Happy New Year to all! This year has been a reminder to us all that we have very little control over the circumstances around us. The way we expected things to go at the beginning of the year all received sudden and large changes.
In December we were able to enjoy our family time in the evenings and weekends. We got a bonus day together in the middle of the month when school was closed due to power outages. The kids’ school had a fun Christmas play via zoom, which we enjoyed watching. We had a Hanukkah celebration with the Powers clan. And then we spent a week with the Russin clan for Christmas in Texas.
Cordelia has a had a great first half of her first grade year. While there were some challenges with social dynamics that she is learning to navigate, she seem to have found a good balance. She is reading through the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and works diligently on the rest of her work too. She continues to love doing gymnastics and swimming. In AWANA Corrie completed her review book at the end of December and will move on to the extra credit material in January. 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 a very loving girl. It is an honor to see her maturing and looking out for the interests of others.
Anthony has been doing well at school too. He can read very well for an almost five year old. He also is increasing his basic math skills of adding. Anthony has been improving on using respectful words and actions. He’s doing really good in gymnastics and it’s pretty impressive to see how strong he actually is. He also is getting better at his swimming too, though still not 100% confident on his own. Anthony continues working through his AWANA Cubbies book, though it’s not the same as the in-person experience.
As expected, Lydia is full of two year old energy. Lydia is doing a good job with her potty training. She’ll have an occasional accident but about 90% of the time she’s making it to the potty. She had more challenges on our trip to Texas with the bathrooms being unfamiliar and uncomfortable. At school Lydia got a little bit better at nap time. She’s doing a good job with her works and seems to have a fun time playing with the other kids. Lydia’s favorite pasttimes are reading books and bossing her siblings around. She continues to be tall, maintaining her position in the 90+ percentile for height.
Alicia continued supporting a different group within her organization for the month. Unfortunately prospects in her actual group for the upcoming year currently do not look very good. She’s under allocated in her time and additionally her group was re-organized within the larger company so the future in a bit up in the air. She’s considering transitioning into a different group to utilize more of her administrative and organizational leadership skills. Her AWANA duties have mellowed, especially with the year end break. Alicia is working to get ahead on her lessons for January so she can have a lighter work load. It still requires lot of time to keep the Sparks club rolling but things continue to get smoother. Alicia enjoys watching the kids at swim class and gymnastics. She also enjoyed the extra days together as a family.
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. He completed his first project at the table saw, a simple 3-legged stool with some wedged mortise-and-tenon joinery. He enjoyed it very much, and is looking forward to working on more projects. He tried his hand at some detective work at home (looking for a specific junction box inside the living room walls – no luck, sadly!), and was working on getting the garden ready for the new year. He has mostly been keeping honest with his exercise routine, although his diet has suffered a bit (Mimi’s Christmas cookies!). Looking forward to the new year with a bit of optimism, we’re excited to see what’s coming.
While 2020 differed considerably from our initial expectations, we were able to see God’s goodness and how He has blessed us this year in the midst of some admittedly unpleasant circumstances. We are excited to see what life will be like this coming year, as the kids continue to grow and mature. Work remains an unknown, but given God’s provision in the past we are confident that He’ll continue to provide for all of our needs.
