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.
This past week started out normal…and then the weather literally dropped almost 40 degrees over night. They cancelled school on both Thursday and Friday because of freezing rain and cold temperatures. Luckily, Paul was able to telework both of those days as well, so we were able to stay home where it was nice and warm and dry. I did go outside twice…once to bring the trash cans back in (I found that I needed to break a thin layer of ice off of both the combination lock and the latch for our gate in order to get the gate open to put the cans back in the back yard) and once to drive down the street to grab a few groceries. It was during this grocery trip that my back decided it didn’t like the cold. So…the last few days I’ve been forced to slow down and be careful to avoid having it seize up on me as much as possible. I’m feeling quite a bit better today (it really was a blessing that school was cancelled on Friday as well, because that meant I was able to spend the majority of yesterday resting. I think that was a game-changer because I feel like I might be on the flip-side. Also, we have Stake Conference this weekend, which we can watch remotely, so we don’t need to leave the house for church. Hopefully that means that by Monday I can start back with some of my normal stuff.
Abigail had a “make your own monster” Play-Doh kit that she got back in October. Paul found it in the closet and got it out for her to play with. Nothing’s going to get past that guy…he’s got eyes on you at all times!We also welcomed the first day of February this past week. That meant pulling out the Valentines’ Day decorations! The pink and navy hearts are ones that I made years ago (along with the burlap and pipe cleaner hearts). I did add this Valentines’ felt garland (which I found at Hobby Lobby) this year. It was just what this section of the wall needed to add just a little more color.I also found the red hearts with the burlap bow at Hobby Lobby. I think they compliment the decorations that I already had.Normally she loves the idea of getting to walk Joseph to school…apparently that wasn’t the case on Tuesday.She basically told me that she was going to stay right there, thank-you-very-much.She did eventually come around to the idea, though…and then didn’t want to turn around when we normally do. We did a round trip of 3.5 miles that day!I call this next set of pictures……”Mom is trying to get a normal picture……but she’s failing……so she’s just embracing the silly.”Abigail asked me where I was going, since I had make-up and earrings on. I was getting ready to go to music rehearsal (I’m part of a trio that is going to sing at the adult session of Stake Conference tonight), but I thought it was funny that she associated those two things with me leaving the house. 🙂Wednesday was the 100th day of school. Joseph’s class did a few things, but not any crafts. Abigail’s class did a few more interactive things and her teacher sent me this picture. 🙂Thursday brought us freezing rain throughout most of the day.Those are the neighbor’s trees, coated in ice.The extra wire fencing we keep between Paul’s office and the house also had ice on it.I took this picture (Paul took the previous two). I thought the ice on the tips of the tree branches and leaves was so pretty!She was pretending to be a queen. She had me make her a crown and she made sure to get a throne and a scepter. 😁 When she found out that not all of her subjects were going to bend to her every whim (namely the 10-year-old one), she gave up the monarchy pretty quickly. 😂
This past week was a pretty typical week for the end of January. It’s hard to believe that we’re only a couple of days away from February. We didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary (it’s kind of hard to squeeze in fun stuff when we’ve got school, work, church stuff, and the like to work around). The kids did have a minimum day this past week, which was nice. It made it possible for me to take both kids on a nice, long walk in the afternoon. I love getting outside and being active…and we love how beautiful it is in our little corner of San Antonio. Today we’re just doing stuff around the house. I’ve got loads of laundry to catch up on and Paul is currently trimming the trees. The joys of home ownership! I joke, but I really am grateful for our home (and for my sweet husband who does such a great job maintaining it as well as the yards and trees). 🙂
We got this key chain in Relief Society. It’s a slightly simplified version (I imagine it was tricky to get the exact wording and still have it all on there in a font that was still readable) of one of my favorite scriptures: Philippians 4:13 reads: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” It’s a nice daily reminder. 🙂On one of our daily walks, we found this spider web (grass spiders will build their webs in the grass overnight and wait for prey) covered in dew. As we were walking, we found a ton more. It was really cool!I loved seeing the dew dripping off the edges of the leaves. With the sun shining on them, the dewdrops looked like glass.I was so excited when I found out this shirt fit again. My exercising is beginning to pay off!Now that the kids are bigger and understand about fragile things, I’m able to put more of Beth’s shells out. It’s nice to be able to see them and think of her. 🙂More of Beth’s shells…and my favorite lighthouse book. I got this a long time ago on clearance at Barnes & Noble. I think I paid $5 for it and the pictures are so beautiful!Some of Abigail’s recent school artwork: Sneezy the Snowman and an igloo.On our mid-week walk. We walked three miles!Creamy chicken and tortellini soup was the perfect dinner for a chilly night.She loves Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. She especially loves the episode about pets and always has to go and get her big puppy. She asked me to take her picture. 🙂Paul was trimming some of the branches on our front tree. Abigail ran and got steps and her plastic saw so that she could also “climb a ladder and trim branches.” 🙂
