Hello 2017 and the changes that it brings. I'm going to do my best to not talk about politics, at least not today, so here's what else is happening in life.
Chocolate cake. Cake is good. Free cake is even better.
We celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary with a sans kids lunch out and free chocolate anniversary cake. Yay us!
The kids are trying to get back into the school day routine after winter break, but January is a little rough on new beginnings. We had no school due to an ice day declared last Tuesday, though in actuality the black ice on Wednesday, was worse, then were off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday followed by a two hour delay for professional development on Tuesday. Go to school already so that I know what day of the week we're on, people!
The weather has been crazy too, reaching about 51 yesterday. We have had enough rain that the neighbors' pond tries to include our yard despite the treeline between them. The kids call this area The Leak. It is the same area where some of the geothermal piping went last fall, and yes, that post is mostly done but needs edited by someone with more working brain cells than me and he's very busy this week and next. Hold your horses.
The Leak. Damon came in from school last week proclaiming that he had "glass from The Leak". This was the first time I'd heard of The Leak but as we'd been playing 52 pickup with the recyclables a few days earlier I figured out what he meant. Now, one can't intermingle glass with the rest of the recyclables here where we live. It must be taken to a certain destination separately. So I knew there was no glass in the 52 pickup we'd been doing.
It turns out his "glass" was actually a slab of ice that he'd set down on our kitchen counter. From my chair, I called to Carrie, "is that ice or glass?" She glances at it, "ice." "Then can you please put it in the sink so it doesn't melt all over creation?" "Too late." Insert eye rolls *here* as she dutifully scoops up melting "glass" and cleans up.
There looks to be about 15 pickup now in The Leak.
Karate continues. In three weeks we have another graduation and if all goes well Damon should be bumped up to a brown belt, which means all 3Thingz will be in the same level of classes. That probably means nothing to you, but it means that we can drive up, sit through one class (well, I'm the one sitting- THEY will be participating) and drive back instead of one kid waiting while doing homework whilst the other two are in class and then reversing positions. Come to think of it, we'll need a new homework plan, too. Hmm.
The big kids are officially "candidates" which means they can go to just about any class they want to and will be testing throughout the spring in order to receive their probationary black belts in May. That will be a really big deal, so for those of you in the general area who want to come see that, pencil in May 13. Testing starts in March, so this is, again, a really big deal for them. Black belt testing only happens twice a year, and it makes for really exciting graduations.
I'm still listening to first graders read on Thursday mornings and I love every second of it. It's incredible to see how much improvement they've shown since the beginning of the year. It's also awesome to see little people who are being well cared for by their villages, haha. There are quite a few I'd like to sneak home with me, but it's not because they're needy like when I was student teaching. It's more because they're so adorable and funny. It's a high point in my week.
Dada's workplace is going through some changes and not all of them are good, which is how change works sometimes. We have some friends who are job hunting and we're all working on the faith issue called trust. It's hard when loyalty to the company is not reciprocated in equal measure. To quote Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."
Our elderly Newfie is still holding down the floor between the kitchen and dining room, so all is right with the world there. Our gopher-sized squirrels are still being a nuisance with the suet. The kids are- dare I say it because here comes the jinx- relatively germ free and I'm hoping it stays that way, though with the dipsy doodle weather I know that's not reality.
How has 2017 begun for you? Did you make resolutions? Are you keeping them? The karate parking lot is full of overflow parking from the nearby gym as the resolution makers flock in. I should be glad for them, but I'm selfish and wish there were enough places elsewhere so that those of us doing homework in the SUV could also keep an eye on those of us in karate lessons.
And what's with the fruit flies in the dead of winter? Don't these little buggers EVER die?
Time for me to get off my keister and accomplish something in the realm of food. Have a wonderful hump day!
