Friday, January 24, 2014

Crazy School Schedule

Ever since we started school after Christmas break, school has been crazy.  As I mentioned the first Friday back to school was canceled.  And then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the next day were all 2-hour delays and Friday school was canceled. (That night Clark had two friends over for a little party.  They played, ate homemade pizza and watched the original Tron...it was a fun night! I didn't take any pictures.)  Then because of testing (I think that is why, anyway it was planned and not due to weather) the next week the kids all got out early Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Then we had Monday off because of Martin Luther King, Jr. day.  Of course it snowed which resulted in school being canceled Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Very crazy!  Tomorrow, Friday, there is already a 2-hour delay.  I wonder if it will end up being canceled.  I am going to keep checking!

My sister Lois and her family came down for the weekend on the 18th.  They hadn't been here since August.  It was so fun having them here.  I enjoyed showing them all the changes we had made to the house since then too.  Thursday night I painted the baseboards, something I've been putting off and dreading.  I was up till 4:30.  I took a long nap that morning and Elden joined me.  I got some housework done before she came and did a little more painting on Friday too. Saturday morning Lee and Jeff took the kids sledding.  Lois and stayed at home and talked.  We were going to workout while they were gone, but never got around to it during that time.  We did work out a little later.  Lois has been doing the Insanity workouts for over a month and now has her own dvds of them.  Wow, what a great workout!  I am going to borrow her first month dvds from her once she is done with the rotation.  I am excited to mix them with my running.  Really, most of the time it wasn't fun doing the insanity workout because it was kind of hard, ha ha.  But that is why I like them too.

Here are a few pictures of them sledding.
Jan 18 2014 Sledding (3)

Jan 18 2014 Sledding (4)

Surprisingly Elden didn't want his picture taken. 
Jan 18 2014 Sledding (6)

We have great hills here at the park to go sledding on.  And it's only a few blocks from our house.
Jan 18 2014 Sledding (7)

Nice team work!  I love it when my kids help each other out.
Jan 18 2014 Sledding (9)

Lee and I have been trying to be better about having official weekly dates.  We do stuff together at night, but it's special when something has been thought out and planned.  It's fine too if the dates are mostly at home.  Sometimes we go out, but mainly we do dates at home when the kids are in bed.  Lee's turn was last weekend.  He made a heavenly homemade chocolate brownie ice cream.  He even did a tricky recipe that took some time to make and required a few steps, like baking brownies and tempering eggs into a cream mixture.  Wow, amazing ice cream!!!  Thanks Lee!  Lois and Jeff were here that weekend so we did a double date with them and played Qwirkle.  (Okay, I just checked yet AGAIN about school, and yep, it's canceled!  Woo hoo!) It was a fun date night. My turn is coming up tomorrow night.  I need to think of something!
Jan 18 2014 Date Night

Sunday we had a nice day at church, and later dinner and visiting.  I made dark chocolate brownies for dessert that night and we ate up the rest of Lee's oh-so-good ice cream.  We got about 1 tablespoon each.  There wasn't much left over from Saturday night! It was fun being on google+ that night with a few of us siblings and my mom.  On Monday after another Insanity workout with Lois and lunch and such, we went to Harrisonburg to do some shopping and visit the park.  My friend Jenny and her kids were there too.  We had a nice little visit.  They are in the process of redoing their kitchen and it was fun to find out the details. Clark loves sledding and couldn't resist pulling out the sleds at the park.  The sleds will have a home in the back of my van for a little while. It was a great day out.  High 40s, low 50s.
Jan 20 2014 A Dream Come True Park

Jan 20 2014 A Dream Come True Park (2)

Jan 20 2014 A Dream Come True Park (3)

We took a little stop at Martins, a local grocery store.  They have an awesome bulk candy section.  I love that I can buy two York peppermint patties for $0.08.  Or five or so caramels for about $0.04.  So fun.  We all picked out a little treat.  Elden is so funny.  Yet again, he was making this face on purpose.
Jan 20 2014 Martins

We were glad Lois and her family came down.  Thanks for coming!!!  I love it when family visits.  They left Monday night after family home evening and a few rousing rounds of Blind Buffalo.

The next day, the first day of school being canceled, I took the kids sledding.  At 5:30 at night. 
Jan 21 2014

Lee used up the extra cream and half & half to make one more batch of ice cream.  This time he made vanilla ice cream, adding a swirl of homemade hot fudge.  We had fun eating it and watching Studio C.  We saw a Bachelorette spoof with a girl having to pick between a few guys...and Snape.  It was so funny.  (It was the top 10 cast favorites episode from season 3.)
Jan 21 2014 Homemade ice cream

Wednesday we went out sledding again.  One of my children did NOT want to go.  Though I knew once that child was there, sledding would be hard to deny.  That child said, "I will just go down once."  Yep, okay.  Said child enjoyed it a lot. We started sledding at the hill the kids did over the weekend, but then moved around the corner.  The town park/baseball fields/whatever else is down there is at the bottom of a big fish bowl almost.  There are lots of great places to go sledding at this area.
Jan 22 2014 Sledding Again (3)

Someone had made a bump on the hill which I think some of the kids enjoyed going over.  A couple people were out snowboarding too.
Jan 22 2014 Sledding Again (4)

Jan 22 2014 Sledding Again (5)

Icicles are always fun.  I need my brother Roger to tell my kids his story about kicking a several-foot-long icicle at my grandparents 50 wedding anniversary and how it fell on his forehand and made a big gash and he had to go to the emergency room and get stitches.  Ah, childhood memories.
Jan 22 2014 Sledding Again (6)

Later that day my kids did some Lego races. 
Jan 22 2014 Lego Races (4)

Jan 22 2014 Lego Races (6)

Jan 22 2014 Lego Races (7)

It's been fun and relaxing having this "winter" break.  Very different from Christmas that's for sure.  But my goal for this Christmas is to make it very relaxing...or as close as I can get!

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