Weekly Happenings: This past week held some fun times for a few people in our household. We had General Conference (a worldwide conference for our church) last weekend, which was wonderful as ever. It’s still weird to see it being broadcast from a smaller room with just a few people in attendance, but I’m grateful that it could still happen. I’m so grateful for technology! Monday, Joseph was able to go back to school in-person. He said that it was a bit weird wearing a mask all day, but he’s really glad he gets to see his teacher in person and see all his friends (and recess with friends is good, too). AND. On Thursday, I got to pick up my best friend, Tracie, from the airport. She has come down for a short trip (she goes back to Utah tomorrow evening), so we’re soaking in as much San Antonio and Texas sights as we can. So far, we’ve been up to Waco (the Silos, Magnolia shop, Harp Design Co., the suspension bridge, and the Dr. Pepper museum) and have seen some of the Downtown sights (the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Riverwalk, the Alamo, and La Villita (and the Arneson River Theater). Tomorrow, we’re going to hike Enchanted Rock and check out Fredericksburg (so those pictures will be on next week’s blog). Paul was able to take a couple of days off so that Tracie and I could have a lot of time together. I’m so grateful for him!
The Weekly Weather: I wish I could say that the cooler temps have been hanging around, but they haven’t. At least the mornings have been cool, though. I think we’re supposed to have a cool front move in soon…so that will be nice.
What Paul’s Been Up To: The poor guy got a sinus infection the day before I picked Tracie up from the airport. He was pretty sure that’s what it was, but he still went in to urgent care to be sure (and to get some antibiotics). They did a chest x-ray and a COVID test (which came back negative, thank goodness) and then gave him some antibiotics. He’s starting to feel a bit better now that he has a couple of days of antibiotics in his system.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: As was already mentioned, I’ve been traipsing around town and around Texas. 😀 I’ll go into more detail with the captions for the pictures.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He really enjoyed getting to go back to school. He comes home happy every day. It’s so great!
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She doesn’t like leaving Joseph at school, but she sure is happy when he comes home! She does like having more “Mom time” now that I don’t need to be helping Joseph with school.
This Week in Pictures:
He was pretty excited to go back to school.She wasn’t sure about needing to be up so early. This was her mid-day.This has been her reaction every time he’s come home, though. She misses him while he’s at school.Ah, Texas sunset!It’s been three years since we last saw one another. This weekend has been so great!She wanted me to put a clover behind her ear…“Cheese!”She turned her head because she wanted to be sure I could see the clover.Dr. Pepper museum. I thought the differently shaped bottles were neat.An info page on a little history of Dr. Pepper.I love the vintage signs.See? Even Godzilla prefers Dr. Pepper. 😉 This was a funny sign that was in the museum.Outside.At one end of the suspension bridge were these bronze statues. They used to drive cattle over the bridge back in the day. This is the vaquero……and this is the trail boss.I’ve seen shots of this bridge on Fixer Upper, so it was cool to see it in person.On the suspension bridge.Selfie!Another selfie!It was cool to get to go to Harp Design Company. Clint Harp is the man who would do a lot of the woodwork on Fixer Upper. He now has a company and a shop front. I bought some cool candlesticks from there.Silos!A lot of it was still under construction (they’re doing some expansion), but it was still fun to get to walk around what was still open.Japanese Tea Gardens.I love that waterfall!I thought these blue flowers were beautiful.So, this heron was sitting on this little island in the water…which doesn’t look like water because of the reflection of all of the greenery.I promise it’s water, though. In this one, you can see the heron’s reflection in the water.A close up of the waterfall.I loved getting to traipse around the gardens with Tracie!I thought the social distancing suggestion on this sign at the Alamo was funny.The Alamo!Had to get one with both of us, for sure.Right now, you have to set up a tour time in advance, which is nice. It means it isn’t as crowded…which means more opportunity for shots like this.The Arneson River Theater. Pre-COVID, they would do plays here and people taking the riverboat tours could even catch part of the show. The grassy part is actually seating.Walking the Riverwalk.Paul took this picture and sent it to me. She sure has loved getting to spend time with “the boys”.
Weekly Happenings: This week, we welcomed October. Yay! We didn’t really do too much out of the ordinary aside from pulling out the Halloween decorations, which made Abigail ridiculously excited. She probably asked me fifty times that day if it was time to go trick-or-treating. 😀 Oh! We did get to go to church in person for the first time since March. Even though we were all spread out and wearing masks, it was still nice to get to go and worship at church.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been really nice this week. Monday, a cold front moved in and dropped the temperature. I think the high was only in the 70s. It did warm up during the rest of the week, but the mornings have still been nice and cool.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He finished up the two week course that he needed to take for work. He will also be checking in about work, because he might be approaching the end of working from home and going back to going in to work full-time.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve done my typical things (keeping up with Joseph’s schooling, the housework, keeping Abigail entertained, piano teaching, etc.).
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been doing great with school. He is pretty excited, though, because he should be able to finally return to in-person learning on Monday. Hurray!
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has really showed us just how smart she is. At church, Abigail noticed that a little boy was taken out by his dad when he was crying. She asked what was wrong and I said that he was sad, but that his dad took him out to help him feel better. She then asked if I could take her out and I told her no…so a few minutes later, she started fake-crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that she was sad and that I needed to take her out. Nice try, kid. Then there was one night where I gave her some bite-sized graham crackers to eat, but cautioned her against putting too many in her mouth at once…she promptly grabbed several crackers, turned away from me (so I couldn’t “see”) and put them all in her mouth. She realized quite quickly the error of her ways, gagged a bit, and then took most of the crackers back out. She then (rather sagely) told me, “Mom, I can’t put too many crackers in my mouth…it will make me choke!” Uh, yeah. That’s exactly what I told you! She’s also done some pretty funny things. One is her desire to fake-sneeze everywhere (which, in hindsight, might not be the best thing to encourage her to do during a pandemic). The other thing happened when we got out the Halloween decorations. She picked up a spider, clutched it, gasped, and then said, “Oh! The spider got me! Now I’m Spiderman!” Silly goose.
This Week in Pictures:
She was convinced that if everyone’s shoes were on, it meant it was time to go to church…so here she is, helping Joseph put on his shoes, even though it wasn’t quite time to go yet.All ready for church!Showing me a clover.Loving the cool weather.She loves this big green ball.Soaking in the coolness. Can you tell it’s been hot for a really, really long time?She loved to feel the breeze.My tomato plant is exploding with new fruit. I think I counted 75 little green tomatoes of varying sizes.Spinning!Swinging in the cool breeze.She was excited to get to “match” me.Jeans jackets are all of a sudden back in fashion. Yay!Can’t get more Texas than this: a Buc-ee’s shirt, jeans jacket, and boots (with Texas flags on them, even).She loved it when he was pushing her.I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized her was wearing his sweatshirt…it was probably in the 70s, but he was excited to wear it, I guess. 🙂I love the window clings I found this year. They’re very “San Antonio” (as is my door hanger, which is metal and wood).I love this little Halloween house!My piano set up.This is a fun corner with the signs and my new pumpkin.Abigail really wants me to take this down so she can ride it like a witch…I’m not sure it would survive, though.Ghost lights!Pumpkin lights!It wouldn’t be Halloween if we didn’t cover the book case in spiderwebs. 😉 I did check with Joseph to make sure he didn’t need any of the books off of there before I did so, though. 😀I had a little extra web left over, so I covered this shelf, too.I think I’ve used this quote every Halloween, but I just love it so much! It’s from a song in Nightmare Before Christmas, and I feel it really captures the spookiness of Halloween.Fun Halloween centerpiece.She saw these slippers at Walmart. I was about to try to persuade her against them, but then I remembered that she had recently grown out of her unicorn slippers…so, yeah…into the cart they went. When told she couldn’t have the flying broom, she luckily accepted my Swiffer duster as a close second.She used her new pumpkin wand as a “magic wand” and turned me into a frog. She even tacked on the magic words (aba-ca-da-ba!!!!!) and an evil witch laugh (Heh, heh, heeeee!).More swinging. You’ll notice that Abigail has both her pumpkin bucket and Joseph’s bucket…you know, just in case it was all of a sudden time to go trick-or-treating. 😉October nails! If you cock your head to the right a bit, you can see the black cats peeking in.She loves plain Greek yogurt. I’m okay with it since it’s probably one of the main ways she gets protein.They went out in the back yard every day this past week (during Joseph’s recess break). I think I may end up needing to still take Abigail out for “recess” after Joseph goes back to in-person learning at the school.My piano during a different part of the day. The first picture I took was in the morning, so it was all bright. I love seeing it in the evening, when the light is casting a warm glow across the oranges, rusts, and golds.Our fun Halloween countdown board.One of Abigail’s new things is wanting to make her sandwiches different shapes. Thank goodness for cookie cutters! She didn’t exactly ask out of the blue for a Texas-shaped sandwich, but when given the choice, the answer in the affirmative was quite prompt.
Weekly Happenings: This past week was another survival week. We all kind of just plugged along, doing our things that needed doing. Thank goodness we have each other to buoy us up. The kids get along (most of the time) and always make me laugh with their antics (hence the title of this post). Paul is insanely helpful with stuff around the house, with the kids, and is the best partner a girl could ask for. I strive to be the same for him. It’s really the only way we’re getting through this whole pandemic thing. It’s rough at times, but the good times still definitely outweigh the rough patches.
The Weekly Weather: It continues to gradually cool down, but it’s been humid as all get-out. That is all, haha.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been taking a course for work. He’s got one more week to go with it. He says there’s a lot of information to absorb in a short amount of time, so he’s got pretty packed days.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve pretty much just been pluggin’ along with housework, child-rearing, piano-teaching, meal-making, etc. Toss in helping Joseph with digital learning and I’ve got a pretty full line-up each day.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been doing school, playing with Abigail, playing games, and the like. He has such a quick sense of humor that makes raising him so much fun. Just the other day, we were talking about gnats (he hates how they buzz around his head) and how spiders probably eat a lot of them. Then he came up with these gems: “Hey Mom! What do spiders eat for breakfast? ‘Gnat-flakes’! They’re BUZZING with flavor!” He then continued with “What is a spider’s favorite channel to watch? GNATflix!” (as opposed to Netflix). He’s a riot sometimes!
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been keeping me on my toes with everything that she wants to do every day (some approved and some most definitely NOT approved, haha). It can be challenging at times, but I’m so grateful she’s part of our family!
This Week in Pictures:
She was waiting for him to give her a ride around the house.My batter bowls make for an excellent place to let my bread dough (in this case, pizza dough) rise. Since they have tight-fitting lids, no drafts get in at all.Our masks came in for Halloween. Paul got one for Abigail (that will go well with her Vampirina costume, since Vampirina is a little girl vampire) and one for me that matches hers. We’re hoping that Abigail will be excited enough about matching masks that she’ll want to keep hers on while we trick-or-treat. Joseph’s costume (a ninja) already covers his mouth and nose, so he’ll be good. This year is definitely one for the books!Sparkly purple nails are fun!She found some dried out baby wipes and was pretending they were “ghost-es” . She was making spooky noises and was making them float around.Watching PBS and playing with toys. Both things keep her busy while I help Joseph with school.I told them to say “Cheese!” and this is what I got. I think it perfectly captures their personalities.Who knew that Happy Meal boxes doubled as cool hats with built-in goggles? 🙂I never know where I’m going to find her. Before I went upstairs to fold laundry, she had asked me to buckle her into her booster seat, but wanted me to leave it on the floor. She had been playing with her tablet. When I came back downstairs, she had unbuckled herself (didn’t realize she could do that…but it’s been duly noted) and was sitting up here with her tablet. Don’t worry, though…after I documented this moment for posterity, I got her down where she was safer. 😂
