Author: Jodi

Happy Birthday, Roman!!!…

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Happy Birthday to Roman!!! I can’t believe that my baby is 9 years old. He is a wild man…full of life and energy…funny, loud, entertaining, emotional, passionate, smart, and as sassy as they come. It’s been a tough year for him with the pandemic as our resident extrovert, but he’s almost through it. I’m so proud of him and can’t wait for him to find his thing…his outlet for all of those overflowing gifts and talents…so he can shine, shine, shine.

On Monday night, we celebrated with his favorite dinner and dessert. On Saturday afternoon, he had a fun birthday party at Pixel Planet Arcade with five of his best buddies…including a break halfway through for a sprint to the park, brownies, ice cream, and presents. On Saturday night, he had a sleepover with his best friend in the whole wide world and a day long playdate with him on Sunday. It was a weekend of birthday fun for RoMo Monkey.

Remote Learning…

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Right when school started back after our snowcation, the 5th grade switched to remote learning!!! Xander has definitely had the most remote learning days of all of my boys…he’s such a pro with it, though…he doesn’t get distracted, he doesn’t pitch fits…he just gets his work done, peacefully and usually early, and is ready to get on with his day. He hung out with me at home for most of the week, but Tom took him to work one day for me. Here they are on a lunch break, visiting the train tracks. Love these faces.

Fort…

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Tom disassembled the treehouse in our backyard that he and his dad built for our boys when Roman was a baby. It made my heart a little bit sad, but he repurposed a good bit of the materials and built the boys a fort in the woods. They’re loving it, so their childhood treehouse lives on…

Mental Health Day…

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Roman has been struggling emotionally these days…I think the pandemic is really getting to him…like it is all of us. So, his daddy picked him up early from school this afternoon and took him out on the lake to ride around and do some exploring. I think it was just what the doctor ordered.

Winter Running…

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Running, especially in the winter, keeps me sane. I love time spent alone, outdoors, and listening to music. Since there won’t be any in-person races for a while, I picked up some gear from Gone For a Run for a virtual half-marathon that I can train for and run on my own time. The theme I chose is “I Run to Burn Off the Crazy”. Funny but true.

New Year’s Day…

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On New Year’s Day, we went for a long walk on the wonderful trails across from Xander and Roman’s elementary school that go all the way to Jonas’ middle school. Petra had a blast running around, living her best life in the great outdoors. Afterwards, Tom and the boys played some football on the high school football field.

Raddish: Gourmet Gobble…

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We had our own little Thanksgiving today! The boys and I cooked up our Raddish kit for November…Gourmet Gobble.

The main dish was a Thanksgiving Vegetable Trio (Spinach Gratin, Orange-Glazed Carrots, and Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts), the side dish was Baked Mac and Cheese, and the dessert was Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars. We decided to make only one vegetable from the trio and serve it with pork tenderloin as the main dish…more protein…it worked out really well. We’re looking forward (or at least I’m looking forward) to trying the other vegetables soon. Here are my little buddies…hard at work:

Jonas and Pranav…

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It’s been a weird year to start middle school for Jonas…with COVID, his closest friends are either homeschooling or online schooling.

Pranav has been one of his best friends since kindergarten, and he’s doing online school this year. The times that they’ve been able to get together have been few and far between. But, since MCMS went remote this week, they were actually able to get in some quality football throwing time yesterday afternoon. It was so good to see them together. I think Pranav has grown at least a foot since I’ve seen him last!