2026 Moments that Mattered: January: A Full Start to the Year

We rang in the new year exactly the way we love to, surrounded by our favorite swim family friends, the Harringers. It was a comfortable (make a turkey and the fixings for us), familiar start to the year, even if watching OSU football loss put a slight damper on the night. Disappointing, yes, but we moved on quickly. Olivia's rang in the new year with her swim bestie Courtney.  

One of the most unexpectedly satisfying moments of January came from cleaning out the basement backroom. Matching totes, a freshly loaded label maker, and everything finally in its place. Not glamorous, but deeply fulfilling. Sometimes organization really is self-care.

Our first full weekend was spent in Elkhart for Olivia’s swim meet, and it was such a good one. She absolutely crushed it in the pool, and we soaked up every part of the weekend, including great meals, thrift shopping, and walking Notre Dame’s campus in the winter. Cold, beautiful, and memorable. I'm going to link her YouTube channel Olivia's SwimStream here for more details. 

The following weekend brought us to the Lima YMCA, where the 13-14 year old girls 'Fabulous Four' broke two relay records. It was an electric moment that still makes me smile. Isaac was also busy in the pool with the Elida High School team, swimming at the new facility near Lima Senior and racing against his best swimming buddy, Lincoln from Bath. Watching those friendships play out in competition never gets old.

Since Jeremy and I were both still off for a good part of the month, we took down the Christmas decorations and then escaped for a four-day cruise to the Bahamas, just the two of us. It was the perfect reset before school started. The highlight was swimming with the stingrays, a moment that will stay with us for a long time.

ONU kicked off the day after MLK Day, but winter had other plans. A massive snowstorm shut school down for two and a half days, giving us unexpected time to slow down. Games, movies, and plenty of hot chocolate filled those snowy days.

The month wrapped up with another split weekend of swimming. Olivia headed to Marion to swim with Grandma and Grandpa Dentinger, while we watched Isaac compete at the WBLs. Both kids were outstanding. Olivia hit personal records in both the 50 and 100 free, and Isaac placed in the top eight in all four of his events.

Busy, meaningful, and full of moments worth remembering, January set the tone beautifully.

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 23 Recap

We welcomed June this week. Wild as that sounds, because Elida has been out for a month, we feel like summer is officially starting. It's sunny outside, most other schools are finally out, and plenty of pool days and campfire nights are ahead.  We kicked off this week with our final championship track invite for the kids at Columbus Grove. Each team was able to send two of their best in each event.  Olivia ran the mile and long jump and Isaac ran the 4x100, 100, 200, and 400. 
Here were there times/jumps

Olivia 

• LJ- fouled 3 times and jumped 8 feet
• Mile: 7:53, 5th place

Isaac 

• 100: 16.34, 5th place
• 200: 34.81, 4th place
• 400: 1:21, 3rd place
• 4x100 relay: 1:08.55, 3rd place
  

Great season with super fun coaches and kiddos.  Love me some track season. 

Another fun thing we were able to do this week was pick up the kids 4-H project books.  Olivia is taking sewing and cooking and Isaac is taking gardening and laundry (by choice!). Yep he loves doing laundry.  In fact, Santa brought him his own canvas laundry basket on wheels (think of the movie Annie and how she tried to escape from the orphanage).  I'm sure there will be more of these covered in the coming weeks, but we did get started. Olivia had to go get some things for her own sewing basket. She was VERY excited to pick out her own sewing supplies. Grandma Barb had got her a gift card for her birthday so she was like a kid in the candy shop picking out her own things. She also had a cool project with oil and cinnamon to learn about germs and the difference between rinsing them off in cold vs. warm water! 

We also had another first this week.  Swim Practice! We decided to sign up for the Ada Gators swim team this year. Partly because at least it gives me a reason to come back to campus a few times this summer.  Partly because they didn't charge us to be members of the pool in order to be part of the swim team. We had our first practice June 1.  The water was freezing (said the kids), but they have one of their coaches from the Y as their coach. It's our first year, so can't wait to experience summer swim.

The Elida school's musical program is really REALLY good.  We were told that before we moved here. So any chance we have to go see them in action, we take advantage of. Olivia had tumbling on Thursday night, but Isaac asked if we could go watch the Addams Family play they were putting on at the school. Karin Dorsey choreographs all the dancing, so I was pretty pumped to see it all come together. To say we were impressed was an understatement.  I was blown away.  It was as good as any ONU production I've seen.  They even had a lift that flew Uncle Fester to the moon! So impressive, but it was also special to spend time with just Isaac. 

This weekend we had two cousin's graduation parties to attend. Both were back in Sycamore (Pai) and New Washington (Maddie). Isaac had his best buddy Brayden's birthday party to go to and didn't want to go along...so the girls went to the parties and boys stayed home.  Because the grad parties were family, we did get to see tons of family we hadn't seen in a very long time. It was fun to catch up and see everyone.