Month: September 2022

Daily living · Parenting · Travel

Gerrit is Six!

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2020 was such a crazy year, and I really didn’t get any time to blog. So this post is getting typed up about half a year two years late! The majority of this was typed up in early 2021, but I’m finally getting the chance to finish it. Here is a recap of Gerrit’s life from age 5 to 6:

Age: 6 years old on 27 October 2020
Weight: 40.6 lbs
Height: 45 inches
Teeth: 20? I can’t remember if he had started getting his 6 year old molars yet!
Clothing size: 5/5T

I’m going to stop doing milestones, because I don’t even know what to put anymore! Gerrit started kindergarten a couple of months before turning six, but we opted to go with the full virtual option during the COVID-19 pandemic. So everything was done at home on a laptop he got from school. I know that when he started school, he already knew everything being taught. He was already counting to 100 and doing simple addition and subtraction. He knew all of his letters and letter sounds. He knew his shapes and colors.

I totally dropped the ball with doing a birthday interview, so here’s Gerrit’s 6-1/2 year old interview:

What is your favorite color? pink
What is your favorite food? Buffalo chicken pasta
What is your favorite TV show? “Pokemon” or Minecraft tutorials
What is your favorite movie? Frozen 2
What is your favorite thing to do? play Pokemon
Where is your favorite place to go? outside when it’s snowy
What is your favorite toy? chess
What is your favorite book? dragon books
What is your favorite animal? falcon
Who is your best friend? Isabelle (neighbor)
What did you do on your birthday? I had a Minecraft party and played punch-the-zombie!
What do you want to be when you grow up? an airplane pilot

Gerrit’s year from 5 to 6:

Halloween 2019: I basically took over Halloween this year! I really wanted to do a group theme, and I convinced everyone that a Wizard of Oz thing would be fun. Gerrit was really into the Tin Man costume when I put a robot spin on it, and thankfully Andrew took the reins on the costume design. It turned out to be SO cute!

November 2019: A trip to the alpaca farm, Gerrit’s obsession with homemade slime/goop, going to Gerrit’s preschool Thanksgiving party, and Thanksgiving dinner at home

December 2019: Enjoying treats from the Christmas countdown house, decorating the Christmas tree, Gerrit’s Nintendo gingerbread house, playing at home, Christmas at the squadron, Gerrit’s preschool Christmas party, Christmas celebration at home, and a few from Christmas with my family in Missouri

January 2020: spending time with Aunt Becki, more goop/slime, our weekend in Tucumcari to visit the dinosaur museum, and a nice day to play outside

February 2020: a snow day, enjoying hot cocoa, fun at home (Jell-O creations & color mixing fun), Gerrit’s preschool Valentine’s Day party, chocolate raspberry cookies for Valentine’s Day, and Jurassic World in Amarillo

March 2020: Dr. Seuss week at school, a visit from Gramps & Gram before Dada deploys, and trying to stay entertained as the COVID-19 pandemic begins (Safari Loop bear hunt, rock painting, and lots of playing at home)

April 2020: fun outside, Mama’s attempt at some “schoolwork,” Easter fun, day-after-Easter snow, haircuts at home, water fun in the mini splash pad, MORE goop/slime

May 2020: Front Porch Project Mommy-and-Me photos, fun inside & out with our quarantine buddies

June 2020: wearing a mask when out of the house, rough-housing on the couch, finding fun at home, wearing red for Dada being deployed, Dada’s homecoming

July 2020: Gerrit gets a cheetah, going out for rolled ice cream at The Unicorn, 4th of July at home, roasting marshmallows & making s’mores, day trip to Palo Duro Canyon in Texas, working on his beloved Minecraft workbook, playing with ice chalk, working on Lego creations, chalk paint, matching shirts with Berend

August 2020: launching rockets, celebrating Dada’s birthday, first day of (virtual) kindergarten

September 2020: a day at actual school, virtual learning, lots of outside play!

October 2020: Fall Break in Angel Fire, Mimi & Papa visit

Gerrit’s 6th Birthday!
By the time Gerrit’s birthday rolled around, things pandemic-wise were loosening up a bit. We were able to have gatherings up to 20 people, and we were able to have my parents on base (with masks). I didn’t intend to go crazy with Gerrit’s Minecraft themed party, but I feel like the pandemic and lockdown pushed me to do more than I originally planned! I felt bad that Gerrit never really got to finish preschool, he wasn’t attending kindergarten in person, and he spent most of his sixth year stuck at home. I hope it was a special day for him despite the unexpected year we had.

I usually give the kids the option of renting a bounce house or doing party games/activities, but this year we just went straight for games to avoid too much contact. We did a pin-the-tail-on-the-pig game, punch-a-zombie prize game, and of course, a ghast piñata. I was thankful to have my mom help me with decorations and Andrew put together some awesome Minecraft creatures out of boxes and spray paint. Gerrit had so much fun with his friends!

We celebrated a little bit more on Gerrit’s actual birthday with presents from us and a mint chocolate trifle!

Gerrit, I hope you had a great sixth year! I know it turned out differently than we all thought with a global pandemic, lockdown, longer-than-expected deployment, and things like social-distancing and masks in public. But you were resilient and lived the best 5-year-old life you could considering everything! We’re so proud of you and your hard work so far in kindergarten, and we love you so very much!

Daily living · House & Home

Just 5 Things I Do Daily

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What I wanted to title this was “Just Five Things I Do Every Day to Keep My House Under Control,” but that seemed a bit wordy. So I’m going to to hit my top five habits that I feel help our house not look like a hot mess every day.

Empty the Dishwasher Early

Until very very recently, I was guilty of unloading the dishwasher while I was making dinner almost every day. What I wanted to do was empty it first thing in the morning, but the motivation just wasn’t there. Now that we’re back in the school groove, I’ve been unloading the dishwasher while I make my coffee. Some mornings I only get halfway done, and other mornings I get the whole thing unloaded, but I try to at least start unloading it every morning so it’s ready for dirty dishes to come in.

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Do Some Housework

I have a pretty solid cleaning schedule in place (more on that later), and most days I have at least two tasks I want to accomplish. For example, on Mondays I dust the living room, water all of my plants, and vacuum the whole downstairs. Do I always get them all done? No. Do I usually get at least one thing done? Yeah! I figure anything is better than nothing, so I do try to get some routine housework done every day.

Clear the Coffee Table

This one is really for the boys to do, but they need a lot of reminding and “encouragement” to get it done before dinner most days. Flat surfaces… they’re just begging for clutter, aren’t they? We have a large coffee table, and it’s the main drop zone for the boys to put things and work on things (drawing, coloring, etc). When it starts to drive me crazy, I swipe it all into a basket and put the basket on the coffee table. The rule is that anything left in that basket by the end of the day is garbage, and that if it’s important to you, you make sure it finds a home. This makes sure that my coffee table is completely cleared off every night.

Run the Dishwasher

No matter how full or empty it is, our dishwasher runs every night. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s usually so full that I have extra things I need to wash by hand, but once in awhile it isn’t completely full. Doesn’t matter. I run it.

Clean the Kitchen

All I really mean by this is making sure the counters are wiped down and all the dishes are done. After those are done, I put all towels and washcloths in the laundry room and put fresh ones out for the next day.

By doing these five things every day, my house generally looks pretty clean. For me, a clean kitchen is huge, and I can’t imagine going to bed with crumbs on the countertop or dishes in the sink. It would just stress me out in the morning and make me feel defeated. I’ve found that the clean living room really makes me feel content at the end of the day too. Knowing that we have a fresh start every morning is really rewarding and gives that element of calm that I crave on busy mornings.

Daily living

Just Five Things

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Way back in January, I decided to make some New Year resolutions. I feel like this was the first year EVER that I actually was successful in creating a new habit and following through with a goal for a new year. So here’s what the list looked like:

  1. Be more active
  2. Drink less wine
  3. Read more books
  4. Try yoga
  5. Get back into blogging

So how did I do? Well… if I’ve been more active, it’s because I’ve been cleaning pretty regularly. But I do want to start walking this fall as an easy way to be more active. I still don’t read, although I did read a “for fun” book over spring break. I still gravitate to parenting and organizing books though. Someday I will read fiction again! No yoga for me… maybe next year? The one thing I have been successful with is drinking less wine. I decided to only drink wine on weekends or vacations. I have been a “a glass or two a night” wine drinker for years. And it’s not like it was a problem or anything, but I felt like it was often unnecessary calories and honestly just kind of a bad habit. So here we are in September, and I still only drink on weekends or vacations/special occasions. I feel like it was a little hard in January, but it has become a habit, and I’m really proud of myself for doing this!

Now… blogging. Obviously I have not been successful with this one. But recently I’ve been trying to think of ways that I could be successful with it. One thing I’d like to try is blogging on my “off” days. This is the first year of motherhood that I have fairly large chunks of time that both boys are at school. Gerrit is in 2nd grade this year, and Berend is in his last year of preschool doing three full days a week. So what am I doing with my days “off?” Napping for one. I have a massive sleep debt and a bad habit of staying up too late. But when I’m not catching up on lost sleep, I’m running errands and cleaning the house. I would like to push myself into a more normal sleep schedule so I can use my three days a week to do some blogging again. And if you’d ask what I’d like to blog about? I have so many ideas in my head! But my biggest setback is overwhelming myself. I have big plans and no real way to execute them in a timely way. Which leads me to…

…. Just Five Things Mondays! Something I’ve become really interested in and, dare I say, passionate about is my home. More specifically decluttering, organizing, and keeping my home clean. These are not things that come naturally to me (well, maybe the organizing… I’ve always loved doing that), and I’d love to share some things that I’ve learned, implemented, and am still working on. Instead of bombarding myself and whoever chooses to read this with a novel, I thought I’d just pick areas to focus on one day a week. I’m hoping that this becomes a habit so that I can start catching up my blog on my boys, and our life too!

See you Monday! After posting my first Just Five Things, I thought, You know what sounds better? Just Five Fridays. I’m so indecisive… so I’m switching to the end of the week instead. I hope you’re shaking your head at me just like I am.