November brought cooler weather and a feeling of winter in the air. Especially with the time change and darkness coming earlier in the evenings, it’s certainly been feeling more cold and wintery. We had a few days of rain. The month rounded out to be a pretty good month. The kids did their piano recital and we spent some extra family days together. We had a good Thanksgiving with the Power clan and a relaxing weekend afterwards.
Cordelia is finishing the second module on US history and is working on completing a long summary essay before the Christmas break. Cordelia did well in her piano recital. Cordelia finished the last weeks of ice skating class for the year but is continuing with her private lessons. She’ll be performing in her first ice skating recital with a solo performance for a Christmas show the first Saturday of December. She’s also practicing for the school Christmas play. She has the lead role this year. Cordelia continues to be attentive to her actions and she’s actively trying to find ways to help. With the extra days off she started learning how to skateboard. She decided to start volunteering with the toddler class on Sunday morning church with Tim. It is encouraging to see her growing character.
Anthony is progressing well in school and AWANA. He enjoys recess time at school and spends most days playing soccer with his classmates. Anthony is continuing to enjoy soccer and improve his skills. He did great in the piano recital. Anthony got a new skate board that’s easier to steer and he starting working on learning how to ride it. We’re trying to keep his outlook and emotions more positive. He tends to get discouraged easily and focus on his good behavior.
Lydia is doing great in school and finished her phonics book 2 in November. She still loves walking into school with her fellow classmates and has a lot of fun each day. Lydia’s ice skating class is working the group number for the Christmas show. Lydia is starting to learn breaststroke in swim class. It’s a challenging stroke since she has to focus on both her feet and hands and breathing. Sadly her swim instructor quit at the beginning of the month, so she’s transitioning to a new instructor. Lydia played in her first piano recital and did pretty good for a first time performing.
Natalie is still a cutie and everyone has lots of fun with her. She has great vocabulary and diction. She starting to know her colors and match colors together. She’s on the verge of potty training. She likes sitting on the potty and she’s starting to recognize when she has to go. We just need to help her put those two things together. We’re planning on focusing on her potty training after the new year while we’re still on break from school.
Alicia maintains a high level of activity at work. She continues to be the lead project engineer for several efforts. On the home front she’s been keeping up with the kid’s homework and taking them to their various activities. AWANA is rolling along with lots of holiday activities during the month of December. The days and weeks tend to fly by with lots of activities during the week and weekends.
Tim’s work is progressing. He finally got breakthrough on one his projects and is making progress on it. He keeps getting dragged in to help with other projects but it keeps him engaged at work. The beginning of the month started out bumpy with lots of things around the house failing within the same week. But Tim worked to get them all resolved and back to functional. We got back to the front yard and did some overdue tree trimming and weeding. Tim worked to get the shop portion of the garage cleaned up in anticipation of whatever the next project may be. Tim continues to help out on Sunday mornings with the kids ministry. There have been several adjustments over this month but he’s hopeful things are turning around for the best.
We’re thankful for the family God has blessed us with. We had a great and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend enjoying each other’s company and the house God has given us. For the month of December we’re looking forward to having a night out for a company holiday party on a evening cruise ship. We’re also looking forward to kids’ various Holiday performances. And we’ll finish off the month, visiting with Mimi and Papa in Utah for a snow week.
One response to “November 2023”
We love receiving information and pictures from you. I would love to see you, but this will have to do. Stay safe and give eavh other a hug and kiss from us. Merry Christmas and a happy new year from uncle Gary and aunt Susie