January Family Updates
We’ve been collecting eggs for our neighbors who are out of town, so there’s an abundance of fresh organic delicious backyard eggs and we may not be able to go back to eating anything else! Especially this doggy…
W Silly Brains
This kid loves to joke around and make us laugh, especially when taking photos. He impress us with his quiet observance and thoughtfulness. We see it a lot with his Lego builds, which are well planned and detailed. I made dinner and he wanted to set the table “fancy” for Daddy (his favorite person in the world), so he folded the napkins into triangles and brought the candles over.
The kids have been into plants versus zombies for quite some time, but recently they started reading the graphic novels where the zombies are seen saying, “Brains” nonstop. Now W works “Brains!” into almost every sentence, most notably in songs. I heard the kids singing “I want it that way” by the Backstreet Boys at bedtime, and he ends it with, “I want your **braaaaaaiiiinnnnns**!” This morning at carpool, Renegades was playing and as the rest of the boys are singing, “And I say hey, hey hey hey, living like we’re renegades”, he’s singing, “And I say brains, brains brains brains, really want some yummy brains”! He laughs so much and tells me that it’s fun and zombies aren’t real so he’s not scared.
F Toothless Reader
I want to remember that F says “ideal” instead of the word “idea”. Which is often, as he’s sharing his “ideals” for new games or things we should do. He has earned some visits from the tooth fairy (Toothington, whom they leave notes to with their tooth), losing two teeth within a week of each other.
F is also super excited to start reading chapter books! His first is the Spirit Animals series, and it’s been amazing to see how well he sounds out the words and reads expressively. At the beginning of this school year he was reading at a Level A while his classmates were at Level C. He went into the Reading Intervention program for some extra support and targeted skill based reading instruction, and practicing reading at home with us for 20 minutes a day. Yesterday he came home and announced that he’s now reading Level L books! I’m so proud of how hard he works at it, and that he can see the progress and enjoy the world that’s opened to him from reading.
He has been excited to layer his button up flannel shirts on top of a T-shirt “like Percy Jackson”, and it’s the cutest!! We have been watching Percy Jackson the new series on Disney as a family, and the boys love the theme song and dressing like Percy.
I think he’s mostly forgiven me for cutting his bangs when I cut his hair.
L Artsy Lady
L can finally see! We visited the eye doctor to update her prescription, and it was a big change (yikes). She was able to pick out a new pair of frames and get a new backup, and can’t get over being able to see details now.
I was able to attend L’s orchestra concert. They had a full orchestra from grades 7-12 so she was in the very back middle and I couldn’t see her well, but I very much enjoyed the music. Her favorite piece to play was a Ninja song, but I think the crowd favorite was The Chicken Dance.
She’s turned into an artistic teen who occasionally wears chokers. I find her using oil pastels while listening to tunes on the old iPod with my music from 2007. Her art teacher in school hung up the self portrait L made that she got full credit for, and she was half embarrassed / half proud. She’s creating a flyer for babysitting called “Lily’s Littles” with fairy looking kiddos on flowers- so so cute!! It will be so fun to market with her own artwork. Can’t believe how creative this girl is.
L told me today that she loves her planner, as she hugged it and called it “my precious”. What child have I created?
J
Jer’s school Salem Hills Skyhawks Girls Wrestling team are STATE CHAMPIONS!!! His Payson team also beat the undefeated Uinta team! They are at Divisionals as I write this.
When the weather allows, riding his bike helps him recharge. He’s perfected potatoes in many forms cooked in the air fryer, so we look forward to his “mountain man breakfast”, potato wedges, and fries. We have enjoyed his reading The Hobbit to us, and it always warms my heart seeing him take turns reading with the boys and cuddling with them in bed.
I thought it was funny when he got a hankering to watch The Great Wall (a flop starring Matt Damon), so weeks later we watched it with grocery store sushi and had so much fun!
He won the “Best Husband Ever” award! I was forced to return a riveting book to the library in the middle of the climax (What’s going to happen???? Must read immediately)! I got put on the waiting list for weeks at all the local libraries. The audiobook and ebook version on Libby also had long wait times; I signed up for them, too. I looked into maybe just buying it, as I had a hard time switching to other reads while still mind-deep in this unavailable book. One random day, my husband texted me a photo of the book- I thought he was joking! Nope, he surprised me with a brand new copy he had checked out from his school library so I could finish it. He even left it in his trunk so I could pick it up if I couldn’t wait for him to get home that night. I can’t tell you how meaningful and thoughtful this gesture was to me. I didn’t even know he was aware of my desires, let alone organized enough to act on it!
K
I have rekindled my love for reading for fun, and read 2 of the secret projects from Brandon Sanderson in the last month: Tress of the Emerald Sea, and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. They were clean, full of adventure and exciting plot lines, fantastic world building, quirky humor, and I had all the positive energy after. These books have restored my faith in humanity! I’ve also discovered that the books I like the most are not too serious and just make me laugh. The Rosie Project had me rolling all throughout and felt like I was reading a Rom-Com (which I haven’t seen a good one in so long, so it was refreshing!).
With a few dreary rainy days lately, I’ve been wearing yellow to boost my mood against the gray skies and neighborhood. Roxy has been my walking / running buddy, and being outside in rain, snow, or shine has helped me get back into some good habits.
I’ve been cooking up a storm lately while Jer is busy with wrestling season. Stroganoff, minestrone soup, creamy mushroom pasta, slow cooked chili, baked potatoes, salads, smoothies, and of course trying to use up all the fresh organic backyard eggs!
Love, Kat
