In February we had a break from routine in the middle of the month with the kids out of school for winter “ski” week. Cordelia and Anthony went to visit Mimi and Papa for the week and we spent some one-on-one time with Lydia and Natalie. It has been raining a lot and in the outer mountain regions of San Diego there’s been lots of snow. So wet and cold weather this winter.
Cordelia had a challenging start to the month. Fortunately, with a break week and a trip to Arizona, she was able to reset and has come back home in better spirits. She had a great visit with Mimi and Papa. She enjoyed horseback riding and watching the Rodeo parade. She’s doing a lot of fun things in school. They’ve been experimenting with cooking different things and other science projects. They’ve been learning about the solar system. We decided to pull Cordelia out of the Basketball league she was in. It was pretty emotionally trying on all of us, with Cordelia working her very hardest and her team losing all but one game during the season. Cordelia is taking a break from sports activities, so aside from school she just has piano lessons right now. She seems to be appreciating the break.
Anthony’s PE class started the second semester of sports beginning with soccer and basketball. Anthony continues to enjoy his weekly soccer practice. Anthony had a good visit with Mimi and Papa as well. In school, some days Anthony is very focused on his work and other days it’s a painful process getting him to complete his work. He does enjoy the crafts he gets to make.
Lydia had a very fun month. Her classroom had a parent’s open house, where we got to watch the kids do their “works.” Lydia is learning to read and write basic sentences. She has a lot of fun being at school. Lydia enjoyed the Presidents’ Day holiday, sleeping in and taking it slow. She got to do a gymnastics camp for the other days during school break and had a lot of fun.
Natalie is really talking and making herself known in the family. She’s able to understand and follow basic instructions. She likes to keep variety in her eating selection. On the last Saturday of the month, she had her first swim class. She didn’t mind the water but was unhappy that a strange man was holding her. Hopefully she’ll get used to that.
Alicia enjoyed the quieter house and extra day off work in the middle of the month. She was able to connect with Lydia a bit more during the week. She was also able to hang out with a neighbor for one morning and visit with her parents for a day. Alicia’s job is staying busy and she’s trying to maintain the balance of only working part time. Sometimes it’s hard to align the work meetings around the kids’ schedules. Alicia likes getting to see what Anthony’s working on, but it’s a fine line between helping him stay focused and hovering over him, which is distracting. AWANA remains an occupying side task, but Alicia’s managing to keep it with in the time constraints of everything else.
Tim got to serve on a jury for a short 2-day trial at the beginning of the month, yay. At work things have been a bit lack luster. He’s continuing to refine and polish his work, but it’s not super engaging. But on the side an old co-worker of his asked him to do some consulting work, which has been interesting. At home, Tim’s maintaining the yard. Regular fertilizing and general upkeep is an ongoing task. He’s been able to make small increments in his workshop.
We’re now over a month having hosting a bible study “life group” through our church. It started with high hopes, but we’re struggling a bit to handle the hosting and group dynamics. One couple we’ve been able to engage with fairly well, but the others lack a bit of depth we were hoping for. But we’re continuing to be faithful to what we’ve committed to for this time.
Moving into March, we don’t anticipate to many changes from our normal day-to-day. We’ll be needing to make a decision on what to do with the kids for school and child care next school year. We could certainly use prayer and wisdom for that decision.
Important Announcement: As of March 27, 2023, users will no longer have access to Share Sites, as the service is being discontinued. We will be migrating to our own website – details to come. [Admin note: If you are reading this, you figured it out! Yay!]
