December started off busy, getting back to work. We also found our next Au Pair and she joined us mid-December. So there was some rearranging and cleaning to prepare for her arrival. We continued to have cold weather with an occasional day of rain once or twice a week. We celebrated Jesus’s birth with songs and a nativity skit that the kids drew, cut out, and put together themselves. We also enjoyed a fun Hannukah celebration with the Powers clan. Now we are closing out the 2019 year with a fun New Year celebration.
We were able have our new Au Pair join us this month. Julieta is from Morelia, a city in South Mexico and she joined us in mid-December from a re-match. So far she seems to be a really good fit and the transition has been smooth. We are blessed to be able to have her get to work along side Valeria for a month so she can get comfortable without a lot of pressure. Having her come during the holiday break has also been nice since we have been home more and allows us to help make sure she gets settled.
Cordelia is enjoying school and continues to learn a lot. She’s reading a lot, working up to short chapter books. She has a loving heart and wants to help her siblings, sometimes mothering turns into smothering. But she been doing well and continuing to mature. Alicia started teaching Corrie more tap dancing in addition to her school dance class. She had a break from school and Sparks the last two weeks of the month. During the break we worked on her AWANA activity to learn about a missionary. She read a book and did her first mini book report and her first time typing on a computer. Cordelia continues practicing on the piano, working on her timing and just starting to get both hands playing together.
Anthony is doing a great job in Cubbies at AWANA, memorizing his weekly verse. He continues to be a fun and energetic boy. His boyish charm is hard to resist and he gets lots of comments about how cute he is. Anthony continues to show a desire to love God. Food remains the big struggle in his life (and our daily dinner time). Anthony has been sleeping in the girls room for the past two weeks to accommodate us having two Au Pairs. We have been very pleased with how well the kids have done sharing the same room.
Lydia continues developing in her language skills. She understands English and Spanish and says words in both languages. Since we have another Spanish speaking Au Pair, she will continue to develop her bi-lingual skills. Being the youngest, she tends to get dragged around to lots of places, sometimes messing up her nap and daily routine. She does pretty well despite these challenges. She’s also cute but knows how to make her options known.
At work Alicia was able to come back and finish resolving some bugs on a high profile project that were looming during Thanksgiving break. She continues to maintain her administrative duties. She’s trying to catch up on another project that has been slipping due to the higher priority items. Unfortunately that effort collided with the end of the year shut down so she was not able to accomplish as much there as she had wanted to. Alicia continues her volunteer duty as AWANA Sparks director. The last meeting of December was bring your grandparent night. So Alicia’s parents came and performed guest music. At home Alicia has been enjoying the year end break to spend more time as a family. Alicia has enjoyed spending quality time with the kids and specifically teaching Cordelia some tap dancing.
Tim’s work was refreshingly busy this month. He put together some lab equipment and tested some new setups. His team also took a trip to do some field testing before the year end break. Tim’s been getting back into some exercise this month, mixing it up between running, exercise bike, or body weights. At home Tim completed the task of cleaning up the undergrowth that had been along our back fence. Keeping the yard maintained is a continual task. Tim smoked some pulled pork during the break week. Lydia and Tim shared a cold this month, which put a slight damper on the break weeks.
We enjoyed visiting with another family who reciprocally invited us over to their house after our hosting them in November. They seem to be a really nice family with a fair amount of commonality with us, so we hope that will continue into a real and positive friendship. Our church selection is still undecided. The church we had attended in November and December doesn’t seem to be a good fit, so we’re back to looking for a new place.
In January we will return to the standard routines of work and school. We will continue to transition with Julieta as our Au Pair and will be saying good-bye to Valeria. We pray for continuing depth in making friendships and wisdom on where to attend church.
