Happy post-Thanksgiving to all!
In November we continued our weekly routine of school and work. We got a visit from Mimi and Papa in the middle of the month. We had our first round of colds, mainly Cordelia and Lydia. We also celebrated Thanksgiving with the Powers clan.
Cordelia is enjoying school and seems to have worked through the class social dynamics. She loves doing gymnastics and is always trying to do some type of trick (we have to remind her to keep it for outside time). AWANA continues to go well for Corrie. She was able to have one of the families from school join us one night as her friends. She also completed her basic handbook for the year and has started in the review book. It’s exciting to see her continue to be excited about learning God’s word. She’s been a great helper around the house and is really maturing. She’s also getting to work on some older kid Legos the last half of the month and has really enjoyed that.
Anthony can read pretty well and has actually been reading books at the end of the night rather than just looking through the pictures. We’ve continued working with Anthony on using respectful words and actions. Towards the end of the month he starting being more helpful and has been playing better. Hopefully he continues to understand when his actions are not correct. AWANA for Anthony has been more difficult but he continues through his book. He enjoyed seeing his friend from last year during family night.
Lydia continues doing well at school except for nap time. We started her on potty training at the beginning of the month and most days she’s doing well. She has some days with several major accidents but most days she completed the day in the same clothes she started in. Lydia a great talker and we can see the how much she’s learning at school. She knows her colors very well and also some numbers and letters. She’s done some more biking and made it to the end of the street and back with assistance. Her swimming has greatly improved over the month and she’s doing a few strokes on her own back to the bench.
Alicia has been supporting a different group within her organization for the month. It’s been a good experience, less pressure, and more interaction with the other team members. AWANA duties still require lot of time to keep the Sparks club rolling. Fortunately, with the help of her team, Alicia has been able to make the zoom calls go more smoothly. The weekly follow-up to keep things in order still takes a lot of time. Alicia has been able to have a good work-family balance this month. She’s been able to pick up the kids from school sooner in the evenings. Plus, with the kids out of school for the week of Thanksgiving Alicia got to spend the days with them.
Tim has been keeping up with his projects at work. While not the most exciting it’s been a steady flow of work for him. His team took a one-night trip out to the field to do some testing. At home, he completed most of the fine tuning on his guitar. He also got a table saw so he can start doing some bigger woodworking projects. Tim continues to keep up with working out but he dropped the fitness instructor and is back to exercising on his own.
Tim and Alicia have been able to have more quality time with Bible study nights and a bonus post-Thanksgiving night. We’re enjoying our family time as much as we can and make the most of these years. Going into December we will have three weeks of “normal routine” with school and work. And then we’re looking forward to spending time with the Russin clan for Christmas.
