January 31

Elliott and Lucy had jiu jitsu last night. Elliott was used as the person on bottom that everyone rolled with to demonstrate their new skill, so he got quite the workout.

January 30

Back at co-op for week #4. We had 17 kids at chess club.

Other than church and driving Julia to gymnastics, I stayed home most of the weekend and mostly laid around on the couch. I am fighting off a nasty chest cold. I am feeling better today than I did yesterday.  Clay was achy all weekend too, but never ran a fever. We had cereal for dinner all weekend and I went all out with Little Caesars tonight. Vegetables? Who needs 'em!?!

January 29

 He's such a good daddy.

Elliott went to a Lock-In Friday night at the gym where he does jiu jitsu. The party was from 8pm-midnight. They are having a huge Nerf gun war in this picture,

January 28

Julia's at gymnastics, Clay's at jiu jitsu, Kat and Elliott are playing outside with the neighbors, and Lucy decided she wanted to watch the movie about Merida, while dressed as Merida, and holding Merida.

January 27

Elliott and Lucy went to jiu jitsu last night, I went to boxing, and Julia went to gymnastics practice. Today we had piano lessons. We are back to our regular, crazy life. Clay stayed home from work today to rest, but is feeling much better.

January 26

The good news? The kids are better. The bad news? Clay came home from work feeling achy and tired. So far he doesn't have a fever.

January 25

Around 10:30 this morning, I went to get Lucy (who had been watching cartoons on my bed) and start working with her in her preschool workbooks. I found her like this. 

Last night at dinner, all four kids had fevers again. I am suspecting they had a viral infection in addition to strep. Lucy's the only one who was diagnosed with strep, so maybe everyone else just has viral? Who knows. This is Lucy's 6th day with a fever. Kat and Julia are on day #4, and Elliott, for the time being, is fever free. They are all managing it well today. Just low-grade fevers and sleepy. So far, Clay and I have avoided these cooties.

 And this is how I found her at 1:45 this afternoon

January 24

 48 hour couch potato hair

Lucy's fever broke Sunday night and Elliott's broke last night. Kat had a low-grade fever this morning, but seems fine now. Julia is still feeling icky. She threw up in the middle of the night and had a 102 this morning. Hopefully her fever breaks tonight. We haven't done much of anything the past two days. While I don't enjoy seeing my kids sick, it has been a nice change of pace. Sometimes you need a break from all the go, go, go, which seems to be our life these days.

January 23

Kat and Elliott started with fevers yesterday. Clay took Lucy to the doctor yesterday morning and found out she has strep. Thankfully the doctor wrote prescriptions for all three for antibiotics. Strep seems to be our January tradition. I am just waiting for Clay to get it. I have never had it, I seem to be immune.

Nonna, Julia, and I went to the Sound of Music last night. It was really really good. Kat was very upset that she didn't get to go. We went out to eat before the show, and Julia barely touched her food. She had a cold chill, and fell asleep on the way home. When we got home, she said that I should take her temp. 100.6 degrees. All four are down with strep. Yikes!

During the show, Clay was sending me texts letting me know what was going on at home. He had a wild night. Lucy and Elliott both threw up, and Lucy's fever spiked to 104. He had to give Lucy and Elliott suppositories get their fevers down. Poor guy. Later, her fever broke. She did not have a fever this morning and appears to be feeling pretty good. The other three feel pretty lousy today.

January 22

 

Julia had a meet yesterday. She came in 3rd in the all around. She got her highest all around score yet.  Two of her friends on her team beat her in the all around competition. It made me happy to see how excited she was for her friends. She's such a good kid. Kat bought Julia a candy bar yesterday for doing so well at her meet. Proud Mommy moment.

 

Clay and Elliott went to Monster Jam last night and had a good time. Elliott's truly a little redneck. He loves it! 

And poor Lucy has been running a fever since Friday afternoon. She is pitiful.

January 21

The kids and I watched the inauguration yesterday.

 

Nonna arrived in the afternoon!

Clay, who has been in Vegas all week for a convention, is back home again too. 

January 20

January 19

 Lucy wanted to dress like her big sister yesterday.

Elliott finished his Lego set! He needed some help to start it, but he finished it by himself. Once he figured out that he needed to follow the directions step by step, he did great!

January 18

 Yesterday was a school-on-the-run kind of day. We got schoolwork done in between/during errands yesterday. Schoolwork got done in the car, at church during piano, at lunch, and at the library.

 

As an added bonus, we got to spend some time with Ma-Maw C. Pa-Paw C comes home from the hospital today. They could use some prayers. Pa-Paw is recovered from pneumonia, but he appears to have dementia now. This is hard on him, but especially hard on Ma-Maw.

January 17

  

Chemistry Physics class doing an exploding sticks experiment to show the difference between potential and kinetic energy.

 Lucy's fine/gross motor skills class

I am attempting to start a chess club at the end of the co-op day. Last year it was at the end of lunch time, which made it too rushed. We had between 15-20 kids learning/teaching others chess. yesterday.

January 16

 Clay and Elliott worked on Elliott's new Legos yesterday.

Lucy and her Mamaws playing a game

January 15

After the gymnastics meets, Grandpa and LuLu took the kids shopping for their Christmas presents.

 

 

 These two are good playmates. Double Trouble.

 

 

Lucy had a great time at Build-a-Bear.

Julia bought clothes, and Kat and Elliott bought Legos. We had a nice weekend. It was busy and went by too fast.

January 14

 

 

 

Overrall, this meet was harder than the others, as far as judging. Julia didn't do great in any one particular event, but her scores were all still high enough to earn her 2nd place in the All-Around.

January 13

We spent Friday the 13th traveling out of town for Julia's gymnastics meet. Grandpa and LuLu met us for the weekend.

January 12

Kat has made this her daily reading nook, near the heat vent.

January 11

 

 

After schoolwork was completed, the little ones and I ran couple of errands. We hit up a local playground to enjoy the somewhat warm weather (much warmer than it was this weekend) before the rain comes. It's supposed to rain for the next week.

January 10

 Lucy's Fine/Gross Motor Skills class.

 We sang "Happy Birthday" to Julia. She has really overcome her shyness on stage.

Lucy thought she was tough stuff wearing Elliott's old gi to jiu jitsu.

I did the boxing class again. You know you are old and out of shape when you have to take a heavy duty Motrin after a one hour workout. Here's a video of the entire gym doing a burpee workout to the ACDC song Thunderstruck.