Breathing dreams like air

You probably won't believe me, but I've actually written and "published" a number of posts since my last official one was shared on Facebook back in October. For some reason, two of them never showed up. After spending literal HOURS on them, I became so discouraged, I decided to temporarily discontinue writing...just out of the frustration of wasted time.

When I look back at all that has happened in the last 6 months, it's an outstanding amount of information to process. SO MUCH has changed. For time's sake, I've itemized such updates. 😊

1. Silas

Silas is now 3.5 years old, and he is killing it. This spring, we signed him up for soccer which turned out to be a real hit. He was on a tiny team of only 5 players, and his coach was actually one of my former student's fathers! Each Friday evening, Silas would head to practice with Pete. Pete spent the majority of his younger years playing soccer, so he was an excellent source to help Silas learn the basics. Saturdays were then dedicated to going to watch his games. Unfortunately, with the weather, a number of his games were snowed/rained out or just canceled, but that didn't stop his love for the game! By the end of the season, he was a pretty decent player, but he definitely needs to work on not taking it so personal when a friend of his from the opposing team steals the ball mid game. 😃

Silas is now obsessed with cars (still), superheroes, and dinosaurs. He still loves to read and can often be found sitting on the floor flipping through books if he's not being a psycho who thinks he's in the Cirque du Soleil. He's incredibly active, still LOVES to be outside, is doing super well in school, and is an avid helper when it comes to getting the outside chores done every day.

In all, I'd say that Silas has matured immensely over the last school year. He's toned it down in some areas, and he's excelling in others. He loves to communicate his feelings and tells me about 100 times a day how much he loves me and how I'm the best mom. 💕 All around, he's just a fun-loving, free-spirited, super happy little boy. He's amazing.

2. Khai

Khai turned one in March, and I have no idea how that time went by so quickly for us. It seemed like he grew into a toddler overnight. Khai is different than Silas in a lot of ways, and some of the differences stood out to me enough that I spoke up at his one year apt with his doctor. From there, we got referred to the TEIS program for early intervention, and he was evaluated to see if he'd qualify for therapy. Sure enough, he qualified in four categories ranging from communication to fine motor skills. Additionally, his doctor had mentioned being worried about his hearing, so we followed up with Vanderbilt to have a formal screening done. To our surprise, Khai can't hear at all out of one of his ears, and the other ear isn't 100% either. Basically everything he hears can be compared to someone screaming under water, if he can hear you at all.

From there, we scheduled surgery for this summer for him to get tubes. They aren't sure yet if his deafness is permanent or not, but we should know pretty quickly once his surgery is done. All that to say, I do have to admit that he is such a happy and GOOFY boy. His whole first year of life can only be described as him being the chillest baby I ever met. Now that he's getting older, he's up and running (literally) and just wants to keep up with Silas!

Khai enjoys things that are very loud, like the blender. He adores animals (no surprise there), likes exploring on his own, playing with Silas, and eating. No really....he is obsessed with eating and often eats as much as an adult!

3. Work

Over the winter, Pete and I sat down to talk about what our long term goals looked like for each of us individually, as well as for our home and our boys. I'd expressed wanting to send the boys to a private school in the future, but with our finances, it didn't seem like a possibility unless I worked at one. After exploring my top two options in Nashville and discovering they both had vacancies, I decided to jump on the rare opportunity and applied for both. I kept telling myself I didn't have much of a chance, but after each followup phone call and interview, I grew more eager and excited about the possibilities it would all provide for the boys.

To my surprise, weeks after I'd last spoken to anyone from the schools, I got a phone call from the head of Ensworth asking me if I'd still be interested in joining their team. I quite literally jumped up and down, called Pete, called my mom, and relished in the state of happiness and shock. How I managed to snag a position at one of the most sought after schools in Middle TN is beyond me. So for next year, yours truly will be teaching Freshman with the option to teach two upper level elective courses that I can curate myself. Although, after speaking with the head of the ELA dept, I'm likely going to spend my first year getting my feet wet before diving into creating a whole new curriculum....even though I'm super stoked about that part!!

Yes, this means both of my boys will get to go to Ensworth!! No, we aren't planning on moving. Yes, I'm getting a good pay raise. Yes, I'm sad about leaving my current county and kids. Yes, this means the boys have to move to a new daycare this year. Yes, I've cried a lot.

4. Me and Pete

Aside from my new job, I haven't had much else to report! Back in January, I got into a pretty horrible sledding accident. (One of the blog posts I can't seem to find anymore). It was the first time since high school I had to ride in an ambulance. The recovery for dislocating several ribs, injuring my shoulder blade, tearing a couple muscles, and bruising my lung took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Even now, I can still occasionally feel the deeper pain if I lay flat on a hard surface. For the second time in a year, I was unable to lift my children, was limited on what I could do physically (couldn't even put Khai in his crib), couldn't feed the animals outside, and simply felt like I couldn't pull my own weight as a mother. Naturally, Pete stepped in and carried all the extra weight like a frikin' champion, all while making sure I still felt loved and supported.

Pete, on the other hand, has been rockin' at life lately. His new job at BMI was about the best thing that's happened to him over the last few years, aside from our kiddos. Not only does he truly enjoy who he's working for, but he really likes the job itself. Bonus points for the fact it also leads to the perfect work/life balance we've been searching for....no more 12 hour work days and missing out of every holiday. It's amazing to have him present for more hours than he's working. Even better is that he's HAPPY. What more could I want for Pete?! He deserves it.

5. The animals

Every day when I get home from work, I take both boys out to feed the animals with me. Silas loves his roles in the afternoon chores, and I simply love having him beside me. Khai chills in the stroller, occasionally laughing when Silas chases off the guineas or when a chicken flies too close to him. There's nothing better than getting your kids invested in the lifestyle that teaches them how to become a working member of the family, how to get dirty outside, and how to prefer the sunshine over the TV.

Kevin, Carla, and Finnley are doing well. Kevin and Carla both had some work done on their hooves a few months back. Because they won't walk on solid surfaces like the driveway, their hooves aren't getting naturally filed down, like Finnley's. While I had more time to work with them prior to having kids, this simply isn't the situation anymore. I can't afford an hour of quiet time to get the pigs chilled out enough to trim their hooves with a screaming 3 year-old and a baby in the background. That being said, we found an awesome vet out of KY that came down and help us get them all taken care of, and now all the pigs are back to normal. Kevin and Carla are still a pod of their own, and Finnley still loves anyone who will love her back.

Pixie and Willow are still with us and still awesome. They are so good with the kids; I often forget not all donkeys are like ours. We are very lucky. Their destructive behavior of eating the siding on the barn, the coops, and even the trees we planted out there hasn't really stopped, so that part is frustrating, but we love them nonetheless. Their hooves have been good, but we may be switching farriers in the coming weeks yet again.

Yes, we still have chickens, including a few OG birds: Fezziwig, Elizabeth, and Mr. Waddles are still in our graces. Silas picks up Fezzi nearly every day and tells her that she's his favorite. At this point in time, we only have 20 or so chickens since the big slaughter we did last year. While we've debated on building back up our flock, I think we may keep it small for at least another year while we are in the midst of so many changes. Yes, we are still selling eggs and meat. Yes, our eggs are still multicolored and beautiful!

We still have our guineas, and they are amazing. They are prolific tick eaters and do their job well. We've debated on adding more since we have the land, and they require virtually zero maintenance. While many people view them as too loud, we don't really mind. They aren't aggressive either, which is a huge perk!

6. The other animals

Bootes is still massive, and he's such a lover. Now that the weather is getting warmer, we've occasionally let him inside a time or two. When we do, he knows he has to be a still as possible, because even just walking around our kitchen means destruction with his size. He's HUGE!! Khai gets really tickled when he gets time with Bootes, and Bootes knows he has to be very still so as to not accidentally hurt either of the boys. I remember a couple years ago when we'd let him in when Silas was Khai's age. Silas would climb on top of his back and hug his head with his whole body. Bootes' best trait is the love he shows to our family. He's such a good boy.

Penny Pickles is a real ham. She has come a LONG way since we got her last year!! Her first few months with us included us training her out of a lot of behaviors. She used to growl and bark at every visitor. She was nervous of all the sights, sounds, and smells outside. Nowadays, Penny is just another member of the family. She warmly welcomes every guest and can be found outside "working" with Bootes more than she is inside. She loves the boys, especially when they feed her, and she loves joining in on any activity we do as a family..especially walks down the lane and dinner. We feel very fortunate to have found Penny.

7. The house

If you know us, then you know we like to stay busy. We like projects, and we like change. Over the past fews months we've added quite a bit to the house making us love our home even more than before!! Last year, our big addition was a new working gate. This year, we built on a new back deck/porch area right off our sunroom. We used a local guy who did amazing work and got it done quickly. Already, we've spent many evenings eating out back as a family, enjoying water days on the weekends, and simply visiting with friends out there. We've asked ourself too many times, "Why didn't we do this sooner?!"

A few weeks later, we decided to bump it up a notch by adding lights out there. Guys, to say I love this new addition to the house is a huge understatement!! I'm so glad we got it all done before the summer too, because you know I'll be living out there while the kiddos play out back.

We jumped back into gardening outside. We don't have much growing this year, but it's the right amount for us! We've decided we are going to also replace our hydroponics setup in the basement. Not quite sure yet what changes we are going to make, but I think we'll be diving back into that come fall. I think we will be building a whole new table setup and possibly the buckets, but more news on that when it comes time.

Last but not least, we finally got our laundry room professionally organized....well, sort of. We at least got proper shelving installed...something I wish we'd done sooner. It's all still a work in progress, but once we get some walls painted and purge general stuff we don't need anymore, then we will be thriving even more than we are now!

8. Coming up

In terms of the coming months, we've got plenty of things going on. This summer, we will finally be taking a vacation as a family, and it will be the first time we've been on one since Silas was a baby. Khai will be getting his ear surgery. I'll be moving classrooms. We'll be enjoying a break at Opryland. Pete will be back to "summer hours," which just gives him a bit more flexibility during the end of each week. Getting things like mowing and weed eating done will hopefully not be limited to just the weekends, fingers crossed! We will be working and playing a lot outside during the weeks, coupled with plenty of play dates, trips to the zoo, sleeping in later than 5am, and wearing whatever we want, as long as we are comfy.

So that's everything in a nutshell, guys. Hopefully, I'll stop being so pissed about my ghost entries that disappeared to where I'll start updating more often, especially this summer. As always, if you've read this far, thank you for being one of my readers. ❤️