Mid January.

 

It's winter time here at our house.  The new year brought us down with the flu but we are on the mend and doing well!!!  Health is something I thank the good Lord for everyday!  And the sunshine!  We had such a dreary Christmas vacation with gray skies.  We came home from the cabin and the sun is now beaming through our house windows and Matthew commented on Sunday morning that "it's so bright in here!!!"  I love that about our remodeled house!  Six years ago, we had a much darker home and I would never want to go back to that!

Something I hope to do more of this year is read.  My problem with books is I just need recommendations!  If someone raves about a book they read, I'm all into it too!  I need to get inspired and read more!  I hope to read these Little Pilgrims Big Journey books to the children this winter!  I'm also doing the read through the Bible in a year in chronological order again!  This is my third year doing this and I love it!!!!

Sunrises and sunsets are a must see for us!!!  We can see both from our home and we are having some stunners this winter so far!!!

It's the time of year when I go from one room, from one closet, to the next and clean out!!!  I already took a big load to Fashion Cents and it feels good to rid of the things we don't need anymore and clean house!

Biscotti's are so delicious with a hot cup of coffee.  Mike is enjoying these on his way to work!

We got our first snowfall last weekend!  The kids enjoyed that first bite of snowflakes!!!

Last Friday was also our first virtual learning day at home because of the winter weather outside.  Austin woke up to the sun pouring through the windows and said, "It's like God is shining through!"

The littles warmed up with some hot chocolate before starting school at home.

It went well and one thing we did learn over the past school year is how to do school at home when needed.  It's kinda sad to know that these two probably won't ever know what a "real snow day" is because now they still do school at home when it snows!  But the good thing, the very good thing is that we don't add any days at the end of the school calendar!  We like that!!!!

I was dreaming of some warm sourdough sticky buns but after much process, they didn't turn out the best.  Sigh.  They tasted good while they were still warm but got hard and yucky soon after.  Maybe I'll try again on the next snow day!?!

Something new for our Little Man is his basketball team with Upward!  Our family has participated a lot of basketball games over the past years but always with the older kids playing.  This year we signed Austin up to play and it's been so fun watching him play and learn more about the game!  He had his first game last Saturday and even though his team lost, we were there to cheer him on!  Matthew was all about watching Austin and that is so special!  I love to see sibling love!!!  Adrian is on the same team as Austin and that makes it even more fun!!!!  Go Shooting Stars!!!!!

That night the Lapp family gathered around Mom's table for crab legs!  She bought a bunch for Christmas but we were so into our games that she never made them that night.  They were froze and we decided to all gather for seafood before she heads to Florida for the rest of the winter.  What a blast!

I received my 2021 Chatbook and I love watching this collection of mine grow!  All my instagram posts get printed into these little books!  It's so fun looking back over the past few years and the these books are already precious!

Something I do every year with Sherry Zook is go to Rachels Crepes for a fall crepe.  Well, we had to cancel numerous times because of sickness and the holidays but we finally got it accomplished the other day!  Sherry is such a sweet friend and she has helped me through the early school days way back when Hadassah began school.  I would often ask her questions about the sport events because she was already there with their older children.  I didn't get to order the "Thanksgiving Dinner Crepe" but everything I did order was so delicious!!!  Thanks for being a good friend Sherry and for taking time to get this finally done!

I'm also working on this puzzle!  Lena gave us this Kansas City Chiefs puzzle for Christmas and the tiny pieces are taking some time to put in place but I'm getting there!!!!  Winter is the only time I do puzzles and I love it!!!!

All the Christmas decor is boxed up and it's now WINTER decor in our home.  There's something refreshing to have the greens and extra decor put back into storage and have a clean slate.  The house plants are stunning and I would love to add a few more this winter!  Watching things grow and having live plants around the house is life giving!!!

Bundle up it's cold outside!!!!  We have many more basketball games to attend and love to cheer Matthew's team on to victory!  So far, no losses!!!!  They are such a great team and work hard at each practice and game!!!!  They deserve all their wins!!!!  Go Warriors!!!!!

Happy Winter friends!!!!