Valentine's Day

Oh, my! Chuck starts in 15 minutes--I got involved in reading Katie's blog and lost track of the time! But I will still do this!

So, I didn't blog on Sunday because I talked to Katie that day, and Hannah on Saturday, and because I just kind of ran out of time. Let's see...

We went to church as usual, ate lunch, walked in the sun--warmer but windy so still coldish. Then Abby went to YG at 4pm and after that went with Brandon, Erin, and KTF to another worship night in Hartville until 10pm. So Jeff and I ate some leftovers for dinner--beef stew from Saturday night which actually did get done in time to eat it at dinner time on Saturday! I worked on some school stuff and then we went to get Blizzards at DQ kind of as our Valentine's Day treat. We watched a new show--Mr. Sunshine--which has a Hiland HS graduate in it. Then we talked about our busy week ahead, and it was time to head to bed to sleep so we can do all that needs to be done.

Today was school which went fine. Sierra brought cupcakes for Valentine's Day which was a nice treat. For the SAT class, it was a chapter on vocabulary that was very short, so I had them go online and do FreeRice and SAT flashcards Abby found on dictionary.com. I also took snacks so that seemed like a more fun class. I took fruit snacks, pretzels, black bean and salsa chips, candy bars...

There is this very adorable little girl with long blonde ringlets at BOW who is maybe 5 or 6?, named Jadin. She apparently follows the Kosher foods rule because she came in during our class when she saw Jacob (whom she loves) and snacks, and looking at the fruit snacks, asked, "Do those have pork in them?" MMMM....pork-flavored fruit snacks which I guess would be "pork snacks!"

We told her she better ask her mom, and sure enough, there was gelatin or something in them and they weren't kosher...so "no fruit snacks for you!" But she did manage a few pure mini chocolate bars and then asked about pork in the Jolly Ranchers. I wasn't worried about pork in them--they're all sugar, but about choking hazards. She asked her mom though and she said OK. Such a funny little thing! So cute!

Also, I asked the kids in Language Arts to write a story using 10 WW vocab words, and one boy wrote about a field trip to a chicken hatchery. He described the way the eggs came in and hatched, then they had to remove any extra shell. Then they traveled on a conveyor belt to the next spot, but "a few of them have a very dismal outcome because they fall off the conveyor belt. While on the conveyor belt they were sprayed with a vaccine that turned them an exotic red color. It was red because it makes them want to peck it and they peck at each other." It just struck me so funny--great, but so funny! A dismal outcome... :)

So, after school, I came home and put some pizza dough in the bread machine and went with Jeff to the post office to mail Kaite's package. We had done all the research and figured out which box to get, and then they didn't have that box in the post office--had to be gotten online. The mail guy didn't even know the box existed. So we improvised and mailed two small boxes instead. Unfortunately, we had to leave some things out or spend a lot more money. So, hopefully it will all get there in a short time and all in one piece--or two pieces.

Then we had heart-shaped pizza for dinner. We had frozen pizzas on Friday, but homemade is different enough that I didn't mind. And now we have lots of leftovers for the week! Yummy!

Abby and Jeff had to go to Abby's dance class again--she dances at halftime at Woodridge with the jazz classes tomorrow night. Never been to Woodridge HS before, so we'll see how that goes. At least she'll get home earlier than usual on Tuesdays. We'll all be glad to go back to dance once a week. All month she'll have Monday and Tuesday classes because of snow and bball games. Then we can all watch Chuch together again. Awww...Chuck and Sarah are so sweet! What a good show! (It just ended, in case you couldn't tell!)

So, Abby just found out last week that the Celtic Ball is this Saturday, the 19th. We never got an invitation, but people at BOW found out somehow and today had the sheets and were making copies. So, I called one of the moms this afternoon to see if she had the number of who to call--because apparently, they are not as strict about deadlines or something this year. Someone new is doing it. It's weird that they wouldn't just invite everyone who was there last year at least. It will be a stretch for her to go, but Karen said she would drive her with Carrie, and finally Abby would have friends from school who are going, so I guess we'll see. Most likely, it'll be full--but maybe not if they haven't invited people? Hannah is planning to come home this weekend, and we were going to have the Karen girls over, and we have small group on Saturday night, so it's not the greatest weekend for Abby to be gone all day Saturday. But it IS the Celtic Ball, and she could just wear a dress from another year.

I think this week I might finally be able to change my routine and not have to wear boots everywhere and mulitple layers of wool clothing. I said the other day, I just want to be able to wear cute shoes again, and NOT have to wear wool at all! It's supposed to be around 50 later in the week. Our driveway is pretty much clear now--Jeff got some very large ice chunks on Saturday--very satisfying! But it was very windy today, and very gray. Sleepy day.

I loved Katie's post today as always--I can just imagine her bargain/window shopping in France. It's always good to check things out and see where the prices are best! Just in case! Mike talked about not storing up for yourselves treasure on earth yesterday. He did a good job of addressing the issue of saving for the future vs. loving money and being consumed by material things. We can err too far on either side--giving up all material stuff and focusing too much on it. Money is not the evil--Love of money is. Finding our security in stuff rather than trusting in God to provide for us. God is a good provider, and we are thankful!

Well, I guess I will go and read some of the book we are reading for small group now--Emotionally Healthy Spirituality--good title but such a mouthful! And then head to bed early. It's 9:15pm, so Jeff and Abby should be home soon. He'll probably eat the last piece of chocolate pie (I already had mine tonight), and Abby has some Blizzard we left for her in the freezer for her treat. So, until later, dear reader!