Well, 

That went fast.

It's kind of sad when you go to your blog because your wee baby boy is turning (gulp) THIRTEEN and you're looking for cute pictures of him when he was small, only to realize you haven't updated your blog in (gasp) FIVE years.  

It's been a long five years.

It's also been a very short, very fast five years.

The quick update is:  my kids are growing like weeds, Chris is perilously close to finishing med school, and I feel like I'm running as fast as I can just trying not to fall off the treadmill, but...that's barely adequate.  

So far this year...Lilu turned 9 (how?!), I turned 45 (and I feel it), Chris finished his 3rd year rotations, he crushed his Internal Medicine shelf exam and then turned around and nailed STEP 2, I took the kids to Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg, Maggie turned 6 (oh my heck), we've made a few trips to Georgia, my father in law bought me this amazing antique spinning wheel at auction and I had a new flyer built for it, we've done a ton of math and reading (Maggie is now literate, and with that I retire from teaching phonics) and building and making and learning (though not nearly enough swimming and hiking).

Why, yes, I did make them matching sweaters (all Mountain Mist by Tin Can Knits, Cameron's is greens, Lilu's pink and black and Maggie's all purples).  We have fun and try to keep calm and carry on regardless of which way the wind blows, or what's blowing in it.

We did a deep dive into American History this past year, it was wonderful.  And when we were up in Yorktown and Williamsburg, we took the opportunities to take selfies with every George Washington statue we could find.

Oh, and I forgot that I reverse engineered the sweater from Knives Out.  (I didn't see the movie, I don't care for murder mysteries, but Google knows that I'm a knitter, so when the sweater went viral I started seeing pictures of it all over my google feed, and I thought to myself, "yes.  I can make that.  and I shall.  Just to prove to you all that I CAN."  So I did.  It's glorious, but SO warm.  I feel like I need to live in the arctic to get a decent amount of wear out of it.

photographic proof that I'm still here.