Day 1,670 - The Lunch

I try to stay on top of things as a stay-at-home dad. Believe me, I really do. However, I have a slight problem that makes it hard for me to do just that. Mainly, I’m unobservant, forgetful, and have a propensity for procrastination. Obviously all of those things work against me on a regular basis. However, there are those occasional days where I set out to do everything right and still find myself failing. Today just so happened to be one of those days.

With Tuesdays being one of Ethan’s school days, that means that our entire morning tends to move really fast. As a result, anything that I can do to make my mornings easier on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do it. That’s how I found myself making Ellie’s lunch and Ethan’s school snack for the day before the sun had even completely risen.

The idea made plenty of sense in my head. Since I was already in the kitchen and had just finished heating up the kids’ oatmeal, why not go ahead and get stuff done. So with that, I proceeded to make Ellie a delicious ham sandwich accompanied by a side of carrots and red peppers, a cheese stick, and an apple for dessert. Then, I went ahead and slathered some peanut butter between a couple of graham crackers and put them in a Rubbermaid container for Ethan to take to school. Honestly, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. After all, by my own admission, I am unobservant, forgetful, and have a propensity for procrastination.

After getting the kids’ respective food items made, it was time to grab a shower, get dressed for the day, and brush my teeth. Just so you know how quickly the day goes by on a Tuesday or a Thursday, it was pretty much time to leave to take Ethan to school as soon as those relatively simple tasks were done. With that, I instructed Ethan to grab his snack and the three of us headed to Ethan’s preschool to drop him off.

After that, Ellie and I decided to take advantage of our hour together and go complete a task. Namely, we took the car to a drive-thru car wash and got it thoroughly washed. Then, taking advantage of the free vacuums, we went ahead and cleaned the inside as well. I love doing little projects like this with Ellie on mornings when it’s too cold to play tennis. For one thing, she’s actually a ton of help. For another, it’s just fun to hang out with her and accomplish something together. After we finished cleaning, we headed home where we played a couple of rounds of Go Fish before school.

After saying goodbye to Ellie, I headed to church for a meeting this morning and then found my way back home with a little under an hour remaining before it was time to pick up Ethan from K-Prep. See, I told you that the mornings go fast. Once 11:20 am rolled around, I loaded up in the Traverse and went to go pick up Ethan. Generally I get there a little early so that he’s not the last one to be picked up. As I was sitting there in the parking lot, imagine my surprise when I received a text from Ellie’s teacher that Ellie had forgotten her lunch at home followed by a request that I bring it to school.

This honestly caught me completely off-guard. I try to empower my kids fairly regularly by encouraging them to be responsible for getting their lunches in their backpack and making sure their water bottles are full each day. That being said, I realize that my kids are young so I always make sure to ask them to confirm that everything is done. Today was no exception. I couldn’t be mad at Ellie for a simple mistake though. After all, I’ve forgotten much more than a lunch box over the years.

You may wonder how the story ends. It’s nothing too exciting though. Ethan and I drove home and I ran inside and grabbed the lunch box in the kitchen. Then, we immediately drove to Fox Hill, signed in at the office, and walked down to the cafeteria where the two of us found Ellie. Then, we sat there with her for the next 15 minutes while she finished her lunch before we headed home to eat our own lunch. See, pretty simple stuff, right?

I wish I could say this will be the last time Ellie forgets something. However, it’s pretty obvious that she will again. The good thing is that I will inevitably be provided with another opportunity to be Ellie’s hero at some point. It will probably even happen before the year is over too!

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Day 1,662 - Snow Days, Distance Learning, and the Doldrums of Missing Dad

Snow days have certainly been a way of life lately in the Holt household. While snow days can be special at first, there are plenty of downsides to them. Those downsides can occur both while the snow days take place and once the kids go back to school.

Last week marked our first snow days of the new semester. The great thing about Ellie’s school district is that the first three snow days of the year are free and clear. In other words, she has no work to do and no responsibilities. That means that there was plenty of fun for us to have. Between watching movies, drinking hot cocoa, and playing in the snow, Ellie, Ethan, and I all had a ball for those first few days. I will say that I was plenty sore and exhausted after all of those trips down our sled hill though. However, all good things must come to an end and that end came on Tuesday once Ellie officially ran out of snow days.

Now, when I say Ellie was officially out of snow days, I mean that she was out of those free and easy snow days. That means that instead of pure fun, it was time for us to do distance learning. Now, I know that some may be wondering what distance learning looks like for a second grader. If I’m being honest, it feels a lot like busy work.

Starting at 9:00 am, Ellie logged onto her school iPad for one of three brief lessons from her teacher. After each call, she was given an assignment to complete. Altogether, she had assignments in reading, writing, and math by the end of the day. She also had an assignment from her PE teacher. I actually did that one with her and I have to say that I was plenty tired by the end. Still fun though. The one good thing about distance learning is that she was completely done by noon each day meaning that we had the afternoon available for fun!

For Ethan, distance learning is not a thing that preschools engage in. Instead, to keep him busy while Ellie had school, I dug out some preschool/kindergarten workbooks that we had around the house and set Ethan to work tracing and writing his letters. I will say that I underestimated how much he would enjoy the workbook. I honestly expected him to only complete a couple of pages but instead he did every page of the workbook. What a trooper, right?

Now, I mentioned how there are downsides once the kids go back to school, right? For the record, I’m not just talking about myself and how I have to deal with the quietness of an empty house (although that is a rather big change to adjust to). During the couple of snow days Ethan has had lately, he had adjusted to being around me all of the time. Therefore, it was apparently quite a shock to his system to go back to school today. So much so that he found himself crying over missing me during the day at school.

Honestly, this happens to Ethan now and then at school. I think a big part of it is that he only goes to school two morning a week. However, that doesn’t make it any easier to digest. It’s pretty hard to hear that your kid was crying at school due to missing you. The lone positive is that Ethan has some great teachers that are pretty talented at helping him work through those emotions while also finding a good activity to distract him with. By the time I picked him up from school at 11:30, he was none the worse for wear.

I certainly wish I could say that distance learning and Ethan missing me are in the rearview mirror. However, I doubt that’s the case. In fact, there’s still plenty of bad weather to come meaning that there will be plenty of snow days to go along with it. However, one good thing about snow days is that I can guarantee there will be plenty of fun playing in the snow, lots of hot cocoa to drink, and snuggles under a blanket while watching a movie. You honestly can’t beat any of that!

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Ethan says not to forget about all of the snow to eat.

Day 1,655 - One Last First Day of School Breakfast

Traditions are always fun.

Over the past seven years, I’ve created a few of them. Some with Ellie. Some with Ethan. The thing about traditions though is that you inevitably will experience the tradition for the final time. Heavy stuff, right?

One of my favorite traditions with Ethan dates back to Ellie’s first year in preschool. As you can probably guess, when the big day came to drop her off, I was understandably sad. Couple that with the fact that I didn’t even get to walk her to class (Thanks, COVID) and it was understandably an emotional time. Ethan was still young enough to not really understand that I was sad but I still wanted something to distract us from the occasion. Therefore, on that day, we had our first ever start-of-school breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. While the order will change from time-to-time, there is one constant: we must finish our meal with a milkshake. Yes, you read that right; a milkshake at 9:30 in the morning. Yep, I’m a good parent.

Over the past few years, Ethan and I have marked Ellie’s first day of school in both August and January with a trip to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. It’s quickly become a fun part of an otherwise sad day for the two of us. However, on this occasion, I realized that this semester’s trip would actually mark our final start-of-school breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. You see, with Ethan starting school in August, there will be no one to go to Chick-Fil-A with and a guy in his thirties going to CFA by himself on the first day of school just seems a little sad.

Honestly, our trip to CFA was nothing super special or out of the ordinary. It was relatively simple. We walked in, placed our order for chicken minis and hashbrowns, and headed to our table that Ethan had picked. For the record, when Ethan goes to Chick-Fil-A, he pretty much chooses the exact same table every time. It’s a high-top table in the glassy sun-room area that used to be the playplace. In fact, that sentence really kind of dates this tradition. When we first began going, the hope was that Chick-Fil-A would eventually reopen the playplace once COVID ended. So much for that, LOL.

Over our breakfast, I mostly just sat and listened as Ethan told me stories from the Christmas break, what he liked and didn’t like, and as he wondered what Ellie was doing. Once we finished our breakfast though, Ethan knew what time it was and he was ready. With that, we made our way back to the counter where we ordered a Cookies and Cream shake to share for the final part of our little routine. Once it arrived, we took turns digging in with a spoon, making sure that after every two bites we passed it back to the other.

Now, I realize that this was a pretty simple story. Not much exciting happened. However, that’s the reality of the day-to-day life of a stay-at-home parent. That doesn’t mean that certain things aren’t worth remembering though. After all, Ethan’s and my little tradition of first day of school breakfasts at Chick-Fil-A are certainly worth remembering to me.

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Day 1,652 - The Jesse Tree

Wow, it’s kind of hard to believe but Christmas break is nearly over. Seriously! Thursday marks Ellie’s first day back at school. Ethan has a little bit longer but his time is coming soon (Muhahaha). If I had to pick one word to describe the past couple of weeks, it would probably be exhausting but that’s ok. Part of what made it exhausting was the same thing that made it fun and that was Bethany being off work for 11 days straight!  Ellie and Ethan just have slightly different personalities when their mom is home. There’s an unbridled excitement that “can’t stop, won’t stop.”

Of course, in between epic play sessions designed to delight kids and exhaust parents, there’s been lots of Christmastime excitement. We’ve had multiple Christmas celebrations, baking days, expeditions to see Christmas lights, and Christmas movies aplenty. All have certainly been memorable. Honestly though, one of the things I’ve come to enjoy the most about our Christmas season is also one of our newer traditions, the Jesse Tree.

For those that are unaware, the Jesse Tree is not referring to me, although that would be pretty cool. Instead it’s referring to Jesse, the father of King David in the Bible, and specifically Isaiah 11:1 (“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”). Our version of the Jesse Tree is actually a 12x12 coffee table book that features a pop-up tree when we open it. Beginning on December 1, there is a box that we open each day containing a small ornament to hang on the tree. Of course, the ornament would mean nothing without the daily story which serves to describe the ornament and its relevance to the story of Jesus.

It's fairly normal for our family to read the Bible together each night before the kids go to bed. In fact, one of Bethany’s goals for last year was that the kids would get to hear the entire New Testament and we succeeded in that goal. It’s honestly a pretty cool accomplishment even if the kids were more than a little confused during Revelation (To tell the truth, we all are!). With the Jesse Tree though, we do that activity in the morning in addition to our nightly bible reading.

Generally, our time with the Jesse Tree would take place in those last ten minutes before Bethany leaves for work. We would place the book in the middle of the living room floor and all sit around it. For the record, it’s never unusual for Bethany and I to each have a kid in our lap during this time. We would start by reading whatever the story was for the day and talking about it a little with the kids. Then, we would have Ellie and Ethan take turns guessing what the ornament might be on this day. That’s pretty much just as competitive of an experience as you might guess it would be for them. Finally, the time comes for one of the kids to open the little door on the book and pull out the corresponding ornament where they proudly hang it on the little tree. It all culminates on December 25^th with the final story and the final door which contains a star for the top of the little tree.

While 2022 was our first year for this tradition, it’s honestly become a really fun one. For one thing, it’s fun to see the kids excited about being in the Word so early in the morning. It’s fairly normal for them to even still be in their pajamas from the night before (Me too if anyone’s keeping track). I also love watching and being a part of moments that include the kids silently snuggling with us and listening intently. Those are special moments that are all too fleeting as the kids get older and ones that I don’t want to take for granted.

Who knows how many years we’ll get to do the Jesse Tree together as a family. I don’t know if at some point the kids will decide they’re “too old” or “too cool” for this tradition. All we can do is enjoy these little traditions for as long as they last and then enjoy whatever new tradition may follow.

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I don't have any Jesse Tree specific photos from this year so enjoy this shot of the kids in their pajamas at a lighted Christmas display.