New Things

It's kind of crazy how quickly the past (almost) eight weeks have flown by. Here we are, nearly halfway through 2020! I'm ready for some new things . . . like grilling amazing, colorful veggies and eating sweet corn that tastes like it was grown in sugar instead of soil :) Along those same lines, Buck and I went out for lunch OUT FOR LUNCH at a restaurant and everything! I was craving grilled salmon, so we called our favorite steakhouse to see if they were seating guests. Yup. At low capacity, but yup. It was so nice to have a plate full of food, that we didn't have to make, brought to our table while we chatted about things that needed to be chatted about :)



My NGF and her family are very talented on piano. I mentioned that we were on break from guitar lessons, and that Caelan didn't feel like she was getting enough time focused on piano--she's mostly self-taught. My NGF said, "Text my sister! She is an excellent teacher." I did, almost right away. M was our kids' choir director for a semester and is very sweet and enthusiastic about music. Caelan learned so much just during their initial 30-minute lesson! She'll be able to drive to future lessons (with Brennen along to have *play dates* with the kid that made the flame thrower, lol :) weekly, until she wants to switch to longer lessons every other week, and of course, we'll reconnect with our current teacher once the quarantining is through. All the music! She said her hands hurt from learning to hold them properly over the keys, but it feels "right" to do so. She loves the music that M suggested for her (and let her borrow). Looking forward to seeing how much Caelan learns and improves over the next months!


Here's another new thing . . . Zooming with Grandma J! We've never celebrated birthdays like this before, but in a way, it was kind of an improvement :) Buck got home from work just in time to join in, the boys look like they are in Cali, but are not, ha! And the girls briefly disappeared into a grassy field. Lots of laughs during that happy, happy birthday call!



Back in class? What?! On a VERY small scale, students are allowed back into the karate studio (where the girls have been basically every day of the week). There are a bunch of strict protocols, including Gabby requiring everyone to sanitize as soon as they walked through the door, tiny class sizes, and specific sit spots for the parents (only one allowed). It was good to see a few familiar faces and to have actual conversations! 

Also, the Crew got their new III degree patches, and then ordered new belts. These will be neat, because they will have their names sewn in in Korean. The boys are still wearing their original belts, which as you've seen with other gear, are getting a bit small (hard to tie!) Caelan's is fraying, but Gabby said hers was fine. Seems like we always find a way to spend some money when we leave the house, ha!





In other new things . . . since we can't shop in stores, and the boys are grown out of 80% of their clothes, there are new things expected in the mail. Graysen has no shirts to wear, it seems, but the white undershirts we ordered at Christmas. Clothing humans can be quite the challenge when they insist upon growing at alarming rates! :) That's all I can think of for now; hope there are some nice things new with you, too!