This past week was a mixed bag when it came to the weather. The beginning of the week was typical end of February weather: warmer, sunny, and dry. It even got up to the upper 80s on Monday and Tuesdays. Then on Wednesday, there was an almost-fifty degree drop and all of a sudden, it was ridiculously cold. We’re still cold today, but thankfully today is the last really cold day. I’m ready for the mild warm spring weather! We had a holiday at the beginning of the week, which was nice. Joseph also had a great time at his GT field trip to the San Antonio Museum of Art. He said his favorite part was the Egyptian exhibit with the various sarcophagi. I did a bit of stuff around the house (reorganizing and decorating), and Paul kept himself really busy. On top of various meetings and work, he squeezed in the time to make a console table to sit under the bookshelves. It matches our built-in window seats and table, which is fun.
I mentioned to Paul that it was hard finding dresses for Abigail that were long enough (because she’s rather tall for her age). Amazon to the rescue! Not only are they long enough, but they also have pockets! We got her this one (which she was excited to pair with her sparkly unicorn jelly shoes) and another one that is rainbow stripes.Seeing them play together is one of my favorite sights.I went to move one thing around in the pantry and ended up tidying the entire thing (that’s usually how it works every time, haha). I also added labels to my bulk pantry items. No more needing to remember which one has the bread flour vs which one has the regular flour (and long grain vs medium grain rice and so on).They went walking with me on Monday, which turned out to be rather warm and breezy. We were all glad to get home and back into the AC!Paul’s table! All that’s left to do is add some supports to the legs to stabilize them a bit more.On Tuesday, it was 2/22/22, so Abigail’s class dressed up in things that started with the letter T. She chose a tie-dye shirt and a tutu. 🙂Can you spot the hawk? Paul was headed out to his office on Thursday (he teleworks on Thursdays) and spotted it sitting on the edge of the swing set. The tree trunk is directly behind it, so it’s hard to see at first…but if you look really closely, you can see it.I decided to tuck away Valentine’s Day stuff a few days early. It might still be cold outside, but at least it’s warm and spring-y inside! I love the rainbow garland that I found at Hobby Lobby. I made the paper shamrocks (I traced around one of my smaller wooden shamrocks) several years ago and I can’t remember how long I’ve had the one that has the Irish blessing on it. I used to put it on the piano, but I decided to hang it up this year.I love the Irish blessing on this shamrock.This is a portion of another longer Irish blessing. I thought it was fitting for both St. Patrick’s Day and spring. I’ll probably leave it up through April, too.My piano set up.I added the truck this year. The large shamrock was a welcome sign that I bought a few years ago, but I took the welcome bit off as well as the hanger so that I could use it on the piano. I already had the leprechaun and one of the smaller wood shamrocks. When I saw that Hobby Lobby still had the shamrocks (it’s been a couple of years, so I was pleasantly surprised), I grabbed another for a better grouping.One of my friends went along on the field trip and got this picture of Joseph. 🙂Abigail found Joseph’s old sock puppet book and wanted me to make her a dragon sock puppet. Luckily, I still had some of the supplies that had come with the book!She was pretty happy with the outcome.
This past week contained Valentines Day. The kids had fun parties, Paul and I were able to go out for lunch, and then Paul also made dinner (he used his smoker to make chicken, baked potatoes, and corn), which was delicious! The rest of the week flew by (it seems like that is a repeating theme, haha). Last night, we had friends over to play games, which was a lot of fun as always.
I couldn’t help but get a close-up of her current smile. I always want to remember all those gaps!He called me over excitedly because he finally was able to balance his spoon on his bowl. I love this kid!Paul got me flowers and chocolate for Valentines Day. He’s also going to be building me a console table that will sit in the space under the bookshelves in the living room. 🙂I got Paul this game. It’s one that he played a long time ago. He was pretty pleased with it. 🙂Kid valentines bags. 🙂Our yummy chicken!Paul also trimmed the trees in the back yard. I’m so grateful for all the hard work he does!She loves to look at the pictures in the lighthouse book.She’s been begging to switch to a booster seat, but we weren’t sure if she’d be responsible enough to not just get it into her head to unbuckle herself while the car was going. We had an in depth talk about how she can have the booster if she stays buckled (we also talked about safety and what could happen in a car accident if she didn’t have her seat belt on).One of my favorite things to do, when I can squeeze it in, is to sit in the recliner and read…I love the cozy view that I have while doing so. I love the sunshine coming into the house.After I looked more closely at the first picture I had taken of Abigail in her booster, I realized the back was too high. I also remembered that it was adjustable, so when I picked the kids up from school, I made sure to adjust it while she was sitting in it so that I could get the correct height.I happened to glance out the back door on Thursday evening and could see the sunset reflecting onto the fence boards. I knew it would be a good one, so I grabbed my phone and hopped outside to snap a few pictures.I’m so glad I did…it was breathtaking! Yesterday, Abigail asked me to play restaurant with her. She prepared quite the meal for me: salad, tomato soup, and four different kinds of juice: tomato, carrot, mushroom, and garlic. Those last two were a bit of a surprise, but she insisted they would be good. 😉 I love her imagination!
The weather this past week was much, much nicer than last week. It was cold in the mornings, but would warm up enough in the afternoons that we could shed our sweatshirts. The kids were able to get some outside time (which is good for all involved), I was able to get a lot of walking in (my favorite type of exercise), and it was nice not being so cold it hurt my face, haha. Also, my back is doing much better. I’ve been able to downgrade to Aleve for an anti-inflammatory, so that’s good. I’m still being really careful how I bend and pick up things, though. Some Abigail funnies this week: one night she told me she had “a case of the not-tireds” (she didn’t want to go to bed). It almost worked! She still went to bed. 😉 Another night, we were reading a book called “Goodnight Gorilla” where a zookeeper is saying goodnight to all of the animals. He doesn’t realize as he is doing so, the gorilla is letting each of the animals out of their cages. Each time that happened, Abigail would say, “Oh no! They’re leaving their habitat! That’s not good!” Don’t worry, though…they all end up back in their cages (except the extra-sneaky gorilla).
Bringing me the frisbee to throw.I love watching them playing together. I think they were pretending that one person was a puppy and the other person was the owner. The owner would throw the frisbee and the puppy would bring it back.I did make the addition that whoever was the puppy was a highly-trained puppy who could use its hands instead of its mouth to fetch…so they would just hold it up to their mouths to bring it back.This is always one of my favorite sights. I decided I wanted to have the shells that were on the table inside of something instead of just sitting on the table, so I went in search for something. At first I was looking at baskets, but then I happened upon this bowl.I love the texture on the outside!At first, I had this super-pointy shell in the bowl, but then Paul brought up the possibility of Abigail potentially hurting herself if she fell on it. That was something that had never occurred to me, but I totally agreed, so I swapped it out for a couple of the shells that had been on this shelf. I like it much better up here and I like the grouping of the shells in the bowl much better, too. It’s nice having someone who can look at something with different, fresh eyes to make sure something works in the best possible way (and isn’t dangerous)!Abigail’s teacher sent me this picture. Her teacher keeps a bunch of Dr. Seuss stuffies on a shelf behind her desk and has a standing deal with Abigail. If Abigail is able to focus and behave during the day, she gets to play with one of the stuffies during free play at the end of the day. 🙂Two of Abigail’s recent pieces of artwork. She told me that her favorite art is getting to glue squares, so these two were right up her alley.
