It’s hard to believe that 2024 is coming to a close and our kids are growing and changing before our eyes. Cashel, now 12, is in middle school. He is playing the cello, crafting and creating to his heart’s content, and definitely feels like there is never enough fishing in his life. The constant eldest child with a helpful spirit, he is often seen running fishing lines for siblings or other children around him on the dock and is always looking out for others. He is insanely patient and so very capable. Middle school is tricky and we are all feeling that adjustment for sure, but we believe we can survive this too.
Camper turned 10 this year and joined the school’s specialty choir. He reads voraciously, and is attached at the hip (quite literally) to our sweet pup Bhaaloo. Camper has requested piano lessons this next year so we imagine our home will be filled with all kinds of musical diddies in the days to come. Camper is helpful and so very clever, and wow does he make us all better with his commitment to fairness and justice.
Corban is nine, despite trying to convince us otherwise. He is quite the athlete and is playing basketball again this year. He practices daily and has more recently started to explore soccer. He also loves to draw and is often seen sketching in his notebook. He will be the first to give hug, check in on you, and has a a sense of humor that very closely resembles a certain adult in his life. But you need to be sitting close by to take full advantage of the hilariousness, otherwise guy may just miss it.
Copeland turned 7 and joined a basketball team too. He comes in from practice just lit up and with so many stories to share. He also can be found as Cashel’s shadow on all fishing expeditions and is quite the fisherman himself. His laughter is contagious and he is known as “a friend to all” at school. He would prefer to only wear overalls and the deep imaginative play continues as he explores alongside McGuire.
McGuire is completing her final year at Magnolia Forest Preschool and has made some wonderful new friends this year. She is especially interested in coloring and creating with makeup, loves to sing and is an amazing swimmer. Unicorns and her special blankie “Noni” are all she talks about these days and she is one adored little sibling. Much to her delight, just after Election Day and just prior to her fifth birthday which was on Thanksgiving again this year, Momma came home with not one but TWO little kittens. The sister kitties are affectionately called Whit and Wren – named after two strong ladies Gretchen “Whit”mer and Elizabeth War”Ren.” These sweet girls have brought us a great deal of joy and laughter. They join a house full of critters! Charlie our Bernedoodle, Bhaaloo the llasa Apsa/Pomeranian/Poodle who is often dressed to impress thanks to Camper, Ralph and Harvey the big boy cats, 3 goats named Cyril, Avery, and Hazel and almost 2 dozen chickens!
Our life albeit busy and full has felt a bit more steady in the day to day. Benjamin is now in his third year with Boston Consulting Group and works harder than anyone I know. He is killing it and learning a lot along the way. I am the Site Director of the Port Orchard branch of Magnolia Forest Preschool and find the job both exhilirating and exhausting. Working with an amazing team and for two hard working and involved women makes the job even more rewarding. Finding ways to help the organization be stronger, resource families, help my team and campus grow, and seeing children develop in power, independence, critical thinking and problem solving is a dream come true.
If we have learned anything this past year it is that “anything worth having is worth working for.” We work so hard day in and day out. Often the days blur together or we find ourselves crashing into bed at night with a to do list still a mile long. But… our kids are kind (most of the time), they work hard and contribute to our home and family life like few others I have seen, and at the end of the day we spend our time together – the seven of us. I’m always grateful for Benjamin’s nature and his steady presence. It is his laughter and delight that reminds us all, but especially me, to stop and enjoy.
Benjamin sometimes heads off on trips for work, much to the chargrin of our children, and his absence is always felt. This year he made several trips to California and also took an exciting trip to London right during the Olympic send off. These trips are challenging on the homefront, but the kids rise to the occasion and I couldn’t do it without my mom helping with getting the kids to school! We know these days are fleeting and next year we transition from having kids in 3 schools with three drop off and pickup times down to two. This will simplify so much, especially for Benjamin since he does most of that leg work when I commute to work. And in the meantime we remind ourselves this is a season and in all its chaos and beauty we are doing it – together.
We took an amazing family trip to California to see Uncle Tim & Uncle Stephen get married in wine country. Our kids ate like royalty and danced the night away! Then we drove a few hours to Auntie Kap and Uncle Shawn house where they shared their home with all of us, for a week! We lived it up in Gardena, CA including beach days, swimming in their pool, exploring parks and good food and a huge highlight was a 15 hour day at Disneyland!
This year the Farm on Levin, a giving garden, gave away hundreds of bouquets – despite a very slow start to the growing season. We donated over $1,000 to juvenile diabetes research and as a grant for a local teacher, and also received another grant ourselves from the Poulsbo Garden Club! This year it purchased the supplies for a hoop house, in years past the grant money covered our 3 bin compost system and the drip irrigation that makes everything possible. The garden and grounds at the farm are always changing and our ability to plant, cultivate, harvest, and share ebbs and flows from year to year. But, our mission of sharing what we have and our belief that generosity and gratitude are contagious remain steady.
As a family we acknowledge our immense privilege and as parents we work to have our children understand and learn to recognize ways they have so many advantages. We look for ways to help them understand how these benefits can impact their lives and the lives of others, and prompt them (often they prompt each other too!) to use their position to advocate for equity and social justice. Our children love and are loved; and this year we are calling that a win!
Sending Love & Light to you and yours. May you experience all that is good inside you and find ways to share that goodness.
- Psalm 82:3” Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute”
- Isaiah 1:17“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow’s cause”
- Micah 6:8“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
Booker T. Washington
