Welcome back to another edition of Jalosky Weekly. I know it’s been a month since the last “weekly” and perhaps I should rename it to “monthly” instead. Haha.
Our life here in Irwin, PA has been pretty hectic over the last 6 weeks. Springtime has arrived. My busy season has begun. But that’s not the only thing that has kept me from posting these 300 photos. So here’s a (not so) little life update. (Keep scrolling if you just want to see pictures!)
The sickness *which shall not be named* made a touchdown in our home and into the lives of several people we know. I could tell you all about how it affected some people and other’s it didn’t even touch that it should have….but I’ll spare you the pain of listening to another medical drama once more. Nearly everyone has made a full recovery, and the rest are on the mend.
I know some of you are probably shocked that I’m going to end that paragraph right there without going into more details, but in the past 6 weeks, the Lord has been working in my heart to stop focusing on “getting the truth out there” and “fighting hard for our freedoms.” Afterall, the Lord let his chosen people live in slavery for hundreds of years before he finally set them free, and even then, because they were mad about how He did it, He made them wait another 40 years for the promised land. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, open your bibles to the book of Exodus – the second book of the bible – and start reading on through to the book of Joshua.)
It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is if we are following the Lord and spreading the gospel. He’ll take care of us. Always. Even if we become slaves and zombies to the government.
So here we are. You will see a lot of flowers in this post. I’ve been on a beautiful journey with my irises in the last 6 weeks. They have been in full bloom for about a week now and they just get better every day. Believe it or not, there are probably still at least 50 more buds that will open soon. When I originally counted them, there were about 75, and then two days later there were 150. So if that doesn’t tell you how amazing of a spring it has been, then nothing will. Haha.
I feel like my girls are growing up so fast. Alethea is getting so tall. Layla is just full on feisty and crazy. She has taken to climbing up on the couch via the toy bin and doing a flip over the arm of the couch, then running from one side to the other at full speed. She’s only 14 months old and pretty tiny. I’m so terrified she’s going to break all her bones. At 14 months, Alethea was just learning how to walk. When they say that every child is different, they mean EVERY. CHILD. IS. DIFFERENT. Completely different. And what a learning experience that has been!
Layla has little red curls in the back of her head now, joining our wonderful family of curls. She has started sleeping much longer stretches at night and waking up about 5:30 each morning now. It has been wonderful to finally sleep more than 3 hours at a time and still difficult because I am NOT a morning person. I’d prefer to sleep until at least 7. So does Alethea. LOL
We’ve done a lot of painting this month. At one point, we were painting every evening after dinner. It’s Alethea’s favorite kind of craft and she is so good at it. Really, she’s good at anything artsy. I’m so glad for that! It has actually pushed me to become more creative as well. I am terrible at home décor, and Alethea has picked out a few small things for our home this month that I happily bought and set up. She’s a genius really.
Layla has taken to eating shoes. At first, she would just pick shoes up and bring them to me. I always took that as a sign that she wanted to go outside! Which was great! I love that! Then she just started picking them up each day and chewing on any piece of Velcro she could find. With two kids and it being sandal season, that’s a lot of Velcro. It’s also disgusting. Haha.
We’ve spent a couple of weekends at Deep Creek already this year and both girls are just thrilled to be there each time we go. Alethea asks every day when we are going back. That makes my heart so happy. Jonathan has taught her how to skip rocks, and even Layla likes to throw rocks in the lake too.
The weather around here has been INSANE. It snowed. Then it was super warm and sunny. Then it snowed again. Then it was cold. Then it got warmer, but each morning and night were below freezing. It has really made my muscles ache. Thankfully, we have entered the post-frost season *HOPEFULLY* just this past week. For being the end of May, that’s just crazy. I haven’t even planted my normal flowers yet.
We finally got to use our Easter egg dye kit a few weeks after Easter. Alethea had a blast! I did too. 😉
We’ve taken a lot of walks, but perhaps one of the best days we’ve had was then we pulled out the kiddie pools and the water table for the first time. Jonathan set up a water slide for Alethea and she went down the first time so fast, she was not expecting how cold it was going to be! But she got up and started LAUGHING! I thought for sure she was going to cry. Then she did it over and over and over again.
Layla loves being outside. Give that girl a big open field and she’ll just run and run. Sadly, our yard is very small and so I’m the one that runs and runs as I chase after her each and every day. Maybe that’s a good thing? But sometimes I’d just like to sit for a while and enjoy the nice weather instead of working up a sweat. I guess that’s motherhood for you.
Another really fun thing we did in the last couple of weeks was go to Braddock’s Trail Park to see all of the beautiful wildflowers! We had such a fun time spotting them all and hiking all over. At one point, we climbed straight up a cliff side (not fun) and then got lost along a trail we thought we were following (fun).
We celebrated Cinco de mayo with a wonderful day of taco festivities and dinner. And I celebrated my fourth Mother’s Day. It’s been a hard season of life for many reasons, but having lost another little baby within the last 6 months, the grief has been coming in fresh new waves. And as these special days come around, they bring with them memories of what should have been. Jonathan got me a beautiful necklace with my 4 babies names and birth stones. It was supposed to be here for Mother’s Day, but it got lost in the mail and finally arrived last week.
We had a wonderful day of shopping and dining with my mom last week. The chickfila where we were was open for indoor dining! It was the best! My girls really enjoyed being out and about.
My brother invited us to all of his softball games this year, and one was supposed to be at our town park a few weeks ago, but it got rained out. So we finally made it to one of his other games and had so much fun watching him and my cousins play! It’s been years since I’ve been to a softball game. We used to go all the time when my dad played.
I had my first wedding of the year last Saturday. Not just my first wedding of the year, but my first wedding in over a year! It was so good to be back at it. And it was a gorgeous day for a wedding! I’ll be posting some more of those soon, but you can see some previews on my Instagram!
My sister Ruby bought a slip and slide for all of the kids to enjoy! It was so much fun, though I’m not sure if Ruby had the most fun or the kids. Haha.
I took the kids to Twin Lakes Park this week for a picnic. We needed a break from being at home it has been so nice and warm. They loved sitting on a blanket and eating lunch. We saw a huge turtle in the water and a few fish being caught.
Friday nights are usually taco nights here in our home. But this Friday, we pulled out our brand new pack of ground beef and it did not smell right. It looked fine and it wasn’t expired but it did not smell good at all. So we decided to go to Gato Taco instead. It was PACKED! The food was delicious. But it was so loud in there we couldn’t hear anything any of us were saying. Haha. Good for them, but it wasn’t super pleasant for us, especially with the kids. Afterwards, we stopped for some ice cream at McFeely’s. That was much quieter. LOL
Jonathan’s mom was supposed to come home from rehab this Friday, as she was finally walking on both feet again! 6 months ago, she broke her ankle and hasn’t been able to put weight on it until now. Then at the beginning of April, she had to have a partial amputation of her finger after an infection that wouldn’t go away. So she’s been in a rehab facility and was supposed to come home on Friday. But she unexpectedly had a stroke on Wednesday and ended up back in the hospital. So pray for her! Thankfully, she is doing well and just wants to be home. We haven’t seen her in so long now, and Alethea keeps asking to go see her. But with all of the covid restrictions, no one has been allowed to see her. So we continue to facetime, but it’s just not the same.
So here we are, entering memorial day weekend. 4 years ago this week, we lost our precious first baby, Aria Rose. Each year we have remembered her with ice cream cake, roses, and balloons. We’re looking forward to that again this year. Though those waves of grief have been getting higher and higher the last couple of days. Alethea has requested us to get a candle for Aria, and she will blow it out for her. Sadly, they were out of #4 candles when we went to the store this week, so we’ll have to come up an alternative.
If you read through all of that, you must really like us. Haha. Hope you have a good week and a great holiday!
Love deeply. Live passionately.
Ellen
