Hanson Crew

Can you believe it's finally December? This year has been awful, but the end is in sight and there is still much to reflect on and be grateful for. Fortunately, we made it through most of 2020 without COVID until this week. Half of our crew has tested positive and the other half is getting tested today. It's been bearable and sometimes feels like the flu. John had it the worse, but overall, we're pretty glad to know that we did have it and that we now have some antibodies. Reflecting back to 2020, we have many things to be grateful for. We enjoyed much more time as a family for sure. Ashlyn was in her first year of college and ended up coming home for her last quarter. That was a great surprise for me! She was also supposed to move to Seattle for the summer to work at Amazon, and that job ended up being remote from home. So we got to have her home from March through August!  We played quite a bit of board games and video games together in 2020. We baked, we cooked, we binge...

 As you all know, 2020 didn't turn out the way we were planning. Like most of you, we had many plans and ideas that never happened. Here are a few of ours... In December of 2019, we made the decision to homeschool Jonathan for the rest of his 7th grade year. This was all prompted because a friend of mine was doing an online school with our same school school district for her daughter and loved it. It was basically all the same curriculum, but from home on a 4 day a week schedule. We were excited to try that along with extra bible and reading curriculum we would add in. When we approached his counselor in December and eventually the online instruction department, they told us they do not allow students to participate for only one semester and that he could apply in 8th grade and do it for that whole year. We told them we would homeschool for the rest of 7th grade and then try it in 8th grade. They said we could not do that because once we pulled him to homeschool him, he was no long...

 I've not been consistent again with our blog, but thought I would add some 2020 pictures for our Christmas postcard. We were finally able to get some updated pictures this summer with my friend Lisa. We hadn't taken pictures with her since 2016 when Sue wanted to get some pictures with her grandkids while doing chemo. She passed away the following January and I just wasn't ready to take them again. The boys have really grown since then. Joshua was just catching Ashlyn and I in height and Sue knew he was going to pass her that month. Caleb and Jonathan have both passed us since her death. Here's a few of the last time we took pictures (Fall 2016) with Grandma Sue and one from this summer 2020. Notice how Ashlyn towers over all three boys in 2016. This year, she is the shortest of the bunch. It's crazy how quickly they each have grown in 3 years. Thankful I get to be their mom!