2013 :: week 51

 

Sunday I spent a lot of time on a plane and in airports as I traveled home from Utah. I did a lot of reading on this trip. I read two books from start to finish and made a lot of headway on a third, Little Women. I really liked this passage. In it Marmee is comforting Jo and telling her that with patience and by developing a relationship with God she can overcome her shortcomings. Good reminder.

After dinner we hit up Bass Pro with the Wilsons in hopes of seeing Santa. Unfortunately, I forgot how long the lines can be this close to Christmas and we opted not to wait 2.5 hours. We made the most of our outing by letting the kids climb in a few 4-wheelers, ride the carousel, and eat some cookies.

Our big boy turned 4 on Tuesday. When Anthony asked him how he felt now that he was four he thought for a minute and replied, "stronger."

Lauren was heartbroken Wednesday night when her dad and Uncle Matt left to go play basketball. 

We tried to take advantage of the last "nice" day for awhile. The kids and I spent an hour at the park just before it started to get cold. We had fun running around and breathing fresh air. It has been awhile since we could just walk outside to get a change of pace.

Fifty out of 52 weeks a year I love where we live. Our neighborhood is fairly quiet but it has great access to three highways and great shopping. But the days and weeks leading up to Christmas mean it takes 2 and 3 times as long to get anywhere. It normally takes me less than 5 minutes to get to Target from starting my car to walking in the door. This past week it has taken up to 20 minutes. I know that many people don't live that close to a Target and I am spoiled, but man, it was really annoying.

We decided to honor the winter solstice by winterizing our yard. My dad got us started by raking the leaves in our front yard into piles. Then Anthony cleaned out a few of the rain gutters. That activity got cut short because we figured climbing an icy ladder was more dangerous than clogged gutters, at least for the time being. The two of us then spent a few hours bagging leaves. Nothing strengthens a relationship like yardwork in the freezing rain. In this photo TJ is using our sweet new leaf vacuum. I look forward to putting it to use next year.