Labor Day 2022, Cross Country Everett

 We celebrated Labor Day this year at Quinn's Pond with the Ostlers. I really, really just wanted to cancel but the kids knew so helped the adults get going. It sounded much better to just sit at home and work on all the things. Evelyn was right, we needed to get out and busy as a family. Justin loaded up the kayaks and left a little before me. We enjoyed a chill few hours on the sand playing with our friends. The Potter family showed up halfway through making our beach day 10 times better. Amelia was not keen about getting wet, she helped me cut laminated stuff out and read her book. I took Sara on a paddle around the lake...didn't even dunk her. I deserve a medal. We got home in time for me to get cleaned up and start piano lessons. I am excited to teach more students this year. 

I have 20 students right now, with 6 more students starting in a few weeks, nine of my students are new this year. I am also teaching Phillip, Everett, Evelyn, and Josie sprinkled in on the days I can make it work. Amelia has a goal to teach 3 of my primer level students in the afternoon, she has one student at this time. Our first lesson focused on learning the Handy House system of memorizing the piano key note names. It is hard to be working right up until 6 or 7 pm after school. Dinner is going to be a fun trick to manage. At this time I am assigning one of the three older kids an easy dinner to fix, that means changing our menu to simple meals. We are also having an easy meal on MCO night which starts this coming week. 

Sunday the 11th we had to say goodbye to Woody the puppy. We decided it was not a good time to adopt a puppy as a family. He is such a cute, chipper puppy. The kids really wanted to keep him but realized there was no time to train him while they are at school. We also want to enjoy Dog Vader while he is with us. Evelyn learned about putting a pet to sleep this week in school. She was beside herself with fear and worry thinking Vader was going to be put down without her knowing. We had quite a number of talks about what it means to put a pet down. She and I also reasoned that special pets have a space in heaven. She is praying that once Dog Vader dies Grandpa Lynn will be in Heaven to greet our dog and care for him until we can meet again. 

Everett had a home Cross Country meet on Thursday. Our entire family went to support him for his meet. Justin worked from home so he could take a bit off and be there. Everett experienced painful shin splints this week. During his first meet he placed 33 with a time of 23:47; this week he placed 54 but ran the race in 19:06! He shaved off 4 minutes 41 seconds faster in his second race! Way to go! 

My garden is pumping out the tomatoes right now. The one tomato plant that seemed barren was just a complete surprise, it is cranking out the largest, juiciest tomatoes imaginable. Josie is my little garden gnome. She is small enough to slip into the garden box and pick all the tomatoes I can't reach. I am quite frustrated with my cucumbers, they are so bitter all have ended in the trash. 

The kids are so excited about MCO they printed out the music this week and tried to figure out the music with Ambree! Warms my heart. Phillip got his new practice gear, Everett's trombone will be here this week.