Lots of day-to-day life this month. Remodeling work still in progress at our house, see pictures at the end of the album. We are back at Park Victoria Baptist Church and have started to get reconnected. One of the ways is through going out for lunch with two other couples after Sunday service. We all suffered through a cold during the last half of the month, hopefully everyone will be recovered fully soon.
Unfortunately we also had a loss this month, Alicia’s Grandma Devine passed away on February 21st. It was somewhat of a surprise and while her health was not the best, her passing was more sudden than expected. Alicia will be going down in March for the memorial service.
Cordelia is full of personality and opinions. We continue to work with her on listening and obeying. She has a tendency to keep going on her merry way, doing what she wants even when she is told to stop. That continues to be a challenge for Tim and Alicia to instruct her without getting frustrated. She has a good instinct for quotpushing buttons.quot She has some cute moments and funny phrases that keep us smiling or laughing. To Tim at the dinner table: quotHow about we play Zelda and then when my watch says it’s time for popcorn we stop and have popcorn. Does that sound great?!quot While taking her toy quotMaxquot dog for a walk around the living room: quotIf you want me to pick you up have you have to say please.quot quotpleasequot quotGood boy. When I get tried you will have to get down and walk for a bit, OK.quot To Anthony when he was informed he could not have carrots (because he has no teeth) and he started crying: quotYou can cry and whine but it’s not going to change anything.quot Clearly she’s picking up some things from us. During the day Alicia tries to do puzzles with her and we started a tracing book, teaching her how to hold a pencil. Her favorite evening activities include playing Zelda with Tim and watching a movie while eating popcorn.
Anthony had a positive report from the doctor for his one year check-up. Aside from no teeth, he is healthy and doing well. He is tracking well in height and gained some percentage points back in the weight. Anthony had his first swim class at the beginning of the month and had a fun time. He is starting to explore boundaries, so we are beginning to enforce some rules and show him that actions have consequences. He is on the edge of dropping his morning naps, usually only napping for 40min on days when we are at home. When Alicia is out at study or MOPS he does not nap those mornings. He is getting more comfortable exploring new surroundings and going to other people aside from Alicia. This has been especially rewarding for Tim to have Anthony excited and saying quotdadaquot and eager to give Tim a hug when he comes home from work. He has also learned some new words including quotblueberryquot and quotbreakfastquot. While most people would not understand these words, in context Alicia and Tim can clearly distinguish what he’s asking for.
Alicia started going to a Tuesday morning study which has been encouraging and a good opportunity to interact with other women and have stimulating conversation. Alicia also got back into service doing lighting one Sunday a month for church. MOPS group continues to go well and Alicia, as part of her new member outreach role, invited and added two new ladies to the group this year. At the end of the month she met a neighbor at the community park and invited her to MOPS as well. While developing close relationships is still a struggle, Alicia feels that there are an increasing amount of potential families and moms to connect with. Alicia also interviewed for two engineering jobs in the middle of the month. While she has not received any feedback yet, she is hopeful that one may turn into a job offer.
Tim is doing lots of good stuff at work and getting pushed out of his comfort zone. He was placed on a critical issue item during the month and has headed up the effort to resolve the issue. The company changed their fiscal year to match the annual year so Tim had another round of review to align with the new review year cycle. He continues to be well thought of and a high contributor. Outside of work he has done more work. He spent several more hours at our house cleaning up the mulch cleaning up the outside. He continues to interface with the construction team on the progress and any questions they have. Tim is fully engaged in his quotDad rolequot when at home. He will often give Alicia a half hour or so after dinner while he entertains the kids. Especially when Alicia had a bad case of the cold, Tim took the majority of the parent duties over the weekend.
Tim and Alicia have been going through a study about discerning the voice of God which has been very powerful and encouraging. We also found another baby sitter to allow us more opportunity to go out for date nights and eat dinner in a more calm and quite atmosphere.
Our house construction should be coming to a close during the next month. After which we plan on putting the final preparations in place to sell the house. While we remain uncertain about where we will buy or move next, we both feel that selling the house is the right choice. We are also going to start looking into pre-school/school options for Cordelia. While we don’t plan on enrolling her right away, some places have waiting lists and we don’t want to miss out on something down the road because we were not pre-active enough now.
For this coming month we pray for peace and increased trust for God’s plan in our lives. While we know there will be changes coming for us, we want to be sensitive to God’s timing. We pray for more intentional interaction with other couples/families and a positive response when we invite people to get together. We also pray for peace for Alicia and her family as they deal with the passing of Grandma Devine and meet for the service. Thank you all for your love and support.
