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!