Gaming and Birthdays and mid-life crises

The past few days have been really nice here  50°! We've enjoyed this beautiful weather. Before that it was cold so we just sat at home by the fire and played board games - not a bad thing. We only have activities once a week night (Wednesday) so the other days we are free. It's great! On Wednesdays we do family tae kwon do so it is something we are all doing anyway. The kids are doing really well. It is actually a decent workout. I assumed it wouldn't be, but all the fighting is using muscles we are not used to. Actually - my yoga has really helped out with it. I have good balance and can kick pretty well. The kids are obviously really flexible.  Erik is having more trouble and his kicks are almost comical but he is getting much better.

Jenna and her lego creator set

 For Christmas we got Jenna the Lego Creator set. This is a fancier lego set with many pieces for 12+. She did a great job and put it together herself. It is quite detailed!

Ticket to Ride

 I snapped some pictures of us at yoga. We now have 5 yoga mats so everyone has their own mat. We have been watching Camden, a little boy on Saturdays sometimes and Matthew loves it. He absolutely adores Camden. On Wednesday mornings I've been watching two kids for a stay-at-home Dad who is the worship leader at our church. I *almost* said no because it is during my spinning class.  This has forced me to change my workout schedule to: Monday (nothing), Tuesday (cardio blast), Wednesday (tae kwon do), Thursday (body blitz - weight training) morning and yoga with Jenna evening, Friday (zumba), Saturday (zumba and family yoga), Sunday (nothing). Although I think I need to add running on either Monday or Sunday because we are doing a 5K and a triathlon in April.  Yikes!

Yoga

Yoga

Headbandz game and Erik is a doll ;)

Sushi Go - Sarah loves puddings

Erik thinks I'm going through a mid-life crisis and it is manifesting itself in me wanting to learn everything. This may or may not be true....I took android training last November, am learning bass guitar, and plan on taking Certified Ethical Hacker training in a few months. Now I'm the lead developer on our android course sequence. Yay!

Erik's birthday is on Saturday. We plan on having a board game night but celebrated his birthday early with the family. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and got him a Patriots jersey and the "Thing Explainer" book by Randall Munroe (xkcd.com). It is really pretty good!  He also wants an Eddie George Ohio State Jersey and I plan on getting that for him next. Boom!

Happy Birthday Erik!

This election news is driving me nuts. If Trump and Sanders win the nominations I'm going to write in a candidate. Maybe myself!!

On Monday we had Matthew's IEP meeting. I actually cried at the meeting. Matthew is going to regular kindergarten and only qualifies for handwriting help. He has advanced so much in the past few years. I'm so impressed with him.
 Check out these two videos. What a difference!!

Matthew Feb 2016: https://youtu.be/vlh1ZmKgChA

Matthew July 2013: https://youtu.be/X-WXVaNfkpM

Feb. 1 and already library fines...

We have exciting news! Our offer was accepted on our new rental house. We won't close until March 31st so we have to wait quite awhile but we are excited to get it. The house needs about $15000 of work, so we want to get in there and get started as soon as we Erik can. Even though it needs a lot of work, there is quite a bit of potential in the house. Right now we are waiting on the inspection, if they find major damage we will back out. So hopefully that goes well! This is the house link.

Now that I don't have to take my ring off to make bread, I've gone a little crazy. I made buns filled with oranges and pecans. Erik thought they were the best thing ever! So now I'm going to fill them with raspberry and pecans. He loves raspberry so this should be even better.  I could never be gluten free.... 

Orange pecan buns

 We played a new game called Cacao with the family. It is a new game we got for Christmas and we liked it. Matthew didn't want to play even though no reading was involved. We really need to get him into gaming!

playing cacao

Squirrel! Get out of my bird feeder :(

 I took both Jenna and Sarah's troops to our church to do yoga. They all set up mats and learned from Kate, a woman at our church who teaches Yoga at our Parks and Rec department. She was excellent and the kids loved yoga. My favorite part is corpse pose. She gave the girls each a lavender scented washcloth to put on their foreheads. It was so nice and relaxing (I got one too!).

Yoga

final relaxation!

 The past couple of days it has been 50° outside. So nice! The kids have been outside quite a bit, climbing the tree and going for hikes in the woods in the backyard (to find litter). The kids really love our woods, and I do too.

Three monkeys in a tree

In other news:

1. The new series I have been reading is fantastic. The first book is called the Eighth Day by Dianne K. Salerni and it is a similar concept to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson where there is a normal world and a magical world that everyone else can't see. Except it is Merlin/King Arthur. I love Merlin stories!
2. Our book club is finishing Override by the very famous Joel Cooper. I think it is begging for a sequel!
3. Jenna brought home the Fifth Wave which is currently out in theaters. I read the book quickly since it had to go back to her teacher. I liked it - lots of action. It's another post-apocalyptic story. 
4. I also picked up Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Our pastor talked about it at church one Sunday and I thought it sounded great. So far it has been an easy read.
5. I'm also a good way through Conqueror's Moon by Julian May. I'm enjoying this book as well.
6. It is February 1st and already I have failed on one of my New Years Resolutions. Yes - I have a library fine :(
7. Hopefully I can keep my other resolutions! Buying another house was one of them so at least I've got that one down.