Catching Up

 So here it is, mid-August and I have been remiss in blogging! My blogging has definitely changed now that we are no longer homeschooling (😓). Our days are different, though there is still a lovely rhythm to then. We have worked very hard to keep our family culture (our "Waldorfy-ness" as I like to call it) while growing and changing as we move through each age and stage. This summer has been the re-set that we needed and we have all done alot of talking and envisioning and sharing what we want for ourselves and as a family. It has been lovely! 
 

Shortly, after the girls got back from camp, I took Grace over to Hudson High to let her try driving. She did great, though was surprised by how fast five miles per hour felt!

Gretchen had fun exploring Clover's house. 

Redcoats and Rebels returned to OSV for the first time since the pandemic shut everything down and just in time for the heatwave. Grace, thankfully, was not in the gardens that day, but instead was inside one of the houses where it was definitely cooler than it was outside! 

Dave, Emma and I went to the Village a bit early and walked around while we waited for Grace to finish up. Though I did not take any pictures of her over at the Bixby house, I did manage to snap a few of other goings on that day. 

Last week I worked half days and then spent the afternoons doing fun things with the girls. Those half work-days/half vacation-days are the best and truly make it feel a little more like summer break. I have missed homeschooling and the slower pace of our days so very much. Along with that this summer I have really, really missed being a classroom teacher with her summers off. Having a few weeks of half work-days and half vacation-days has definitely helped make things a bit better! 

Our week of fun afternoon adventures began with Emma interviewing for a job at Honey Pot Hill Orchard follwed by a trip to the mall to do some back to school shopping! 

Tuesday was ice cream sundaes at Meola's. 
We all agreed, next time, we'll get one to share! 

Wednesday evening, while Grace was at dance, Emma modeled the latest "Aunt Gail apron" (though in this picture it looks more like a dress) while we baked some chocolate chip banana bread! 

We were all super grateful that Mother Nature had blessed us with some much cooler weather. 

Clover was thrilled to have her window back open again! 

On Saturday the girls and I went to Salem. The weather was perfect and I have been wanting to take them to the Salem Witch Museum for a couple of years now. Though we wish that David could have joined us (it was his weekend to work) we couldn't pass up a stellar weather day for a road trip to Salem! We had a fabulous time visiting the museum, going to lunch, walking around and stopping by the Witch Memorial to pay our respects before heading home. It was truly a splendid day and a fabulous way to cap off our week of adventuring! xo 

Catching Up

It's been quite a summer here! With the girls doing all sorts of things (like dance intensive, camp and now the Revels Summer Theater Workshop) it hasn't generated many blog worthy pictures like summers of the past had! In an effort to share a bit of what we/they have been up to I figured it was time for a "catching up" post!  

Jake arrived last Friday to spend just about a week with us! Needless to say, the girls were super surprised when he greeted them when they got home! 

Pals. 

The girls returned from Silver Lake on a Friday and Revels Summer Theater Workshop began the following Monday! While camp wasn't as fabulous as we all hoped it would be (the group of kids in their conference were just not a good mix) the summer theater workshop has been absolutely fabulous! The girls are learning all sorts of things about set design, lighting design and stage management as well as other fun things too (like stunts and music)! 

This Friday will be their two show performance. I am sad that I won't be able to attend but as they are behind the scenes they are OK with it! 

Catching Up

In eleven years of blogging this is the least I have ever posted! I looked at the number of posts on the blog for this year and was somewhat surprised to see that I have only posted eighteen times. At the same time I wasn't all that surprised either. I am sure this would be the case if I was still home full time as so much has shifted this year with two teenagers among us. I suppose it's the normal order of things really. There is not an age or a stage that I haven't loved (though age four did leave something to be desired) and I am glad that I have recorded so much of their growing up years here. Over the last couple of years I have often wondered about the need for this space. Does anyone even read blogs anymore? I have no idea, but I do like having a record of our days for myself so I continue on. 

Let's get caught up, shall we?! 

This picture was taken back in February and I had all intentions of posting it back then but somehow life got in the way (as seems to be the norm lately). Not quite a month late, but pretty close! 

The increase in daylight hours (and warmer weather) has our hens laying up a storm! We are getting four to five eggs daily (from our five hens)! I can't believe they will be a year old soon. They have been a joy and a true bright spot during this pandemic! 

Winter Sundays are spent at the mountain and this year was no exception! The only thing that really changed about Sundays thanks to Covid was the girls don't go up with Dave. Instead I bring them. It's been lovely to have that time with them (and then on the way home I chat with my mom)! It's a sweet Sunday routine that we are all going to miss now that the season is winding down). 

Grace sculpted this out of clay for her anatomy class. Seasons of Seven Virtual (Waldorf) School continues to be such a total blessing to us. The girls have done so well and we continue to be amazed at what they do each day! The transition to Seasons of Seven was pretty seamless as it's so incredibly  similar to how we have rolled all these years as it was started by the woman who wrote the curriculum we have used since the girls were little (just now with classmates)! 

This past Friday was dance team dress rehearsal. I took exactly two pictures (both involving this gorgeous costume). The girls performed their duo for the first time in front of our dance family and blew people away! Though I took a video (and some have seen it) I will share it here after the competition season has gotten underway! 

Dress rehearsal was so much fun! One year ago we didn't even make it to dress rehersal as Covid had shut everything down right before. Seeing them running through their dances was a little bit of "normal" returned to us. And while I do so hope that the "new normal" that will arrive post-Covid has people making changes and not returning to their frenzied lives (and the world continuing to stay peaceful like it has been so Mother Earth can continue to heal) it was nice to see the girls all together again like this! 

On Saturday we met up with Frank and Brady. They had come to Boston to celebrate Brady's birthday and invited us to join them for lunch. It was one of the few times that we have dined in a restaurant in the last year and it was the first time we had gathered with people who live out of state. It was wonderful to get to spend the afternoon catching up with them. It wasn't nearly long enough of a visit but we were grateful for the time we got to spend together! Until next time, dear friends! xo 

Catching Up

Gracious! I have been such a blog slacker this year! I have been meaning to "catch up" for days now and somehow it hasn't happend. Today, though, I made it one of my goals to do so before a new week began and I got even more behind.

Mostly life has been just keeping us far too busy. The girls are doing well with their lessons, I am still getting to the gym (almost daily) and the new semester started at Northeastern so Dr. Tscherne is back in action over there.

When I went to look through the pictures on my phone to see what I hadn't shared yet, I realized that mostly it was memes and inspirational quotes that were in my photos section. Below are the few pictures I have taken recently. The fist three are from the holiday show (a week ago) and the one where the girls are curling their hair is from a few days after that. 

And then of course, there was this random picture of Gretchen sitting on the hot water bottle taken by one of the girls on my phone: 

Such a funny kitty!

So, that's about it from here! Have a wonderful rest of the long weekend! xo

Catching Up

Hello, lovely blog reader(s)! My apologies that my entries have been so inconsistent lately! I had all intentions of posting far more than I have and for one reason or another the end of each day arrives and I haven't achieved that goal. It's hard to believe that I have been blogging for nine years now, and there are many times (especially lately) where I feel like the things I post here are too repetitive, too predictable. and so I hold off on sharing which creates long gaps of time between one post and another. I do love sharing about our days and I love that a record is being generated of the girls' childhoods so completely (and I really do need to start printing it out in book form one of these days. So, in an effort to not get too much father behind I figured I'd share a few pictures and stories about what's been going on since I last posted a week ago.


This past autumn, the girls and I were invited to join this wonderful Waldorf co-op! Over the last couple of years I have been feeling like we should find a co-op to be part of but had never found one that felt like a good fit for us and then lo and behold we were invited to join this one! Ryan and Kelsey are two mamas that I had met years ago when all our girls were little. We would gather for lantern walks and other festivals with many of the other area Waldorf homechool families but since the girls and I weren't really there enough (other than the festivals) we didn't know people very well. Fast forward to this past summer when Ryan put out an announcement about a book club and the rest is history. That one time at book club lead them inviting us to join their Thursday co-op. We were honored to have been invited and started getting together with the group on Thursdays in December to do holiday crafts. The co-op is four families, each with two daughters and if you saw all eight of these little girls together you'd think they'd been together since they were babies hanging out on blankets! 

 The new co-op session began last Thursday with the group working on free-hand geometry (which is awesome since that is not a strength of mine). They meet each Thursday from 10:00am-2:30pm and in the words of Grace "It's like the best of both worlds, mama! We get to go to school with other Waldorf homeschooled girls while still being homeschooled!" The timing of this co-op coming into the rhythm of our days could not be any more perfect!

Sadly. our lovely Thursday ended on a not so lovely note. On my way home from the gym I got in an accident. I was at this red light, signalling to turn left, with no one across from me. When the light turned green I began to turn and shortly after noticed a car was coming directly at me at a rather high speed. I knew that if I didn't do something I was going to end up with this car plowing through the passenger side of my car. I drove in such a way that the brunt of the impact happend to the passenger side quarter panel (and the bumper and the drivers side quarter panel). And the worst part is, the car that hit me KEPT ON GOING! They didn't stop and see if I was OK, they just fled the scene. Needless to say, I have been pretty shaken up since and while I have never been a nervous driver before I sure feel like one now. I have NO desire to get back behind the wheel any time soon if truth be known, but sadly I am going to have to face that fear soon as there are days that Dave's not home until after bedtime and I don't want to have to ask for constant rides to and from the studio from the other dance moms for the next month or more.

On Saturday, Grace baked four dozen cookies for the youth group bake sale. Though none of us Tschernes were going to be at church on Sunday (me, because I have to be at work-church and Dave and the girls because they have to be at Wachusett) we still want to make sure that we are supporting the events and activities that go on at Plymouth and we knew that these cookies that everyone loves would be a good stand-in for all of us! Sadly, we weren't able to get them there before Dave had to go to work, but in the end it all worked out! Jane and Bill came to our rescue, 

bringing a Valentine surprise for the girls and joining us for dinner! Sharing a meal with them was just what we all needed after how crazy things had been since my accident (and it got me out of the funk I had been in ever since)! So, while our weekend started on a not-so-great note it sure ended ona lovely one (and another Patriots Super Bowl win to top it off too)! xo 

A Quiet Moment

July 5, 2015: Having finished with our Sunday morning Deacon duties, the girls and I sit for a moment before worship begins. It was such a lovely treat to have another fellow Deacon snap this picture of us (thanks Carl)! xo

Peace And Love From Emma

June 24, 2015: Just another day in the fabulous life of Emma! xo

A Girl, Her Cat, And Some Legos

May 17, 2015: A quiet Sunday morning. Perfect for Lego building and Lego box sitting. xo

One Weekend In May

May 9, 2015: While David and I were in NYC for Frank and Brady's wedding the girls were enjoying a fabulous time with Aunt Donna, Uncle Peter, Grandma Joan and Grandpa Ron. A trip to the zoo, to the bakery, to the garden store and a fabulous game of Left, Right, Center (in which Emma's doll managed to win) made for an absolutely wonderful weekend for our sweet girls! xo

Fields Of Gold

May 6, 2015: 25,000 daffodils in bloom and a lovely day at Tower Hill Botanic Garden with my beautiful girls. xo