those problem solving skills. His plans for his senior year are to go to high school half time, and the other half he'll go to MTEC and take a computer programming course. Please bless that it can actually happen. It will be great for him.

We've got a few little trips planned for the summer. Since everything was canceled, and I'm not working, we have lots of freedom to go places. First up is South Dakota, baby. We're going wild! Nature isn't canceled!