Family and Friends

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all who celebrate! This was the first Thanksgiving we haven’t spent in Northern California with Mike’s parents in…gosh, maybe 15 years? It was strange and sad to not be with them this week. We tried to make the most of it and went on hikes, rode bikes, and baked. We even…

Maddie’s 13th birthday was last week, on the 11th. It’s hard celebrating her birthdays without her, but this year’s milestone was especially painful. She’d be a teenager, her own person with her own interests. Not knowing who she’d have become is, for me, one of the hardest parts of her death. I don’t get to…

Friends! The Spohr house hasn’t been this busy since February. We’ve been carefully and cautiously venturing out into the world, trying to remember what the “real” world is like. Our county is doing very well containing Covid-19, so well that the schools will be opening in a week and some youth sports are back (with…

Time is flying – somehow, the sweet baby of the family, Harper, is two years old today! She’s so sweet and such a FORCE. With Annie and James refusing to stop growing older, my niece turning 11 last month, and my nephews in their teens, it’s really fun to have a toddler (and her 4.5…

The kids had picture day at school at couple weeks ago. It was very different than usual (obviously). No class picture, just individual photos of each kid. Annie and James had an assigned time to show up, and the photographers were set up outside the school in tents. They wore masks until it was time…

It’s scary times with the horrible fires raging on the west coast right now. We personally are safe from danger and hopefully, that will continue. The amount of smoke is absolutely astounding. The air is tinted with smoke, turning the sun a strange red color. We’ve been staying inside as much as possible to avoid…

Annie and James started school a week and a half ago, fifth grade for Annie and second grade for James. It’s hard to believe that this is their last year at the same school until Annie is a SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL and James is a Freshman. The beginning of the year has been good,…

This has felt like the longest summer ever, so it’s hard to believe that my kids start school on Wednesday. They’re not exactly…excited…about starting the term with distance learning, so Mike and I have been trying to hype them up a bit. Annie is mourning some of the fifth-grade traditions that normally come at the…