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Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Weekly Happenings: This past week was a pretty low-key one as we were trying to get back into our routine after the holidays. I took down all of the Christmas decorations, we went to Story Time, went grocery shopping, had a park play date, and ran errands. Not too much out of the ordinary, really.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been really flip-floppy as different weather systems have come through. We’ve had super cold and rainy days, warm and sunny days (no, really…it was in the mid-70s at one point), and then cold and sunny days (such as today).

What Paul’s Been Up To: He started his next group of classes, got back into the swing of things with his Sunday School calling and work, and also took down all of the Christmas decorations that were up at different entrances for our subdivision.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly, I’ve been trying to get back into our routine. It was a bit…rough having to meal plan, teach piano students, and especially keeping Joseph entertained (his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents were doing a superb job of that in California) after having slacked it all off for almost two weeks. In a way, though, it was good to just jump back into life. It kept me from sinking into what I call the “January blahs”. I also got to hang out with friends a couple of times, since I attended a meeting for one of the two book clubs I’m in as well as a baby shower for one of my close friends.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been a gem this past week! He got a pretty gnarly cold right at the end of our vacation, so he spent the drive home sniffling and coughing. It lasted well into last week, so he missed his first day of being a CTR4 (which he was bummed about, but he understood). Consequently, today was his first day with his new teachers. He did great! He loved that all of the kids in his class were those that were in his class last year and he says he really likes his new teachers. He also got his first CTR ring. He says it makes him powerful against bad guys. Oh, kiddo…you don’t even know! Another funny thing he did was tell me this morning that he was too cold to eat his raisins. Yes, you read that correctly. Well, since I try to parent by fixing the immediate problem, I asked him if he would eat his raisins if he had his sweatshirt on and he answered in the affirmative. Well, no reason to forgo this experiment! On went his sweatshirt, and all of the raisins got eaten! Crazy kid. He also got to attend a birthday party for one of his best buds yesterday, so he was super excited about that.

This Week in Pictures:

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This is the cookbook that Paul got me for Christmas. I love it! I’ve made a couple things out of it already (which turned out really good) and I am looking forward to making more!
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Here’s the responsibility chart we got Joseph for Christmas. He really likes putting happy faces next to the things that he’s done each day.
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Cranking himself up to spin on the swings at the park. The only “oops” moment occurred when the boy next to him decided to do the same thing and the two bonked heads.
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Pushing a friends on the swings.
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It’s sort of hard to see, since the sunlight is coming through the fence slats, but Joseph made himself a hopscotch course, complete with numbers. He wrote the numbers all by himself, and while not all of them are facing the correct way, they are in the correct order. He amazes me!
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I decided to break open my new cookbook to make dessert for our game night with friends. It started with making pie crust from scratch.
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Then I cut circles out of the pie crust, put a sweetened blueberry mixture in the center of each, folded up the edges, brushed them with egg wash, sprinkled sugar along the edges, and baked them. The recipe calls them galettes, but I think of them as mini pies. I even made whipped cream from scratch to go on top. They were pretty good!
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He was seriously excited to get this thing…