This Week (January 15-21)

Ugh!  I can't decide whether I like this photo-a-day thing or not.    On the one hand, I like that it challenges me to capture more of the little moments in our lives, but on the other hand, I feel like it's going to get really boring, really fast.    Most of our days are not only not exciting, but they're often rather similar from week to week.    I'll keep it up for now and try to keep it interesting, but I'm not going to be surprised if it fizzles after a while!  In the meantime, we are hunkering down for the snowstorm of the century....literally.  They're predicting 18-30-inches of snow, which is pretty steep snowfall totals, even by my Minnesotan standards.  I'm anticipating a whole lot of nothing happening around these parts for the next several days, which, lucky for us,  will mean loads of sledding, hot chocolate,  and board games for us!      

January 15--Once I started homeschooling the kids a few years ago, I realized that for my sanity's sake, I needed a fudge day thrown into the schedule.  Not a day that we literally eat fudge, although that does sound nice too, but that we needed a day with less {or no} structure to give us a chance to go on field trips or finish up work that needed to be done.  Other years that fudge day has been Friday and I attribute our keeping this day free of obligations to one of the main reasons why I've been able to stay somewhat sane and keep homeschooling.     This year, though, our schedule has jacked up a notch and  we do not have a true fudge day anymore.   I believe that everything we have on our schedule is valuable, but I still miss our laid back Fridays.   Last Friday was even busier than a  usual one with a YW presidency meeting first thing in the morning, then straight on to our Friday coop, and on to our evening activities.  My siblings, Tim and AnnaLisa, came over at some point and were showing Ellie something humorous, which is when I finally remembered to take a picture for the first time.  

January 16--It's a little sad how long it took us to put away our Christmas decorations and then put our house back together afterward.  We hosted a family history night at our house that night, so we were motivated to get it all done, even if the project did take up most of the day!

13 youth  came to the family history night at our house, and most of them found names to take to the temple, so we're considering the night a smashing success! 

January 17-- This Sunday was much less busy (not as many meetings) than last week and I was excited to get back to my Sunday letter writing time!   Being an introvert means that sometimes I have a hard time connecting with the young women in person the way that I would like, so I try to write a couple of meaningful letters to girls every week.   We, as a presidency,  keep a list and make sure that all 33 girls gets a letter from us at least quarterly.   We also send postcards to anyone who wasn't there that day.    



January 18--After an unseasonably warm beginning to winter (it was 75º on Christmas Day), winter weather has officially arrived and everyone is starting to buzz about some snow potential later this week!

January 19--I have a minor obsession with the sunshine and natural light.  My family laughs at the fact that I keep the windows uncovered all the time and turn off all artificial lights possible if there's any natural light to be had.    I think my obsession stems from two sources--one from my childhood in Minnesota where I craved/needed more sunlight in my life and two from my interest in photography.  We've lived in this house for 14-1/2 years now and this spot in our dining room is "my spot".   The sun streams in every afternoon and I find myself drawn there to soak up the warmth and the light while I accomplish whatever task needs to be done.  

Also, right before bed the kids got out the dominos and started working together on a track.  It was cute to see their excitement and willingness to work together on it.  

January 20--Ellie and Adam got distracted right after scripture study today and started using my phone and iPad to text lots of silly things to their cousin, Davin, who was texting from his Dad's phone.

How silly were they being?    I'll let you judge.  

  Later that night we tracked down new sleds and a shovel to replace a broken one.  I was quite proud that we tracked them down two days before a monster storm and helped a couple of other people get them too!   That evening we got a mere inch of snow, which on the untreated roads led to a long slippery trip home from Emma's dinner cooking job.    There were over 1000 accidents reported in the area and Glen passed four of them on the way home from work.  I blame it all on the coming blizzard, which distracted everyone (including VDOT who should have been treating the roads) from paying attention to the inch. 

January 21--After yesterday's inch of snow shut down the capital of the free world and caused people to have 8+ hour commutes home, the school systems just all shut down today. Never mind that  everything had melted by 10:00 and that schools are already closed tomorrow for the impending blizzard and will almost certainly be closed for most of next week too.     We live in an area where an abundance of caution is given to all kinds of weather and today's cancellation caused a bit of giggling on my part.

Today Ellie got a bee in her bonnet and decided to go for a run on the treadmill.     So she put on her running shoes with her dress and went for a run.  

How far?    Only 5-miles or so, which randomly was her goal.    Why she randomly decided she needed to go for a 5-mile run today I have no idea, but she certainly was pleased with herself afterward!