March 1-8

Sunday we had friends over (but just the kids, because the accompanying parent was sick) and went roller skating to celebrate some church birthdays.

Big news on the track front: We have a schedule AND it has been communicated to us. Will wonders never cease? It did take a few false starts, with miscommunication of both the meets and practices (in separate occurrences, of course) as the powers that be struggled a bit over who was most powerful and who had which information. And then when they got that straightened out inquiring mothers who just want to be places on time were told that there was never any problem at all, which is bologna. But inquiring mothers are taking deep breaths and practicing patient acceptance and being grateful that it only took a week and half to get correct information. Addendum: I wrote this paragraph on Wednesday and then on Thursday the kids finished 15 minutes early with no warning. Close enough, I suppose.

The kids get along amazingly well for a magical half hour or so at bedtime. Once a week or so Bryan or I will tell the kids to get ready for bed and they will instead sit down for an exceedingly cordial game of some sort. If we let it go too long, they get overtired and testy, but for the first 30-45 minutes it's calm and quiet and happy memories are being made, so we tend to let it happen and hope we don't suffer for it in the morning.

Bryan caught whatever has been going around on Wednesday and was confined to bed on Thursday and Friday. Whatever he has involves a fever and is likely viral. He also has theories that the diet change of Lent contributes to his poor immune system and makes him more susceptible to germs. It's possible that Lent just coincides with things being passed around. Saturday he was up and about more, although still wearing his sick hat and taking naps. We are hopeful that the rest of us don't catch it, especially since we are supposed to leave for Florida this Friday.

Wednesday night Bryan supervised a large scale (is 30 people large scale?) play test of his newest game, Ninjamboree. He wasn't feeling great at that point and came to bed after I was asleep, so I was able to ascertain that it went well enough, but no more. If he wants more details in the blog book for posterity, he will have to leave a comment. Anyway, the game wasn't broken, but it also isn't quite ready for launch. He has big hopes for this game and is ready for the years of work to be complete so that he can release it into the wild.

Friday night was our annual Happy March card club. Bryan was still down for the count, so the amazing team of Olivia and Gretchen filled in for him. They alternated games and ended up winning the whole thing! One thousand apologies to various adults later, they are the proud co-owners of a mug. Their euchre skills are great, but their trash talk could use some work.

We had several of those sticky ninja wall climbers to put in valentine cards and one became adhered to our kitchen ceiling back in February. It finally fell on Friday, after 20 days on the ceiling. The kids have tried to reattach it, but it has run out of stickiness. It remains the undisputed champion, having easily outlasted the second place ninja's measly 24 hours. 

It was Right to Read Week at school, which means out of uniform days. Thursday was dress as a book character day. Pictures below.

I finally got my Christmas letter written. Hopefully I will get it in the mail before we leave for vacation. I am accepting guesses for how many signature pages I had to print before we managed to get 7 successful signatures.

Some funny observations by Theodore this week:

He was looking at reptile books at the library. One had a frog, and he asked if frogs were reptiles. I said no, they are amphibians, and he told me they must be reptiles because they're in the book. This led to the examination of the cover, and we discovered that the book was actually called Reptiles and Amphibians. He promptly gave it back to me, saying, "I don't want this one, because I only want to learn about reptiles. I don't want to learn about amphibians."

One morning Theodore asked if we were ever going to move to a new house. I told him we had no plans to move anytime soon and wondered why he asked. He said it was because a new house would not be so dirty. Clarification elicited the understanding that "dirty" means "messy." I suggested just cleaning up the current house, noting that all of the things and people would accompany us to a new house. Then he sat me down and very seriously told me that now that no one was two or three years old anymore we should be able to just keep everything where it belongs after using it, provided it starts in the right place. Apparently the easiest way to do this would be to move.

Pictures:

February 22 - March 1

This week was a doozy. We didn't do very many exciting things, but we did have a lot of demands on our time.

Sunday was Forgiveness Vespers, but at 12:30 because we had a visiting priest. This is one service the kids remember, so that makes it one that I appreciate more. Once we made it home for the day, we had nothing else planned.

All the other nights of the week, though, were filled with services because of the first week of Lent. Now we decrease to just Wednesdays and Fridays until Holy Week.

Track suddenly started this week. Yes, I placed my modifier correctly. Track's communication since we've been involved has been ... lacking. We found out through the grapevine around 4:00 on Monday that practice might be starting. At 5:15 I texted the team mom who ran all communications last year and found out that practice had indeed started. The girls did not make it. Allegedly an announcement was made at school (at 3:00, for a 4:45 practice), but six Barhorsts did not hear it, so I am relatively certain that the school dropped the ball on that one. The girls were able to attend practice the rest of the week. At this point we know practices as much as one day ahead and we are supposed to be grateful for that extremely advanced notice. 

Gretchen got shin splints on day two of track, likely caused by running indoors (a theory not tested, but based on the fact that she did not suffer during cross country, nor have any of our off season runs bothered her). The new junior high coach gave her two pages of stretches and grounded her for a few days, which is more than anyone did when she sustained injuries last year. It seems unlikely that they will move training outside before the weather warms up more, so I guess we'll take what we can get.

Friday we had to go to the library to turn in winter reading sheets. We don't go to the library much at all anymore, preferring to read on kindles, but the boys wanted a chance at prizes. Now we have library books that we'll need to remember to return again.

Saturday I spent at a Mothers' Retreat with a friend. It's a Catholic retreat in farm country, Ohio, and I always find it refreshing and edifying.

I'm preparing for a half marathon in April and the training plan that I'm following has me ramping up the weekday miles, which is fun to try to fit in. I'm also starving all the time, but never hungry for anything, so that's great. In a related pondering, how much do we think I need to run to pull ahead of Dad's all time mileage? He put in more miles in high school, ran in college (which I did not), and trained for one marathon. Plus any other running he did just because. But this is my 7th half marathon build, so I feel like I have to be gaining on him.

Pictures:

February 15-22

I've always harbored a pet theory that given everything we know about the proportions of human bodies (mostly learned in art class), we should be able to more accurately predict heights. There are holes in my proportion chain, though, a notable problem being that even though eyeballs are the same size for your whole life, there is no way to reach inside a baby's head and examine the eyeball size. I was explaining this to the kids one day, and Gretchen thought maybe irises would also stay the same size. You know, since eyeballs do. Brilliant! We all latched onto this very scientific conclusion and set about measuring irises in the most precise way imaginable: We stared into each other's eyes and hollered about staying still. All the male irises in the family are visibly larger than the female irises which clearly means we're on to something. The family now believes that Theodore will be the tallest. The girls are all, as closely as we could measure, about the same as me.

One of the girls (probably Gretchen?) received the board game Villainous for Christmas. Olivia and Gretchen, and some others, have been enjoying playing it approximately twice a month since then. Their biggest obstacle is that it is a longer game, so by the time they finish explaining it to a friend they only have about 20 minutes left to actually play and don't manage to get very far. Yesterday Bryan played with them, and then told them to create their own villains to add to the game, which provided some interesting discussion and kept people busy. Olivia is creating Bowser and Gretchen is working on Dawn Bellweather.

Side note, the previous paragraph was made more difficult by the fact that the children of the household have completed the cot/caught merger while the adults have not. Don and Dawn sound the same coming out of Gretchen's mouth.

We had no school on Monday due to President's Day, and it ended up being more busy than anticipated. Olivia and Kaitlyn performed piano at a local nursing home for service hours. Kaitlyn played mini golf on the oculus with Opa. Olivia and Matthias went to a friend's house for a game of Kid Magic (just magic the gathering, but all kids playing). Olivia played chess with Opa. I'm not sure what Gretchen was up to. Probably homework and riding her bike. Theodore was also around, but didn't have any engagements.

Speaking of riding bikes, Olivia and Gretchen have become quite independent and will frequently take their bikes down to the subdivision to ride for a while. It started as a way to get exercise without running as the weather warmed up, but Gretchen especially has really taken to bike riding as a way to get a little break outside between other obligations.

Now that the weather is warming up, fog days are back on the table! These were a huge surprise to me when Olivia first started school. With the number of kids coming from the country, though, I guess the fog is a problem. Monday was actually incredibly foggy, even in downtown Lima and on the freeway as late as 9 am. That would have been a canceled day for sure if we didn't already have the day off. The administration is reluctant to cancel anymore this year because we're out of calamity days and have to do virtual learning during cancellations, which is inconvenient for everyone. As a result, a moderately foggy Thursday morning ended up being just a 2 hour delay.

Matthias is unintentionally and reluctantly becoming better at cleaning up. He had made butter at school and wanted to try at home as well. Unfortunately, when he got tired of shaking the jar his arm got a little to low and he managed to smash the bottom of the mason jar on the counter, sending cream all over the kitchen. He had to wipe up the cream, sweep the floor, and then mop. Many tears were shed, but he did a good job and when he spilled something the next day he was much more willing to take care of it.

Kaitlyn made slime yesterday, which obviously led to Matthias making slime as well. We didn't have food coloring, so we just have two large balls of white slime. It was painless and easy and doesn't even seem to be unbearably sticky, which I appreciate. They still are not allowed to have it on anything fabric.

Theodore would like to know how many reptiles you can name without looking them up. Bear in mind that alligators and crocodiles apparently count as the same thing, and all reptiles within the same genus count as one. You are permitted to separate orders and (probably) families.

Pictures:

February 8-15

I was rushing to fit in a few quarterly unbirthdays this week before we reached Meatfare Sunday. Last week Olivia had mexican chicken and oatmeal raisin cookies. Gretchen had grilled chicken sandwiches and candy. Theodore picked breaded chicken tenders and cotton candy, which was almost difficult, but luckily stores sell cotton candy around Valentine's Day. Bryan wanted pulled pork sandwiches and stretchy India ice cream. ... He got the pork. I'll hopefully get to the dessert this week before Cheesefare next Sunday. Bryan wins the prize for most creative (read: labor intensive) unbirthdays.

We had a few haircuts around here: Matthias got a buzz, Gretchen refreshed her pixie cut, and Kaitlyn chopped off about 8 inches in what felt spur of the moment to me but was probably well thought out. She's at shoulder length now and much less reluctant to comb her hair than she once was.

On Friday I had the opportunity to play with the Adrian Symphony, which is always a delight. It was the Valentine's Day concert, so we had an afternoon rehearsal and an evening performance. The whole concert was Broadway love songs. It turns out maybe my favorite thing to play is pit music.

While I was gone the boys built a fort in the living room. It's still mostly there, although they only got to sleep in it the first night. On Saturday we made sure to get some pictures in the fort with Flat August so that we can send him back to his school on Monday.

Saturday was my day to spend with Kaitlyn. We went ice skating in Findlay and then watched a movie. My ankles are not up to the challenge of skating for 2 hours, although I'm getting a little better each year that we do this. Kaitlyn mostly doesn't skate with me, instead preferring to say hello as she laps me yet again. Sometimes we just stand off to the side and admire the better skaters. Kaitlyn would really like to learn how to do the sideways ice-scratching stop that the hockey kids use. Our movie this year was Avatar: Fire and Ash. In 3D. I have seen zero of the previous Avatar movies, but followed along well enough once the main plot got going. Kaitlyn filled me in on all the missing lore as we drove home.

The Olympics have been featured on our television several times this week. I remember watching with my mom sometimes, and wanted to have a similar experience with my kids. I'm not sure it's working, especially since most of the watching happens after bed time. I do find it exceedingly convenient that what I want to watch comes on automatically after whatever regular sports event Bryan is watching earlier in the evening. Kaitlyn has been consistently slipping out of her room at night to quietly watch with me. Olivia emerges about half the time. Sometimes we just look up whatever specific event we want to see (figure skating, mostly) on youtube. I do think Kaitlyn is mostly in it for the potential falls.

And a conversation I had with Theo this week. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the handwriting in question.

Theo: Can you help me with my homework?

Me: What do you need me to do?

Theo: You could write this for me.
Me: Your teacher would definitely know it was me.

Theo: But my handwriting is beautiful.
Me: I know, that's why she would be able to tell.
Theo: Why, is your handwriting terrible?
Me: No, my handwriting is good. This is my handwriting. *gestures to note on the table*
Theo: ...Eek.
Me: Eek?! What's wrong with it?
Theo: *laughing* Look at it! The e is touching the e. And the e is touching the d. And the f is touching the i. And the t is touching the j!
Me: That's a u.
Theo: *more laughter* I guess it's pretty good, but it's all touching.

Pictures:

February 1-8

Jake gets 15 points for snack house guesses. Opa gets 4 points. Now I have to go figure out how to update my points balances.

Last week our friends from church, the Millers, came over to visit after church. Matthias and their boys had a good time roughhousing all over the basement. Kyle has been invested in ukulele lately, so he and I talked shop while Bryan and Tara pretended to be interested in ukulele. My uke skills have only had to stay ahead of one six year old I’m teaching, so having Kyle be excited to discuss chord patterns actually increased my current knowledge by about 15%. We’re going to put together a duet of Pachelbel’s Canon sometime. Probably.

Basketball season has ended, hurrah. We should have a week or two before track season fills the void.

Living Room La Comedia is alive and well. Some years I do better than others getting all of the scheduled shows in before Bryan gifts me a new season for Christmas. We had two left over from last year and fit them in on January 31 and February 1. We also got in the first show of this season on February 5, so we’re kind of La Comediad out right at this moment. Last Sunday was our very first family show. We watched Peter Pan with the kids and they loved the experience.

Friday we dropped the girls off at the Miroglios’ and then Bryan and the boys and I headed up to Michigan to visit my former roommate, Danielle, and her family. I don’t know what all the girls ended up doing, but they had a good time. The boys enjoyed discovering different toys at a different house. Bryan got to play some poker and we all watched India beat the USA in cricket. Watched might be too generous… Bryan and Wilson watched. Danielle and I were in and out between cricket and the kitchen. Mostly the kitchen, but I saw enough cricket to know some things about cricket now.

On the way home last night we took a 9 minute detour to drive by Zion and the Detroit house. I remember little about the neighborhood, which is unsurprising given how much we did not wander around the neighborhood. I did point out the parking lot across the street where we used to ride bikes and roller blade on occasion. I did not remember to emphasize the stoop next to the church steps that is apparently excellent for jumping. Sorry, Jacob and Jillian. The house we grew up in is the only house left on the block. Everything else is parking lots for the church and the charter school.

The boys were much more interested in seeing the ambassador bridge on the way home. They liked knowing that they were so close to Canada and asked several times if we could just go into Canada and then immediately turn around and come back. They settled for knowing that half the bridge belongs to Canada and claiming that they could see Canada (kind of true, but also it was dark). We have Flat August with us for this week, so I took a blurry windshield picture of the bridge to send back to August’s second grade class with Flat August, International Observer.

Today should be a quiet day and it will be nice to have an afternoon to reset before the busyness of the week begins again.

Pictures:

January 25 - February 1

Church was virtual last week. I heard traffic on Allentown and sent Bryan out to check. He shoveled a trench to the end of our driveway, noticed that Stevick looked the same as our driveway, and came back. Also, given the depth of the trench, our van did not look like it was going to make it out. As we decided that we probably wouldn't make it, the Sheriff upped the winter roadway advisory from a 1 to a 2. We gathered the children in the oratory and cosplayed Sunday during early Covid.

I tried to bribe the kids into shoveling the driveway. Matthias went out for a little while and, bless his heart, shoveled snow into the garage. ... Bryan did a much better job with the length of the driveway on Sunday afternoon, and I took care of about half the back portion on Monday morning. We have a snowblower, but it doesn't think it knows how to turn on. It makes a lot of noise but never catches, which as you can imagine is very useful for a snowblower.

It was our week to bring food to coffee hour, so when church was canceled we were left with enough Sloppy Joes to feed the whole block. Bryan promised to have parking spots available if our friends the Miroglios and Misiakiewiczes came to visit. We sent all the kids outside to play and then let them take turns in the hot tub to warm back up. It turns out that I am no longer as prepared for outdoor winter play as I once was. Theodore has boots. Matthias and Kaitlyn share a pair of boots. Olivia and Gretchen share MY boots. Snowpants are a similar story, although I think we're only one pair short on those. Luckily the Misiakiewiczes brought a spare pair that Kaitlyn could borrow. I am very prepared in the glove department, so we had enough gloves for everyone to wear two pairs plus a waterproof pair over the top. And when the under pairs got wet we were able to swap them out.

School was, of course, canceled on Monday. We even reached a level 3 roadway advisory sometime Sunday evening. My favorite part of school being canceled might be that after school activities tend to be canceled as well. School was also canceled on Tuesday. And on Wednesday. On Thursday we had a two hour delay, and then, finally, on Friday, we had to go to school for the whole day. The monsters. It was actually a sad week for the kids to miss school because it was Catholic Schools Week and there were a lot of fun activities planned. Olivia was legitimately disappointed when Tuesday was canceled because that was student appreciation day -- pajamas, popcorn and a movie, and no homework. She recovered well. The days at home were pleasantly relaxing. We read books and played games and the kids built with Legos.

On Friday there was the annual Staff vs 8th Grade volleyball game. It took 3 matches, but 8th grade eked out a narrow win. Olivia was happy because 8th grade won. I was happy because I acquitted myself well. Matthias was unhappy because the gym was incredibly noisy, so he spent the better part of an hour looking miserable with his fingers stuffed in his ears.

My running this week has been frigid. I have a treadmill in the basement, but if I run outside then I only have to be mentally strong for a few crucial turns rather than for 40 whole minutes. I have enough layers, a lighted vest, and yaktrax, which are basically snow chains for my shoes. The runs themselves have been pleasant enough, and I have learned that the feeling of frozen eyelashes is a strange, but not altogether unpleasant, sensation. 

Last week Bryan decided we were making Raw Apple Cake. It was a bit of a tag team effort, and when it came out of the oven something tasted off to me. I went through the recipe and between the two of us we were sure we'd put in all the right ingredients. Then I thought maybe my recipe was wrong, so I hunted through my loose recipe papers for the one from mom. It was the same. Maybe I just don't know what raw apple cake is supposed to taste like? A few days later, I had an epiphany. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of warm coffee. I asked Bryan what kind of coffee he used. It was cherry coffee. Word to the wise, cherry coffee make the raw apple cake taste different. :)

At Olivia's request, I am reposting the snack houses. Useless points shall be awarded for correct guesses. 3 points for being the first comment to correctly guess each house, 2 for the second comment, 1 for the the third comment. Each house is on its own point system.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 71

From October 2024:

Theodore is confused about how we measure bigness. Matthias is "two heights" older than him. Which means he's "two pounds" bigger. He wants to know how old he will be when Matthias is "the first height of grown up."

From June 2025:

Olivia I had a question but I don't remember what it was. Oh wait, I just wanted to talk.

Olivia: I can't figure out the answer to this question. Why are they talking about wildfire?
Me: That says wildlife.

Me: Do you want to see an M O V I E?
Olivia: What's an M O V I -- Oh, wait.

Olivia: Mom, you look like someone I know.

Theo says "tiny tin bit" instead of "tiny" and "hugeamungous" to mean something large.

From August 2025:

Me: Matthias, those are not your pants. You have got to notice when your pants don't even come to your ankles. Those are Theodore's pants. 

Me: *checks tag*

Me: And they're on backwards. You're wearing Theodore's pants backwards.

Theo: Easily peasily lemon squeezily.

From October 2025:

Theodore: Hey! The Browns are actually winning!

From January 2026:

Theodore: Mom, can you get me cereal? 

Me: Can you get your own bowl out of the dishwasher and get out the cereal? 

Theo: No.

Me: Why not? 

Theo: Because I don't want to do any work, I just want to eat.

January 18-25

Olivia and I went to La Comedia on Sunday night. A Christmas present for the last three years for each kid has been an individual thing with Bryan and and individual thing with me. Olivia and I have been going to La Comedia, and being creatures of habit we saw no reason to mix it up this year. We decided to see Murder on the Orient Express, which is based on an Agatha Christie book, so of course we read the book first. The play did take a few liberties, which Olivia disliked greatly. She took notes. She decided on the way home that the play was good, but it has to be good on its own because it is NOT the book (which was also good). Classic Olivia. We did learn that there are two movie adaptations (and a TV show?) and we have plans to watch those at some point.

Since reading Murder on the Orient Express, Olivia has decided she likes Agatha Christie and is now working her way through those books. I believe she's on number three, although that's more a collection of shorter mysteries, so she might have skipped ahead to four. Murder on the Orient Express is number ten. So far she has not managed to deduce the murderer before being told. It's a good thing Hercule Poirot is on the case as well. Olivia has been trying to convince her sisters to read with her, giving them enticing but spoiler free synopses of the books she's finished. The main take-away from this as I understand it is that Alfred clearly ate all the cookies, and if Olivia were a better detective she would have noticed that.

Monday was a school holiday and a waste of a perfectly good snow day. Olivia and I went to school midday so that she could play pickleball with some classmates and I could do relatively distraction free lesson planning. Gretchen did NOT have basketball practice, despite a schedule sent out earlier in the month stating that she did. Communications got crossed somewhere, so she and I sat in the parking lot for 10 minutes waiting to see if anyone else would show up before her coach confirmed that she had the day off. Gretchen was decidedly not devastated. While we waited I showed her the This is a Coat song by Holderness Family, and now she sings it when she's in the car. She has also seen the error of her ways and started wearing a coat (but also sometimes just carrying it while she sings in the freezing weather).

On Tuesday our furnace was fixed and on Wednesday it started blowing cold air instead of hot, so on Thursday the furnace guy came back yet again. It turns out there was a sensor that was misaligned and now our furnace both turns on consistently and blows hot air. Luckily for us, the day it was struggling was the warmest one this week. Getting out of bed on Thursday was chilly, but it could have been worse.

Friday night was a Winter Gathering for teachers. Bryan and I told the kids to feed themselves dinner and went bowling with my colleagues. Dinner for the kids was an adventure because we combined it with a "Snack House" activity. They built not-gingerbread houses out of all of the fun supplies that Bryan had purchased, took pictures, and then ate the houses. So dinner was probably mostly crackers and candy, although we did tell them that eating the broccoli was mandatory whether or not their houses had trees. When we arrived home just after nine the house was quiet and three kids were asleep, which was pretty magical.

By Saturday the temperature had dropped enough that I went to the Y for my long run and completed 86 laps around the track -- if my counting was correct. Not my preferred long run venue, but my friend Jill was there so at least I had company. Also on Saturday was a low-key puzzle competition where my team won by completing a 300 piece puzzle in 17:40. This was the first time the organizer had hosted a competition and she was worried that 1.5 hours might not be enough. We did another 300 piece puzzle afterwards for fun before heading home.

Saturday was also the day I decided we needed to tackle the problem that is our house. We have three main rooms and seven people, so we divided and conquered. An hour later all three rooms were cleaned, organized, and swept, plus a little bonus invisible clutter removal in the rooms Bryan and I did. We tried to do time lapse videos, but the first one I accidentally swiped to slow motion as I pressed play. The other might be good, but it is on Kaitlyn's camera so I haven't seen it yet.

This morning we had a fair amount of snow on the ground and it is still falling. Roads are not plowed, at least not in our area, and St Stephen's cancelled all services. We're thinking about trying to make it to St Charles for their later service. I will have to let you know next week if we succeed or if we end up at virtual church. On the plus side, I have given some much needed attention to the oratory in anticipation of virtual church. It's not perfect, but it is better.

Bryan discovered a new game that he bought for our switch: Duck Game. Up to four people can play at once and you just run around (as ducks) and try to kill the other ducks in entertaining ways. It's very quick and very silly, although Theo can only play in small doses because he gets mad when he dies. Bryan's favorite weapon is the net gun, which traps a duck just long enough that if you're quick you can pick them up and toss them over the edge. Matthias's favorite is the mind control gun. He also enjoys the powerful magnet that can attach to armor and muscle a duck over to the side. My preferred (note: preferred, but not recommended) tactic is to panic throw my weapons because I forget which button to use. I am Theodore's favorite opponent.

I tried some new things with my blog these last few weeks. I was attaching captions directly to pictures so that I would have more options when integrating into printed books. Blogger made that a bit of a pain, so this week I played around with Word Press. I thought I had everything figured out, but then Word Press stopped connecting to my Google Photos. So in a fit of pique I moved back to Blogger. And I decided that the individual captions weren't worth the frustration. I will find a book that can print them how I want them when it's time. That sounds like next year Johannah's problem.

Pictures:

January 11-18

Bryan and I are both trying to spend less time on our phones. He put a large 100 sided die in his pocket to get in the way every time he reaches for his phone. It gives him a moment to remember that he doesn't actually need his phone, he's just reaching out of habit. He reports that it is working as planned thus far. I finally activated the tiny smart phone that I purchased a couple of years ago for this purpose. It can do everything a normal sized smart phone can do, but the size makes it quite inconvenient to use for non-essential things. Importantly, I didn't install chrome, which has made a huge difference as well.

We had a snow day on Thursday, much to the delight of the children. It was a very laid back day. Kaitlyn and Matthias played video games together without fighting for several hours while Theo watched them. Olivia, Gretchen, and I played Eye Found It, a Disney I spy game for 5 year olds, and had a grand time. We then promptly packed it back up and put it on the donate pile because we are unlikely to play it again. I also pulled out Taboo to show them. Kaitlyn organized a recital that she recorded on her new camcorder. I'll have to see about getting the video put up somewhere.

Yesterday we went on a family adventure (from a scratch off book that we got for Christmas 2024) to the bowling alley. We have several of these books, and Bryan decided that if we were going to have any chance of completing them before Olivia leaves for college then we need to get moving. So we scratched something off and put it on the calendar for yesterday. We had to try to bowl the lowest score, but also each person got to dictate how to bowl for one frame. It was silly and fun, until I accidentally bowled a spare for Theo (Bryan's rule was that everyone had to pick a different person to bowl for them to try to drive up the score) and he immediately followed it with an accidental 9. Theo still managed to get third place after Bryan and our big winner, Matthias. We had some time left to bowl 7/10 of a real game in which Bryan wiped the floor with the rest of us.

It was also Matthias's unbirthday yesterday. He's a bit of a chore to cater to because he has a lot of specific requests, but we had "homemade pizza" (read: cardboard pizza -- this hurts my soul), bagel bites, and donuts. He originally asked for fried onion chicken as well, but then decided he didn't really want that. At least he picks things that I can just buy from the store and toss in the oven, unlike his father who wants things like Thai green curry and entremets. 

Gretchen discovered a mermaid tail blanket from several years ago and dressed up fabulously. She wanted to make sure her fashion statement was documented for posterity. Pictures below.

Bryan got a giant soft blanket for Christmas from his sister. His first question was, "Are you sure this is for me and not for Johannah?" She replied that she got it because he complained that I always stole his blanket and this way he would have one to use. It is a fabulous blanket and, while I do leave it for Bryan to use at night, I love it more than he does.

Theodore has a way of playing with his matchbox cars where he bonks them into each other by flinging them together forcefully. If one turns around on its belly, it is dead and gets eliminated. He repeats this process over and over until he is left with one champion. This game gets played pretty much every day right now. He also wants you to know that he likes building car tracks and using boosters to make the cars drive fast.

Olivia had a high school placement test that worried her mightily but went well. She's very comfortable at the high school since she's been taking Spanish there this year, so she was at least not worried about finding her way around the location. She and Bryan and I also had to go in for a meet and greet with teachers/administrators so that they could impart important information and we could ask pressing questions. Two more things checked off the high school application list. I think all that's left is turning in financial aid paperwork, although sometimes they add steps to the checklist without telling me and I discover them later.

Our furnace has been doing this fun thing where it doesn't heat reliably. It hasn't dropped below 63 yet, but it does struggle to go much higher than that during the day. Until it doesn't, and then it's fine for a while. This was a problem near the end of last winter as well, so we nursed it through with the occasional percussive maintenance. At the beginning of this winter, I called someone. Unfortunately, the furnace was on its best behavior and the problem was not observed. Since then, it's been a game. Can I catch it not working when I also have time to be home to meet a technician? And will it stay not working long enough for him to drive to my house? This week I finally caught it. A faulty pressure switch was diagnosed and repaired. The furnace worked. But then a couple of hours later it did not work again. The tech came back. The fan in a can was the immediate next suspect, but was exonerated. He's thinking the control board, which of course is hard to find because the furnace is 20 years old, so maybe we should just get a new furnace. Bryan and I pretty much decided to continue on as we had been (after all, the basement has its own furnace if we end up needing to escape the cold) when the technician called with news that he had found a control board. So we're getting that fixed in the next week or two and hopefully our furnace will limp along with fewer diagnostic thwacks for a few more years.

Pictures:

Bowling, but only Olivia
was paying attention.

Bowling, take 2.

I was at bowling as well!

Gretchen's post bowling strut was fun.

Milling around getting ready.

Four kids playing Heave Ho,
one watching happily.

Kaitlyn's hamster, Li'l Lilly.

Me enjoying Bryan's blanket.

Kids enjoying video games.

Theodore and his car game.

This is Gretchen.

January 4-11

Gretchen's aggression in basketball leaves much to be desired, but her enthusiasm is there. This week she got a steal during a game AND successfully passed the ball to a teammate. I don't ever watch her play and wouldn't understand what was happening if I did, but judging from her excitement and Bryan's congratulations, this was a big deal for her. In yesterday's game she touched the ball at least twice. :)

Matthias is also playing basketball and Bryan went to that game while I was at Gretchen's. They won, and Matthias says they are undefeated this season.

I forgot to mention last week that I managed to lose my voice for a few days. On Sunday I could sing only my lowest 4 notes, and by Sunday night I was alternating honking and whispering, much to Bryan's amusement. On Monday I woke up with only a whisper that mostly served to make all the children in the house (ours and the Smiths) seem exceptionally loud and uncouth. Jacque and Will sat nearby  and whispered back to me during conversations, which made the whole experience very secretive. By the time the Bossards arrived just after lunch, my voice was speaking again, albeit quietly. Over the course of the week it slowly regained strength and each day I managed a few more sung notes. I was still not at full strength yet this week, which made teaching music classes a little more exciting.

I also neglected to mention that our priest, Father Joshua, has been moved to a new parish. December 28 was his last Sunday with us and we were sad to see him go. The Archbishop is hoping to have a new priest at St Stephen by mid-summer, but until then we're back to the constant parade of visiting priests. We do have a freshly minted Deacon at our church now, so on the in between weeks we will have communion within the shorter typica service. Our typicas were getting rusty anyway.

Bryan took an overnight trip to Chicago to see our new Deacon (Josh Hodges) get ordained on January 6. He stayed with Jacque and returned a small box of things that the Smiths had accidentally forgotten in our house.

Friday was the spelling bee at St Charles. Olivia and Gretchen both participated. I missed seeing it because I was teaching, but Gretchen ended up getting 3rd place! Olivia was eliminated on the word "winsome" after she debated internally a little too long about whether or not to add the e. Gretchen was eliminated in the same round as second place (but she spelled first) on the word "riveted," which remains a disappointment to her because she knows how to spell that word.

Also on Friday was my Music Together class, which normally would be so routine as to avoid mention, but this week was the start of a new session and I had a FULL CLASS! 12 kids is the cap -- a cap I've never had to worry about before because I've never had more than 7 (in a summer session... 5 in a school year session). But somehow between November and January seven new families discovered my class and signed up and now my class is maxed out. It was delightful. This is my dream.

Related, I got an email from Lima, Peru, asking me in Spanish about my classes. I had to tell a parent than although their 10 month old was the perfect age, I am a little far away. I am assuming that my newfound popularity is due to my actual website (I upgraded from Wix at the end of August). Turns out that matters more than I want it to.

Theodore thought of a story he wants immortalized in the books: Remember when we had a big box and one kid would get in it and then we would close it up and tell mom and dad they had a package? And then they would open it and the package was us! That was so much fun!

Bryan claims I steal the blankets.
I claim he shoves them on me.
This is the bed in the morning when he hasn't slept in it.

3rd place in the spelling bee!