january 2023.
2023 started off with a sinus virus that several members of the family passed around. No fun.
Being home sick is a good time for organizing new Christmas gifts. Noah was eager to take pictures of his growing rocks and gems collection and to show his friends.
Rainy, sick days at home are also good for puzzles. We’ve been doing some fun ones lately, loaned by my parents and friends. I say the word “we” loosely, because I never do puzzles if I can help it. I’m a happy flipper-over of pieces when it first comes out of the box, though.
After we got healthy, a group of ladies celebrated Cheryl’s 40th birthday with dessert and drinks. Welcome to the over-40 club, Cheryl!
The whole family has been enjoying fire pits and the dart board Judah got for Christmas, and he’s invited friends over a couple of times to play.
After a nice long Christmas break, we resumed our co-ops. The first day back, I was in the midst of earnestly teaching my middle-school class the utmost value of writing a robust paragraph that contains a topic and a concluding sentence and a bare minimum of four sentences, when I glanced over and saw this:
Teaching middle-schoolers is not for the faint of heart, friends.
But we’ve had fun times too. I’m reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with my 7th and 8th graders this semester, which is one of my favorite novels. Every single class member loves this one and we quote superstitions and trade stories about Tom and Huck, Sid and Becky, like they’re real people we know. When Rachel and Amie reenacted the scene of Tom and Becky’s “engagement” we laughed until we cried.
I’ve read and enjoyed several books already this year. Here’s one I highly recommend to all families (and even couples wanting to have kids one day). I know I mentioned it in my last post, but here it is again, because I loved it! I think it’s especially practical for young kids, but the principles are applicable to all ages and I found lots in it to tweak for our family.
Our friends Bryan and Jeanette bought a piece of land in the country and are going to build a house on it! They will have a big garden! And a barn! With goats! And maybe a horse one day! Basically, they’re living Amie’s dream. We’re excitedly hearing updates of their plans.
We ate breakfast with them one Saturday morning to talk house ideas and so David could get another bow tutorial (I told you he got a re-curve bow for his birthday, right?).
Speaking of building plans, our church signed a contract to purchase a large, beautiful new space in downtown Columbia with plenty of parking. This was a 2-3 year process, and is an enormous answer to prayer for our church family. We’re currently gathering bids on the renovation. We probably won’t be in the space until spring/summer 2024, but after renting for nearly 10 years, it feels amazing to have found a permanent home.
Our family celebrated by taking the kids over to the new space with frisbee, rollerblades, hoverboard, and dog (the picture below is the sanctuary space; the stage will be to the right of Amie). We have so many highly talented, capable folks even in our own church family who can help with different parts of the building process. I was invited to be on the design/flow committee, and feel afraid I’ll have nothing of value to add, but am very excited to be part of the team.
Back to school, because we did a lot of it in January. We didn’t take a single school day off! I told the kids if we hit January and February hard — no days off — then we’ll have space for some fun things in the spring. My students love sneaking into my classroom early and drawing elaborate illustrations on the white board. I’m always entertained!
The 9th grade Biology students gathered bacteria samples in petri dishes (remember those days?), and are preparing to start dissections this week. The moms were quite alarmed to notice that the highest bacteria dish was the sample from “kitchen sink.” I wanted to go right home and bleach my own.
Noah is doing a second session of tutoring for dyslexia/dysgraphia, with great results. Reading and writing are still a real struggle for him, but he’s making good progress and has some beautiful cursive handwriting these days, thanks to his beloved tutor Mrs. Carolyn.
A friend recommended a book about Execution Functioning. I’m about halfway through and find it very helpful. We’re working at home with one of our kids on impulse control, and another on forgetfulness/working memory. This is after we’ve already done Executive Functioning therapy, which I didn’t find to be particularly helpful. So we keep practicing skills at home and thankfully have some great friends to consult. I’m suspecting ADHD for both of these kids, which I know goes hand-in-hand with Executive Functioning challenges. I’ve listened some to the ADD-itude podcast, but if you have any other resources to share, I’d be grateful!
I’ll end January with my favorite novel of the month:
So, so good! I heard about Ruta Sepetys from Sarah McKensie of Read-Aloud Revival, and started with a different book of hers. But I liked this one much better and am anxious to get my hands on more. Warning: it’s a hard one to put down!
Well, I’ve written a January blog post with no mention of my birthday, which is tomorrow, the very last day of January! But have no fear, dear readers, that will come next!
