Winter 2015

My first full week in 2015 was LONG! I started it off with my new Sunday School Class- the Sunbeams! No longer do I teach 7 and 8 year olds but now I teach super cute and super CrAzY 3 year olds! I have a co-teacher but she is in her last year of residency so she's a busy lady. I considered myself lucky when she came this Sunday but it was tough enough with her, I'm not sure if I'll survive when she can't come. Our Sunbeams are active and have the attention span of a gnat. No more long, interactive lessons for me. Now I go from activity to activity hoping that the kids retain at least one spiritual idea from the day. I think the change will do me good though and it'll be fun trying to come up with creative activities again.

Monday through Friday this week Tyler was up in Northern Michigan for his first week of Winter testing. Despite my extreme worries that I would not survive on my own with the 4 kids while he was away- I did! And things actually went pretty smoothly. I am so grateful for that!

However, I am not grateful that Winter decided to arrive while Tyler was away. Of course it couldn't come and give me my first ever white Christmas. Instead it waited until my husband left me so I would have to shovel my driveway. Have you seen my driveway people!? It's ridiculously long:

Going out there in 1 digit temperatures was not fun and it also taught me how out of shape I am. I was pretty achy (and still am) after shoveling that darn driveway. This is why I always make Tyler shovel it. He did after all agree to those conditions when we moved here- darn winter testing! 

Winter weather also meant bad driving conditions and I am just not good at driving on icy, snowy, slushy roads. I made sure the kids prayed we wouldn't get stuck and that we would drive safely each time we went out because I had no husband to rescue me. Gratefully my prayers were answered and even though my wheel sometimes caught on ice and started to steer me towards medians, we miraculously never crashed and arrived everywhere safely.

SO despite mean old winter things went well. We managed to find a good routine and the kids seemed to be better behaved than usual and they got along pretty well. As proof I offer this sweet card that Steven made for Ben at school:

  

"Ben I love you evreday win you are next to me" 

But by the time Friday arrived, we sure were happy to have Tyler back. That night I made him go run an errand for me and Lucy insisted on going along. She loves her daddy so much she's willing to bundle up and venture into the freezing cold temperatures with him. Doesn't she look adorable in my infinity scarf?

And Saturday we needed some family time. It was much too cold to do anything outside but it's never too cold for a museum so we headed to Ypsilanti to check out the Michigan Firehouse Museum. It was pretty small but the kids had fun seeing fire engines and fire gear from throughout the years. It also had an old firehouse to tour, a bunch of old antique toy firetrucks and a little play area for the kids.

Tyler and Penny got a little bored in the play area...

Steven needed a little push from his lil' sister

I think we all enjoyed getting out of the house and spending some time together especially since Tyler will be leaving up North again on Monday. Let's hope this next week goes just as smoothly!