Winter is here! It's freezing tempts here where we live. Snow has arrived to keeping the kids home from school and giving them their first virtual learning day at home for 2024. So far, we had many hot cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate! The kids can't keep their fingers off of the heart gummies I bought twice already but we are loving the winter scenes! Snow is on the outside and we are warm and cozy inside!
This is already the second week into January and we are not bored! January is the time when I love to go through our closet's and declutter! The basement got a good cleaning last week! The cold days keep me inside cleaning out drawers and organizing! What I used to dread, the month of January, I now don't mind! I used to dread winter and I thought I was housebound. I refocused my winter views a bit and now it's the best time to clean out the game closet, go through clothes we've outgrown or don't use, read some books, do puzzles, watch football and just simply relax! January is now a pleasant month for me!
January is also the month that keep us going from one basketball game to the next! I know this has a major factor of not feeling housebound! When the children were little, it was hard to bundle everyone up and go outside. It seemed to last for a minute. They needed naps and I just felt like it was never a great time to get out. Now, the kids are playing basketball! Hadassah is playing volleyball too. We love sports in our family and with a very fun, full sports program at school, we are stepping between practices and games and we love it!!!
We do puzzles! Right now we have a snowman puzzle being worked on on the dining room table. I worked on this the other day when it was blowing and snowing outside! Love to do this!
January is the start of a new year, a new calendar and I'm the paper planner girl! I just love to be able to see the month in one view and not a lot of extra pages! It helps keep our basketball schedule and all our other daily appointments in tact! I would be lost without a paper calendar!
We are still trying to walk at the park on these cold days. I love this time and it gets fresh air in lungs!
January is also the month that we decided to take a gadget reset! We did this last year when school started and it was so good to just put down the gadgets and electronics! I heard a podcast on Focus on the Family a few weeks ago and they said that just two weeks of no gadgets is a good reset! I talked to the kids about it and we agreed to do it! They did not ask for phones because it was no Youtube, no internet games or shorts! I was off on Instagram and Pinterest. Just taking a break!
Mike had a shed dealer that used to buy sheds from Lapps but now lives his winter in the sunny south! Every Christmas Otto and his wife send us a box of Florida oranges and grapefruits! Its the best! We love to spread Nutella on a soft croissant roll and top it with greek yogurt, fresh fruit and granola!
Austin is loving his basketball team! He was so nervous for his first game because it was in a real gym with a real gym floor and score board! He couldn't wait to play beside Adrian! His coach Rieff calls them The Double A Batteries! 🤣
He did so good and his team won!
We got some snow the first weekend of January. The kids wanted to make snow cones again so we mixed up sugar, water and koolaid and they served up snow cones.
Jeremiah and Hadassah are in the middle of remodeling the house they bought last summer! Paint, new kitchen, lots of new trim and flooring! Mike and Matthew helped them a few times and Arie even got to go along!
Hadassah asked us to pet sit their bunnies a few days last week and the kids loved it.
Boys and fast cars ... they just go together. John Ervins invited us out for dinner with them and he said we could take one of the sports cars. Mike just can't help himself and going fast was such a rush for him. I was trying to think of what excites me as much as speed excites him??? We totally enjoyed the night out with John Ervins, steak and the fast cars and I love this man like crazy!
Sourdough is fun to make! I made these a few times since the snow came!
Austin had two school projects due soon after the new year and then the Elementary students had an academic fair for us parents to come see what they created! Very cool!
We wrapped up our last Christmas gathering with the Riehl's on Sunday! I know no other group of people that invite everyone to all their gatherings! The Riehl's are delighted when us grandchildren show up with our children! Mose and Nance hosted all 116 of us! They had two bounce houses set up outside for the kids and it was freezing cold! They didn't mind and bounced anyway! This is the Riehl's at their best!
I've been watching for Bluebirds to show up and they came!!! I love to watch these pretty birds at our feeders! I made some fresh suit for them!
January is the time to feed and watch pretty birds from the kitchen window!
More snow was predicted and we got a few inches on Tuesday! The kids had their first virtual learning school day at home for 2024. Arie loves the snow too and was loving the time they spent with her outside!
They were throwing a beanie back and forth and Arie would jump up to try to get it!
It's a winter wonderland outside! I always say, "If it's gonna be cold, it may as well snow!"
And while the kids played outside, I got started on this puzzle!
I was ready to see the children off to school by Wednesday! We had a half day of school on Friday because of teachers in service and the academic fair. Then no school on Monday because of Martin Luther King, JR Day. No school on Tuesday because of the snow. A two hour delay was on Wednesday but they were off! I love my kids but it does come a time to get back to school!
January is the month of slow, cozy days at home. Today the cleaning got done. Bedsheets all washed. Laundry completed. Houseplants attended to. My fiddle leaf doesn't look stunning and so I trimmed the top and I hope to get roots growing on the pruned stems!?! I'm so blessed to be inside and out of the cold today!
Thank you January for becoming a fun, slow month for me! A month to rest. Winter is a season. It doesn't last forever, thank goodness! Stay warm!
