The First Week of 2018

I used to journal consistently. Somewhere along the line, I got out of the habit. This week I took some notes about our week and gathered them here. Maybe I'll do this more often and try to get more of our daily life recorded in this place. Let me know if this interests you because I'm not sure if this is the best spot for it. For now though, for the first week of the year, here it is:

January 1st

All four of us slept as 2018 came into being. We counted down from ten at 8pm on December 31st. It was a "down day", with a Christmas CD playing while we packed away the ornaments and took apart the tree. After dinner we had a family meeting where we discussed family goals and schedules and each wrote a list of goals and dreams for our futures (not just this year, but anytime in the next five).

January 2nd

Another down day. Ken and I saw a movie (The Greatest Showman). There were more movies at home with the girls and Katrina practiced face painting with her new face painting kit from Gummy (Ken's mom). We played CLUE in the evening.

At bedtime, Katrina called me into her room to say goodnight, and I found her face painting doll head tucked into her bed (and Katrina was hiding in the closet)! What a character!

That night I told Ken that all I wanted for the next day was to snuggle with my girls and read to them. The next day, facebook showed me this photo from years before on that day:

January 3rd

We all woke up and hurried out the door to the library, to return a movie before it opened. It felt like an adventure- telling the girls to just wear their pajamas and put a hat on over their messy hair- no one would know. Ken came downstairs with a tic tac for each of us- not a moment to spare for teeth brushing if we wanted to make it and avoid the late fee!

I picked up my book (Wild) from the hold shelf for a new book club and then followed Katrina around as she searched the catalog for My Little Pony books and wrote down call numbers with a tiny pencil on a scrap of paper. I remember teaching my girls how to search for and find a library book. Now here they are, writing lists of call numbers, not needing to ask for my help; only excitedly calling my name to show me that an author listed shared her name.

At home we each read our books: Katrina in the world of her beloved ponies, Talia in a fantasy world where there are people who can "bend" dreams, and tears streaming down my face as Cheryl Strayed's mother dies. I know their reading is finished downstairs when the My Little Pony movie soundtrack begins to play. This CD has been playing a lot in recent days and Katrina isn't the only one who has memorized parts of the songs.

We did fit in time to snuggle and, in honour of facebook's throwback photo, we took these:

January 4th

I didn't write anything down on this day and already it's hazy. Katrina went over to Gummy's house for a face painting lesson and Talia watched a movie with us. Ken and I have been having fun introducing her to some of the movies we like that, previously, she had been too young for.

I made pink popcorn balls with the girls (details on instagram). We put some on a plate for Aunt Brittany's birthday and the girls made birthday cards for her.

January 5th & 6th

It's sleepover day! We drove to another town to meet my parents and the girls excitedly got into the car, kissed us goodbye and went off for fun at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Over the next 24 hours my mom would text me photos of things like raspberries on fingertips and face-planted snow angels in the backyard (check the collage at the top of this post for the snow angel shot). A marvelous time!

Ken and I spent time shopping together, he cooked shrimp and we had a candlelit dinner at home. We drove to Dairy Queen to use our BOGO Blizzard coupon (laughing at ourselves for getting ice cream on one of the coldest days in history in this area). We watched more netflix shows in a row than we "should have" and loved it. Saturday night Talia had a rehearsal for the Beauty & the Beast musical that she's been practicing for.

January 7th

Sunday. As usual, we woke up and got ready for church in a bit of a frenzy. Showers, zipping dresses, tying sashes, finding shoes, etc. Ken called up the stairs something about a new year and being on time to church. We have a tendency to walk in late. While driving to church, we looked at the car clock and wondered if we'd make it in time.

"Maybe they'll start a little late."
"Is the car's clock fast?"

As we drove over the top of a hill, I could see the flashing lights of an ambulance ahead of us and when we caught up to them, we saw cars and pieces of cars in places they shouldn't be. Fire trucks, police, and ambulance. Someone was still inside of one of the cars. We slowed down, turned onto a side road and felt the quiet in the sudden reality check. We would definitely be late for church but suddenly that didn't seem so important. I said a silent prayer for the people in the cars and their families.

Church was good. We stayed afterward for a special luncheon to celebrate the blessing of a friend's baby. We stayed and visited with my brother and sister-in-law longer than we might have if the temperature outside weren't so low. Then we came home and I found myself answering questions about where to find craft supplies, which old matchless sock could be used, and then napping while the girls created sock puppets in the living room. I woke just before dinner. The girls had created a pancake masterpiece for us (we recently started a dinner rotation for cooking and tidying responsibilities and Sundays is their turn to cook).

I've loved our time with them home from school, but Monday it's back to the usual schedule. There's a lot of good in that, too. I hope we'll be able to find as much time as we can to spend together, enjoying each other's company despite the busy school time schedule.

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