Quick Update

It has been over 2 months since I last posted anything on my blog. It has not been for lack of things happening. I just lacked the desire to write about it. So since there is a lot of ground to cover, I will post in list form.

1. Christmas came! The big gift for Bella was a Ukelele, which she'd been begging us for ever since her babysitter brought hers over for the kids to play with. 
The big gift for Elias was one of those remote controlled helicopters from the mall - the ones that they zip around your head while you are trying to get to Chick-fil-a without your kids seeing - the ones that they sell for $120-150. Well, they can be had on Amazon for around $30 bucks. The. exact. same. toy! And we learned 2 things. First, there is a reason that those guys get them started for you before they hand you the controls, because they are not as easy to control as they make them out to be. Second, unless you live in a place with ceilings as high as the mall, they are really not able to be flown in the house without causing serious damage to the plane or other fixtures or people who may be nearby.
Josh and I got each other a few small things, but our main gift to each other was a new bedroom furniture set. The set we have been using since we got married was a set that my parents bought me from a neighbor's yard sale when I was 11 and through the years we have brought in other mismatched pieces to replace or supplement the original set. We bought a set of custom built Amish furniture that has tons of storage, and is as durable as it is beautiful. We paid a little more for it than your average set of manufactured furniture, but I really feel like it is well worth it.

2. Did I mention that Josh got into an accident 2 days before Christmas and totaled his car? Yeah, that happened. But we didn't find out that it was totaled until 2 days after Christmas. He ended up getting a car that is almost the exact same car he had before, just two years newer. In the end, it all worked out well and we were so thankful no one in either car was hurt, but it definitely made the holidays a little more stressful!

3. We attended a wedding on New Year's Eve. It was a fun way to spend the holiday.

4. Bella turned 8 on January 4th. We had a small party here at the house for her. She wanted to have a makeover party. Everyone had a good time and it was pretty easy to pull off on my part. Her birthday being right after Christmas and at the height of winter weather makes birthday planning a little dicey. But this year, the weather decided not to get bad until after her birthday. But once it started, it decided to stick around for a while.

5. Snow and COLD. For those of you who live near, you understand what I mean. That has been the definition of January and February here. The kids went to school for a total of 7 1/2 days for the entire month of January! And February was only slightly better, with lots of 2 hour delays. Our kids played in the snow so much that they actually got tired of doing it and there was snow on the ground for longer than I ever remember since living in Fairmont.
We went to Mountain Creative one day to paint pottery. We went to The Starving Artist another for the kids to paint a picture of Olaf from Frozen. We went to see the movie Frozen. We went sled riding at 5th street park a few times, since we have no real sled riding hill here. But we mostly just stayed at the house.
My friend Crystal gave us snow tires because they bought a new van and their old snow tires didn't fit on their new van. I have been able to get out on bad days much more than I have ever before. I am so thankful that she gave them to us, because they were definitely needed for this winter and I never wanted to spend the money for snow tires before because I just wasn't sure if they would make enough difference to warrant the cost. But now I will never go another winter without them!

6. With our new furniture, Elias inherited Josh's dresser to replace his old changing table that he has been using as a dresser since. It somehow made me feel how much he is growing older, even though he has not used the stand as a changing table for years and year. We gave it to a young couple who just has a baby and when they picked it up, I felt like a bit of our past was going with it. It was one of the first things we bought to outfit the nursery when we found out I was pregnant and Elias spent a lot of time on it when he was a baby.

7. I did a major clean out of our closets on one of our many snow day weeks. I got rid of a bunch of stuff. As we are getting rid of stuff, I realize how much stuff I have had since we got married or even from way before that I still use on a daily basis. Like towels and washcloths. I have bought new towels and washcloths, but for some reason, I prefer the threadbare softness of the old ones. And I also realize just how far Josh and I have come from our meager financial beginnings, but I am always thankful that we started out that way.

8. We live about 2 minutes from a grocery store. Because of that, I had gotten into the bad habit of not really planning ahead too much for meals. I get the basics and plan for a few meals at a time, but I often make the same things because it is what I remember to pick up while I am at the store and then if I want to make a specific thing, I run out and get the missing ingredients.
With the weather being cold and uncertain, I began meal planning more in early January and have been meal planning like it is my job ever since (which, technically, it is sort of my job). We have eaten so well this winter and have had so many recipes we love. Every time I sit down to plan, I think that we can't have anything else for me to make because I have made so much already. But then I look through my recipes and discover that there are all sorts of recipes I haven't made recently. It also takes the stress off of me day-by-day, since I don't have to think of what I will make.

9. Along with that, last fall I moved my crock pot from where I used to store it on my pantry shelves in the basement to the closet in my dining room.  I have used it about 3 times more than I used to when it was downstairs. I really am not sure why I didn't do that before.

10. It is sometimes the littlest things that makes life more enjoyable. Josh bought wireless light switches for several of our lamps in our house, so now we can just walk into the room and push a switch instead of going around to each lamp to turn them on. It is amazing how something so small and really inexpensive can make a difference in your daily life.

11. Both kids loved the movie Frozen. Bella especially has became obsessed with the Frozen soundtrack and has learned almost every word to all the songs on the soundtrack.

12. Elias has been working on his first song on his drums, which is "Learning to be the Light" by Newworldson. It is really neat getting to hear an actual song forming and I love hearing him walk around singing the words to a song that has really great meaning. I am so thankful for his drum teacher and that he is helping to build Elias spiritually and not just with his drum skills.

13. I am so excited that one of the translators who spent the week with our team in Peru and is a formerly sponsored child through Compassion (but now lives in the States) will be coming to our church this year for Compassion Sunday! It is something I have hoped for since returning from Peru.

I was going to include pictures, but we cleaned out my drop box on my laptop and put them on the external hard drive, so they aren't easily accessible. Hopefully, I will find the motivation, time and post-worthy material before May!  If anyone is left out there to read this, thanks for reading!