Goodbye, February!

February is on it's way out.

This month, we've had flooding rains for the record books, and record snowfall, as well. We shivered through R's Happy Homecoming Day (that's the day we were first at home together, as a family of three!) at the ice cream parlor with a cold drizzling rain outside. One day I made a frantic trip to the doctor to xray to find out if Baby S swallowed marbles (thanking God that she didn't choke on them, and kicking myself for letting her get them in the first place.) Thankfully, she was only full of food. Another day we had to do some hurried research to confirm that all parts of the dandelion plant are, indeed, edible. Guess who that was for?

One cold afternoon I spent almost an hour doing my first braids in Baby S's hair and loved how they turned out. Then I saw her a few minutes later with one unraveled and sticking straight out. I checked her mouth and, of course, found the bits of silicone hair band there. Another "thank you that she didn't choke" added to my prayers. Turns out every single band fell apart and fell out within a few minutes of completing the hair style. Note to other moms who are learning like me: when experienced moms tell you that those pretty, colorful silicone hair bands break, believe it. They do.

We passed around a sore throat, but HW and Baby S managed to stay healthy. HA and R recovered quickly, but Mike and I have coughed our way through the past couple of weeks, and are soooo ready for a good night's sleep.

HA started studying classical guitar with the String Academy where R studies violin. He is loving it and doing so, so great! It's a huge blessing to see him enjoying guitar, as Mike can live vicariously through HA's guitar studies. Mike played guitar and thoroughly enjoyed it until an arm injury stopped his playing almost 12 years ago. Now it does my heart good to see them working together, as it brings him so much joy to pass on that love of music to HA. And we are looking forward to some great family concerts soon!

HW is busy studying dinosaurs still, and would love to tell you all about it. He is also my numero uno babysitter lately~ when I need to take care of something, he can keep Baby S happy for me, and there are always lots of giggles while he's in charge. He really has a knack with little ones.

Mike and the kids are enjoying listening to The Railway Children from LibriVox Recordings in the evenings, and our Family Time devotionals have been some great scripture studies of the verses that teach us about baptism.

I didn't do as well as planned with getting back to Managers of Their Homes and ChorePacks. But, that's OK. I had to get well first, so we are on the modified Mommy-Is-Sick Schedule, and the kids are doing well in picking up the slack.

Last week R and I did a huge restocking of the pantry, along with our regular grocery shopping. Wowser. That was a lot of work.  But now we are in good shape and things are pretty organized on the shelves, so I'm happy we have that done. She is such a cheerful and capable helper to me with our home keeping. I am blessed.

S's cutest new words include the sound a cat makes (nee-oh), and trying out lots of new words that most people wouldn't catch, but we are able to decipher. Precious times.

We have a fun family challenge planned for March. I'll fill you in on the details soon!