This past week, Mother Nature finally figured out that it’s January. She did go a bit overboard, though. Monday was a holiday, thank goodness. We stayed home all day (except when I decided I really wanted tacos and fideo, so I braved the below-freezing temps to go get it) and just hung out. Tuesday was just as cold. When I got to work, it was 18 degrees outside. It warmed up to just above freezing by dismissal. The days after that slowly got better, but we’re back down into the 30s and 40s now with nighttime temps below that. Humid cold is NOT my favorite. It just feels…colder. I’m looking forward to the end of next week when our highs are going to be back in the 60s and 70s, ha.
This was the temperature it was when I decided I really needed tacos and fideo.This is fideo. It’s short noodles in a broth that has tomatoes, onions, and spices. It’s just a little spicy, which hits the spot on a cold day.This was what greeted me on Tuesday morning. Luckily these icicles are not indicative of a frozen unit, just that there was condensation dripping off the unit (like it normally does) that froze. Luckily, the heater was working just fine.This was right under those icicles. It was either frozen solid or just about. The kids were able to knock on it and even stomp on it. It finally broke when a student from the other class jumped on it in the afternoon. He was none too thrilled when his socks got wet and icy.There were even icicles coming out of the water spouts from the gutters.Every time we needed to go somewhere (lunch, Discovery, etc.), it meant needing to bundle up. Thank goodness for warm clothes!I love this girl’s sense of style. She said these two articles of clothing matched because they both had pink. 🙂She then decided to wear this Hello Kitty shirt with her flower pants instead. Not sure why she decided not to smile…she’s hit or miss with smiling in pictures.More proof that they normally get along. They were playing a game where he was on his computer and she was on her tablet, playing the same game.
This past week was pretty typical. When school is in session, we’re all pretty busy (Paul is busy all the time). I try my hardest to work hard through the week so that I don’t have to do any work on Sundays. It means a lot for the rest of the week, but making Sunday a true day of rest, which is nice. Abigail went to her first Primary Activity (an activity night for children 7/8-11 that happens twice a month) and loved it. Joseph is part of the Deacons still (12-13YO boys) and is in one of three quorums (which are groups) that we have. Our ward congregation is a pretty sizable group and there are a lot of children and youth.
With Sunday being a rest day from work, I decided to splurge and make homemade pizza for dinner. Abigail was super excited and sat there for a lot of the baking process.First grade did a fun presentation where the kids all got to have a chance to share their personal narratives with everyone. They also got to enjoy popcorn and juice (Abigail liked the popcorn but not the juice…she’s rather…particular about juice). Her teacher shared this picture with me.There was one day this past week (Friday, I believe) that was the 80th day of school. We were told to dress up in 80s attire. I knew there would be a lot of neon colors going on, so I decided to go the opposite direction. Plus, it gave me an excuse to get an 80s band shirt. 😉Abigail already had this shirt, since she is a Care Bears fan (it’s funny how trends circle around), so she was excited to know that it would work for 80s day.This kid cracks me up. He came in and randomly asked me how many hoodies I thought he had on. I guessed that there were three and was rewarded with this smile. He’s kinda my favorite 12YO.
This past week was one of settling back in, celebrating New Years Eve, tucking away the Christmas decorations, going back to school and work, and just easing back into life in general. Paul was still not feeling 100%, so yesterday he went to urgent care and they said he has bronchitis. They gave him a whole host of new meds to take and suggested he take off work tomorrow so that he can give his body a chance to rest and fully recuperate. I eased back into teaching with one day for staff and then a three-day workweek (that was rather nice, actually). I got a new student, which was fun (especially since I knew way ahead of time that she was going to be starting, so I had plenty of time to prepare). Having a three-day week was nice for the kids, too. We were all still on California time, so trying to get back on Texas time was a bit challenging. It’s hard going to bed when it doesn’t feel as late as it is and then getting up when it feels way earlier than it actually is. I think we’re all fully adjusted now, though, so onto the rest of January!
She had an image in her mind of this tube being a soprano saxophone (like a character in one of the Trolls movies, I guess), so she managed to shape the end of it to look more like a mouthpiece. Her imagination has mine beat for sure!New Year’s Eve was on a Sunday and we had just gotten back from California the day before, so we didn’t really have any big plans. I decided I would wait and see if either kid made it to midnight (which was rather easy, actually, since they were still on California time, so it only felt like ten). They made it, so we tossed on sweatshirts and went out to watch the chaos that is NYE outside of city limits in San Antonio. It was so worth it! There’s a video at the bottom of this post of the show that our street and the streets around us put on. Our next door neighbors even shared some sparklers with the kids, which was super nice.January 1, 2024…61 degrees, warm sun…beautiful back yard…I love where we live!While it can be a bit of a downer to tuck away Christmas decorations, I do love my “any time there isn’t a major holiday” decorations. 🙂Yesterday she wanted to go out, but it was a bit on the chilly side (45ish degrees), so I told her to put on an extra layer. So, yup. Of course I needed to take a picture.We had a much smaller board up here that was a bulletin board and a white board combined. It fell off the wall and instead of putting it back up, we decided to upgrade to a whiteboard in a different area and this larger bulletin board. It works much better since the other one was really too small for our needs. Abigail was excited to see it go up (she likes to hang up pictures that she draws).Paul also got more bins for Abigail’s storage shelf and an actual bookcase for her books (before, we were storing the books on her storage shelf, but she needed the room to store her toys, stuffed animals, and other things). I like how organized her room feels now!
Here is the video of fireworks from NYE. The popping started in earnest about 8:30ish, but this is the “finale” which people saved for midnight…y’know, even if I had sent the kids to bed, they probably would not have been able to sleep through this chaos. It was fun to watch, though!
