Kate teased us by saying she was going to turn 18 next year and oh my goodness, she was right! Gasp! It has been so much fun to see her driving and babysitting. This freedom seems to have brought her a lot of joy. Kate made my day when she texted to let me know she and H were going ice skating and I told her I had just dropped off Michelle to go with L and Kate sent me this. How fun!
I should have taken more before photos but it is great to get things off the to do list. I added film to the transom window above the door to the back yard and painted the bare strip of wood, touched up the green paint in the living room while Michelle touched up the paint on her bedroom’s accent wall, mended some clothes for the first time in ages, and Hubby ended up replacing our basement toilet after a couple attempts to fix the thing. It only lasted 8 years!
Half of us spent a few days feeling sick but for fun Natalie went to Crackpots after she was feeling better, Hubby and I taught Michelle and Danny how to play Settlers of Catan with the Cities and Knights expansion pack and I showed Michelle and Natalie the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They had not seen any of them! I tried to warn them that the first one was the best but it turns out 2 & 3 are much more enjoyable if you watch them back to back — but the first is by far the best. Danny has put a lot of quality time into basketball practice, video games, and I found these great cork place mats from the UK at Goodwill when he, C, and I went thrifting together. He has appreciated my experimentation with the Six Sisters Copycat cookbook and the drinks are actually our favorite part. Kate had been loving the free time to hang out with friends. She also wanted to redo her bedroom and oh my goodness, what a difference a few hours made with Kate, Hubby, Natalie and I all helping. Hubby was a rock star hanging up shelving, her cork board, and photo hanger, assembling the over the door rack, and getting her new LED lights all set up. I loved that Kate picked out just the right number of records at the thrift store for where she wanted them and it was a much easier task to make them look good than I expected. She has an eye!
Our first day back at school was a somber one. None of us complained but none of us were happy either. That night we tried to find some comfort in making peanut butter blossom cookies per Michelle’s request and playing Star Wars Monopoly per Danny’s request. But that didn’t go so well for Danny, Natalie and I. Hubby has a tendency to win games, if you didn’t know. Darth Vader DESTROYED us.
In happier news, Michelle has now gotten to meet two of the composers for music they are performing in 8th grade! This time the school posted a photo and I’m so grateful. Susan Day is an award winning composer and they will be performing her After the Rain at CMEA later this month. The other composer is one of the orchestra teacher’s former students and composed Rocky Mountain Odyssey specifically for this group. So so neat.
Natalie is gearing up for spring softball by having one on one coaching lessons. Most recently she has been working on eye hand coordination and batting. I am constantly impressed by this girl’s attitude and work ethic. Fun yet hard working and always willing to try something new. Poor thing got sick again with awful stomach pain but luckily she missed school on a day when Disney+ released new Bluey episodes.
I wanted to take a picture of my favorite son supporting his team even though he can’t play right now. And yes, I was in the stands to support him supporting them after I got off work. I know it was a difficult thing for him to do and I am proud of him for being there. And it turns out this team is my favorite basketball team to cheer on because it is still his. They had quite the comeback in the second half and were only two baskets short of a tie when the game ended. I was impressed.
MLK Weekend was sooooo cold that all I wanted to do was stay in sweatpants all day being entertained by screens while snuggling under blankets. Turns out I'm not very good at actually doing that and my son had other plans. We played musical bedrooms again! Danny has been begging for the guest bedroom to be his bedroom and since there was NOTHING on the calendar for this cold, 3 day weekend and the girls seemed all for it, Hubby and I gave permission. So we moved that furniture into where the exercise equipment was in the basement and scooted the equipment over. Next we moved everything from Danny’s room and bathroom into the guest bedroom and bathroom. Then everything from Natalie’s room and her stuff from the bathroom she shared with Michelle into Danny’s bedroom and bathroom. So now Natalie’s old room is a work room. The costumes, fabric and yarn from the guest closet are now in that closet, along with the sewing supplies. We also moved Danny’s desk and chair he didn’t want into there and Michelle’s sewing kit and music stand. I tell you what! If you ever want a room really well cleaned and cleaned out, play musical rooms!!! I can’t believe we were able to accomplish so much on Saturday. There were still a few things to take care of (like our donation pile and hanging things on the walls) on Sunday but it wasn’t that bad. And of course we forgot to take before pictures!
On Sunday we were informed that Tuesday would be an online learning day due to forecasted negative temperatures plus really bad wind chill predictions. So really we ended up with a three and a half day weekend. After playing musical rooms we took it pretty easy. Danny got a haircut and he and Michelle and I tried out a new Mediterranean restaurant and it was so delicious. Baking, playing games, watching movies like Ticket to Paradise and Kelce, keeping up with the chores & organizing our game and puzzle bookshelf, trying to put together a really difficult puzzle, shoveling snow when it finally got up to 25° on Tuesday. Felt warm after -12°… but not really. I was bundled but thank goodness Hubby came home from work in time to get that task done fast. He is amazing! And for online learning the work room got used by Michelle to go to all her online classes and looking quite professional while she was at it. Should have taken a picture!
I had a ton of fun getting to see the high school winter sports photo gallery. This is my favorite. And of course I handed over my money right away and even had $35 in credit because Kate wasn’t feeling well the day her volleyball team took pictures her freshman year. They do this weird prepay thing but always give you the option to spend more and it definitely worked on me this year. lol
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