January 31

Elliott had a wrestling tournament yesterday afternoon after church. He went 0-2. Not his best day on the mats, and he was definitely frustrated and tired after his matches. He said it was still fun. 

January 30

Clay woke up yesterday and decided to go skiing. Kat had to work and Lucy was still at her slumber party, but Julia and Elliott both went. It was their first time and Clay said they caught on quickly. 

Lucy had fun at the slumber party.

January 29

Lucy and Ava play school quite often

We got some snow!

Lucy was invited to a birthday slumber party last night. What normally takes 20-25 minutes to get to Shannon’s house, took an hour and a half because we got 1-2inches of snow. Hills and slick to roads are oodles of fun!

January 28

For the last month, biscuits were hard to find in the stores. They are finally on the shelves again (well, some are).

Lucy was learning to draw perpendicular lines for math. Elliott was working on his literature questions.

January 27

These are from the church lock-in Kat went to Friday night/Saturday morning. They were at Main Event. They got to bowl, do a ropes course, play Lazer tag, and play arcade games. Kat was only able to take a one hour nap when she got home Saturday. 

She crashed for a few hours Sunday after church.

A couple of pictures the coach’s wife took from Elliott’s meet Sunday 

Some more pictures from a different coach’s wife

January 26

Lucy did schoolwork with Amelia and Sarah while Shannon and I went to Mom’s group. 






Elliott got his orange belt last night. He will have been training for six years in March! He used to be one of the youngest kids. Now he’s one of the oldest! 

Here’s a run-down of our Tuesdays:

Lucy- schoolwork, gymnastics

Elliott-CEC, jiu jitsu, wrestling

Kat-CEC, Homeless Ministry

Julia-school, work

Thankfully, Wednesdays are more low-key. We just have schoolwork and church.

January 25

Life is back in full swing!

Elliott was back at jiu jitsu after a couple of weeks off.

January 24

After church, I joined Elliott and Clay at a wrestling meet. Elliott had two opponents. Unfortunately, one of them was one of the best wrestlers on his team. He beat the other opponent, but got beat by his teammate. It’s always fun to watch him wrestle.

January 23

Sous chefs

January 22

I was up at 5:30am to pick Kat up from a church lock-in. After I dropped her off at home, I headed to the grocery store. The stores are pretty quiet at 6:30am on a Saturday and they are freshly stocked. I was able to find everything on my list, thankfully, although the prices are off-the-charts ridiculous! 

Last week I couldn’t find chicken at the grocery store, but they did have a few frozen turkey breasts. So we’re having turkey and dumplings for dinner. Yum! 

When did this little one start looking like a tween!?!

January 21

Lucy learned how to use a protractor.


Kat wanted a new “aesthetic” for studying. She spent a few hours in the library getting schoolwork done.


I enjoyed having five days off cooking while in Covid isolation. However, I have enjoyed cooking the last week. It’s nice to cook for everyone when you have the time and everyone is home to eat. Elliott will be back to jiu jitsu and wrestling next week, so I will be back to trying to figure out how to have meals that are prepared ahead of time and can be eaten in shifts (basically crockpot meals). 

January 20

Still on NTI this week.

Last night I took Kat to youth group and worked with the 4th and 5th graders. Lucy stayed home because she was exposed less than a week ago and hasn’t been vaccinated. We’re almost at the end of her quarantine! It’s been a long two weeks of being cooped up at home. She’s been a trooper. 

January 19

Lucy the amazing dog trainer

New TV is in! 

January 18

My anatomy class has been learning about blood. We did blood typing in class and something happened that hasn’t happened the other three times I taught the class- 2 girls fainted! They were fine and, thankfully, didn’t hit their heads when they went down. Neither one of them had their finger pricked either. They apparently didn’t know they don’t handle seeing blood very well. I haven’t ever seen skin go so pale so quickly! It was a class we’ll never forget!

Kat and I were able to go to co-op in masks since she’s vaccinated and hasn’t shown any symptoms and I was on day 9. Elliott was on day 4 of symptoms and still had some congestion. And since Lucy’s not vaxxed, we kept her home this week as a precaution.

I did the blood donation lab with Lucy at home so she could see why certain blood types are universal donors and recipients. 

As if this hasn’t been an expensive enough month (a new microwave, faucet, and washing machine), a certain male in our house, that’s under the age of 40, accidentally released a Nintendo Wii controller and it cracked the TV screen. Aye aye aye!