Updates anyone?

So, it’s been almost a month since I posted.  I resolved that I should take more pictures this year because I have almost nothing of our family from last year.  So far I haven’t taken a single one.  Big FAIL.  There’s always February, right?

January has been the month of getting back into the swing of things.  The kids are heading into the last long stretch of the school year.  Andrew is over school – he’s been fooling around, taking things that aren’t his, generally just falling into his winter misbehavior cycle.  Wondering if this is something I should address with the psychiatrist or if we just need to ride it out …  It’s always such a guessing game.

Haley has made a new friend named Madison.  I include the friend’s name because it sort of tickles me – Haley’s middle name is Madison, so whenever the friend is over it just sounds funny to me.  She’s supposed to be learning to canter in her riding lessons and it’s making her nervous – she talked her instructor into postponing cantering this week.  I think she just needs to take a spill so she realizes it’s not such a big deal.

Spencer is waiting somewhat anxiously to hear from colleges.  He’s really tired of me nagging him to write his scholarship essays.  He’s down to the wire now and I might just have to shut down his computer access until the essays are written.  He’s been trying to make good use of his ski pass – he and I went up to Keystone a few weeks ago and I was reminded of what bad shape I’m in.  He had a great time – I stuck to the green slopes and was always shaky by the time I reached the bottom.

Speaking of skiing, both Andrew and Haley have the 5th/6th grade ski passes this year.  I bought a four pack to Loveland and have taken Haley once so far.  It was her first time and she did pretty well.  The day was kind of miserable – it took us forever to get out of Denver because there was rush hour snow.  Then it was overcast, windy, and even a little snowy up at the resort.  I hope the next time we go up the weather is better.  It’s much funner to ski in the sun.

I’ve been alternating between feeling pretty good and then feeling incredibly depressed.  Tom keeps telling me I should go to the doctor – but I keep thinking I just need to really work at getting more sleep and exercise (neither of which I’m doing very well at).  Maybe I need a project to work on … that always seems to get me focused on something besides the normal family stresses – plus projects get planned, executed, and COMPLETED.  They don’t do the “three steps forward, two steps back” dance.    🙂

Monday we held Family Home Evening (a tradition our church encourages where we meet as a family each week to have a brief lesson and activity).  This is an event, because we aren’t very good at holding FHE.  Nevertheless, we decided to do it sort of last minute and made quick assignments.  Andrew volunteered to teach the lesson.  I was surprised.  At first I was going to say no, but then I thought, “why not?”  He grabbed a copy of “For the Strength of Youth” and gave a pretty good presentation on Agency and Accountability.  I thought it was telling – we talk about this topic ALL THE TIME because he struggles with this concept.  He wants to do things and not have to suffer the consequences.  But he did a good job of sharing some of the principles (like being accountable for our actions and what kinds of results we can expect as we make the right choices) and we had a good discussion.  He promptly proceeded to have a terrible week – not sure how that connects …  but I was proud of him on Monday.

One thing we have done well at has been cooking meals at home, rather than eating out.  Tom and I both resolved to do better at this since over the holidays we hardly ate at home at all.  It has been nice have that money stay in our bank account – and the food is more interesting (it’s amazing how boring it gets to eat out all the time – it shouldn’t be, but it is).  I found this terrific Mac-n-Cheese recipe that is baked – it requires about six ingredients (all ones we keep in the house normally) and is super easy to prepare.  AND everyone likes it, even Tom.  Tom found a book full of chicken recipes when we were at the library recently and he has enjoyed trying some of them out this past week or so.  He made a really good black bean soup this week – YUM!

So, we’re a twelfth of the way through 2012 – time seems to fly!   Spring will be here before we know it – but I hope we have some good snow storms before that – I’d like a blizzard or two     🙂