March has zoomed right by with lots of activities throughout the month. We also unfortunately had hand-foot-mouth disease come through the house (which put a damper on things) in the middle of the month. The school had “Open house” for Elementary at the beginning of the month, so we got to see Cordelia and Anthony’s hard work at school. Natalie’s class also had an “open house”. We celebrated Purim with some of the Powers clan, and Easter at the kids’ school (where we won the family dance-off!). And we ended the month by celebrating Cordelia’s 10th birthday!
Cordelia is now 10 years old! It’s hard to believe we have a kid in double digits now. Cordelia is doing well in school. We were able to talk with her new teacher and get a better understanding of the class dynamics. It seems like things have been improving since that conversation. She is working hard in her Basic 6 figure skating class and continues to enjoying time with her friends on the ice. Cordelia is also working hard in piano. Overall, she is growing into a very responsible young lady who is fun to be around. She’s continuing in her art and jewelry hobby by making some fun earrings. For her birthday party we had a fancy tea luncheon and ceramic decorating.
Anthony has been much improved this month. We adjusted our strategies working with him and that has made a big difference. He enjoys spending time with Tim and doing “man” activities. He continues working hard in soccer there. He started a Spring soccer league. Unfortunately, they did not put him with his favorite coach and most of his teammates are not very helpful on the field, so it’s been a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, he is working hard and putting in his best effort on the field. We’re teaching him to focus on his personal effort, not the score on the board at the end of the game. Anthony has also been doing a good job at school. We continue to stay in close communication with his teachers and he seems to be working very hard finishing his daily works.
Lydia continues to enjoy school and enjoyed a fun time at one of her classmate’s birthday parties. She finished her second book in piano. In ice skating Lydia is continuing in Basic 2 but she doesn’t seem very invested in continuing. She keeps saying she wants to switch back to soccer. We’ll see if that happens. In swim class she’s still not settled with a new teacher, so we’re trying to make some adjustments there. Our main challenge with Lydia is getting her to focus and follow through on her tasks. She tends to get distracted and floppy when she’s asked to do something she’s not interested in. We’ve also been talking with her about how it’s more important to be loving and sharing than it is for things to be “fair.”
Natalie is still on the fence about potty training. Some days she gets motivated and other days she seems to not want to do it at all. Alicia enjoyed going to Natalie’s open house at school and watching her do a work and then participate in song time. Outside of school Natalie is a cutie that is often hard to resist. She’s doing well in swim class: kicking off the wall and putting her face in the water. She’s still working on rolling over from her belly to back to breathe but she’s very comfortable in the water.
Alicia continues to be very busy at home and work. This month seemed extra busy and exhausting. Alicia has been trying to keep up everything but it’s been difficult. Alicia also suffered with colds and bad sleep for several nights, which made things even harder. Work had some bigger bumps during the middle of the month and Alicia is trying to smooth things out. She’s trying to put herself back in a position to have more work from home tasking as things head towards summer. Alicia is still picking up the kids after school and making sure they get to their after-school activities. It continues to be fun watching them. Alicia’s dad has been coming over once a week to help out, which has been nice and appreciated. AWANA is heading into the final two months of the club year, which means lots of year end preparations are beginning. Things are likely to ramp up pretty quickly towards the end of April for AWANA obligations.
One of Tim’s projects at work continues to hit setbacks that continue to bring challenges for Tim to resolve. He’s been working diligently and doing his part to make the project as successful as possible. But his side project is making some progress and he has an upcoming field test for that project. Tim has refocused getting into a workout routine in the gym. At home Tim completed transforming the side raised beds into a grape vine area and planted 5 grape vines. He also did some upgrades to the solar panel set up he put together for the shed. Things have still been fairly wet and cold during March, so not very many outdoor projects have started yet. Indoors we’re inching towards re-doing the laundry/pantry area.
We’re hoping that things will calm down a bit during April, although that may be wishful thinking. We’ll be taking a vacation get-away for the kid’s Spring Break. It’s also a belated birthday gift for Cordelia’s 10th birthday. Tim and Alicia will be celebrating 13 years of marriage during the month of April. We didn’t get into the other Christian school for the kids next school year, so we will be continuing at Legacy for the upcoming 24-25 school year.
