This is the only picture I took this week. Well, I did take other pictures, but they were of my students because of things we were doing at school and even though my students are ridiculously cute, I can’t share pictures of them. I can share a picture of this awesome kid, though. A little while back, he was having a bit of a hard time with band because he reached the point where it was no longer easy and he had to start actually putting an effort into practicing. Instead of quitting, he started putting in the time and this is the payoff: he got a medal and a ribbon at his solo/ensemble contest. I’m so proud of him!! As for the rest of us, we plowed through the week with our normal gusto and can hardly believe we’re halfway through February already.
This past week, Mother Nature came to her senses and the weather shifted back into what I am accustomed to for a Texas winter: chilly mornings and evenings, but nice, sunny, warm afternoons. I think I’m happiest when it’s 70 degrees, ha. We got some rain, but it was overnight and led to a fresh, crisp day the next day. As for the home upgrades, we got a couch for the upstairs that is a sleeper sofa, so if anyone comes to visit, we have a bed for them. 🙂 Paul also spent his Saturday morning combining two planters in the front yard into one larger one. One fun thing that he got to do was to go out and go deer hunting with coworkers/friends. One of his former coworkers (who has since retired) has some land, so Paul and one of his other coworkers went out there on Friday. Paul was able to get a deer, so after the meat gets processed, we’ll have some venison. Work has kept me busy and the kids have been kinda just plugging along as well.
THIS is what winter is supposed to look like in San Antonio…I think it was almost 70 degrees and I was loving it!She was pretending that Minnie was on a roller coaster. She told her to keep her hands, arms, and legs inside the ride at all times, then raced around the room a bit, and finished off by telling her to wait until the ride came to a complete stop. I think Disneyland is still influencing a lot of her imaginative play.This is Texas: cows and windmills. 🙂 These cows belong to Paul’s coworker that has the land.Paul and his deer. Perspective makes it look smaller than it actually is. Paul is standing 3-4 feet in front of it.She was excited to be able to match with Minnie.With the end of January came popping out Valentine’s Day decorations. I still love that decorative piece that I made on a whim years ago with supplies I already had on hand (burlap, string, and pipe cleaners that I formed into hearts).I love the decorations I have for the piano. I was having a hard time getting the brown sign to stand up, so I decided to just hang it on the wall (it already had the rope).Updating the sign is always fun.New couch!We’re eventually going to get rid of the brown couch (it’s starting to show its age…I want to say it’s 15 years old, so it’s held up incredibly well…especially since we’ve moved twice in that time frame). When we do, I’d like to get something to replace it so we don’t lose the extra seating.There was one planter under the tree and another along the edge of the pathway. Paul combined them and I really like it. We’re going to wait until we get out of February before planting anything in it (there’s still a chance of chilly weather that would kill off in-ground plants).I’ve been told these are guinea fowl. They were just hanging out outside of the urgent care in a shopping center I was in. I think they probably live on the little piece of land that is across the street from where this little shopping center is and came for a field trip. 🙂
This week was pretty busy for all of us. The kids had school and church activities, I had work (progress reports are coming up, so I was making sure all my grades were in on top of all the other things I needed to do), and so did Paul (work always keeps him pretty busy). I went to pull up the pictures I took during the week only to realize I…didn’t take any. Paul did get a nice picture of the hawk that was just chilling on our backyard fence, though.
We were finishing up dinner and I glanced out the sliding glass door and saw this guy (or girl). Paul had the challenge of trying to get a picture without startling it, so that meant leaving the door closed and dealing with the reflections of things in the glass (the dark square is the reflection of a piece of art we have on our wall and the dark splotch at the bottom is a faux plant arrangement I have sitting on a corner table). I think he got a great picture, all things considered. He was able to get most of the hawk’s body unobstructed.
