February had a lot of big events and decisions for us. We enjoyed a nice variety of weather and finally got our first rain storm of the winter. We also enjoyed some days in the backyard doing camp fires. The kids had their president’s week break from school. Tim took them to a local campground and they had a great time camping out. We also found a used pop-up trailer that was in our price range and will be taking ownership of it at the beginning of March. We booked our summer trip to Sequoia and are excited to have a trailer to take camping there. We also got answers back from two of the schools we applied to for next school year. The one we liked the most offered all our kids spots, so starting next year they will all be going to the same new school. It’s nice having that decision made and removing the uncertainty of what we’ll be doing next school year.
Cordelia is doing great at school. Her teachers are running out of material to give her. We’re still supplementing with math and science videos at home. Overall, she’s getting a bit bored at school and is excited about the news of transferring to a new school next year. We tell her this year is a rest year and to enjoy having it easy for a while. Cordelia is doing a great job with her mother’s helper jobs. Both of the families she helps with think she is amazing and are so appreciative to have her come over. Cordelia is continuing to develop her ice-skating skills. She’s starting to prepare for her first solo competition of the year at the end of March. She will be competing at the Aspire 2 level. She’s still continuing in the synchro team through the end of March when the synchro season ends.
Anthony is also doing well in school. He’s being proactive about getting his homework done. He has a really fun time with one of the other boys in the class. Anthony is working hard in soccer. His team has had some bumpy games where they start strong and can’t seem to hold the same level in the second half. We think he’s still having fun and does seem to enjoy his teammates and coach.
Lydia seems to be doing well in school and is progressing through her works. She’s gained some more motivation for homework now that she’s in the next level book for math. She’s enjoying her trampoline class and is excited to be learning how to do front tuck jumps and back tuck jumps. She’s also doing well in swim class and is getting more familiar with her butterfly stroke.
Natalie is progressing in school with her letter/sound recognition and numbers. She’s working on the last two groups of letters before she has all the letter-sounds for the alphabet. She also has a fun time playing with her friends. Natalie is enjoying her soccer class, running, jumping, and scoring goals. She also is doing great in swimming. She is now doing backstroke as well as freestyle. She can go the whole length of the pool with back-float breaks but no teacher assistance. She needs to work on getting her legs more powerful so she doesn’t tire out.
Alicia had a rough month at work. She’s been taking on more tasks from her co-working, which includes more high-profile and urgent items. One of the items has been a big stress. Her one project that is actually a project and not a pop-up emergency is going well and she enjoys when she can work on that. Things on the home-front have been busy but mostly good. Lots of hours were spent thinking and analyzing our school decision for next year. Alicia enjoyed the evenings when we got to hang out in the backyard or enjoy inside fires while it rained. Alicia also enjoyed getting to join the family for dinner on the camping trip days and even camped out one night. AWANA is getting into a groove now that we’re 2/3 of the way through the club year. It’s a good and bad thing. Less week-to-week management is required but some of her highschoolers are showing signs of senioritis.
Tim also had a pretty rough month at work. His projects are not cooperating very well and constantly seem to hit new road blocks. One of the responsible engineers dropped off the project and left a big gap that Tim and his other co-worker are trying to fill in and patch up. Fortunately he took three days off work to go camping with the kids. He also had a training at the end of the month to take his mind off things. Tim spent a lot of time this month looking at camping and trailers in anticipation of our summer camping trip. We’re pleased to have found the camper that we hope will be a great solution for us. AWANA has been going along with lesson preparations each week.
Tim and Alicia took some time this month to look at options for our new bathroom. We’re still awaiting the permit approval but are starting to think about designs and what we’d like it to look like when it’s finished.
We are so grateful for God’s guidance on our school selection for next year. We have a good peace that we are following God’s direction for our family to use our gifts and resources for his glory. We are thankful to be supported by our families. For March we’re hoping the bathroom permit will be approved so we can move towards construction. Aside from Cordelia’s birthday at the end of March we don’t anticipate any major events, just a routine type of month.
