Happy Birthday!

Friday was Spencer and my birthday! Woohoo! It was a lovely day. Thursday night we had a friends party for Spencer at a trampoline park here. That was super fun. He had five friends come and it was a great time. He requested that I make him cream puffs for his dessert. Oh they were so tasty. I've made them before and it's not hard, so totally worth it for how delicious they are. 

We always open presents first thing in the morning, and it was especially easy this year because the kids had remote schooling Wednesday through Friday this week. 

Bill and I tag teamed to make this delicious gluten free cake. It has quinoa in it and was so good. 

Saturday morning Bill and I ran/rucked a 5K. It wasn't a particularly competitive race as far as how fast people were running, at least not for the run, but it was still fun to win my age division, get fourth overall women, and 25th overall for the race. Bill came in prepared to win the ruck after getting third or fourth last time. He ran the whole way instead of just walking, with 20 pounds in his backpack! So impressive! He did end up winning, which was awesome. 

Chloe drew this from a learn to draw YouTube video for her art time on Friday and it is just so stinking cute. I love those videos. 

 

Slow week

We mostly stayed home this week. It's just a slow week in January and with Omicron raging, I'd just as soon not be in huge groups and around a lot of people. Plus I'm still job hunting, so that factors into what we do as well. So we mostly stayed at home and relaxed and it was not bad at all. Chloe's kindergarten is half day, so she is often home by herself with me in the afternoon. She knows how to live her best life. She's always finding super comfy places to lounge. This day she got our new slow sled out that I grabbed at Costco last month to make a cozy spot by my door while I was working on my computer. 

Watching a show near daddy working, thus the headphones. She stayed here for a long time. I would have too if I was that cozy!

I bought a couple new plants and got a couple new pots as well this week. I love them all so much. Plants make me so happy. 

I finally got myself an orchid! Chloe helped me pick it out. She shares my love of the color yellow, so no surprise what color orchid we picked. 

We went to a car show yesterday with Grandpa. I didn't know anything about it, and I thought it was going to be just old cars, which I thought would be plenty of fun, and they had some of those to look at, but actually it was a bunch of new cars and Bill and I have been idly shopping for a new car or two for ages. It turned into a bit of a car shopping morning, which was great. I don't really want to drive my van everywhere when I'm usually by myself or with one or two kids. And Bill's car, our cute lil Scion xB, which is approximately one million years old and has 210,000 miles on it, will one day die and we'll have to replace it. No signs of it yet, but best to be ready when that day comes. 

One of the activities there was a car race. The kids made lego cars and raced down a track. Chloe won repeatedly. Good times. 

Chloe told me that this was a black hole swallowing a brick of gold. Hahaha! No idea where she got that idea. I love it so much. 

I'm trekking along on my paint by number. I love it so much. I've never found a temple picture I wanted to buy in a bigger size, but I've always wanted one for my wall. This will be just perfect. It's 14x20 so biggish but not massive. I am going to put it on an easel on top of my bookshelf in my living room once it's done. 

 

Job Hunting and other new year things

Through the years since I finished my graduate degree I've often wondered if I would ever go into the workforce in my career of choice. I've worked my entire adult life, all through grad school, having all my kids, putting Bill through his grad school, everything. But it was outside my field and I always thought of it as a stop gap until the fabled day that Bill would make big bucks and I could stop working or just do something small on the side. Well, the big bucks maybe aren't as big as we had dreamed, or wage stagnation is a real thing, or our family is bigger than the norm and we need to earn more, or whatever you want to say to describe it. Also, turns out that maybe I don't want to stop working. Maybe I like it and need it and it's a fable that you can live on one income in present day America anyway. Maybe what I learned in childhood about families and jobs and buying homes and being able to afford to live isn't as applicable to my present adulthood. Whatever the cause, when I found out in November that my flexible, decently well paid, fully remote job of 12 years was automating and phasing out my position in 2022, the job hunt began. 

If I had my druthers I would probably work 25 or 30 hours a week in something I wanted to do, leaving me time to take care of the million other parts of my life. But since I haven't seen a part time job yet in my search that pays more than maybe half of my current compensation, I'm looking for a full time job and all that entails. Truly I don't know how it's all going to work out. I'm not exactly sure how you have two full time working parents and four kids and all their needs and live a life that doesn't feel like you're barely hanging on. But unless something different than what I'm expecting comes along, looks like we're going to try it out and see.

So I'm actively looking for a job and interviewing. The process is moving along and as everyone that has job hunted knows, it's full of ups and downs and spurts of motivation to be followed with periods of feeling like it's never going to work out and what's the point of trying? Here's hoping it's not too terribly long and I can find something that works for me and my crew. In the meantime, we're tightening our belts and pretending we're doing one of those trendy no spend months and hoping and praying for the best. 

Sometimes I really wonder about Chloe. This was how she watched a show one day this week. 

The kids got new PJs or loungewear, whichever you want to call it, and that's all they wear now. 

Chloe made this one afternoon. It's so cool to see her creativity at work. 

This was so funny last night. When the kids were tiny Bill would rock a bye baby all of them together and they got such a kick out of it. We recreated it last night. It lasted like half a second before they all collapsed. These kids are not small anymore! Spencer and Genevieve are not only the same height, they both have the exact same size foot now, which is maybe half a size smaller than mine, if that. They are growing like weeds. 

I put together this wall decor earlier this week. There will at some point be a console table for all our games that are currently stacked by the couch but it's out of stock so who knows when that will change. But I really like how it turned out. Someday I also plan to paint this wall as an accent wall. 

This is in my front entryway and I love it. 

We broke in our pizza oven for the first time at our new house on Friday! This pizza was so good. The pizza oven isn't new, but we haven't used it since we lived in Washington. It was fun to do homemade pizzas again. 

So long 2021

We had a fantastic last week of the year. Didn't really do much because the kids had just a touch of a cough and we didn't want to pass anything around, so we spent most of the time at home until the weekend. We were able to take Genevieve snowshoeing for the first time Saturday. It was fantastic. We went up by Suncrest and had a lovely time. Genevieve spent a lot of time laying in the snow, on purpose. It was pretty funny. Spencer gets to go next. I think our kid snowshoes are too big for Aaron and Chloe, so they may have to wait to grow a bit.

It snowed and we went sledding. That was fun too. Aaron didn't want to come, so he stayed and played Minecraft, but the rest of us got plenty of runs in on the hill by our house. 

Spencer built a super cool Lego Corvette he got for Christmas. It was really complex and took him a few days. It's really sweet looking. 

Bill didn't get nearly enough time sitting in this delightful chair reading his book, but he tried. 

Bill bbq'd some hamburgers for us in the snow on New Year's Eve. It was pretty funny. The plate in the pile of snow is my favorite part. And the shoes with no socks. 

We rang in the new year with pots and pans and barefoot outside in 18-degree weather. 

Chloe swiped Bill's new sweater. 

We went up to Golden Spike National Monument to see the train. It was a fun little excursion. 

See ya never again 2021! You weren't my favorite year, but we managed to still have plenty of good times. Here's to a lot more good times, whatever 2022 brings.