Wow, I can’t believe I’m making the first post of the year in June. Oh well, it’s been a busy year thus far. I’ll do my best to recap it.

I suppose I’ll begin by sharing the story that dominated our spring. A couple of weeks before spring break we decided to go to Michigan to see Liz’s parents. We didn’t see them over Christmas, and over FaceTime my mother-in-law looked pretty frail. So we loaded up in the car and headed north. “We” included Jam the puppy and so we stopped for the night at an AirBnB in Peru, Indiana on the way up. When we reached Michigan Becky was in even worse shape than expected, weighing in at 82 pounds and moving very slowly. She wasn’t able to do much besides sit and watch tennis on TV with Luke. The planned weeklong stay turned into two. We all returned home, but a week later I took Liz back up. Becky had fallen and broken her hip, and was going to have it replaced. Liz and I arrived just before the surgery and they were able to spend some time together. I left the next day.

Luke and I did pretty well back home. We ate a ton of junk food though. I was able to finish one project, although slowly. After a couple of weeks I went back to Michigan to bring Liz home, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving so I returned a couple of days later. Luke was able to stay with friends, which he thought was pretty awesome. We returned to Michigan for a week so that he could see Liz, staying with cousins, which was a lot of fun for him. We returned home for the last week of school, with Becky passing on May 17th.

Luke and I arrived back in Michigan a week later and helped prepare the farm for a celebration of life. We also had visitation at the funeral home and a private graveside service. We stayed on for another week just to support John and help around the house.

In other news, Luke is thriving. He played basketball and soccer this winter/spring, the latter of which he excelled at. He continues to enjoy being outside and building things. He finished up first grade and is now enjoying summer. He will do some camps at school and will go to my parents’ a couple of times. Another Michigan trip might also be in the cards.

Jam continues to grow and is much loved. I am still getting adjusted to having a dog in the house, but he is fun and Luke likes having somebody to boss around.

We will try to go to Monteagle for July 4th, which would be really fun. The parades and fireworks are both great.