Catching Up

Hey. 

Well, April is behind us now and all of the A-Z posts are behind us. It was a fun month and I am excited to have made it through my 3rd A-Z Challenge. But enough about that, I'll save the reminiscing for the upcoming reflections post.  This post is about what else happened in April. It was a busy month here and I wanted to be sure to share everything.  Hopefully it won't end up being super long, but I'm wordy and make no promises. Here goes.

Swim Team. Well we jumped in feet first with Guppy School in early April. It was hard at first for the boys. They both can swim, but it had been since September so they were a little hesitant. But we kept on, after all we'd made a commitment and we were determined to see it through. Daily practices are rough but we did our best. Sadly though Braeden ended up missing about a week's worth due to his involvement with the school play. Upon returning to practice this week he didn't seem to be in it at all. We'd had conversations with both boys throughout the month about trying hard and doing their best. Jackson seemed to be showing some improvement and worked hard. Braeden though was a different story. For some reason he just didn't want to try. We were surprised as he has always been the athletic one and has never had a problem trying sports. Swimming though must not be his forte. Despite our stance on quitting, we allowed him to withdraw from the team this week. The daily struggle and drama were just not worth it. For him. For us. For his coaches. He paid us back for the cost of his swimsuit and we have chalked it up to a life lesson, hopefully one he will learn from. Jackson on the other hand is still on the team, he wanted to stay so we are encouraging him to keep at it and try hard. Time Trials are this Saturday and thus begins our loss of Saturdays with swim meets taking them over. 

Speaking of the play, Braeden had a blast. Quite uncharacteristically he took this seriously and gave it his all. I heard great things about him from the teachers in charge of huge play. How he was paying attention, knew his cues, worked hard. It all paid off too last week as we proudly watched our little squire take the stage.  He's already wondering about trying out for the play next year, we've shelved that decision for revisiting. So April had a win-lose aspect for Braeden. 

Adoption. We completed our second Home Study visit and had anticipated our report and file to go before the committee about a week ago or so. However, we were once again reminded that not everything is on our timeline, but His. Due to illness and issues in the life of our caseworker, our file will not be presented until next Tuesday, and I will update once we know more. So we have been dealing with that. Sure it's frustrating, we've been in this process since September and are eager to get a placement and be finished. However, May is so crazy busy since we are teachers that it is also somewhat of a blessing because we know we will be through May before anything else happens. So we wait. Ugh, there's that word once again. Wait. But hopefully we can continue to be patient about it. 

What else happened?  Easter came and went. Stella was made for hunting eggs it seems as she went at it seriously. A toddler on a mission. I still haven't gone through all of our photos so hopefully there's a belated Easter photo post soon!  I served on an Accreditation team for another Lutheran school last week. Planning for and being out of the classroom for 3 days was crazy, but the experience was awesome and I had a blast. It is so amazing to get into other classrooms just to watch, observe, and talk to other teachers. Often this is far more valuable than any conference.  I hope to have these opportunities more in the future.  Oh, at St. Mark next year we are adding a second Kindergarten class and a former coworker, and great friend, of mine will be the teacher!  That was super exciting as she is Stella's godparent and it will be great to be on a faculty with her again after a year apart. We are already planning, along with the other Kindergarten teacher, fun things for next year. So there's some good news from April. 

I think that brings us up to date then. So, it may not sound like a lot but factor all of that into daily life, along with other stuff I'm sure I forgot to mention, and April flew by. As of now there are only 16 days left of school, gasp, and I don't know if I am ready to say goodbye to my students. Although, I never truly am anyway. These next 2 1/2 weeks will be a flurry of assessments, projects, cleaning, and fun. Just the way May is intended to be.  So, now that the catching up is taken care of, we can proceed with regular, current, posts about the adventures here. How was your April?  Busy?  Was it a blur or did you have time to slow down and enjoy it?  Regardless, I hope it went well!

All is well, caught up, in Drosche Land.