Hello March

1.    Bryan's brother and wife are coming in town this weekend, which means we're taking the opportunity to address the long list of to-do’s in the basement that we could have and should have addressed a while ago. But, I ask you, where is the thrill in that? What is this long list we needed to accomplish to make the basement presentable? Let me tell you:

a.    I like to treat the guest room as my personal dump-all-the-crap room. There was a full Christmas tree dismantled in there, along with....well, all the crap I dumped in there. 

b.   The faucet in the basement bathroom was leaking weeks ago. Bryan took care of the leak, but we needed a new faucet and while we waited for it to arrive we got off the basement bathroom track and only got back on because of impending company (that makes it sound bad, which I did purely because it sounded funny). Snagged a new vanity top while everything was dismantled because the old one was terrifying from a botched DIY – it was one of my first, I’ve come a long way. We went to put everything together today and realized the faucet from amazon wouldn’t hang over the sink far enough and you’d be washing you hands halfway on the counter (why?), so I went on a quest to find a new faucet (because there is no longer time to order a new one. This is not the first time we’ve been in this situation. Maybe I shouldn’t buy faucets off amazon). Went to multiple stores, got one I liked, then had to get the right supply lines cause Bryan said we needed the right supply lines and I spent a lot of time fretting and trying to figure this out because it doesn’t say what size you need on the box (cause they’re standard, but I didn’t know that), long story short I was really struggling and it all came down to realizing that ½” is bigger than 3/8^” and I felt amazingly stupid.

c.    We had to relay the flooring we laid last year where we had water damage because we, again, had water damage. Saturday night Bryan comes to me and says “I messed up.” Uh-oh, Bryan’s admitting a mess up, things must be bad. He left his fish tank water on in the basement for an unknown amount of time…days. So we had to lift everything up and let it dry. Oddly it made a little stream, so the damage wasn’t that bad. I did tell him he’s about lost the privilege of having that tank. I just remembered when we were on vacation coming home from Utah and we planned to stop at a few national parks and mosey back, but our neighbor taking care of Stella told us his tank was overflowing and we had to race home and drive through the night ….I forgot about that until now, I should remind Bryan of that.

d.     Kids. The craft area is down there and even though I’ve really tried to make it as easy as possible to maintain, it’s a wreck (there is no way they’ve learned this from me with my “dump-all-the-crap” methods)

2.   I confirmed my schedule for me last term. Last term!! 15.5 weeks. 107 days.

3.   My friend gave me a bunch of baby girl clothes and maternity clothes that I’m taking out to Elizabeth. I’ve also been collecting things since before I knew they were expecting (you find a good thrift item, you get it…apparently). And then I stumbled upon Wal-Mart clearance for $1. And I got them cloth diapers off facebook marketplace (because used baby stuff here is better and cheaper than in Utah). I have officially crossed way over the “embarrassing amount to bring” line. Way over.

4.   I’m headed to Utah in 2 weeks! It’s my Christmas present, it was supposed to be fore grandma’s birthday, but at that point in the term it was too stressful. Sad I missed it, but so grateful I made that judgement call. But I’ll be there for Lizzy’s birthday, spring equinox, and will be able to have more grandma time.

Alright, onto this week. I mean, that was all this week, but that was my week and no one comes here for my week.

We got the biggest snow storm! The kind that is so big that everything shuts down and you hunker home and it's just magical. Also: should I be worried about my deck collapsing? 

The kids had Mon/Tue off for a long presidents day/teacher work day and then they had at home learning Wed/Thurs because of the storm! It was so fun. And I was so happy to see them go to school Friday. I did the calculations and as of that Thursday snow/flex day my kids had been home more days since the beginning of the year than they had been in school (including weekends)! This was not the year for our snow blower to RIP, but our neighbor has been so nice and has plowed our driveway a few times with the bigger snowfalls, so we got them donuts - girls insisted on delivering. We also got donuts and when Jac investigated them she was grilling Bryan on why he made the donut choices he made - "But dad, why did you get this filled one, don't you like bars more?" And Bryan was like, "I don't know." Which wasn't a satisfying answer for Jac, she let him know she disapproved with a furrowed brow look and told him that one was definitely his cause he chose it, so he had to deal with it. 

Some golf tournament was on during the endless days home and Blake secured her spot as favorite child for a while cause she kept requesting to watch it with dad. I'm fairly certain it was a stay-up-later ploy, but she also watched it during the day and made conversation about it (and then I didn't have to, hallelujah).  

 Jac had a snowshoeing activity around the school and I went to help. I had four kids with me and we went exploring the school grounds. It was the day after our big snow storm, so we had over a foot of powder making the snowshoes basically garbage (they likely were just garbage regardless of powder) and at one point each of them had one fall off and they realized it was easier to walk without them so I ended up just carrying a bunch of snowshoes. We found some animal prints, which were more like body plops because of how deep the snow was. It was 8 degrees and 2 of my 4 didn't have hats cause they were too hot, one lost his gloves and didn't care, and by the end all of them had their coats unzipped because it was too hot. Minnesota kids for sure. 

And then we "found" a tree that everyone walks by regularly, but today it was not off limits! Course they did all hop off when they saw their teacher coming. 

Friday we also celebrated Wade's birthday by going snow tubing on their "northern lights" night. It was such a blast! We had teacher conferences today and I guess it was all the buzz on Monday. We drove them all there and I've decided a bunch of nine year olds should be called a scream. So loud! It was 8 degrees so we made sure to have hand warmers and extra gear for all the kids - one girl kept saying she gets cold pretty easily, I wanted to say that I would too in her gear. So grateful we've done our best to get good gear, makes life 1000x better. 

We went snowboarding the next day and it was the best snow ever. Wade went off a jump, got air, and landed it!! I've never seen him more proud of himself. I took a video from the ski-lift and told him I captured it...it wasn't him. Took a video of not my kid. Also hollered at "Jac" from the ski lift telling her to not leaf....was not her. Maybe I should mind my own business on the lift. 

Blake was cleaning up and, as one does, started wearing all the things she was unearthing. 

This is from two weeks ago, but Jac had a fever one night and stayed home the next day, but she felt totally fine by then, so she was bouncing off the walls. She set up a spa for me in her room. I had a short clinical for school (Bryan worked from home that day) and when I got home she was so excited to treat me to my surprise. "I am gonna surprise you." Sheesh I love their signs. 

During the snow days the kids all slept in Wade's room. No was that is comfortable: 

Blake was telling me about the pink that she likes and said she doesn't like crayon pink, so I asked her what crayon pink was and she replied, "It's when you have a crayon and it's pink." And she moved her hand back and forth in a "coloring" action. 

We're still doing good news/bad new at dinner. Now it often includes them introducing themselves and everyone saying hi...like an AA meeting. Oh sheesh. We also say something we're grateful for and Blake said she's thankful for school - Jac replied in a "duh" voice that everyone is grateful for school. Glad you feel that way honey. Glad all my kids feel that way. 

We had parent teacher conferences today and every. single. kid is doing well in all academics and socially. That wasn't the case earlier this year. They're all excelling, more confident, and feel like they have a place to be themselves. I am so happy. We've seen it a ton at home too (we've also worked on it a ton too). They each have such great teachers, so so grateful - especially cause this year has been difficult with me going to school too, it wouldn't be surprising if they lagged a little bit.