Unpopular opinion- I actually kind of like January. It's usually less busy than December, it's too cold to go outside much and I can be antisocial hermit without (much) guilt. As long as we're relatively healthy anyway.
So, yeah, we had to move some stuff around to fit in a second freezer and Perrin was very willing to help get in the way.
And Emmy loved the suggestion that all of the magnets she brought home from Grandma B's house could live down here. ha.
So me feeling like a limp dishrag turned into feeling like a limp dishrag plus GI symptoms, and Bob was still on the mend so we stayed home for all of New Years church. Blah. The kids really wanted late night snacks though, so Bob and Emmy took care of supper and that.
And we all got far too much screen time. *sigh* Oh well. Happy New Year.
Mr. Buster was farming all over my laptop one morning.
They managed to get very muddy while planting the grow tent.... and so far what has sprouted seems to be very haphazardly planted. 😋😂
I've been looking for an old copper boiler to stash toys in and one showed up online- the only picture in the post was it filled with old mrs. butterworth bottles. 😆 Random, and it looked a little rough, but it was the lowest price I'd seen. The seller found it in a barn.... all the best stuff is stashed in barns, I'm convinced.
So I brought it home and started scrubbing. Multiple rounds of scrubbing and multiple different cleaners and I've pretty much been scrubbing this thing all month.
Cecily was very glad to get out of the house and hang out with Kenna on a Saturday. 😊
Emmy is eagerly anticipating getting a dollhouse for her 10th birthday and was reading me the dollhouse catalog cover to cover.
Perrin really likes the girls' polly pocket people. They fight, and drive tractors, and they fit inside toy cars....
I figured out how to rewire this fixture from my parents' attic! I left the glass shades at the farm, it's not a bare bulb fixture. I'm tempted to find a spot for it at Firefly Woods, but it's not quite the right era... we'll see. 😏
Speaking of lights, the brake light on the van burned out and I quick replaced the bulb before the cold descended. (And then it worked for about a week and burned out again... grrr... I expressed my frustrations to someone at church today and they looked at me like I had two heads that I changed my own brake light. 😄 I dunno? My dad always had me maintain my own vehicle and keep track of oil changes, lights, etc., and Bob doesn't drive the van as often as I do so why wouldn't I keep doing that? Also, the hardest part is finding the correct screwdriver head to loosen the one screw to get access to the light bulb. Second hardest part is finding the right bulb in the car light bulb aisle. Anyway, crossing my fingers that the second bulb does the trick.)
My very busy helper kept stealing my tools and spilling snacks all over. 😜
The leftover quilting and sewing books from Grandma B's house ended up here somehow.
And some knitting books! These sweaters are just amazing! 😋 😁
Also some random patterns... not all of this will be staying, I'm sorting and I'm not sure there's much demand for Country Broom Covers anymore. 😂
We did not get nearly as much snow as we hoped for/ was predicted. Some were determined to play in it regardless.
We had a half day on Friday so we were able to join our home school friends at the ice rink.
They wouldn't let me take the stroller on the ice this time (so frustrating! I paid for him to be on the ice and wouldn't have brought him along...oh well) There were lots of people there to help with the littles.
Perrin rode on the skate aid some (not sure if that was allowed, but he wanted to be on the ice so badly and I didn't want to wrestle him into skates he couldn't/wouldn't use.)
And ran around putting ice chunks in the garbage cans.
We didn't have any plans for MLK weekend, so we worked on some projects and were lazy around the house. Cecily finished the Nine patch quilt square she started in 3rd grade. :P
I started braiding a rug from sewing/clothing scraps. Because, why not? ha. I have no social life and it's too cold to go outside. 😜
Got Megan's paintings matted, framed, and on the wall. 😀 Bob's not sure about the picnic quilt-as-mat, but I like it.
Ha. So, sometimes Bob will let the girls pick out Birthday/Christmas gifts for me and they aren't always the most practical or the style that I would choose. They were very excited and pleased when I opened this fancy porcelain soap dispenser. And then they were devastated when said fancy, 3D porcelain soap dispenser got knocked over and lost a butterfly wing. And were very confused that I was not upset. 😋 Weeellll.... it was inevitable? hehe. Such a bummer....or something. Now I need to at least attempt to glue it back together for their sake.
Tuesday ended up being an e-learning day due to the cold. We didn't mind and they got their work done pretty quickly.
Perrin and Miri went with me to pick up our 1/4 beef and it was lunch time and they were hungry of course. So they got hotdogs and we ate at the lunch counter. Perrin thought he was big stuff, though he mostly ate cheetos.
There just really hasn't been enough good snow this year.
Cecily was really nervous for the spelling bee, since she won last year. She studied a lot. There were a lot of really good spellers and they just kept spelling and spelling. I wrote down all her words, but I didn't keep track of how many rounds that she and Ashley and Jack went before Jack got 3rd, then how many rounds she went back and forth with Ashley until Ashley missed a word and Cecily spelled Macedonia correctly to win! Including the practice round, she spelled 43 words. Mr. E said they were running out of words and it was almost time for lunches to start in the cafetorium... haha.
So relieved!
Ha. Bob brought home a cake and had me misspell everything on it. 😝 I accidentally left out the 'r' in "congradulations" so it was even worse than intended.
Hehe. I so proud es you. :D
Miri will sometimes insist on making her own lunch and it's usually a 'homemade lunchable'- cheese, crackers, pepperoni, a cookie. And sometimes she makes pepperoni oreo sandwiches. Whatever. She's eating. 😂
We got to host potluck so we set up the extra table. It was commandeered as a train table.
Emmy helped me set the table, because she loves setting out the china. :)
Sooo, about two weeks before potluck I sent out a text on Saturday morning at about 10:30 that it was going to be a Come as You Are night- come wearing exactly what you were wearing when you got the text invitation. 😁 (I remember my mom talking about 'come as you are' parties from back in the day, she now says she has no memory of such things... maybe I read about it somewhere.) I promised that I wouldn't post the pictures we took, but we were a very comfortable bunch which was great on such a frigid night. I didn't cheat and I looked pretty classy too- glasses, Wyss Farms t-shirt, hadn't combed my hair since early that morning... hehe.
The extra table then became a fort post potluck...
We put a plexi cover on Cecily's dollhouse to protect it from Perrin. Perrin trying to reach in: "Oh no!"
Miri wanted to make a dress for her mousy, and got mad when the one I made wasn't what she wanted. So she made her own. And other than threading needles for her she did it all by herself, and she did a pretty good job. 😜
Bob wasn't feeling well so I took the kids to church and the pizza supper/ hymn sing... thankfully the older three are fairly independent because the younger two cried all the way there (bump on the head from bear crawling down the hallway, and having to leave blanky at home) and Perrin only stopped when we got up to the food. "Oh! Ummy nummy! He's starting to talk more, which can be hilarious- Emmy was watching him in the toy room during the singing and when they brought the kids back in he started yelling "Help me! Help me!" until she put him down and he ran back to the toys. 😂
It was cold and icy Monday and Tuesday so they had a snow day and an e-learning day. And these two crazies were sliding down the driveway like a slide.
We played a couple games of Clue. 😊
And the rug grows.... haha. I'm sure there are lots of other things that I could be doing and should be doing.
Some of the girls needed new unmentionables so I was online shopping because I don't love shopping or going out among people. And I checked the clearance page to see what there was to see.... Perrin and I now have matching jammies. 😁
This weekend was quiet, which I love. I can't believe January is practically over and it's almost Sap Season! I would love another good snow, though...
Blessings.
