Still December-ing!

Last weekend was unexpectedly busy for us!  I had to frantically change plans for hiking club when alert reader Chantell pointed out that the trails I had planned to hike were closed!  Fortunately, Adam came through with another suggestion, and we ended up climbing Round Top, a 4-mile trail which runs along the Boar's Head golf course.  We managed to do the entire hike and still be home in plenty of time for piano lessons, so that was great.  The weather was gorgeous, AND we met up with Chantell who seems great, so it was a very successful day!  (I was so pleased to meet someone who had been doing hiking club without me knowing it!  I'd been worrying that my weekly emails were just so much spam to those on the receiving end!)

Colton liked these plants-- he thought they could make good pompoms!  Also, those eyes!

There's Chantell!  She's the YW president in the 1st ward.

We made it to the top!

Adam got this picture of Kendra and Camille together-- so sweet!

After piano lessons (and a very quick nap) I had time to frantically vacuum the main floor before we had another 4-year-old coming for respite care!  This time it was Rodney (although we kept wanting to call him Landon 😬) and he stayed with us for just a couple nights.  

Meet Rodney!

As I suspected, we had so many new toys for him to play with, that he was no trouble at all.  The second night we did see a bit of his temper that his foster mom had warned us about (screaming NO and trying to hit me when I told him it was time to go to bed-- nothing all that unusual for a 4-year-old, honestly...) but for the most part he was really good.  These poor kids-- what have they been through?

Our primary had dropped off a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate, so Craig helped them do that while I did my usual puttering around tidying up the house...

I was a little nervous about taking six kids to church, but Rodney was super good and the other kids were, too.  And since we were all wearing masks, I'm not sure anyone else even noticed that I had an extra kid with me!

His foster mom came and got him shortly after church, so that was very short.  The kids all agreed that they really liked having him with us.  So that's good-- I do worry about the effect fostering will have on my own kids.

That afternoon, Colton and I enjoyed some snuggly time:

He put a sock on his hand and held it up blocking my face, so this is a terrible picture of me, but such a cute picture of Colton!

Monday I gave blood, which had seemed like a great idea when I signed up to do it, but no longer felt that way when my little kids' schedules changed AGAIN and it was pouring rain so they were going to have to pick up their lunches in the rain.  Ugh.  I hate things that I can't plan for!  But we got the schedule mostly figured out, and a neighbor offered to get their lunches for them (we usually get them for her, so she was returning the favor), so I guess it all worked out.  But between Rodney waking me up early all weekend and giving blood, I was exhausted.  I came home and took the longest midweek nap EVER.  Sort of embarrassing, but I think I needed it!

Wednesday they were predicting a huge snow storm, so school was canceled, but the snow wasn't supposed to hit until after 7am, so I was still able to lead my exercise group for the first time!

Jogging up and down the downtown mall, and stopping for a picture with the Christmas tree!

And then I got to just go back to bed!  Huzzah!

Bentley was supposed to go to the orthodontist on Wednesday.  They called the day before to postpone it for a week, thanks to the storm.  Fortunately I was thinking clearly and realized that they were trying to schedule him to get his braces tightened on December 23rd!  I told them that I couldn't do that to my son and we'd wait until January, thankyouverymuch.  Can you imagine trying to eat a turkey dinner with sore gums?  Horrors!  So I want points for being a good mom for that!

As it turned out, our snow storm was terribly disappointing: it just sort of sleeted and iced everything over, but there was no actual snow.  It looked beautiful, but the kids couldn't play in it at all, so that was lame.  They could have used the outdoor playtime.

When you work hard on dinner and this is all you get for it...

And this morning we had a 2-hour delay, which turned into school being canceled for the big kids because both the middle school and the high school lost power!  The little kids still have school but-- get this-- on another totally different schedule!  We can't go two days without changing the schedule on them.  It's insanity.  And they aren't learning anything.

Tomorrow is "asynchronous" so I guess my big kids are officially on Christmas break now!

So pretty!

Look at these cute presents under the tree!

In just a few hours we will officially ALL be on winter break!  I wonder if I can hide my kids' laptops for the entire two weeks...

December Happenings

We're still getting our hiking in each week!  Last week we went to Walnut Creek again and this time we actually managed to walk a few miles, rather than just playing on the playground!  I would have loved to walk longer but the kids kept stopping to look at beaver signs and skip rocks, which are also wonderful things to do, so I tried to not let myself get antsy.  For this hike we had Kristen and her four kids and Adam.  And we discovered that Kristen's oldest daughter, Ember, LOVES hearing riddles!  So she and Ryder had the best time EVER and I actually got to chat with my grown-up friends some, too!  Everyone wins!

Colton hadn't brought his coat, so I suggested he wear Kendra's.  This picture is very... blue.

I can't believe Sydney could get herselfinto the baby swings here!

Running around the lake (creek?)

These two!  They are peas in a pod!

Beavers did this!

Camille wanted to stand in the middle of these trees

So then everyone else needed to, also!

What a goofball!

Back at the playground!  Camille's face here...  And Colton's!  My kids are insane.

Later in the day...

Colton & Camille got to help Sydney & Beth decorate their tree, too!

And Bentley had fun with Kendra's Medusa costume!

And on Sunday, after we got to sleep in and have a Zoom Stake Conference broadcast (with no cameras on our end of things!)...

We had spontaneous snowflake making!  This was one of those moments that if you'd TRIED to make happen, it would have been awful and everyone would have been fighting.  But since it just happened organically, it was really lovely and everyone had a great time!

I kept either blinking or giving myself extra chins for this picture.  Gah!  But I do make nice snowflakes!

Disco party with the tacky Christmas lights in the basement!

On Tuesday we had the YM and YW meet at our house to roll out, bake, and decorate sugar cookies!  We tried very hard to follow all the rules-- families were stationed at the same tables together so the only people within 6 feet of each other all lived in the same house anyway; everyone was masked the entire time; and we managed to stick to the 25 person limit!  Despite all that, I still worried what the neighbors must have been thinking.  But everyone had fun and it was great seeing people!

The Hunsaker table

The Rougie table

We hadn't seen Monica in ages and she'd changed her hair and clothing style a lot.  That, combined with the mask meant that nobody recognized her at first!

Bentley and Kendra got this end of the large dining room table

While the Osmans got the other end!

And their dad napped nearby! 😄

And this was the Andersen table!

That happened on Tuesday, and Thursday our governor announced more stringent lockdown guidelines, so I guess we got to this activity in the nick of time!

Fall and FiA

We really did enjoy the most beautiful autumn, so it's been sad for me now that the leaves are all gone and everything just looks so... dead.  I really struggle with the cold and the deadness of winter.  Here are some pictures we got of the autumn leaves before a windy & rainy couple of days took them all out:

We'd already lost most of the leaves by the time I snapped this picture, but you can still get the idea of just how gorgeous this tree (named Shockey, by the kids) was!

A gingko tree in our neighborhood-- I love the fan-shaped leaves!

And this sunset was so fantastic Craig pulled into a parking lot so we could snap this pic!

At least right now I have the holiday lights to keep me cheery!  After the Christmas lights come down, I'm just going to hunker under blankets and drink hot cocoa until the spring.

Oh wait-- that's what I'm doing now, too! 😄

Actually, that's a lie: I've continued to go to my MWF exercise group at 5:30am.  It's been really cold for some of these (28 degrees this morning!), but you bundle up enough and start doing jumping jacks, and suddenly it's not so bad.  And then once I'm done I feel awfully good about myself.  Jumping into a hot shower and then snuggling in bed with my foot heater on while I read scriptures for a bit (and then usually fall back asleep for a few minutes before it's time to get everyone on their zoom meetings) is the perfect reward and no matter what else goes wrong in the day, I get to feel like I accomplished something.

I like the group.  It's called FiA-- Females in Action-- and is free, peer-led, all women welcome, etc.  Those all work well for me!  They give everyone a nickname (which you get to approve), so you call everyone by that.  And it sounds weird, but it's a great way to instantly feel like part of the group.  And as I'm getting to know everyone better, it's even more fun.  And when I upped my game by bringing 8 lb weights instead of my wimpy little 2 pounders, I felt like I wasn't just tagging along and sort of faking it any more...

So there's my weird love-hate relationship with exercise and early mornings and cold.  Next week I have to lead one of these workouts for the first time, so I KNOW I won't sleep the night before that.  It's one of those things that sounds really easy until you're actually doing it!  So wish me luck!

This morning's workout.  They always take an awkward, poorly lit selfie at the end.  Everyone's nicknames l-r are: Raptor, me (Soprano), Twerk, Raven, Kondo, Delegate, and Swinger (who's birthday it was today!) led the workout and is the one holding the camera.

This is from Saturday (which I don't usually go to, since that's my one day to sleep in).  There were a TON of people that day, including a couple of kids!  You can see my bright orange shoes back there!

Anyway, this post started out about fall and warped into an exercise post.  I guess that's all right, though, since I've been exercising all autumn.

Christmas Cheer

It was ROUGH getting up Monday morning and trying to get back into our groove again.  This homeschooling/zoom school business is killing my soul.  

At least all the Christmas decorations are cheery!

Letting Ryder tell the nativity story for Family Home Evening. It's always interesting to see the holes in their knowledge of stuff like this...

We told them to look like they were decorating for a candid shot.  I don't think Bentley actually has anything in his hand... 
But I love Colton photobombing at the bottom!  😂

We keep adding more lights-- we get more festive each year!

22 days and counting!