God is good.
January started with goodbyes as Jonas headed back to the Air Force Academy. Silas enjoyed church wintercamp. We celebrated Scott's sister's engagement. We did our favorite annual trip to serve at Nehemiah Work Week at Ironwood Christian Camp. Scott helped plan new IT infrastructure, I cleaned many bathrooms and folded many loads of laundry (which is fun there). The 3 kids helped with landscape maintenance. All of us had loads of fun and were refreshed by getting away, receiving good spiritual food in the evenings, and experiencing true fellowship and discipleship all day long. Kaia headed back to Liberty University and sent happy pictures of "living where it snows". Silas finished his final class for his Associates Degree! Many puzzles were completed by the fire and new soup recipes were sampled as we hunkered down in the frigid SoCal winter.
February brought photos of Kaia from prison handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit - as part of a class trip for criminal justice majors. Silas's class had their annual protocol. This year they ate fancy (of course) then saw the Lion King. Parents were invited so I got to dress up formal with him for the night out. I also attended a many-years-awaited baby shower for a good friend. Kaden bought a new car as he prepared to re-enter normal life post motorcycle life.
In March, Kaia came home for spring break AND a root canal. ): We got another Schrubb dinner in with her here. Kaden had another surgery to clean up his partially functioning knee, bringing it to full function! Yay. To celebrate the full function (and my birthday) we got bikes from the beach bike shop he worked at pre-accident and spent an afternoon biking the boardwalk and enjoying Thrifty ice cream. Yum!
April - just life. We celebrated 24 years of marriage. Scott worked. Jonas schooled & worked. Kaden worked. Kaia schooled. Silas worked. I found a meme that said, "I was going to clean the house, but then I realized, this book isn't going to read itself..." and decided that represented me well. So I read. Silas finished 11th grade. I culled my homeschooling books - a little premature maybe, but others need them and I've only got 1 year left!
May took us to beautiful, green Virginia for Kaia's graduation! Woohoo! Liberty does graduations by school where they call your name and you walk across the stage and then a separate all school graduation with Senator Tim Scott in the stadium. Liberty did a great job making the whole weekend feel special and it was a great culmination to Kaia's bachelor's degree. In the midst, we celebrated Silas's birthday by going to Mr Goodies a special ice cream shop. At the end of the month, Silas joined the college graduation club receiving his A.S. in Aviation from Cypress College. (BUT he will still complete our 12th grade program because we LOVE our homeschool curriculum!) Uncle Paul & Aunt Marlene were in town to celebrate with us. Jonas was the only non-senior to accept an award during year-end awards at USAFA for his continued and excessive community service.
In June, Silas was selected to attend a Civil Air Patrol National Cadet Special Activity - the Northcentral Region Powered Flight Academy in Nebraska. He visited museuems, got flight time almost everyday (weather), and took a ride in a Chinook! He also attained his goal of making his first solo flight in a Cessna 172! He now has friends from all over the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Kaia was still in the job search and took the opportunity to ride "her horse" on the city trails to pass the time. She also had a lead role in our VBS skit and enjoyed sharing Jesus with 500+ kids! I enjoyed leading just the 3rd graders - quite a group! Immediately following VBS, I headed to our annual Civil Air Patrol encampment (without Silas who was still in Nebraska) to serve on our Chaplain Support Team to 500+ attendees. It was a blessing to serve and I got to visit the shooting range as a bonus.
4th of July Schrubb celebration was super fun and a little odd as so many kids were missing. Schultzes in Poland and Grubbs in the midwest. Nevertheless, a great start to making memories this month. Kaia started working retail at Macys. It was less pay than babysitting, but something to put on a resume because it was a "real" job. I also got my first full-time job since before kids! I started working for USPS delivering mail. It was 2 weeks of training (30% of which was about how dogs would be biting me!) I learned how to sort mail, how to drive the cute little LLV (long-life vehicle) and how to deliver mail efficiently on both walking and "mounted" routes (no horses involved - just the LLV). My shadow day was delivering mail with a pushcart in the little village shops of PCH in Laguna - great weather and beautiful! Kaden went dirt biking (not sure what I think) and boating in Arizona with friends. Last hurrah before another surgery!
August brought us to the end of mom's life here on earth. The first week she was with us in the waiting room during Kaden's surgery, chatting and playing games to pass the time, supporting us. A week later, she was in the presence of our great and mighty God. She lived for 20 months after they told her 6mos to live - and we savored those extra months, the "extra" birthdays, thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter with her. What a treat. It just so happened that Jonas was flying home the day she passed for a wedding, so was able to mourn with the family in those initial moments. Mom's legacy lives on. She met with each child before passing and gave them a personal letter with words of encouragement for the special moments she would miss in the future. She was so intentional about pouring into each of them, recognizing their gifts and talents, encouraging them to explore and yet stick close to Jesus. I am so thankful for her. She mommed me longer than I had my original mom. We will all miss her so. We had a couple weeks to just enjoy memories, then back to school... last kid, last first day of school, wow! At the end of the month, we went to the annual parents weekend at USAFA and took dad with us. As a USAF veteran, he enjoyed participating in his grandson's Air Force experience so far - and the football game. It was a good way to end the month and a blessing to have grandpa along for the "vacation".
September - bowling for books, a homeschool tradition! Mom's memorial service - so many family in town. And people flew in from all over the world to celebrate her. I appreciated having the service a month after because it truly felt less like mourning and more like reflecting and celebrating who she was. First Schrubb dinner complete with 12 plus "extra" bonus people. future schrubbs??? Kaia got promoted (after 2mos!) to dress specialist at Macys, managing the dress department. Scott's working. Jonas is schooling. Kaden is itching to work. Hottest time ever to be a mailman.
October - Silas and I worked with Civil Air Patrol at the Pacific Air Show - glad to work the first day because the other days had more clouds and less planes! I quit USPS. So sad. I truly LOVED delivering mail, but I was at an office where my commitment was to work 40 hours and they regularly asked for more (which was fine) BUT would not let me off after 9 1/2 hours to make it on time to my evening commitments 2 days/week! I was pretty shocked as I was willing to work 10-12 hour days all the other days. But was so entertained to find out later that my particular office was known for difficulties and felt like the Lord allowed me to get a bucket-list job (that I fully intended to work to retirement),but put me in a place where it would not work out. I tell everyone that I got to do all the things - walking delivery, hop in-hop out, out the window driving delivery, apartments, businesses, I got to be one of 3 Christians in my office and smile at everyone everyday while they scowled back for as long as they could. It was so much fun - and then it was over. Once I left the post office, I wanted to keep walking everyday, so I did. I hiked routes we started hiking during covid. Sometimes I would drag a kid along, but mostly I enjoyed the time to myself each day. Silas continued to need little help with his school work but could now sleep in instead of having adult input before I left for work each day.
November normally brings a Generation Joshua trip, but this year we made phone calls from home instead to encourage people to vote. It was different, but still felt like we were making a difference. Kaia got promoted AGAIN for a seasonal management position - she is in charge of the entire womens building (because our mall has 2 Macys stores). Who has entrusted my 19yo to run the Macys for the Christmas season?! So proud of her. My dear aunt Susan passed which brought another opportunity to reflect on the rich Christian heritage of my mom's family and the sweet times we had celebrating together growing up. Aunt Susan was the glue as grandma aged and then after she passed. I was so thankful for all the times she arranged for our family to gather. Approaching thanksgiving, I was blessed to be hired to work full-time for Operation Christmas Child again this year. As the days (sometimes) get colder, the whole family enjoyed bonfires on the driveway that neighbors would stop by to join. Thankful for all the good gifts.
December was busy with several of us working full-time non-traditional hours, but we still made time for advent - a month of daily family time in the evening to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Jesus' birth. Jonas joined us after finals 12/12 so we got to have him with us for a significant amount of time (til January!). Christmas was special, and though mom wasn't with us, we spent time reflecting on the place she is and the Savior who is always with us and made it possible for her and us to all be with Him there one day by coming to earth as a baby.
God is good.
