Furlough Routine

We settled into a furlough routine the past couple of weeks. I guess with routine comes forgetting to take pictures! I helped at Brenner's school, had lunch occasionally with the kids, volunteered at the food pantry, and spending as little money as possible! The kids had school, piano, futsal - all the regular stuff for them!

 Brenner got to play with the middle school boys - which was good for him - made him work a bit harder! Both kids are using the Dribble Up ball and you can tell an improvement in their footwork - especially Nola.

 Nola working hard at piano practice.

 The school district has a band night and pie auction. The fifth grade band kicked off the evening. Brenner is standing in the back (in the shadows). The kids liked listening to the auctioneers selling the pie in between songs!

 Nola got a Fairy Door from Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck for Christmas. We put it up and she asked the fairy for her to be nicer to her brother :)

 We invited our friends Danielle and Kevin over for lasagna Friday night. A very thoughtful neighbor made us a meal since I was furloughed. We ended up being able to celebrate the end of the shutdown - woohoo! We played Otrio with Danielle while the boys played Memoir '44 (Matt was laying down because of back problems). It was a fun night except for Matt being down in the back!

Brenner and Nola vanished after church - I found them playing Legos happily together in Nola's room!

Snow storm!

The big event for us this week was the snowstorm that hit Friday night (and lasted until Sunday morning). We racked up about 15 inches of snow - the kids hadn't seen that much snow in years. School let out early on Friday and as I was waiting for the bus the rain started to turn into snow. Perfect timing to get everyone safe. Many friends lost power but thankfully we did not! As for earlier in the week, I spent some time at the local foodbank and our church helping out with Baby Grace. Funny story at the foodbank...I know many of the retired folks that run it (they go to our church). We were unloading the distribution truck and there was 30-40 pound sacks of potatoes. They were a bit awkward (long and moving lumps) but I was managing when a 70+ man came to "relieve" me because it looked like it was a bit much for me....hmmmm....I was didn't say anything just went on to move a pallet of Rotel tomatoes and canned corn :)

The snow was beautiful - the evergreen trees in our yard looked especially gorgeous.

The neighbor boy came over to play Friday afternoon once the snow started coming down.

One of our redbud trees at about 7 am Saturday morning.

That same tree at around 11 am Saturday. We spent some time knocking off snow from the limbs to limit limb breakage. It worked pretty well with only pine limbs way up being the fatalities.

Nola sad at her failed snowman on Friday evening.

No fear - Frostina was created on Sunday morning - we could make an snowman/woman army if we had the gumption!

There's our gal!

Brenner was assigned to shovel the front sidewalk on Saturday morning. I think he was saying/crying "My hands are sooo cold!".

With some encouragement, he found his rhythm and smile.

Nola's fort before I told her to stay out because of breaking limbs!

One of the best smiles on the planet.

Kids were drying out and warming up so Matt and I went on a walk. It was so quiet. Aaahhhh.

Baylee found her snow legs!

We were making snow angels when Baylee decided to pounce on me! I got a mouth full of snow and a lot of licks!

Brenner building a fort for the snowball fight.

Incoming!

Love this guy!

We took this picture for Brenner's third grade teacher because he made this scarf in her class. But I was taken by his face - not a little boy anymore - sniff, sniff.

Movie marathon time- Mummy, Mummy Returns, and whatever the third Mummy movie was called (definitely missed Rachel Weisz in that one).

All that play calls for a fried egg sandwich with bacon!

Sunday night was futsal scrimmage. Nola was sick so I took Brenner in. They split the grades and Brenner and his buddy Drsytan were with the little kids (and kicking their behinds). Sooooo....I asked the coaches (since I did coach in the fall I am sorta still associated) to put those two with the older boys. Brenner did great and was much more challenged. He talked about practice all the way home and said he knew it was "my fault" to which I said "you're welcome!"

We had a bit of drama on Monday. Brenner forgot his math homework and his teacher is a stickler on responsibility. So we tried calling the school to have Brenner explain the situation and explore options. We missed her by 5 minutes. My good friend is the counselor and said that she could let us into school but I said no we already told him that wasn't an option. We then decided I could drop him off early the next morning and he could try to do it before school started (lots of tears and saying he couldn't get into the classroom which allowed us to talk about remaining calm and finding solutions rather than problems). I then contacted another parent that was going to take a picture of the homework which I could copy to create a new worksheet for Brenner to do. Well, her kid was home late and we didn't get the homework (60 problems!) until after 7:30. Reducing fractions and common denominators. Easy stuff :) Brenner did great and was really appreciative of the help. The next day he told me that he told his teacher the situation before she even asked. Good job, buddy. Driving him back into school would have been the easiest (especially will full on fit and despair about the missing page), but we would have missed the opportunity to help he deal with a situation with no severe lifetime repercussions. My prayer as a parent is to teach the kids coping skills in these minor issues so that they know what to do when repercussions can be more life lasting. Takes time and energy now but hey - isn't that what parenting is about?!

New Year, New Things

Matt and the kids headed back to school on Thursday while I remained furloughed. Ironically, none of them wanted to go back while I am waiting (I would like to say patiently!) to get back to work! We are talking to the kids honestly about the government shutdown and what it means for our families (and others as well). And I am trying to follow Matt's advice of not watching the news! I spent my time more wisely - cleaning (really cleaning) the house, visiting a friend in the hospital, and having lunch with Nola. I would like to volunteer at her school (or Brenner's) but it is a bit problematic to say I may be available so do you have anything that I can help with?! This week I have some other volunteer duties lined up. This Federal worker is not kicked back eating bonbons and binging on Netflix!

We discussed finances with the kids - we talked about bills, responsibilities, credit cards, income taxes (they didn't think this was fair lol!), and interest. They were actually pretty engaged. Last week we opened up savings accounts for them (their own) and made a point to make them physically go in and deposit the money. This is more real than seeing something on a computer screen. It also requires them to make a decision - do I save it or spend it, should I put part of it in the bank and buy something smaller that I want? After our discussion, each kiddo went through their rooms and pulled together another deposit. In our competitive nature each wants to get more than the other! Here Nola is waiting to make her deposit (Grandma came along!).

Nola and Grandma Val at lunch.

Grandma and the kids playing a new game Squashed - easy and fun to learn. Thanks Aunt Theresa and Uncle Chuck! We also enjoyed Otrio from Grandma Val - Tic tac toe three ways - makes your brain work!

Brenner and Nola got a Dribble Up soccer ball for Christmas from the Vogans and Greskos - they love it! It scores your skills. Brenner got a C+ the first time....how do you think that went over?!

A rare moment :)

In hopes of better communication with each other and us parents, we did some surveys to find the kids' love languages and spiritual gifts. Primary love language - Brenner: Gifts; Nola: Words of Affirmation. Matt (Words of Affirmation) and I (Acts of Service) had done ours previously. We then discussed how these come into play when we have disagreements or when we feel like we aren't being heard. Spiritual Gifts - Brenner:Prophecy (discernment, judgement, sensitive), Nola:Caring and Encouragement. These fit with what we see as parents in our children but it allowed us to discuss our uniqueness because God's plan for each of us is different. 

Nola made a picture for her fish Doc (so that he would have a friend). That caring nature coming out!

Brenner was recognized by his teacher for being the first to complete the reading circle in his class!

Nola had the beginning of January planned out!

Stay tuned for this but Nola is on the Lego Robotic team at her school! This should be exciting!