We did it. We crossed the strangest finish line of the strangest race ever. Whether you did virtual, hybrid, in-person/masked, homeschool, or some combination of everything — WE DID IT! Good riddance to this school year and also I’M SO THANKFUL for what this school year was. There are a lot of complicated emotions that
On the morning of Thomas’s sixth birthday, he came downstairs and found four lightsabers on the mantle. Bursting with excitement, he handed one to each of his siblings. He didn’t for one second think all four lightsabers were his, or care that his siblings were getting presents on HIS birthday. He wasn’t thinking about equity
After spending an entire year with absolutely zero things on our calendar, our family is jumping into the figurative AND literal deep-end. We signed our kids up for swim team. I know that a lot of people’s kids do swim team, but this is our first time. And I sort of feel like we’re the
I can’t tell if it’s happening more, or if I’m just noticing it more, but recently Thomas has been crawling into my lap a lot. He turns six tomorrow. More than I do with my other kids, I spend the week before Thomas’s birthday remembering the final days of my pregnancy. I remember each day
Last weekend, the kids and I drove west to my hometown in the mountains. We visited my parents for a few days, then we met my best friendJenny and her family at the farm where she grew up. It was a quick, inhale-exhale sort of trip with old friends to visit old places that we
Thomas is almost six, which means he’s at the apex of the picky-eater curve that all of my kids have traveled. They start out as adventurous eaters that’ll try literally everything and then consume almost everything they try. Then they realize, around 18 months, that they have a choice in the matter, and why would
One of the beneficial side-effects of our new work-from-home lifestyle is that between Zoom meetings and phone calls, Tom carves out some time to put Anna down for her nap every afternoon. This is different than all of our other kids, who Tom almost never put down for naps because he has always been at
This morning I registered Thomas for kindergarten. Through my mask I told the school administrator that we registered last year, then decided to wait a year. You know, because surely by September 2021 this pandemic would be a terrible, distant memory. We both had a hearty perfunctory laugh. Hardy har har…Har. Har. Har. I wrote
The Internet is full of awesome ideas for how to dye Easter eggs with little ones. Put the egg in a whisk! Paint the eggs! Rice shake the eggs! Or my personal favorite tip, do it outside, and have a glass of wine. But now that most of my toddlers have grown into big kids,
At a recent doctor’s appointment, our pediatrician was rolling through some general healthy habits for five-year old kids. She was talking through recommendations about stuff like exercise, screen time, eating vegetables, drinking a glass of water with every meal and snack, and, hmmm, hey doctor? Any thoughts on the benefits of wearing a pair of
In the past month or so, Anna has unveiled an alter-ego that she calls “Real Anna.” I’m not sure how she sorts this out in her own mind, but basically she’s “Anna” and “Real Anna” is elsewhere. Sometimes Real Anna is causing problems, sometimes she’s napping, usually (according to Anna) she’s on the roof. The
David reads all the time, but he almost never wants to talk about what he’s read. Not even when he and Tom read Jurassic Park together just so they could discuss it. He doesn’t like when we ask him about characters or the plot, or why he likes or dislikes a book. He usually responds by
Sure, one winter storm was fun, but then we had another, and an hour before I sat down to write this I got a text from my county alerting me that another ice storm is on its way. The text said to have EMERGENCY SUPPLIES READY! What are the odds that that was a prank
Back in September, around the time school was starting, I had a lot of conversations about kindergarten. When I told people that I wasn’t sending Thomas, they would inevitably say, “What are you doing?” “Nothing,” I’d respond. Preschool? No. Home school? Nope. And then there would be this awkward silence where they’d try to compute what I
Behold! The virtual learner in its natural habitat… Careful to not disturb her. (Or at least not before making sure her camera isn’t on. No one needs to see Mom walk by in her PJs at 1 p.m.) We’re halfway through the year, and I had been planning on writing about how virtual school is
We aren’t a condiment family. Did you know that? Nearly 10 years of blogging and I’ve never mentioned it. Tom doesn’t like mayonnaise — that’s generally well-known. But neither Tom nor I like ketchup, and we could take or leave most everything else. Tom doesn’t even use salad dressing. (As with everything, I’m much less
When my kids see that I titled this post “Humpster” they’re going to be so mad. Sorry kids, my blog, my post titles. Depending on who you ask, this is either Humpster or Licorice. (Guess which name I’m pulling for.) I never ever in a million years thought we would get a hamster. But, turns
Last Saturday morning after breakfast we all piled on the couch to watch the end of Christmas Vacation, which we had started the night before. Anna got bored (sorry, Chevy Chase!) and wandered into the playroom. I glanced at her as she meandered over to a little set of blocks and started stacking them. She
One morning after breakfast, I was standing at the counter washing dishes and Anna crawled under the kitchen table. She looked up at the underside of the table and asked, “What’s this, Mommy?” I answered her broadly, not sure if she was asking about the base of the table or pointing at a screw or
When school started in September, Tom sat down with the kids and created a schedule for them. The hope was to reclaim some of the structure that had been lost in the floundering, chaotic months of the quarantine. The schedule includes a mandatory hour of outside time each day. Being the supportive spouse I am,
The other day a pile of Amazon packages were delivered to our front porch. (Prime Day, HEY!!) When I pulled the stack of cardboard boxes into our living room, the kids surrounded me, jumping in excitement to see what was inside, even though they already know that all we ever order are things like liquid soap
As I type this there’s a cup of Italian ice and a giant glass of water on the table beside me. I don’t want anything to do with either of them. I’ll put off the Italian ice a few more minutes, say I’m waiting for it to soften. That’ll buy me some time; maybe my
In the past few months, several of my friends have sent me this article: This family’s repeated strep throat infections frustrated their doctors To save you the click, it’s about a family who kept getting strep throat over and over and over, and they couldn’t figure out why. Eventually they discover that their CAT was the
A week or so ago we moved Anna into a big girl bed. Well, technically it isn’t a certified “big girl bed.” Technically it’s just a crib with the side off. This is a huge milestone and you might have guessed that I have an entire sappy post queued up about how, after so many
On the first day of school I woke up early to go for a bike ride. Ya know, nothing like a little early-morning exercise before the 11th plague descends on your house — virtual learning. While cycling, I took a wrong turn and ended up going down a big hill. Not a huge problem, except
This weekend we let the kids plan something to finish out the summer with a bang. They chose a backyard campout with s’mores. Then they threw in a night swim for good measure. I feel like our kids are still the age at which they definitely get excited for s’mores and night swimming and a
School supply shopping for Thomas: a new hose nozzle. I called the school today and officially withdrew Thomas from kindergarten. I cried, of course. (I always cry.) I waited as long as I could. Hoping, perhaps, that on September 2 I would wake up with news that everything was back to normal. Schools would open
This past week we decided to take a long weekend-ish and spend time with my family before “school” starts back up. Once again, the bizarre time-warp of 2020 snuck up on me, and what is, on one hand, “The Longest Summer Ever,” is also “Hold Up, It’s September?” We timed our trip to fall over
Anna is two years old nine months old. That means she’s Over half-way through the terrible twos and well on her way to being a three-nager. Anna is really settling into her role as our resident up-ender of peace and quiet, and Captain of Witching Hour. Her new favorite schtick is to stand a foot
The other day Mary followed me out to our garden while I was planting some broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Last year both plants were complete failures, but I decided to try again. After all, it’s 2020! Anything is possible! Mary was chatting to me about her new stuffed animal obsession (bunny surprise) and I gave
I realized the other day that I included Anna in her very first Semantics post without absolutely any pomp and circumstance or even a mention. Anna is talking a lot these days, and even though a lot of what she says only a mother (or 5-year-old brother) can understand, she’s grown a lot since we took
Two days until David’s ninth birthday. Not that anyone is counting. At the beginning of the quarantine, when the kids’ school was closed, I made a paper countdown to Easter. We were all excited to see the holiday creep closer. For me it was a secret countdown to when this would all be over and
Well, here we are. Summer is nearly over; we’re in the countdown to back-to-school for the strangest academic year ever. That’s a true statement, right? I’m pretty sure I can say that without fact-checking. School has never been so strange, uncertain, controversial, and wildly different from one district to the next. My kids’ school will
Soon we will all embark on the strangest year of school in recent history. Some kids are going to school at school, some kids are going to school in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and some kids are going to school via an Internet connection. And some kids? Some kids are being homeschooled
My kids are both participating in their school’s summer school program this month. The main reason I signed them up was to get a preview of what virtual school might look like in the fall. I hoped this would give me and the kids a chance to get comfortable on the platforms they’ll be using,
This week I’m registering my five-year-old for kindergarten. Like everything these days, the registration will be completely different. It’s truncated and sterile. I’ll wear a mask, there will be no colorful room with blocks and crayons, and I won’t even take my kid with me. (In fact, unlike the other two times when I showed
Several times a day I reflect on how different I am with my fourth child than I was with my first child. A friend of mine just posted a video of her firstborn — a two-year-old — drinking out of a normal cup for the first time. David didn’t drink out of a lid-less, straw-less
Sometimes I wish I could teleport every now and then, to be lifted out of a particularly draining moment of monotony and placed into a different phase of life. Maybe if I spent a day or two as the elderly lady in the grocery store, telling young moms to “enjoy it because it goes so
For ten weeks I faithfully documented our quarantine. I published week 10 just after Thomas’s birthday, and after that I started wondering how long I’d keep this up. See, when I started, I thought the quarantine would be temporary. And I thought that it would end with us flinging open the doors and returning to
What do you miss? This is something I think about a lot. We’re 10 weeks into this and I’m no longer even considering things like soccer practice or our gym membership. It occurred to me this week that the thing I miss is being in relationship without fear. Remember running into a friend at the grocery store
Note: This is Mary’s second blog. You can read the first one here. I took these photos about two weeks ago, when the chicks were still cute little balls of fluff. They’ve feathered out a lot in the past two weeks and look a lot more reptilian, but the kids adore them all the same.
I know there are a hundred memes that say this in much funnier, more concise ways, but it’s hard to conceptualize how long we’ve been in quarantine. It feels so…strange. Like a lot of time has passed but also no time at all. It’s also strange to think back to my feelings about week one.
Week eight! How’s everyone doing!? The Kriegers are ok, but I tell you what — we would be much better if 1) we could be done once and for all with these dreary days and 2) if Tom and I would stop getting strep. That’s right. Tom and I are both on round three of
NOTE: I wrote this a few days ago — a glib post about running during the quarantine. I wrote it before running was added to the list of things that are dangerous to do while black. I’ve been running since I was 14 years old. That’s 23 years of running on country roads, in the city, suburbs,
We had a busy week. I keep thinking about how I can’t relate to so many people in quarantine who are binge watching shows and napping and joining Tik Tok because, why not!? What else have we got to do!? There are lots of people who are bored out of their minds, but I am
Last week one of the kids said, “Mom! You should write about this on your blog!” And I responded, “Do YOU want to write about it on my blog?” They said sure. This first blog is by Mary, telling the story of last week when we made homemade lemonade (which we only did because I
One thing that happened in the first few weeks of the quarantine was that Mary and I had to get used to spending so much time with each other. You see, the two of us have a lot of opinions and emotions, so many that we had to move some furniture and take down a
Every now and then it’s good to have a moment that helps you see how you’re coping. A litmus test, sort of. A gut check. For me it came during Mary’s Google meeting with her class. Mary wanted to show Brigham for show-and-tell, and when I went to get him I saw a huge gash
Week five. Is it really just week five? Doesn’t it seem like longer? And also shorter? And like we’re already well into summer but yesterday was Easter? This week, SURPRISE, Tom got strep. Now we’ve each had it twice, and I’m living in a constant state of thinking I have strep. We were talking about
One of the things I love about having a blog for this long is that on any holiday or season, I can easily look back and see how my family has grown and changed through the years. Easter egg dyeing is a great example. This is a tradition that dramatically changes as your kids get