Mid October, after six months, church was back on. Only twice a month, and only for forty minutes, but it was sure nice to go back. It felt a little lonely only having half of the ward there and maintaining social distance, but it was lovely to see our dear church family.
Just a week later the library also opened up! We have been requesting library books online for the last six months, but nothing beats browsing. I did a happy dance around my kitchen when Michael told me. The next day we headed to the library for their limited browsing hours and it felt like coming home. Don't let Sam's face fool you, he was very excited as well. Ethan wandered off to the youth section while Grace and Sam headed to the children's section, where they were enthusiastically greeted by some of our favorite librarians. We were only allowed to be in the library for twenty minutes, but we made good use of our time.
These are Grace and Sam's books. The stack under Sam's hand goes all the way to the floor. I refuse to believe we went overboard. Ethan and I each had a canvas bag of books in the back. For the rest of the day I barely heard a peep from the kids. They were buried in books and stories.
Along with church and the library, school is open. Kinda. Ethan, Libby, and Grace all attend their respective schools on Tuesday and Thursday and then are online the other three days. They are so happy to be able to see their friends and finally meet their teachers in person. Sam is still being homeschooled, but we are hoping to start him back at the neighborhood school in January.
Just a few weeks after in person school started Grace brought home a bag full of goodies. She won the Jefferson character award for Honesty/Integrity. She was very pleased with receiving recognition. I had to laugh at her prize bag. It was full of pencils, crayons, paper, pens, notebooks, assorted office supplies and a box of nerds. It looked like they emptied the school supply storage closet into a bag and offered it as a prize. It wasn't a bad prize; just unexpected. I think this year is all about making do. The pumpkin and water bottle were not part of the prize pack, they just jumped in the picture.
The school is making do and Ethan is doing for himself. The truck was in desperate need of new shocks. Michael suggested we take it to a mechanic and get it done. Ethan crawled under the truck and announced he thought he could do it himself. Michael found some shocks that were on clearance and ordered them. Once they finally made it to the house Ethan started ripping apart the truck, and even managed to get it put back together. He spent a couple afternoons on it, scraped his knuckles, borrowed a jack from the neighbor when ours wasn't steady, and got the truck back in fine form. No longer does going over speed bumps feel like riding a slinky. It's amazing. As a bonus, Ethan went to the junk yard and found a horn and replaced the truck's broken one. $50 for the shocks, $3 for the horn, and the truck is in fine form. I'm proud of his willingness to attempt new things. I would never consider trying to replace the shocks myself, but he did it, and did it well (I hope). As he saved us a fair amount of money, he has been released from his car insurance payment for a month or two. I may have got the better end of the deal.
We still spend a couple days a week with this dude. He brings much needed levity to our home. The kids adore playing with him. He and Harley have a special relationship, built primarily on mutual tolerance. He will occasionally throw the ball for Harley and Harley will frequently steal his snacks. They don't seem to have much more use for each other, but sometimes it's obvious they love each other. A lot.
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