October was a fun month! We began our first weekend with a Saturday noon soccer game and then headed to Mansfield for our annual apple picking trip. We stopped at Mom and Dad’s to drop off Brutus and then headed to Apple Hill. We arrived to learn they were picking Honeycrisp, which is one of our favorites. At first we were not too impressed as we were having to pick apples out of the tip-tops of the trees. Having been blueberry farmers who often gave the advice “start at the end of the row and work your way back” you think we would have known what to do, ha! But sure enough, as we walked closer to the back of the field they were far more plentiful. We still had fun hiking those boys into the trees to pick the highest apples they could. Griffin is getting to be quite the man to hoist at 55+ pounds. Even “little” Reidy checks in at 34+ pounds! We picked up some apple donuts and cider from the shop too.

Then we headed back to Mom and Dad’s and I’m pretty sure Kevin and Dad headed to Best Buys to pick out a new computer for Mom. Yikes, my memory is failing me! Her computer was bulging from having had an overheated battery at some point. Kevin was able to get her new computer all setup and the programs and files moved over. We ended up spending the night and had a nice pancake breakfast the next morning. Griffin enjoyed helping make the pancakes with Grandpa.

While Distance Learning isn’t “easy”, it certainly provides a solid routine to each day. Griffin usually has 3-4 live meetings with his teacher each day. A morning meeting where they complete “morning writing work”. An afternoon meeting, where she typically reads them portions of a chapter book and they review what they will be doing for their afternoon work. Two days a week he has a reading group (with 2 other friends) and a different two days of the week he has math group (orange group with the same 2 friends as reading). Griffin really likes the live meetings. He can be shy sometimes. He has really good manners and keeps his mic muted so people can’t hear the background noise (not everyone does this!). He does a pretty good job staying focused, but can easily get distracted when Reid is around or if Reid is doing any sort of play or electronics. He is really great at Math and doing quite well in reading too. Writing is an area that Griffin struggles with wanting to complete. He and I have had numerous frustrating interactions when I ask him to double-check his spelling (of simple sight words or words I know that he should be able to spell) or check his work for the three this he is expected to know (punctuation, capital letter of the first word of the sentence, and finger spacing). When I point out anything his confidence tanks and he gets so angry and frustrated it often leads to tears and loud voices. I’m struggling with how to help him. This is where Distance Learning is so hard! While he submits work each day, it’s not the same as submitting work in a classroom. That being said, he can navigate Schoology, his OLSD portal, and the computer in general in such awesome ways. His know-how to get around between teams meetings, apps used live during live meetings, apps to complete his assignments, and so on is cool to see. Miss Peacock has such a great voice and is really encouraging in all her live meetings. We are really happy with her. She has twice had “supply pick ups” at a local park to get school supply bags full of things for the kids. Notebooks, booklets of work papers, a pumpkin, and so on. A little “perk” is getting to see her live in real life and play with virtual friends in real life at the park for a short bit!

Griffin’s 2nd grade pictures arrived and we think they look stellar. Look at our handsome guy 🙂 Lexi is doing really well managing both boys during the day. I know I’ve said this before, but it is taxing. Trying to ensure Griffin is on task, while keeping Reid entertained and not as a distraction is the real deal. And she is very encouraging and affirming – two things I’m working on improving 🙂

The weather has been pretty great lately, allowing us to still enjoy outdoor times when possible. One evening we did a last minute trip to Nocterra and while we were there Kevin was talking to his Mom. Reidy wanted to get on and chat with Grandma and it was pretty funny. He kept telling us to “shhhhh, he’s talking”. It was comical.

Soccer day Saturday’s have been pretty great – both weather-wise and just the enjoyment in watching Griffin play. He has been focused and determined. He came up with his own motto “speed, strength, confidence” (which you may have also noticed Lexi put in the classroom on the Affirmation Station Wall) and he is living it out. This boy was just born with sports in his blood. He knows so many professional players names and numbers: hockey, football, soccer. He knows sports scores of games that are either in progress or have ended. He knows when his teams are going to play next. He just follows all things sports.

Mini-me, Reid, likes to wear all the same things as Griffin and play soccer leading to and from the game each week. During the game, he couldn’t care less what’s happening on the field. He just wants a “snack and a show” and settles himself into the chair. See below for a quick series in Reid’s emotions and energy levels, lol.

Despite all the Covid yuck of 2020, we wanted to keep as many traditions going as we felt we could do safely. We took the boys to Young’s Jersey Dairy to pick pumpkins and ride the farm wagon. Grandpa Armstrong met us there and treated us to lunch after putt putt – thanks Grandpa! Reid rode the kiddie ride and Griffin went down the slide a few times. All in all, a pretty “normal” experience with lots of hand sanitizer and mask wearing going on.

Lexi brought pumpkins for the boys and Griffin also had his pumpkin from Miss Peacock so one afternoon they took to carving them. Note the masks: the kids thought they stunk. Oh dear.

We had quite a busy day one afternoon with eye appointments for Griffin and me, followed by a quick stop at the cemetery to check the progess (it.is.sooo.slow….but at least now there is grass), then a fun and brief visit from Haya and baby Summer before heading to the Boo-through at Tyler Run. The school and sponsors put on a “drive through” trick or treat event so both kids and Lexi decorated the car (inside as it was horribly yucky cold and wet weather) and wore their costumes. They each came home with all kinds of swag.

My morning walks before work are something I’ve really come to enjoy. While it is brief and there are many days I feel like putting it off, I’m always glad once I do it. I go a mile or 1.25 miles usually at most, as I have my timeline down to what I can get done in order to arrive at work between 7:55 and 8, without getting up super early. The early morning walks in the dark are rather enjoyable and provide some beautiful sights. It’s sometimes serene and I don’t see another person and other days I may see four or five others out at 7 am. I wouldn’t be keen on doing it without my Brutes though!

We needed to dig up and replace our Rising Sun Redbud and by the time we got around to doing it one Saturday, it was about 5 pm. We had an hour left of daylight and were able to squeeze it in, but our picks aren’t very great! Our amsonia is beautifully colored and so much more prominent without the larger tree there. It’s hard to believe that tree had only been there 4 years and had put on so much growth. It was kind of a beast to dig out! But we got it done and now have our baby one in place. Hoping this one grows as quickly as the last, minus the splitting!

We signed Griffin up for Cub Scouts again this year, so he is in the Wolf pack. It’s a small set this year, currently only 3 boys. They’ve met a couple times at parks to complete requirements while being able to maintain distance and wear their masks. He’s also selling popcorn, though mostly online or ordering-to-be-delivered-to-you-later; no in person sale from inventory this year. So it’s not as fun, but he still sold so much and was happy he beat his last years sales.

We purchased a Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica Northern Splendor) and a Chinese Elm (Elmus parviflora Allee) for our backyard to replace where we’ve taken down more than 5 of our blue spruces. While not evergreen, these trees will provide a nice screen and beautiful fall color. Thankfully Mom and Dad had just purchased a new-to-them truck (and quite a spiffy one I might add) and when I randomly called from Oakland while we were tree shopping to ask if we could borrow their truck, they offered to just drive down. So about an hour and a half later Mom and Dad were there and Kevin and Dad headed to Oakland to pick up the trees. We got two Rising Sun’s for our neighbors Sam and Carlene as well, so altogether they brought 5 trees home and delivered the two down the street. We had a nice dinner of City BBQ on the porch. Whew, that was an unplanned busy day! It took us about a week or so to get them planted, but when we got around to it we had two helpers; Reidy and Brutes. Both constantly in the mix. Griffin was off playing with neighborhood friends.

More soccer fun followed by fun new sweet trips from a really atypical visit to Kroger. Atypical in that I hadn’t been to one in ages, so I picked up all the fun treats you can’t find at Aldi 🙂 We also recently taste-tested the chocolate chip cookies from cousin Graham’s school fundraiser. They passed with flying colors and didn’t even cool before being consumed.

Work for me has been super crazy busy lately. We’re working on our 2021 budget, staff planning, hiring new employees, including my newest hire: Head of Human Resources and Employee Experience , filled by none other than George’s daughter-in-law Shaina Pealer – who is going to rock this role. She worked at Millcreek earlier this year on “Special Projects” (read that as many things I needed help in getting done!) and she was super-great. She worked for us while looking for a job since having relocated to Columbus from NYC. She found a job and departed at the end of May. In late September I learned that she had been let go from her job (which was in the fashion/retail industry which has been hard hit by COVID) and it was simultaneous with Management meetings we had been having regarding staffing, company needs, long-range planning, and so on. When we were discussing hiring someone for HR, George mentioned he may know of someone and asked if we wanted to know who it was.  Well, of course we did – so he filled us in on Shaina. We jumped at the chance to recruit her. I met with her twice out of the office and offered her our new role. It is a huge job to fill and while she doesn’t have any technical HR experience, she is a lawyer who has also worked in large companies with great HR departments (Bloomingdales) and has so much experience form the employee side. She started on October 19th, right in the craziness of Insurance renewal season, hiring other open positions, and all kinds of things) and she is crushing it. So looking forward to streamlining the responsibilities of HR from being shared work of me and up to 5 or 6 others (all in different ways) into a single dedicated role. Yay! I may work my way out of a job, lol. Just kidding of course. This will give me time to do less of the daily action items and more of the larger planning and operational activities. At least that is the plan.

Whew. All of that to say since I’ve been working later and can’t always make it home at 5, when I come home, this is often what I see. Kevin let’s Lexi go usually around 5 each day, but he still works until 6:30 or so. It’s a challenge when your company is based out of Mexico, on central time, and they also start their work days later than we do in the US (9am)! Griffin is usually playing with friends or watching a show/playing a video game and Reidy is with Kevin in “his office chair” watching his own show (and as you can see, about to fall asleep). Little man is at the age where he doesn’t want a nap, but can often use one.

On Halloween morning, we got up and headed out early to go see cousin Rowan play his last soccer game of the season. We weren’t able to get to any of the earlier ones as they were at the same time of day as Griffin’s, but wheweee, it was a brisk fall morning! The sun was bright and the grass was crisp with frost! But it was a lovely morning to bundle up and cheer for our Crew player, #12. He had an awesome goal that we got to see. We’re thankful to live in the same town and go to our cousins events – though we hardly see each other often enough, especially in Covid times.

Later that day it warmed up really nice and the boys were outside raking leaves with Kevin playing in shorts and tshirts. Our driveway was a meeting spot for pizza and other snacks prior to trick or treating with our neighborhood friends. I got a little bit crafty and made a “healthy” item of ghosts/strawberries/grapes to go with our pizza. Each year we get a neighborhood pic, and these kids are growing up fast!

Ella the dinosuar, Eli is Darth Vader, Abbie is a robber, Miles is Spiderman, Hadi as a Samurai, Griffin as a Knight, Georgia as Maleficent, and in the front row: Jay as Spiderman, Abbie as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Reid as Spiderman, and Dewey as Hulk. Missing Cole and Cooper this year who were with their Mom.

And the adults of course: Kevin, Scott, Amy, Mike in the back and Lyndsey (with Honey), Megan, Chrissie, Karla, and Alex in the front. We missed Brian and Lisa, the Stephens, and the Serra’s this year (who had sick kids, not Covid!)

It ended up being a beautiful night for a walk in the neighborhood. Kevin and I got split up, as I stayed with Reid and the two of us went door to door with Abbie and Chrissie. Kevin went with Griffin and the big kids. There were a lot more people handing out candy than I had imagined. I even met a couple neighbors I hadn’t previously met. Fun night filled with so-much-candy.

And here are a few videos from this month. Soccer games, neighborhood football pickup game, and playing in the leaves.