The Jolliff Family

Day of the week don't really mean anything anymore and really blog titles don't either because all my posts are basically just a big recap of the week! These three can do so well playing together and they can also struggle playing together.  But, on this particular day, they were playing zoo.  Abigail was the mom with her babies at the zoo, Jacob was the zoo keeper, and Abram alternated between the animals or the worker at the zoo.  Love seeing their imaginations work. Abigail has gotten the bike riding down and loves to take Baby Maddie for rides, too. A rare down moment.  I was actually laying on the couch looking at paint samples because I'm going to refresh the living room area.  Paint is hard for me to decide on, more to come on this soon! Hap works all day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while I try and work Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday morning.  I have been trying to work on my language skills and working on my one hour prenat...

The weather broke over the weekend and welcomed in cooler temperatures, which meant a lot of outside play!! The month of fasting ended for our neighbors and the kids reaped the rewards when a neighbor gave them all a baggie of goodies. Sam doing a virtual Flat Stanley. Jacob continues to love drawing and painting.  He enjoyed working with some water colors over the weekend. Last week, I found a local store that was open and had crocs that would fit the twins.  They have been asking for crocs for weeks and were excited to finally have a pair! We made homemade ice cream on Sunday evening and Abram was eager to help (or taste, not sure which!!) Today we started back with some online work for the kids.  They will work four days a week over the  summer months to help supplement their learning and make sure they are ready to enter their next grade levels.  The twins have been doing some fun computer work, too.  They are...

Yesterday, our 12th week at home, marked the end of the school year.  These kids have done remarkably well transitioning from Freeburg, to the Middle East, to our home.  The last 12 weeks have been HARD at times, as the school was working to educate the kids within a system that is not set up for distance learning and questionable guidelines.  However, we made it, and I may have danced a bit when Sam turned in his last math packet and we celebrated finishing school! In celebration, we decided to do a time capsule.  The kids filled out forms, we traced their hands, kids added little trinkets, and measured their height with yarn.  I have added notes for the kids and we sealed it up for 20 years from now.  Seems kinda crazy to think about really keeping that for 20 years but this was such a unique time (or we all hope it is a unique time and not the new normal) that it will be fun to look back on. Now, bring on summer break!

Beautiful sunset.  Beautiful sleeping girl. There is so much beauty around me.  I am blessed!

It's that time of year that I wear shorts and a t-shirt in the house and change to my pants and cardigan when I leave! Something about being home the last 10 weeks made me thing I could keep another something alive. So I bought the boys' a plant for their room.  This plant is going to take more work than the other plant I bought during lockdown, so we will see what happens but I hope it lives! We took a car ride to buy two new fans this week.  Kids stayed in the van but enjoyed being out.  And yes, they aren't in their car seats but once we get out more they will need to get back in them. Amen! Enjoying some stiff competition this week in Chinese checkers! Cool dude with sweaty holding his hair up. One morning Abigail acted like she wasn't feeling well and, in fact, came into our bedroom and cuddled up and slept another two hours.  Thankfully she woke up feeling fine! I really don't like the treadmill but have been lovi...

Not really a party but everything is more fun if you label it "party".  The twins had some fun painting one morning while the big three worked on their homework.

Being a mom is hard but the privilege of raising little lives and seeing them mature and grow is the greatest joy of my life! The kids made me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. Tried to get a picture with the kids but they decided the sun was too bright haha! Abigail helped me make slaw for lunch.  She was the cabbage taste tester. Love my little house helper. And mama treated herself at the fruit market with the season's first cherry purchase.  Don't tell the kids! I'm thankful for the gift of motherhood, both having received the gift of being mothered from my mom and also the gift of mothering my little ones. Happy Mother's Day!