The first month of 2026 has come to a close. It has certainly been a busy month with not much of an “easing back in” to the daily life. We’ve been making slow progress on getting our mini renovation of the upstairs hallway completed. Tim has been working overtime hours. We managed to squeeze in a date night amidst school birthday parties and work. We celebrated Anthony’s 10th birthday with a big party!
Cordelia had a few bumps getting back into the school routine after the new year. But things seem to have settled out. She’s doing lots of projects and continues to be learning a lot. She’s also starting to figure out the friend groups and make some pathways into a few of them. Soccer practices picked back up, along with games. She’s playing defender and doing a great job. Unfortunately, only a few of the girls on her team have soccer experience and/or skill. So, they’ve only won one game for the season. They’ll have one final game at the beginning of February before the team party. Despite the losses she has had a fun time playing soccer and it helped her continue building friendships, which was the goal. She’s still deciding what sport to do for the Spring. The choices are basketball or tennis, which she’d both be great at. Cordelia is still continuing with the ice-skating synchro team through the end of the season in March. They will have their first competition in mid-February. She’s still playing piano and clarinet, although her desire and passion to practice has been diminishing lately.
Anthony turned 10 years old this month! He had a very fun soccer party with lots of boys from his previous and current soccer team, plus a few other friends to join in the fun. It was a Pokémon themed party and he’s an official Pokémon trainer now that he’s 10! We set up a scavenger hunt for him on his birthday to find Pokémon hidden around the house. At school, Anthony continues to improve in navigating the social and classroom dynamics. He doesn’t seem to have any kids in the class that he wants to be close friends with but he’s friendly and learning to stand up for himself. He had a fun field trip to a local California mission for their history field trip. He got to make a small piece of adobe. He’s continuing with his twice a week soccer practice and played in Sunday games for the month. His team is doing a bit better this season than last season. They are at a solid 50% win-lose-tie with two games left in the season. At the end of February he will be trying out for club soccer and we’re likely to transition to that next fall. Through school, Anthony is doing a 7 week Tennis class twice a week. He seems to like it ok, but not his favorite. Anthony is enjoying piano and continues to grow in his skills. He got Mario and Pokémon piano books to add to his current Zelda piano book. So he’s got lots of interesting stuff to play now.
Lydia is doing well in school and has a lot fun with her friends/classmates. Through school, Lydia is also doing the 7 week Tennis class twice a week. She is enjoying it, especially since there are a few girls from her class doing it as well. Lydia is continuing to swim and is getting her strokes cleaned up. Her new teacher seems to be doing a good job making sure she has good form. Lydia is still continuing with her piano. She’s starting to be able to play some fun low level songs. While she’s not always enthusiastic about practicing, she’s continuing to progress.
Natalie seems to have some trouble being as diligent at school as her teachers would like. We’re not sure if this is due to lack of enthusiasm because the material is boring or general distraction from being around her new friends. We’re continuing to work with her outside of school on her reading, writing, and basic numbers/math. Natalie is continuing to play soccer and will stay at her same level for the spring session. In swimming, we moved her to a better instructor this month, so she’s starting to get back to making progress. He’s focusing a lot on her legs to make sure she’s as efficient as possible with her leg movement.
Alicia’s work is full speed ahead. There were one or two days of easing back into things but now it’s completely back to the same busy and overflowing tasks as before. Somehow things keep piling onto her list of responsibilities. Her only backup and support is from her boss and boss’s boss. Alicia was able to watch most of Cordelia’s soccer games and is continuing to maintain the school schedules and homework. Alicia also did the majority of the painting for the hallway upgrade and laundry room touchups. With Tim working overtime, Alicia has been trying to tackle some of the house renovation tasks.
Tim’s work has been a big burden this month. As his team prepares for a customer deliverable in mid-February it’s been on-call and on-site for 50+ hours a week. While the team is nice enough to work with, the deadline pressures are making it not so fun. At home, Tim was able to complete the flooring and molding work in addition to a rough fit of the new shelves we’re doing. He’s been squeezing in time to get the last of the trailer cracks patched and the final end panels installed. With his ankle still hurting and shoulder not 100%, there’s not been much workout activity aside from lifting all the heavy pieces of wood and pushing a paint roller. Hopefully he’ll be able to get back to his workouts towards the end of February.
February is upon us and staged to be more of the same from January’s fullness and business. Additionally, Tim will be on work travel for the second half of February. We will be taking some time before that to do some family travel during the kid’s break week. Grandparents Powers are taking Lydia and Natalie camping while the rest of us take a trip to Boston.
Please pray for peace in the midst of the month. With Tim away from home for an extended time, we’re praying that family life will not become even more strained. We’re also trying to make the most of the family time we have together and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes it feels like there’s a lot of fighting and yelling instead of appreciating each other.
