A month gone by!

I just read the last post, written now over a month ago and what really does feel like it was last year!  Students have been coming in to my office for the first time in the new term and asking me "how was your holiday?"  I often have to think for a few moments what they might be referring to because the luxurious holiday break feels like a distant memory! 

Here's a few tidbits on what is happening on the home front these days. Still seldom a dull moment:

Alida is benefiting from all kinds of lessons from Kali.  She has now learned, according to Kali, the words "A" and "I."  Here she is having a music lesson:



I've endured a few really challenging weeks at work, including putting in more hours/days than normal, which means less hours/days at home!  One of the side effects of this was that Alida got even more attached to her daddy.  It is hard to even mention that one evening for a moment she was crying in my arms for Jason.  I'm sure glad it was only once and that the pace of things is slowing somewhat and she seems quite thrilled to be with either one of us!  And I do still have the "mommy milk" draw, at least for awhile yet.  She loves being our little helper or, when possible, doing things herself.  She recently dropped her wooden airplane (started by Jason in his 8th grade shop class and finished for Alida for Christmas) and it broke.  Here they are fixing it together (and as I'm typing this, they just finished gluing it again after it's fall today):



In other news:

Kali's ducks are in their new home and still keeping their incredible record of one egg/day since they started laying mid-October.  We've started collecting them for hatching baby ducklings in early March!

We've enjoyed several hikes to the lake as a family.

We are still loving those curls!  She now gives us a verbal running commentary on her life and the laughter increases with her expanding vocabulary.  My favorite phone calls during my work days are the "Alida stories" Jason calls with occasionally.

Kali named herself the "leaf queen."  Our neighbors wanted to be rid of their leaves and we needed more for our garden - love those win-win scenarios! 

Tonight, January 25, we ate fresh roasted broccoli.  Due to the recent cold snap that is likely to be the last picking from the patch, but you will hear no complaining from us.  And there is still a big bag of fresh kale in the fridge to enjoy.