The Latest Funny

My mom came to visit this weekend and she turns 60 next week. The girls were singing "Grandma is 59 going on 60," to the tune of 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen,' from The Sound of Music. Then they got silly and sang things like, "Grandma is 59 going on 100," and "Grandma is 59 going on 0," and then Audrey chimed in with, "Grandma is 59 going on DEAD." 

Jayson, "My mistake."

Charlie, "NO! I'ts NAM-a-STAY, Daddy!"

Audrey, "We got new groups in math."

Me, "What does that mean?"

Audrey, "I'm in the rhombus group."

Me, "But what does that mean?"

Audrey, "It's for kids who need a challenge. We're the only ones who use the tens rods. It's not even a challenge. Mrs. Boyd said, 'Paige has three snowballs and Audrey has five.' She said my NAME, Mommy. My NAME!" 

Snow Day! (Actually, Cold Day)

The girls and I did not have school today or yesterday due to extremely cold temperatures. We were in the negative teens and with windchill, we got close to negative 50 degrees. Too cold to go outside! The schools called off Monday on Friday afternoon and on Monday afternoon, they called off Tuesday as well. It was nice to have some notice.

I feel like these two days were such a nice surprise even though we just had winter break. We had winter break very planned out, with things to do every day, so it was nice to just be stuck at home and get to spend time together. The girls are at an age where they play together beautifully and it was so fun hearing them play and acting out whatever imaginary situation they were in. I think my favorite was when they were playing with their legos and that somehow turned into them pretending to be on talk shows and sharing their lego creations with the host.

So, what else did we do?

Lydia did an experiment where she put a temperature gauge in a cup of water and put the water outside and took measurements.

We knew we would go crazy if we didn't get some energy out. Luckily, Jayson and I have an elliptical in the basement. Jayson also has a 7-minute workout app he does with Charlie, so we all did it, and the girls got yoga mats and videos for Christmas so we did yoga too.

Of course we had to have hot chocolate.

And more experiments! We of course had to do the hot water thrown into the air, and we also froze a T-shirt.

Charlie got a slow start to yoga on the second day.

The girls also played games, we did manicures, watched movies, etc. It really was kind of a magical couple of days where Jayson and I both got work done, the girls played together without fighting (too much) or making a mess (too much), and everybody was happy. Just the rejuvenation we needed!

2014

I'm not usually one for New Year's resolutions. I've always been more of a "if you want to make a positive change, do it, and it doesn't have to be January 1st" kind of person. But, I had a hard time making positive changes this year. This has been by far my most difficult school year so far, with many added stresses this year and diminishing support. It has made it hard to focus on me and it has made it really hard to focus on my family. So, I've been mulling over a few resolutions and here is what I came up with:

1) More meaningful activities at night. Usually as soon as the girls are in bed, I do school work, and then I let myself go online until I fall asleep. I don't do any of my hobbies any more, like knitting, I haven't read a book since the summer, and I really have fallen into the habit of doing mindless things. It's a nice release, but it also makes me feel like I'm not spending my time as positively as I could. But, I also get anxiety about starting something I won't have time to finish. So, I'm going to make time. That also includes time for blogging.

2) Get to a yoga class at least once a week. I used to do yoga a little more frequently, but then started to focus much more on running. I got more concerned with how much I could sweat, how sore I could get, how far/fast I could run, and even, sadly, how many calories I could burn. With the added stress this year, Jayson really encouraged me to get back to my yoga practice, and I feel like I am benefiting from it much more than I ever did before. I do feel the change in my body, and I also feel that it puts me in a very good place mentally and spiritually. So, that's going to continue to happen on a more frequent basis.

3) Fewer chemicals. We have already moved to being more natural in what we clean with, what we eat, and what products we use. This is something I would also like to ramp up, especially with food. I think we often choose something that is low fat or fat free over something that is natural, and I'm going to work on choosing more natural. Too often the ingredients that are altered to make foods lower in fat are replaced with things that I can't even pronounce. That's not to say I'm cutting out junk food. It just means being a little more conscious of what's in our food and making a better choice when we can.

Also, I hate it when people get all public about how healthy they are and how what they do to stay healthy is the right thing for everybody, so I pretty much hate this post. But, I felt a need to write it all out and put it somewhere that will make me feel a little more responsible for sticking to it. So, sorry. More blogging about my crazy kids will happen soon. When I finish my game of Candy Crush and put down these Cheetos.