Compared to last month’s update, where we had just gotten the cats, just restarted the school year, and just gotten going on our vegan diet, this month feels like things have really settled in. The cats have already doubled in size (if not more) and have explored pretty much every little nook and cranny of our entire house. They’ve got all kinds of great hiding places and are quite funny to watch when playing together. I honestly don’t know who in this house loves them the most, but it was definitely a great decision to get them, and they seem very happy as well.
I can’t remember if I mentioned this last month or not, but Elise has officially withdrawn from school and is now a full-time home-schooler, just like Ava. The difference was that Ava already had her mind made up before the year even started, while Elise wasn’t so sure at first. She ended up starting the year in a class, but after a few days of being on Zoom calls all day and not getting to participate with Mom and Ava, she quickly decided to change course.
At this point Enzo is the only one still enrolled in school, and it’s actually going quite well for him. Sometimes it’s difficult for Jessica to balance all 3 of them at once, but luckily I’m home all day with them and have started regularly working with Enzo on some of his Kindergarten projects. It’s nice to be able to contribute a little bit in that way, and we enjoy the time together.
Overall school is going well for all three of the kids, and even though our district is starting to bring some kids back into the classroom, we’re not even considering that for Enzo. He will remain virtual for this entire year without question. I honestly don’t understand why suddenly now they think it’s time to start bringing kids back, as daily Covid cases are getting back to the 70,000 range in the U.S. and a second (or is it third?) wave is upon us, but we’re not going there. We’re just fine as we are and consider ourselves lucky to be in the position we’re in.
As far as extra curricular activities go, in addition to our Jiu-Jitsu school, the kids are now all in hockey of some sort. Ava is on the 10U team with Seattle Junior Hockey Association, while Elise and Enzo are doing the Learn To Play Hockey class with Everett Youth Hockey. Between both of these activities and school, we’re pretty busy these days, but we prefer it that way. We had plenty of down time earlier this year so it’s nice to have some resemblance of normalcy back in our lives.
Certainly we realize that exposure to anyone outside our house carries some level of risk, but we feel much better about these contained one hour sessions compared to sending them to a classroom all day long. Plus getting to interact with kids from beyond our house and neighborhood is good for them. It can be tricky trying to find that balance but we’re doing our best.
In addition to having a couple activities outside the house, the kids have recently gotten their wish of having their own Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel! They had been asking about it for a while and we recently finally got it setup for them. We only have 14 subscribers at the moment, but we’re regularly adding videos and the kids love making them. Anything from homeschool to homemade slime is liable to end up on one of their videos, so we encourage you to subscribe!
It’s been about 8 weeks since making changes to our diet and overall it’s going great. The way we’ve settled into it is Jessica and I are fully vegan, while the kids are vegetarian. They still eat cheese and yogurt, but that’s about it in terms of animal products. I sometimes find myself missing cheese, but there are so many good plant-based alternatives to cheese and meat that it hasn’t been a problem.
Definitely my favorite part about this change has been all the new foods and dishes we’ve been discovering. Whether it’s something we ordered on Purple Carrot, a recipe we found, or just something we threw together with the different types of ingredients we’ve been purchasing, food has never been more fun or exciting. I assume people would expect the opposite in regards to a vegan diet, but in our experience nothing could be further from the truth.
Halloween is just around the corner, and obviously that always makes us think of a visit with Nana because it’s her birthday, but things are going to be different this year. Snohomish County declared no trick-or-treating this year, so we’re just going to do a little party for the kids here in the neighborhood. We got our pumpkins yesterday and are looking forward to carving them next weekend.
Regarding the holidays, we’re very excited to have Nana coming out to spend Thanksgiving with us. She will be arriving on Tuesday night, which is the day before Ava’s 9th birthday, and staying until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We’re working on planning some fun stuff to do while she’s here, so that should be great. Then for Christmas we have Amy and Tom coming out for a visit, so that too should be a lot of fun. I’m sure it will all be here before we know it.
I guess that’s about it for now. I’m not as long winded as usual today, but everything is good. Even though it’s been a strange year, Fall is still my favorite season. I love cooking on the weekend while watching sports, getting the fireplace going, and relaxing at home. We’re glad to have hockey back, as that has become ‘normal’ for our family, and being home together everyday is something we’re thankful for. I could do this work-from-home thing forever if they let me…
