February

 

February has come and gone - we are well on our way to spring!   Here are some pictures of our February adventures.  We made some groundhog donuts (chocolate donuts from the store with teddy grahams and green frosting).  I'm not up for super intense baking most days.

We've gone on several nice hikes.  On this day Anna was participating in a regional honor choir for school. The rest of us hiked near the Washougal River.

On top of the big bridge crossing the river.  Emma was very nervous about the bridge.  I am probably holding her hand in this picture.

Throwing rocks into the water - this is where a creek joins the Washougal River.

Back over the bridge and home again.

You can see Emma's little head next to me in the shadow.

And we got to see Anna's honor choir concert in the evening.  

She did a great job!

Emma and I (mostly I) made a whole bunch of sugar cookies for Valentine's Day.  We had some homemade frosting and some store bought.  I was having trouble with the cookie dough sticking to everything.  We got our cookies made eventually - for me this was "super intense baking" or at least as intense as I'd like to do.  And it did make me a little crazy.

I'm slowly making progress in War and Peace.  I'm about 30% done now.  

This pic was probably taken at 20% or so.

Dressed for church pic

A drawing of Emma's 

Positivity

Some Sunday nights we make popcorn and watch a movie.  Usually Scott makes the popcorn but I made it on this day since he was gone visiting with his high school buddies.  We added marshmallow for extra gooey-ness.

Anna just finished up her middle school soccer season.  It was a great experience!  She played mid-field on the 8th grade team and they had a great season.  As one of the top two teams in their league they made it to the final game - which ended up in a heartbreaking loss.  But they had a great season (2nd place of about 8 teams) and only lost to one team all season.  Way to go girls!!  Here is Anna after a particularly cold game.  For some of the games it was about 30 degrees and sometimes windy and moist.  It felt very cold in the stands and I felt so bad for the girls.

Here we are warming Anna's hands up after a game.

I took Matthew shopping one day so he could "pick his own clothes."  He got a few church clothing items and a few casual clothing items.  I guess he's tired of me picking things out for him.  Actually he said he likes what I pick but just wanted to get a few things of his own choosing.  Anna came with us too.

I tried waterproofing my favorite leather clogs.  The one on the left has been treated in this picture.  I want to be able to wear them in the rain without worrying too much.  Hope it works.

Here is Grant's simple machine Valentine box.  It has a lever handle and an axle (wheel) inside with two elevator cars that go up and down.

The inside.  You insert Valentine's in on the left upper hole.  Then turn the crank and the left elevator car goes down while the right one goes up.  The left one then tips backward as it hits the popsicle stick (on the outside its a window washer Lego man) and the Valentine inside tips back into the bottom of the box.  Then the elevator can go back up empty.  This was Grant's own idea and design and he built it with only minimal help from me.  I wanted to help make his idea work, so I helped a little with the design, but he really did all the building and it worked!  Great job, Grant!!

On another day we had a nice hike at Lacamas Lake.  It was windy but warmish.  Anna didn't come with us on this day because she was tired from a busy week of soccer.

at the lake

at the lake

It was a fun hike!

Afterwards we got milkshakes in town and played at the park until we got too cold.

On a day off school I took the kids ice skating again.  Scott had to work on this day.

Everyone had fun ice skating!

Grant was able to skate off the wall pretty well by the end.  Improvement!

John and I resting for a minute.  He went around on the wall on his own - didn't need too much help but didn't want to leave the wall.

Afterwards we went to Cold Stone for ice cream.

We had a surprise snow day towards the end of the month.  It was only a little snowy at our house but lots more snow in the hills/mountains nearby in our district.

Here is Matthew having a lazy snow day

John and Emma did some drawing on the day off from school

Cute animal/food drawings by Emma

This a few days earlier...we had a park play day with the cousins

Then we went to my parents house for some lunch.  We got lucky - we didn't get rained on at the park but as soon as we left for lunch it started to hail.

  

For Matthew's birthday he wanted to do an escape room.  We did this "Murder on the Train" themed room.  Emma and I sat this one out but the others had a good time - Emma has a history of getting very scared in escape rooms.  They solved the puzzles and escaped the room with 12 minutes to spare this time!  Good job guys!!  This is our second time going here - ParadigmQ in Vancouver.  The rooms are family friendly (not too scary) and the people who work there are really nice.  They give you as many hints as you want - its funner if you are making progress in the game, rather than just stuck.  They even let the kids walk around to see the other escape rooms that weren't in use after their game.

After the escape room we went to Olive Garden for a birthday meal.

And later on Matthew's real birthday we had cheesecake!

Matthew impressed us all by blowing out all 15 candles in one blow.

And here's Matthew enjoying some of his gifts - tiny Dungeons and Dragons dice in a little case.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

January

January is...hard.

I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way.  Christmas is done and we still have a long stretch of bleak winter in front of us.  Here are some pictures of our January adventures.

Scott and I decided to leave our tree up well into January.  The garbage people wouldn't take it until then anyway so we didn't take it down until January 15th this year.  The tree was starting to get pretty dry by then, but still looked nice.  Reluctantly we finally took down the Christmas decor.

Gentle sobbing

Someone hid the pickle ornament in the tree a little too well.  We found it after we took the tree outside.  The kids were afraid it was lost in the tree forever, but Scott found it.  Pickle saved!

We still had Christmas treats for a little while.

We enjoyed lots of Christmas gift time - especially at the beginning of January.  Here's Emma playing with one of her Christmas gifts.

And the kids doing aqua beads that they got from Christmas

We got a little craft box/tackle box thing to sort the aqua beads

This just makes me happy to have it all organized instead of in tiny bags.  We don't always have the luxury to organize kid stuff so well.

Grant working on a big lego set with Matthew - another Christmas gift

In the fall Matthew was on the stage crew for the school play.  He tried out to be in the cast for the musical play they are starting this winter and got in so he has play practice nearly every day after school until after dinner.  So he's pretty busy with that.

Emma's latest Lego creation

And new perler bead creations - made by Grant

John and Emma have been playing chess a lot.

Matthew and Anna taught them how to play.

A new fleece poncho.

I think I bought this fabric for Emma over the summer but we never got around to doing anything with it until now.

We had lots of big rain earlier in January and the Washougal River near us got REALLY high.  This is the sandy swimming hole where we swim during the summer.  All the shore was completely covered up with the raging river.

We measure everyone's height in January and mark it on our big ruler.

Everyone grew a lot this year.

Our local library is doing this fun thing where you get dragon cards for reading (kind of a knock off of Pokemon cards).  Our elementary kids are really excited about earning their dragon cards.

We finally got rid of our gingerbread houses - they lasted a long time!

Just after Christmas break Anna tried out for the school soccer team.  She hasn't played in a few years mostly because of Covid so she was a little nervous about trying out.  She made the team and has made a lot of new friends.  Scott and I are beyond proud of her since they are out playing and practicing in the cold and rain (and dark) every day and she has been doing it without too much complaint.  Here she is one day after a game.

She's red #13 right in the center of this picture.  On this day it felt so cold up in the stands - I need to bring some blankets next time - and I felt so bad for the girls playing out in the cold. 

Here is Anna warming up after the game.

Way to go Anna!!

We made some buckeye's from Ma2's recipe.  Anna was really excited to make them.

Yum Buckeyes!

And Emma always wants to make cupcakes so we made some Valentine ones.  Emma's friend had put blue eyeshadow on her on the bus on this day

Emma has been doing girls scouts since October and I finally got her patches on her vest.  I haven't been the most together this school year, but working on it.

Emma in her girl scout vest!

And she's selling cookies! Oy!

John wanted to make a Valentine's Day box - we made this robot from a kit.  The kids are really excited about Valentine's Day

Grant has to make a Valentine box for school that includes a simple machine (like a pulley, a lever an inclined plane etc.). He is doing a little elevator with either a simple pulley or a lever crank.  He's still deciding and we need to see what works for his idea.  Anna and I helped him paint his box which is going to look like a little building.

We've been a little bit obsessed with the Encanto music  lately (a new-ish Disney movie) especially the song We Don't Talk About Bruno!  Here's Emma singing along to it.

Anna has been asking to go ice skating so we went to a place in Vancouver.  Anna can skate pretty well after practicing on roller blades enough.  Matthew can skate ok, but the younger three can't skate so they were all very nervous or hesitant.  Grant kind of jumped out there and gave it a try on his own, going round and round on the wall.  John got out on the ice, went about 3 yards and said nope!  He went and sat for a while.   I took Emma around with this plastic seal thing - the other kids were too tall to use this but Emma had a great time skating and pushing the seal.  She got better and better the more she tried it. 

John did give it another try after some convincing.  I held his hand while he held the wall and we went round and round while Scott helped Emma...and Grant fended for himself.  By the end of our time the three younger kids had improved so much.  They were all asking when we could go ice skating again.  As soon as we got there Matthew saw three friends from school and hung out with them the whole time.  They let Anna hang out too, which was nice.  We run into friends all over town now, which is fun.

Here's Grant showing me his speedy skating (with the help of the wall).  He improved so much while we were there, and all on his own.

John hugging the wall - he got more relaxed as we went on.  I'm so proud of him for persevering.

Anna skating so effortlessly

And one of the best parts of ice skating - watching the Zamboni smooth the ice.  Woohoo!!  Ice skating!

Scott and I got away for a little hike one Saturday afternoon while the kids all did their screen time.  It's nice having babysitting age kids.  And it's nice to get out whenever there is sun.  January is all about staying in a good mental health place. Getting outdoors always helps.

Getting going on my next class - more statistics or more specifically hypothesis testing in statistics - has been hard.  I didn't get much done over Christmas break and I've had a hard time getting my head around school post-Christmas.  Here is my office.  I decided I needed more pictures of flowers or nature to fight the January gloom.  Scott brought me some real flowers for my desk too.

Over Christmas I got my official grades for my first two classes from the University of Colorado.  I was surprised to see I had a 4.00.  I thought maybe one of my classes was going to be a low A, so wasn't sure.  I never had a 4.00 in college.  I'll enjoy it while it lasts.  So I am having a hard time getting started but working on it.  And here are few other random things that I've been doing.

I've been turning our favorite family recipes into a google document so I can make a print out for the kids.  I was thinking if I started now I could maybe get it done by the time Matthew goes to college (in 3 1/2 years), but it actually came together pretty fast.  The kids all told me which recipes we should include.

My favorite podcast to listen to while I treadmill or hike - Stuff You Should Know

I'm not really an animal person - I mean I like them well enough and love learning about animals but we have no pets - but I love watching shows about veterinarians.  Disney plus has a bunch in their National Geographic content, and I've watched some with the kids.  Lately I've been obsessed with Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet.  I also recently reread All Creatures Great and Small (a veterinarian book) and watched the new PBS All Creatures Great and Small show, which is great.  Anna read those books too so we are watching the All Creatures Great and Small episodes together.  I like all the medical science involved on all the different kinds of animals.

I like Russian literature and I thought I would give War and Peace a try this year.  It's about 1350 pages.  I'm listening to the audio book (which is 56 hours long) while I walk and run on the treadmill or hike outside.  And then I review what I listened to in the book.  I had to make sure my book matched up with the audiobook translation since there are different translations out there.  And I've had to read up a little on the Napoleonic wars.  I can't guarantee I'm going to finish this in a year, because some days I'm just really not in a War and Peace mood.  But pressing forward - 5% done so far.  It's going to take a while.

I'm reading the revised Maude translation if you are interested

And I've mentioned it before on here but for some reason I am completely burned out on making dinner these days.  Maybe its all the lock down homeschool stuff or trying to do my own school work plus all the usual household/family stuff.  I don't know.  Normally I kind of enjoy cooking, but making dinner at the end of a busy day is the last thing I want to do these days.  And yet we still need to eat.  The kids will ask me all the time what's for dinner and if they don't like the first thing I say (the main dish) they will keep asking "what else" is for dinner.  And sometimes when I'm super tired, crying on the inside and trying to cook dinner I do not feel like answering these questions over and over.  So I am trying this little dry erase board.  The kids like being able to go check the chart.  Friday we usually have pizza and movie night, Saturday Scott and I get take out and we feed the kids something like chicken nuggets.  This week its a lot of stuff from Costco.  I'm hoping I can get to a better place with cooking again soon.  And we're baby stepping to spring.