The Otte's

What words do I have to say right now?  How do I come across with empathy and sadness and frustration.  How do I share how my kids are scared, and I understand how some kids feel that way all the time.  I think I understand.

Denali said we are living through history.  That is for sure.  It seems to me like my kids understand all this better then most adults.  They talk about holding people accountable.  They talk about how everyone should feel safe, they talk about how we should all love each other.  We have been talking and praying a lot and trying to figure out what else we can do.

We did finish out the weirdest school year ever.  The kids did great considering how weird it was.

 We all have our masks and again, understand how the world is so different.

 We have been loving each other up a bit more then usual.

 We are trying to figure out summer.  Camps have been cancelled.  We are not super ready to get out around lots of people, worried about getting sick, and getting Quinn sick.  We also don't want to become hermits, so we are trying to figure out what is a good plan for us.

Denali's face shows our life, frustrating but then...

.... still trying to pull it together.

 We were excited for some farmers markets to open, and with masks on a couple of us went out and got fresh produce.  That helped us feel a little bit of the summer feels.  The heat also helped, we turned the air conditioner on yesterday.

 Zucchini cake is a great summer staple.

Sadly this is not a joke. (the paperwork required when you have a special needs child)

We have been filling out paperwork like crazy for Quinn lately.

I don't even know why so many folks need so much stuff.

I took on a couple of the new letters and sent in insurance information along with all kinds of other things.

John takes on the really big things.  He spent a couple weekends downloading insurance claims and forwarding them on to the state.

Then we get letters sharing how insurance does not want to cover therapy or medication, so then we have to make more phone calls to doctors and they have to put in all this extra work to get things passed, (hopefully).  So we have been working through a large amount of this lately.  Here is hoping things go through easily and we can take a break from this for a bit too.  Just keeping it real and sharing the extra work we have to do for Quinn.  Worth every bit of the time and frustration, but still so much work.

So ..... we will still stay inside for the most part.  Getting anyone besides the dog to go for a walk is not all that easy to begin with.  We have these teens and a preteen for just a couple more weeks, and they are more then content to stay in their areas and focus on their technology anyway.

  We will watch the news a bit, then take a break from it for a bit and love on each other.  We will try to keep learning and lifting others up.  We will try to grow and relax a bit, it is summer after all.  

Trips this summer?  Not looking good.

Camping?  Maybe?

Dance recitals should have been this weekend, but nope.

I don't know what the future holds,  but I will be thankful to be cooped up in this house with my special family that I am more then willing to spend all my time with.