Mother's Day 2026

I know that Mother's Day can be complicated for some people, and our house is no different. While I win my fair share of "Worst Mom Ever" awards and the newly minted "Step-Monster" award, I also get the privilege of seeing all these kids grow up. It's rough some days, but it's pretty great on other days. Some of the kids in my house don't have their mom anymore, and now Jeff is a member of that club too.

I was ready to have a low-key day to respect everyone's feelings, and you know what? I had a great Sunday, and all the kids and Jeff made it that way. For weeks, I had requested art, and I got some amazing art! I asked for a run with some of the kids, and Alex ran with me. Daryl and Alex wanted to take me out for lunch, but they respected my wish not to sit in a crowded restaurant, so we had KFC at home while I stayed in my sweatpants. Such a great day!

Mother's Day was also Aaron's 14th birthday, so of course there was cake! So now we have a 17-, 16-, 14-, 13-, and 11-year-old! I can't wait until they're all two years apart again come September. ;-)

My Art from Joseph!

The Purl potato on the bottom is the best!

I've never looked better!

❤️❤️❤️

Alex gave me some art on my card envelope! Love!!

My real present was my run! 

Happy Birthday Aaron!

April Goal Post

Looking through this week’s pictures, I have planting flowers, Small Business awards, the 8th grade dance, and Lemonade Day! It was a busy but good week! Here is last month’s goal recap. I’m doing pretty good on everything but the UFOs. Maybe tomorrow...

Read 30 Books (up 6 from 2025) 9/30

In April, I got to read 3 books. The biggest detriment to my book reading is mindlessly binge-watching shows, and I didn’t do that in April. I’m also making good use of the nice weather and my new rocking chairs to read outside. It’s lovely!

The first book I completed was already half done when the month started: The Autobiography of Cotton by Cristina Rivera Garza. It is an award-winning book, but not a winner for me. I couldn’t really follow the story, and at one point I thought I was going to learn about growing cotton in Mexico, but I didn’t really. Soooooo, not a keeper.

The second book I finished was A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I know I said my fantasy quota was filled, but this one was really good. The world of immortal faeries and humans was written so well that I got the second book to read in May! Keeper.

My last book in April was Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I finished this one while staying in Phoenix and keeping Jeff company on a work trip. It has been a long time since a book destroyed me, and this one did in a good way. I decided the weather was so nice that I could read in the hotel’s courtyard, so I hope no one minded that I was crying for a good 15 minutes. It was the best book of the month, and I borrowed it from the library. So go read it!

Run 620 miles (down 30 from 2025) 226/620

I ran 68 miles in April. I had one race and did really good on mid week runs. I was happy with my race but I don't have another one on the books till November. Hopefully I can keep my miles around 60 a month. 

Grow my savings by 60%

Made another savings deposit in April. Haven’t booked our house project yet. I hope someone will want to do our fence with the metal panels. Fingers crossed!

UFOs (unfinished objects) to be completed in no particular order

I don’t think I worked on any of these projects in April. Oops. Too many good books!

• Alpaca Quilt
• T-Shirt Quilt
• 2 photo books for Daryl and Alex
• 1 knit project from stash
• 1 stitched project from stash

Got my planters filled up from last week's plant sale!

Dance pick up picture! They had a blast (I had a spy on the inside.)

Supplies for 10 Lemonade stands that happened on Friday. My 4th grade students learning about small business did great!

Got to see one of my YEC kids get recognized at the Small Business Awards, it was so cool! 

From Doubleheaders to Dinner Galas

This weekend was full of activities, and I’m glad I was in town for it!

Daryl had baseball on Friday. It was a doubleheader, so I saw the last inning of his first game and all of his second game. He did great pitching and fielding, but he’s having a little bit of trouble with his bat right now.

On Saturday, we started at the Master Gardener Plant Sale and got some flowers for the porch. Planting them in pots might be next weekend’s chore! That evening was the inaugural Robinson Gala. Alex was in two of the student performances, and all of the performances were very good.

There was also a silent auction, and I bid on and won some reserved seats for 8th grade graduation! So now I don’t have to be there an hour early to make sure I have a good spot to take pictures. It was a good night.

Today, I had an easy run and then just caught up on some house stuff. It was the relaxing weekend I needed. Now to get this week back on track, waking up early and getting to bed early too. Here we go, May! The next post will be a goal update.

He is officially taller than me!

Their dance was pretty cute!

The song was also cute!

What do you know, a cute baseball player!!

OKC Half Recap and A Crazy Week

I was really happy with my finish today at the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. This was my second time running the race, and I felt a little more prepared than last year. My finish time was 2:18:38, and my goal was 2:20, so I’ll take that! I had planned to stay with the 2:20 pace group for the first 10 or 11 miles, but jokes on me, there were so many people in the starting corral that I never even saw them.

I was glad I talked Kayleigh into running this race again with me. She did opt for the Quarter marathon but its better than not having her! We both groan while trying to find a place to park in the morning and then shuffle shoulder to shoulder at the start, but the course is great and the support is top notch. People line the route cheering and even set up their own support stations along the way. They dress in costumes, make great signs, and some even offer adult beverages for a little liquid encouragement! I stick with the donut holes, LOL.

For months, I’ve known what this Sunday would look like. As I’ve already said, it’s been a crazy week, full of enthusiasm and pride, Alex’s City Tennis title, surprise, Daryl announcing he was going to prom on Saturday and needed some “stuff,” and sadness when we learned Wednesday morning that Jeff’s mom passed away in her sleep. Pattie had been in good health and had recently hosted all five of her kids for dinner, so it was a shock to all of us.

Despite the roller coaster of activity and emotions, things didn’t go off the rails. Everyone still made it where they needed to be, including me, to the race this morning. Afterward, I met Jeff and his kids in Wichita for tonight’s rosary, and tomorrow we will celebrate Pattie’s life at her funeral.

When I get home, I can’t wait to hear how prom went. The pictures so far look like they had a great time.

My friend Karen took what is probably my best race picture! Thank you for coming to cheer for me!! 

Getting to the course when a lot of streets are closed is not easy. I appreciate you hugging me at mile 9 when I was beyond gross! LOL 

Asked a runner to take our after picture, I'm so glad she caught us discussing what we wanted to do. This is us trying to take a picture every time. 

Cousins!

So glad Grandma was already lined up for this weekend. So when we all found out Daryl was going to prom he had someone to take his picture. So handsome! 

Tennis Goal Complete!

Today was the City Tennis Tournament, and I’m not going to bury the lead, Alex got first place in the Varsity 1 bracket! This has been his goal since last year when he got second in the Varsity 2 bracket.

He had one match that was closer than any other he’s had this season. He was down 0–2 and came back to win 3–2. I was really proud of him because even when it didn’t look good, he didn’t quit. That showed some mental toughness that he is still developing.

The best part was that his buddy won the Varsity 2 bracket, and Robison had placers in the Varsity 3 bracket and two of the doubles brackets. So they were in the running for the team trophy, and they won it! Good job, Ravens. You had a heck of a season. That’s a great way to leave middle school tennis.

He is already looking at camps for this summer, so I know we aren’t done with tennis, and that’s okay with me.

He ended the season undefeated with a City Tournament first-place finish. Good work, Al! Now for some ice cream tonight!

Funny story, it rained right before the tournament started, so the kids pushed water for an hour. When they all took a break Daryl, Jeff and I went into action! It was all hands on deck. Tournament started 90 minutes late but that's ok, they got to play. 

With his medal

The Robinson Singles players. 

City Champs!!! They did it!! 

From Farm to You Week!

How are we halfway through April?! This month is flying by! I’ve been watching more sportsball than normal this month, and the weather is being really crazy. In other words, April in Kansas.

One fun thing that happens this time of year is my office’s From Farm to You program. Minus a few COVID years, I have enjoyed seeing second graders come in every year and learn about agriculture since 2010. With the help of a lot of awesome volunteers, we set up 10 learning stations where the kids learn about crops, livestock, soil, and weather. New this year, we had a milking demonstration where most of the kids saw a cow milked for the very first time!

Helping kids make this connection is one of my favorite parts of my job. The fact that my entire office helps pull this off is another favorite part. It’s a long day, but it’s worth it. And I got 12,000 steps this year!

Another fun thing this week is that I got one step closer to creating multiple “cozy” spots in our house. When we moved in, we set up a nice space on the enclosed porch, it’s great on a breezy day. This year, I created a cozy spot on the front porch too. I found some awesome rocking chairs at the store, but they only had them in white. Luckily, they come in a ton of colors, so I ordered this awesome shade of blue and got a little gray table to go with them. It’s the perfect shady spot to read after work. I finished a book out there this week and love how it all turned out!

Most of the 50 pictures I took at FFY were of this precious baby!

Cutie! 

First of three groups getting ready to see the milking demonstration

Tippy was such a good girl!

Ready for front porch rocking!

Including this picture to document how tall Daryl is getting!