Greetings Fellow 2021 Survivors!
Another year has wobbled by. I don’t know if our theme song for the year should be “Tubthumping” (the “I get knocked down but I get up again...” part, not all of the drinking), or “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne. I vote for “Keep Holding On” just because I like to turn the volume way up to sing along and pretend I have a powerful voice instead of my soft, wimpy one. In any case, we are still mostly on our feet and pressing (inching?) forward.
Emma spent her senior year of high school entirely online. If there was ever a way to make a senior year drag on to make a person lose all enthusiasm for school, that would be it. In February all of the seniors were allowed back on campus to… wait for it… do virtual school at school. Yep, sit through the same boring thing you were doing at home, now in a classroom. But, getting out of the house must have held a certain amount of appeal, because she was so outta here. At least it gave her a reason to change out of her pjs and brush her hair everyday. Emma had a friend who really wanted to do cross country her senior year, but to do so there needed to be 5 girls to make a team. That friend convinced Emma, another friend, and sister Elizabeth to all come out to run starting in late January. The “fall sports season” ran the month of March, and so Emma got to spend her 18th birthday running a despised hilly 5K race. She persevered, graduated, worked the early morning cherry season to earn money for college, and at long last made it to freeeeeeedooooooom, whoops I mean we dropped her off in Rexburg to start classes at BYU-Idaho and adulthood in September.
Elizabeth (16) is our lone high schooler this year. Her mother strongly “encouraged” her to choose any kind of extra-curricular activity, and she opted for cross country again. She was even convinced to embrace running shorts! As another non-enthusiastic runner in our family, she has managed to “letter” in cross country twice this year. Once in March for her sophomore year, and then again this fall for her junior year. This is what happens when there are only enough dependable females to make up a single team, which we then call “varsity” regardless of actual speed. Elizabeth has managed quite the cushy schedule and is a teacher’s assistant 1st period (this is more of a sit around and read a book situation than helping out in a classroom), followed by two periods of art. Chemistry and Math, along with 6:15 am Seminary, round out the rest of her school day. Now, if only we could convince her she would like to get her driver’s license… She is not a fan of driving, but loves her art classes.
Annie and Maddie (13) are in 7th grade. They have all of the same middle school classes and with their faces half covered by masks, none of their teachers seem to be able to tell them apart. There is one significant difference between the two, but it is only a help in one of their classes. Annie plays the clarinet (both instrument and music book handed down from two previous sisters) and Maddie plays the trombone (handed down from her dad to her uncle and then to her). They both joined the newly formed middle school cross country team this fall, and were able to set school records in their races even though they can’t (or haven’t yet put their minds to) run an entire mile without a walking break. (Did I mention this is a new team sport for their school….?) They also kept a 4.0 GPA for their whole 6th grade year, making them the first and second Kannelys to get their pictures on the middle school 4.0 Wall of Fame. They may have gleefully mentioned it to their older sisters once or twice.
Ryan and I celebrated 20 years of marriage this year. We did fun things this summer to celebrate, like painting our two-story house like the “do it yourself”-ers we are. Why pay someone else to do a job that is an utter pain in the rear, when you can do it for the price of paint, supplies, and a big ol’ paint sprayer that we then get to store somewhere forever more, with the added bonus of being hot, sweaty, and facing your fears of tippy ladders and slanted roofs? The week we worked on that project was the week we experienced one heck of a heat wave. When you paint outdoors, the paint is supposed to be dry by the time the temperature reaches 90 degrees. That was at or before 9 am every day that week, which meant we were up with the sun and could paint again as the sun was setting after 9 or 9:30 pm. It was a glorious experience I tell you.
We made time for plenty of hikes this summer. I decided I was fully ready to embrace the outdoorsy lifestyle vibe, and I have the hiking shoes, wool socks, and a hydration backpack to prove it. Ryan and I hiked around Mt. Rainier a few times and up by Leavenworth once. As a family we hiked in Oregon (Punch Bowl Falls), Utah (near Kanab), Wyoming (Little Bighorn and Martin’s Cove) and South Dakota (Badlands, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore, etc.). It is good to leave behind the computer screens, and soak up the glorious fresh air and vitamin D. The girls usually go along with their parents’ hairbrained shenanigans with only the minimum eye rolls and complaints, as long as we bribe them with audiobooks in the car and good snacks on the hikes.
Animal life continues as normal at the Kannely farm. The cat population grows and shrinks, even with two fixed kitties. They are great at keeping the rodent population out of our house, and so they have earned my undying gratitude. One of our furry friends, Soot, likes trophies from his kills. There are a lot of squirrel tails and bird wings left in various areas around our house. Vinnie even brought us a partially mangled garden snake once this year and left it right in front of our door. The mice, gophers, and baby chicks (uh sorry neighbors….) are easy mid-day meals that do not leave left-overs luckily. Eleanor the sheep gave birth to twins last spring. Both of the lambs grew really well and now are in family meal-sized chunks of meat inside our freezer. (Sustainable farming, you know.) The poultry population is huge, and Annie and Maddie have a side business of selling free-range, mostly poop-free eggs. The garden, as ever, produced plenty. Ryan achieved another farm dream- this time growing and harvesting oats. He asked for and got a sickle for Father’s Day so he could harvest his crop “old-school.” (Cue the banjo music.)
We wish you all peace and love and laughter this Christmas season.
All our love,
Ryan, Danae, Emma, Elizabeth, Annie and Maddie