Well... I'm over 2 years behind on my seasonal updates! You'd think I'd give up by now right?? Nah, I'm gonna keep trying!! But I am going to speed through these last two years and get up to my current season. (apparently I'm incapable of speeding as fast as I would like, haha!) So this will just be mostly pictures with a few notes along the way. I know I'm not going to remember many details from 2 years back anyway. Unless it was a big moment or something. So let's step in a time machine and go back to Summer 2020.
It was the perfect final park day of the school year. I love how at Park Day it doesn't matter how different anyone is from someone else, they can always find a way to play together! They were playing a version of Mafia I believe sitting in that circle. It was so fun to watch. We love park day!!
Flynn's first time sitting up in the bath.
A few days after Jane's birthday we had an incident where 2 year old Alexandria was under water for 30 seconds. One of the scariest moments of my life! We had been swimming and I had just taken her floaties off. She always follows me out of the pool but this one time she did not. I went to grab a towel just 10 feet from the pool and she walked back down the steps so there was no splash. Once I turned around I was greeted by Atlas removing his swimsuit. I was busy trying to tell him to wait to get a towel around him and that's when I saw her head bobbing just below the surface. Remembering the sight still sends chills up my spine. I rushed straight in and pulled her out. She was white faced but breathing. I believe she coughed a little. She never lost consciousness. I kept rubbing her back and asking her if she was ok. She responded by nodding her head. I called the nurses line at our pediatrician. They asked me a few questions and they felt pretty confident she would be fine based on what I told them. My dad checked the cameras he has and confirmed it was just about 30 seconds. A little later on Xan told me, "I hold my breath momma!" Truly, I think she held her breath the whole time and didn't breath in almost any water. We had been practicing holding her breath often and I really believe it saved us a trip to the ER or worse. It was such a season of gratefulness after that and feeling so blessed that Alexandria was completely fine after a terrifying moment. So here's your reminder, always be EXTRA vigilant around water with non-swimmers, it can happen to anyone! If you use floaties make sure your child's last memory in the pool is with the floaties off and going under water. Remind them that they cannot swim on their own. Even if you don't think they fully understand your words, still say them!
I'll just leave in these notes that I already had in here from this time of life. As much as I NEVER want a pool scare like we had again I'm glad I had the sense of gratefulness during this season of uncertainty in the world. It kept me grounded for sure.
- Getting back to life after COVID-19 (I had no idea how long restrictions would last)
- USA is on fire.
- 2020 is such a strange year...
Our regular park location had a big sign up that said "STAY OFF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!" So we switched off locations through the summer for our morning park days. We enjoyed our time at different parks but we were ready to get back to our park when the sign was finally gone near the end of June!
We made it out to Nathan and Lucas's 6 & 7th birthday party! I feel like it was one of my first real events with 4 kids.
Katie and Melody and their girls came for a swim date in early June! My mom was there with me to be one on one with Xan since I had two non-swimmers that summer. It was a great visit! I love my sisterhoodies!!
Thankfully one local splash pad stayed open through the 2020 summer and we had a great time at our Heart Splash Pad days! We always seem to have the best day in August when all the kids have gone back to school and it's just our group left.
5 of the 7 kids in this picture were delivered by the lovely lady on the left holding Flynn. Sallie has been my midwife for all of my kids except Jane. Katie, directly to my left had assisted in my labors with both Atlas and Xan. Her two youngest were both delivered by Sallie as well. Katie was moving to Colorado so we decided to all get together before she set off!
At some point in June Rowland Ballard started classes back. It still felt weird because I had to ask for special permission to be there as they were still not letting parents in to watch at this point. I wouldn't drop Jane off so her coach let me come in to watch but again it always felt like I got weird looks and I was not used to wearing a mask for an hour at all. But it felt good to have something else back in our regular routine. I had to stay off of Facebook more to feel like life was normal at all though. So much crazy. Looking back, I can't even express how grateful I am that life is not like that anymore.
We love these Summer pool days!
Flynn had his first taste of lime at Cliantro's. He didn't cry and kept trying and making a funny sour face. I guess he liked it? He also had his first solids, pureed broccoli. He ate alright, still pretty unsure about the whole solids thing but big brother and sister were excited to feed him.
We went to Urban Air pretty much as soon as they reopened! But we didn't realize they were going to require masks while jumping. That was kinda hard to do. They also had sanitizing breaks which made parts of the park wet for a long time and unusable. They were still figuring out operating in Covid times. All in all we had a great time! Jane tried out the climbing course and loved it!
Near the end of June Jane finished Kindergarten! Yippee! I gave her a little incentive to finish 2-3 weeks of work in 1 week and offered to buy her a small toy. She did great!
Just a funny "life with toddlers" pic. Xan was the first one to get a train stuck in her hair. I was able to get most of it out but ended up having to cut a little out.
We all thought new Covid cases would drop in the summer but they came back higher! My grandmother was going to have an 80th birthday party but we ended up cancelling. It was disappointing to say the least. Again at this point I had no idea that restrictions and resurgences would continue for so long. Variants weren't even on our minds then.
I remember when Scott and Anna came to visit in early July we got an emergency text on our phones to shelter in place. Haha, oops. Oh well! We were all healthy no spreading of Covid germs happened while we were together. It's ok! We had a fun weekend together. Look at Bryn and Flynn matching in their horizontal stripes! So cute!
All local fireworks shows were cancelled in 2020 for 4th of July. So my friend Jordan and I decided to put our money together and have a little show of our own with our families. It turned out to be a fun and memorable 4th of July!
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My memory is a little fuzzy on how gymnastics was going at this point. For some reason Jane was not doing Kinderstars at this point. I think she was doing kindergym with Atlas while things were weird about parents attending Kinderstars. Then they moved Jane over to the G-1 class that was for the elementary school kids. She got to do it with her best friend Paige which she loved! It worked out.
These two pictures are a year and a half apart. The first one is from December 2019 and the second one is from May 2021. This was the length of time that we did not go inside the library. First off I had just had Flynn and was trying to stay away from indoor places with a newborn, then Covid shut it down for over a year. I was so grateful that in July 2020 the library opened back up for holds and drive thru pick up! We picked up a lot of book bundles to get us through and found some real picture book gems in those bundles.
Oof. This was quite the trip. In my dad's words (really in mine too...) It was the road trip from hell. We went on a one night trip to San Marcos for Bryn's first birthday. I was excited to do it! A few days before we left my drivers side window started sliding down. The power window broke. My dad taped it up and said he'd order the part and fix it when we got back from the trip. Then the day before we left my break lights wouldn't turn off when I parked my van in the garage. My dad stopped by the auto parts store and grabbed the part it needed and said, "if one more thing goes wrong with your van we're not going!" Fast forward to the next morning we're maybe 20 minutes into our drive to San Marcos and the passenger window started sliding down and wouldn't go back up. To make matters worse it was lightly raining so I spent part of the drive holding the window up with my arm. When we were getting close to arriving Xan threw up all over herself and the car seat. She had gotten car sick once before but I thought she was over it. This one was a bad one. We stopped and had to do our best to clean it up and get back on the road to our airbnb. Once we got there we threw the car seat cover in the laundry and gave Xan a bath. When we finally were able to go to Bryn's party all was well. The kids had a great time with their cousins. Fast forward 2 1/2 years and I still haven't been on a trip longer than an hour and a half because I'm still scarred form this trip. That and I had another baby. But yeah, I'm a little intimidated by car trips now.
Oh no, A cold!! ;) But seriously! Sam got a cough and some congestion and his work told him to stay home for 2 weeks. Everyone was super cautious of any cold symptoms at that point. Thank goodness it was 2 paid weeks off that was covered by their new covid policy. He tested negative and was able to return after the 2 weeks. Such a weird time of life.
Jane had been begging for Marmee to have a sleepover at our house because the only other time my mom has slept over at our house is when we have a new baby that has just been born and she sleeps in my room with me to help me out through the first couple of nights after birth. Jane wanted Marmee to sleep in her room with her! My mom is a wonderful grandmother so she said yes. They had a pillow fight before bed and played video games in the morning. They all loved it!
Right around the same time Alexandria was becoming a real swimmer Flynn learned to crawl! So much growth through the summer!
My memory is failing me again here. But Atlas earned going to the video game store with Sam for some reason. Maybe finishing his first chore chart? It was supposed to be a cheaper game but Sam explained that the only one Atlas was interested in was Mario Odyssey. He himself wanted to try it out too, so that's why they ended up with that one. It was a full price new game. That game has been worth it though!! Atlas has played it so many times through and I would say it's still his number one game if he had to choose. I played it a bunch too!
I took the time to read these mercifully short books on home schooling during the summer before I was getting ready to do 1st grade with Jane. I felt like we were really going to do school seriously for the first time. We took it easy with preschool and Kinder. 1st grade felt real! I'm so glad I read those books. It helped me start from peace and rest instead of hurry and pressure. I made our lesson plan and I was ready to go when the end of August hit!
We made it out to another splash pad date with our friends the McNairs. They had a great time!
Our good friends the Combs had their sweet baby Payton!! So I got to walk down from my parents house when she was still just a couple weeks old to get to hold her for just a few minutes! Baby snuggles are the best.
After about a month of G-1 class Jane was invited to join G-2 class which is a more advanced class for elementary age. I believe we only did a few weeks of it before things felt normal enough to go back to Kinderstars.
I was on a baby gear give away spree because I thought Flynn was my last baby. Haha! Jokes on me! So I threw my boppy in the washer to get it clean to give away and went about my day. 30 min- hour later I looked out the front window and I saw water running down my driveway. I was confused for a moment then I realized it must be the washer! Sure enough I opened the door to the garage and it was flooded. Water was pouring out of the washer and running down the driveway. Whatever part that tells it to stop filling stopped working. My dryer was already taking forever to dry lately so I decided to get a whole new set. It was my first new appliance! I love it!! It was quite the ordeal to clean out the garage but at least nothing got ruined! Little did I know just a month later I would lose my job. Not great timing when you are trying to pay off an appliance!
As soon as my grandfather passed from cancer, covid restrictions started. My grandmother was pretty careful about what she was doing and who she was seeing. Also my grandfather was her transportation. She only drives short distances from her house. With us being an hour away we hadn't been able to see her for 6 months! It was great to see her after that long. I'm used to seeing her almost every month. A little strange to see her without my grandfather for sure, but still so good to see her. Mama and Xan had sweet bonding time upstairs together. I had to snap a pic. <3
With a baby and one toddler still learning to swim we only made it out to the neighborhood pool once that summer. Atlas went off the diving board and slide for the first time! He was so brave and did such a great job! Go Atlas!!
We started 1st Grade at the very end of August! Atlas was doing super simple preschool and Xan liked to color and feel like she was apart of it. After the first week I could already tell history was Jane's favorite! Bede History of me is such a great first history curriculum. I wish there were more like it.
My close and oldest friend, Mindy, had been very careful with covid being so unpredictable. She has some respiratory concerns so I totally understood her being extra careful. But I was so so happy to see her at the end of the summer and have a swim date.
In the middle of August Covid finally affected my family. I was laid off by ChurchBiz because everyone was cutting costs and not paying for extra accounting services. Also churches weren't meeting so they didn't have much need for bookkeeping for a while. Anyway, I was a little upset because they didn't even give me 2 weeks notice. They called me and told me they had to let me go because they were letting go of all of their part time workers and my last paycheck was done that same day and I should not even get back on my computer that day. It was sort of a shock. My paycheck is not supplemental. I help pay the bills. Thank goodness I was able to apply for unemployment while I looked for a job. We had to dip into savings a bit but we made it. It was a little stressful but I tried to enjoy the extra time with my kiddos.
September means it's time for our Daugherty family Beach Trip!! I'll drop these few pics because I wrote a separate post for it which can be read here. I remember sleeping terribly because Flynn had congestion and couldn't sleep well at all. Also we were evacuated a day early from our trip because of Tropical storm Beta. It was a bummer, but the time we did have there we enjoyed!!
The Tuesday after our beach trip, it was still raining from the tropical storm so we decided to still go to park day and have a rainy, muddy park day! Marmee came with us and the kids had a blast!
I had to spend a little bit of every day looking for work to collect unemployment. Looking for work is hard, especially because I needed to look for part time work from home that makes enough to make it worth my time. I did not like it. I tried my best to only think about it while I was at my computer and actively looking. I definitely got to enjoy more sleep while I wasn't working though! We had a great summer, but we were all ready for fall!
See ya Summer 2020! Thanks for the memories!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
