The Kolariks: Spring 2018 :: Also Known as Second Winter

Just when I think the next season will bring less stress, it arrives with different expectations and things never really seem to actually slow down. In some ways, life is so much easier these days, and in other ways the days just get more complicated. Needless to say, my blog efforts have been pushed to the back burner as other priorities seem to use up all the hours in the day. I'm still committed to trying to write them though, because I love having a written record of our lives - even if it feels overwhelming at times. I think I've decided to just write family updates every other month now though to lighten the load somewhat. We'll see how that feels!

This spring was one of the oddest ones we've had in a while... Oklahoma is always wishy-washy when it comes to weather, but this year more than any other I can remember in the 14 years I've lived here, we could not get over the hump of freezing weather. It was rough - but we survived and are thankful to be firmly on the warmer side of the Earth's tilt!

it's hard to tell from the photo - but these are our wisteria flowers covered in ice...

our crazy Spring did not deter these amazing Eastern Bluebirds from choosing our backyard to nest in this year!

Mama "Kora" (here) and Daddy "Kort" (above) chose Abby's bird box right on our back porch!

they hatched five beautiful babies!

Here they are starting to get their blue feathers - it was amazing to watch them this Spring!

"Bruce's Doves" built a nest in the mulberry tree and laid a single egg. They didn't seem to mind the kids climbing the tree all day long either! One night the dove and egg disappeared though...

my guess is these guys had something to do with it... oh well... we love them too!

and our Walmart Mother Goose was back again this year - love it!

our library raised and released butterflies, too! I love Spring!

In addition to the wonky weather, Spring was also difficult for us because Charlie's work load has been pretty heavy, which naturally affects us all. These past few months he's made six trips to Kansas City/Topeka, three trips to Virginia, one trip to Texas and another to Maryland. With more to come on the calendar. He's away on business trips more than he's in his office these days, and when he's home, it's hard to catch his breath staying on top of things at the office. The next couple of years are going to be exciting with all of the new projects around the office, but I'm also anticipating it to be incredibly challenging as well. Pray for us!

When he wasn't out of town, Charlie was feverishly restoring this Edison phonograph to working condition. It's amazing!

and as soon as the phonograph project was done, he immediately started working on making pterodactyls for our church's "At The Movies" event for this summer...

the man never stops...

This spring was also filled was lots of amazing adventures!

writing the "news" at Charlie's folks' house one weekend

We went camping! Weather is always unpredictable in Oklahoma, so when we planned a Spring Break camping trip a month in advance, we had no idea it was going to be freezing over Spring Break! And when the week finally came, we decided since it was only for one night, we would tough it out rather than reschedule. It was so.freaking.cold - but we had such a great time! Several families from our home school group were going to join us, but for various reasons, all but one other family had to back out at the last minute. It was a good thing that they had a camper too, because after surviving the crazy windy/freezing night in our tents, it was so nice to warm up with breakfast inside their little camper! The kids had great attitudes, and their sleeping was a thousand times better than the last time we went camping a year and a half ago. I can't wait to go again!

don't let this face fool you - he loved every minute of it!

we were camping at LETRA on Ft. Sill, so we made an excursion to look at the military museums there

and visited the Great Plains Museum also since it was right down the road

we ate dinner at a little restaurant next to the river

and the kids got to explore a little while we waited for our food!

Baseball kicked into full swing! With practices and a couple of games every week, we invested a lot of our life into baseball these past few months. While it was mostly still an incredibly positive experience, we've decided that we'll be putting baseball on pause for awhile until Bruce seems more interested in learning the sport. He's all about the "brotherhood" but could care less about the game. And that's okay, but there's no reason to pursue it anymore when there are other organizations that might be a better fit for him. Bruce is interested in giving Boy Scouts a try, but we'll have to look into the time commitment a little more before we make any decisions. With Charlie traveling so much these days, it's not as easy to tag team with the kids!

In addition to baseball, Bruce enjoyed starting up with art lessons again, and spent as much time as possible up in the mulberry tree. I was wondering if his climbing would be hindered when the leaves came back - nope. We've also learned that Bruce is quite the sneak thief. If Charlie leaves anything on a counter - a watch, a ring, a hat... Bruce snatches it up before anyone notices and hides it away in his desk drawer. It's nothing serious, just a silly game - but man is he fast! He also discovered the joy of walkie-talkies and loves collecting plastic cutlery from fast food restaurants. Go figure.

Cray-Cray continues to grow - he's big enough to eat now, but we promised Bruce we wouldn't.

just for scale... here's one of his "sheds" on a dinner plate - next to one of his sheds from the Fall

bug season has arrived!

still loving Legos!

the pirate even surfaced momentarily to enjoy the Medieval Fair

READING!!! At K's house

I think Bruce would live up here if we'd let him...

Abby has been spending a lot of her time playing with various dollhouses lately. It's so fun to see how she arranges all the furniture and and accessories - she's definitely upped her game. She also has started using the cutest expression, "I have an idea" before she says almost anything. Another not-so-cute expression that comes out of her mouth more than I'd like is, "I'm going to punch his/her/its face!" What? Where does that even come from? She's still a bit rough around the edges... but we'll keep her. She's showing a lot more interest in school these days, and is trying her hardest to keep up with whatever Bruce is doing around the house.

Abby is the Tech-Queen and is always stealing my phone to take pictures of random things... I never know what is going to show up on my camera roll!

Easter was wonderful! We had an egg coloring party at our house the Saturday before easter which was a lot of fun, and then we joined some friends for a huge easter egg hunt. I've really enjoyed hosting an Easter meal at our house the past few years, but Charlie had to fly out that afternoon, so I took the kids up to his parents' house for the long weekend instead.

We tried to find our place of support during the "Teacher Walk Out" in April.

we went up to join the "march" a couple of days

a friend of mine organized a "Walk to the Capitol" from Norman (20 miles) and we sponsored a snack stop for them!

we set up about half-way there - it was an awesome experience to cheer them on!

and we watched kids occasionally who had two weeks "off" from school.

The fight for fully funded public education isn't over, but all the work so far has been worth it. For these guys, and the ones coming after them. It was so fun to go back to Madison Elementary for Senior Day - this group that's graduating this year includes my last students that I thought before leaving, and it was so much fun to see them again, all grown up.

The annual Kolarik reunion at the wheat farm in Kansas was a success! I am so thankful that we've started gathering regularly, and I'm so happy so many of the cousins make it a priority to come. I've gotten to know people so much more in the past three or four years, than in the fifteen I've been a part of the family. And the kids love getting to know the extended cousins. It was a great weekend.

the crew keeps growing!

all five siblings made it this year!

We enjoyed celebrating various friends' birthdays, as well as Charlie's!

39 candles on a cupcake creates quite the blaze!

the kids planned a birthday adventure trip to Little Niagara - Charlie hadn't been yet!

the Chickasaw Cultural Center was right next door, so we popped over there before heading home - another new place for Charlie!

Big news - Bruce was baptized! And lots of friends and family came to celebrate with us! I would say that Bruce became a friend of God at a really early age, and has been interested in spiritual matters for as long as I can remember. I know he understands the message of salvation through Jesus, and he's been asking about baptism for the past year or so. We waited for awhile because we wanted to make sure he understood what baptism was really all about, and it seemed like he was ready to make a public declaration of his faith. So he, along with over 100 other people at our church, was baptized in the beginning of May!

We said good-bye to our international students! And wrapped up a lot of our school "clubs" with friends!

We had such a wonderful group of students this year - we're going to miss them!

robot club has come to its end as well - but I think these friendships were built to last!

We all began to lack enthusiasm towards school a little, but we still went on some fantastic field trips! Some went along with our school unit, some were just to reconnect with old friends!