January always starts in this weird place--it's the beginning of the new year and with that comes a fresh start and renewed interest in goals and checklists and getting things done. But it's also still the holidays and with kids on school break for the whole week after New Year's Day this year, there was a heavy emphasis on lazy vacation days as well. Lots of movies watched, books read, and mornings spent sleeping in this house, which felt pretty natural with all the rain that kept us from some of our normal activities.
The boys and I did get out between storms to check out the creek and while we expected a lot of water, we were totally shocked at how changed the area is. The path the creek used to take in the area where we had park day is now a big rocky island between two branches of the creek. The high water from the weekend storms has carved new paths, worn away the bank, and totally flooded the higher grassy plateaus which are littered with debris now. It's hard to even recognize the area and will be interesting to see what it looks like when the water finally slows down, but that's not coming for awhile.
With all the water, we're getting some pretty cool mushrooms right in the neighborhood.
Bug and I found a few on our walk back from the creek (while Peanut ran home because it had started to rain again and we were walking too slowly, haha. I'm still not in running condition with the ankle so I just have to take it slow even if it starts to rain.)
One goal that we did kick off right away was to increase our daily vegetable consumption, so dinners have been looking more like this, which I'm hoping balances out all of the sugar that is still around our house. We had a lot of leftover sweets from Christmas and still more that people want to make, so that hasn't gone away yet.
I pulled out a science kit that the kids got a couple years ago for Christmas that they'd never done and got the boys a little interested in figuring out "who done it," in the forensic kit.
They ran through the fingerprinting and ink chromatography activities, and then ran out of time and left it all set up to finish later. . . for days. Which about sums up the level of laziness that we've had going on this week.
There's been a whole lot of this going on--even while eating dinner, since we couldn't use the kitchen table for a big portion of the week. I wish we hadn't run out of firewood (and the place I usually buy it is out, too) because it would have been the perfect week for sitting around the fireplace.
This week also brought a doctor visit for this one, who must want to be just like her mom because she injured her right ankle while out for a run near that same creek the boys and I had visited. It ended up not being a break, but a sprain that she couldn't walk on for a couple days. Good thing I still have the crutches and boot I'd borrowed for my ankle. They've come in handy. And good thing you heal faster when you're young. She's already walking around much better and not in much pain.
Bug's school vacation was weird this year--their last day was the 22nd, which felt really late, and then they had this whole week off, without the excitement of Christmas. He did work on a project, spent a day playing D&D with friends, and got to do a little pleasure reading, which is always a nice bonus since he usually has too much homework to read anything for fun.
And speaking of reading, I've been on a roll--as of January 8th, I've finished 8 books this year. I'd already started 3 of them before the new year, so I had a head start, but I realized I was finishing one a day and decided to keep it going all week. Too bad that's not realistic for the whole year, but I don't have 4 or 5 hours a day to read once work and homeschool and everything starts back up.
We did manage a couple chores as the week wore on--this kiddo got a haircut and was very happy with the results (and seems to be having fewer headaches since then--we've started to wonder if his motion-sicknesses is so extreme that having long hair moving around in front of his eyes leads to headaches and mild nausea. Is that even possible? I don't know, but I feel like we're seeing some correlation.)
Another testament to our attempts to eat more fruits and vegetables. This wasn't even all of the grapefruits consumed on Saturday. Bug apparently ate 2 whole giant Costco sized grapefruit alone. I told him he needed to pace himself because I didn't realize the bag was only going to last for a day. Should have bought more than one.
And we FINALLY got to take down the Christmas decorations. The kids put up a really good fight and so it didn't start until Saturday, even though I was feeling the itch to get things cleaned up by New Year's Day. They have really latched onto the memory of the year we kept things going until February, but I keep reminding them that that was the 2020/2021 holiday season and we were locked down, no one going to school, or sports practices, or really getting to do much of anything and we needed something to make us smile. And that year, it did. But this year, with a return to very busy schedules looming over us, and so much rain in the forecast that I may have to move science classes indoors this month, I was desperate to get the house put back in order as soon as possible.
Of course, as we started, we remembered that the box for our new tree is so big, we had to send it to the electrical room at the storage facility (where we send everything that doesn't quite fit--I don't think we even realize how much stuff we now have living at work, which probably isn't a good thing, but it is convenient for things like holiday decorations.) So the clean-up ended up stretching on for a couple days until we got the box back, and as I write this, the box is still sitting in our front entrance, waiting for a day when it's not pouring for the move back to the office.
And finally, Peanut has been working his way through all his Christmas gifts, so we WON'T have things sitting around unused 2 years later. He made us dinner Sunday night from his Yummy Crate from Kiwi Co. I think this might be his favorite Kiwi Crate he's tried. The STEM boxes are fun, but he likes to cook and this one mixes the science with the food.
Color-changing noodles and Asian inspired salad and chicken. It was good, and watching the noodles go from purple to pink was fun--pretty ingenious to use cabbage juice, which is a great pH indicator to cook the noodles and then an acidic sauce can make the magic happen.
And the actual final item from this week of both lazy and productive activities--the kids' Christmas short for 2023. This one was actually a 2-year project. They didn't get last year's filming finished, so it carried over, but it's also a longer, more involved movie than the previous ones. And the production quality keeps going up. I'm always impressed by the creativity that these kids come up with. So enjoy their spoof on some of our favorite Christmas movies. (And make sure to stay for the credits--they're one of the best parts!)
