The Johnson Blog: 2022

I find myself three months after that year mark, and NINE months post-move, and I'm still dumbfounded as to how we're where we're at right now. I told myself I'd take a year sabbatical, if only I could not get too bored before that point. (Ha!) Here I am now, only three months away from that point, and I feel like I've only just begun a true sabbatical from life.

A lot has changed since my last update, and I'm still honestly trying to wrap my head around it. For starters, as of September 8th, I will officially have all FOUR of my children in grade school!!!!

I know.

This is going to be my one and likely only summer where I'm home with all my kids and not working full time, and I plan to take advantage of all the things about that! While we're going to stay busy with baseball and tball and various other summer camps, we're mostly planning to allow ourselves some time to settle into our lives here. We're darn close to being done with setting up all the pillars of support here, and with that all out of the way, it's time for some rest and relaxation and just...FUN!

One of the struggles I've had for years with the whole working world is the lack of ability to just...go! To just not do things when I feel like not doing them, and then again, to DO things when I feel like doing them. Knowing that this is likely the only summer I will have where we can just come and go as we please, I've got a lot of little trips planned for this time "off", and for that, I'm thrilled!

A fascinating discussion in many of my widow groups (especially the circles full of FTD widows) is that of "catching up" after our loved ones pass away. The truth is, we've been kept in "limbo" for so long that we feel this sudden urge to do ALL the things as quickly as possible. It's like whiplash at times, if I'm being honest: Like a boomerang. We spent so many years (for many FTD widows, it's more like decades) waiting on everyone else hand and foot, and while we tried to "live" in the midst of it, like everyone says to do, we simply didn't have the energy back then. Even just doing the very simple things felt exhausting. Going on a trip? Ha! Yeah, that wasn't about to happen, ESPECIALLY anywhere further than an hour or two. With FTD, you just never knew when something would happen, and you'd have to rush right back to figure something out. We had to be careful not to overdo it, because we had to have the energy to keep going in a life that made that "going" extremely difficult.

However, once that journey ends, there's suddenly this physical freedom that we're just beginning to experience, and now suddenly with the energy to match that freedom, we have the floodgates of possibilities opened up, and we have to try to hold onto that hose and use it for good, if you get the drift. So...I'm squeezing a whole heck of a lot of little trips, some with, and some without kids into this only summer of complete freedom, before heading back into the chaos of the reality of life.

September will certainly be here before I know it: A solid year of sabbatical. I never truly thought I'd make it that far before I'd get "bored" and jump back into a full time job, but I've been very fortunate to have finally gotten a break after so many years of chaos to prepare my home the way I need to have it in order to focus when it comes back around.

At that point, the plan for now is to jump back in at around half time hours contracting back to my former employer, who I have been contracting with for emergencies and small projects since I officially turned in my notice. My COBRA coverage will run out at the end of March, at which time I intend to then seek full time employment. However, what I've realized is that while I have thoroughly enjoyed Application Development for my career thus far, where my heart truly lies is in Database Engineering, which is a similar, but also very different skillset that combines all the parts of my job that I enjoyed. The market seems as flooded with those opportunities as it does for Developers, and so, I believe this is where God will be calling me when the time comes. I mean, that is, unless he calls me elsewhere before that time comes; He's kinda tricky that way 😂

We're looking forward to our future, whatever that holds.

In the meanwhile, I am very much looking forward to exploring new places as well as old ones, reconnecting with dear friends, enjoying catching up with my family on my Dad's side at our big family reunion at the farm, and really settling into our little oasis here in Kato.

That's all I've got for now, but here are a few photos from more recently to enjoy!

On day 1 of December, I made a trip down to Windom to finish up painting the trim in the lower level!

It took quite a while for us to feel settled in. While the halls were decked, I was SHOT much of the time.

It wasn't often, but every once in a while, I could interest my kiddos in board games.

Kins and I discovered our new salon in Kato: Radiance! It's so fun to have a little girl time together to get pampered!

Kins dubbed Hobby Lobby "The Christmas Store", followed later by "The Holiday Store". We made it twice before I vowed we would never return lol

#Truth

The kids' school pictures turned out so great this year!

We love celebrating our JoJo!

We finally got around to opening up our Christmas boxes this year. Every year, I do a little box with new jammies, new ornaments, a Christmas book, a Christmas movie and some snacks for a movie.

We're kinda thrilled with the movie theatre in Kato! I took the kiddos to see Sing 2, and it went...alright for the most part.

OMG these boys! lol This is what I got when I told them to "smile".

Lunch with one of my favorite ladies! Angie is such a great friend, even if we're both so dang busy that we hardly get to see each other! Love you, lady!

Ready for offers!

Once everything was moved out, it made me almost want to move everything back in! lol

Truth is, though, the new place is pretty darn cozy and wonderful!

Kins is super fancy these days. Lots of nailpolish remover used up in here.

While Kendrick's go to "let's clean" activity is sweeping the floor, Kinsley's is, hands' down, helping wash the dishes.

Solo parenting is hella hard many days - especially with 4 kiddos. The upside, however, is when they write notes like this. I'm pretty awesome at "stuff and other things", apparently lol

I love this!

I DREAM about doing this! Who is in with me?

This just warms my heart. As children of God, WE ARE NOT DARKNESS!!

There's just something about a little one in Christmas jammies that brings a giant smile to my face :)

Trying to keep some Windom ties, we picked up the kiddos' buddies on a Thursday night and went down to Windom's Christmas by Candlelight. The kids had a BLAST!

Some things seem FAR more ominous than they really are. It may have been a tinge of a disaster attemping to transition the oil into a disposable container (why I thought a pie pan was a good idea is beyond me), but I did it!

A favorite "hide and seek" hideout at our house lol

This is officially my favorite drink at Starbucks in the winter. YUM!

I've never been a "this is why I had kids" kind of person, but I'm definitely going to say: It sure is nice!

Absolutely spot on!

It's crazy to think about how much of our first six months our back yard looked like this!

He's certainly festive lol

I had some great "decking the halls" helpers this year! Usually it's a solo job, so it was fun doing it together this year!

This is one of my favorite breakfast casseroles! I got the recipe from one of my interns' Mamas back in my days at Toro. Paula - I am so thankful! It's SO good!!!

Someone was excited for an adventure in the snow!

I've gotta say: I've tried this sweater on probably 20 times, and every time it comes back off. Because when I see this picture, I'm like "Oh that's so cute!" and then I put it on and I see an elephant lol

Sometimes we make it ourselves, and sometimes we just buy them at the store. Either way: Yay for pie!

When it's freezing cold outside, we dress like it's summer inside, apparently. (I keep the temp at 68, so it's not like it's a sauna lol)

Ah yes, back when we had no furniture in our living spaces! lol We had fun celebrating an early Christmas with Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt Jess!

We finally got around to picking out a gym! We LOVE the YMCA, although if I'm being honest: I REALLY miss River Valley Fitness! It's so nice to have a pool and a track and gyms and free child watch, but I really miss the environment there, the people, and just feeling like it was more close knit. It's growing on me, but I still really miss my RVF peeps!

As the winter came about, I had more little nuggets of time to myself.

Time for the annual Snowman competition.

So, my 2nd date with the man I'm seeing was the one where he picked up a GIANT 9 ft Christmas tree that smelled like smoke really bad from a person on Marketplace and brought it to my house lol

We had a few chairs in our living spaces for MONTHS after we moved, because the couch we had on order kept being delayed. I finally got fed up with it, cancelled the order and went down to Rooms and Rest and asked what they had in stock that we could have delivered quickly. This one was in, and we were sold! It arrived a couple of weeks later.

It took us a handful of weeks of our "girl time" before we stopped eating out and getting pedis and shopping. Those days were FUN, but I quickly learned that taking a little girl shopping, and then having to say "no" to about 75 things and enduring meltdowns just wasn't as much fun as I thought it might be lol

This year, I had all these good intentions of making ALL the different Christmas cookies. Turns out, it was mostly my basic go-tos.

The park near my house looks a lot different when all the magical leaves are gone. Still, it's a great trail, and I sure love going for a stroll!

Some really big storms came through down in the part of Iowa our family farm resides. It ended up taking out the hog barn, but thankfully no one was injured, and the home and other buildings (including the barn) were relatively unscathed.

While our new home didn't require any significant renovations to move in, there were minor things to do, like adding closet doors to Kendrick's room (and creating a legitimate closet). This took more effort than I anticipated, but it turned out great (at least for a while...not sure why we need to open the doors so aggressively...)

It's absolutely incredible to think about all the changes we've seen in my nearly 15 years (for Mark, nearly 20 years) living in this home. The craziest part is that the vast majority of these huge changes occurred after Mark was diagnosed, and once he had moved into assisted living. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to it, but we were so ready for a fresh start. We were ready to make new memories in a new home.

Part of the transition for us was to continue to come back and visit friends. The kids really adored their neighborhood friends, and were so excited to spend some time with them at Christmas by Candlelight!

I guess maybe it was partially for me as well ;) After seeing these two faces every working day for over 12 years, it was a strange transition to NOT seeing them every day.

It never really gets easier, this attending the kids' school events alone. However, it brings me so much joy to see them thriving, and I know their Daddy is looking down with so much pride at the little people they're becoming!

Leading up to Christmas, I was. able to sneak away for a series of date nights with the kiddos. Part of their date was to pick out Christmas gifts for their siblings. The other part was dinner! Cashel has it all figured out: Go places we can't go with the other kids in tow, like Red Lobster. Theo ther kids...well...let's just say I ate a lot of fried chicken and Pizza Ranch lol

Poor Cashel has the craziest cowlick that causes his hair to look pretty wild when he's in need of a haircut!

We had a fun (albeit fairly unplanned and crazy) baking day with Jill and her younger kiddos.

We love us some Jill and Brooklyn time!

Ryan and Kins get a little silly from time to time lol

A fun little cranberry refresher cocktail to aide in the baking efforts!

My favorite little girl in the whole wide world ♥

Kins and I enjoyed taking advantage of our girl days for her to go to child watch and for me to go work out at the YMCA!

We also got pedis with another of my favorite ladies, and boy was she ever excited!

Our new couch finally arrived, and boy was it nice to finally have a space we could gather comfortably! We eventually moved it to the other room, as it was a bit large for that space, but we were thrilled!!

For Ryan's date day, he wanted to visit the "Christmas Store" Kinsley had been raving about. He tried relentlessly to convince me that we needed this nutcracker, but on SALE, it was still $120, so we declined lol

Trying out ye olde selfie stick

Ready for another big day of school in lovely Minnesota

Sometimes I actually get ready lol Sporting the gorgeous necklace my Jil gave me for my bday - thanks, lady!

On Kinsley's date day, we got waylaid with mini golf in the mall lol

Date days complete, and special gifts for each other wrapped and under the tree!

Before and after

Painting craft time!

I'm constantly reminding Kins to sit "criss cross applesauce".

December was ridden with illness (or school being closed because of other people being ill). Thankfully it wasn't COVID for us, but I'm not sure a tummy bug is much better.

Somedays she's super helpful, and others she's the one making the giant mess.

One of the kids' December favorites

I had been upstairs working on scrapbooking, and Cashel felt the need to bring me some snacks. #ThatsALotOfSnacks

Christmas Eve dinner

I had t-shirt quilts made for each of the kids for Christmas this year, made of Mark's t-shirts and sweatpants by a lady from work. It's like a big hug from Daddy on good and bad days alike.

Cashel was super excited to get me TWO POUNDS of swedish fish lol I do love them, though!

Kendrick got Ryan a cool mask so his face couldn't get hurt when they were playing nerf wars lol

Letters from Cashel for Christmas

We may have become a "more than 1 tree" family this year...

The big boys had asked for mini fridges for Christmas this year, and in an effort to not bust my back and carry them back upstairs (just to carry them back downstairs), I took the boys on a scavenger hunt instead.

Miss Kins had asked for a Barbie Dream House, so a (used, great deal with tons of accessories) Barbie Dreamhouse it was!

Poor guy was feeling really under the weather Christmas morning :(

Merry Christmas!

I have THE coolest boys, yo!

Attacked while playing with the selfie stick lol

I had a t-shirt blanket made for myself as well. So many memories here!

At age 10, he has more of a dorm than I did in my entire 4.5 years of college lol

AFter a MAJOR meltdown (because he wanted the BLACK one, not the RED one), he finally accepted his fate and has grown to love it!

I tried to keep each kids' blanket to include shirts that would have had more sentimental value for that kid, whether it be for what they're interested in, or trips that we had been to with Daddy.

Charcuterie board time for meals this day.

Lots of hot cocoa as well!

We finally got all the LED lights for the GIANT tree!

Cashel got this cool robotics set, and he put it all together, but we never were able to get it to sync up to my phone (or any older phones I had either), so we never could control it.

He was pretty disappointed :(

Moved the new couch to the other room, where it fit MUCH better!

I went down to Windom a little earlier than I needed to pick up the kids to walk through the house and make sure things were cleaned up, and went for a little walk out at my favorite spot in town.

We had to rush back to Kato to make it to the movies in time! I accidentally had bought earlier tickets than I remembered I had, so we made it just in time to see Sing 2!