This is Valentine's Day Week! I have lots of loves who I got to see on the perfect week of love. We hit the ground running with my favorite dessert love. The best part is you can make it in the Instapot. Yes, I bought the 7 in. spring pan JUST for this dessert. It's delicious. I'm pretty sure I ate the entire thing myself with little help. No one else around here really likes to eat it. Too bad for them. Here is the recipe if you want to try it out for yourself!
Siblings. I LOVE these two monkeys. They love each other two, but I find them arguing a lot. I came into the bedroom to find Isaac saying "mom!" not to get her off, just to prove that she was trying to fight with him before he retaliated and had her crying. When he gets fed up with her and fights back, it eventually leads to her coming to me crying saying Isaac hurt her.
My next LOVE...one of my college roommates, bff's, and cruising buddy- Stephy. As a polar bear alum, she was able to share her love with her students and now some of those students are getting ready to chose a college. Because she had one of those students who has a mom who was also a polar bear, Steph got to come back to her old stomping grounds. It was fantastic to reminisce and show her around the new business school (since Huber is where we took classes).
And then these two loves. The only niece and nephew I have on my side. Adorable right?! So when you come to my house and want ice cream for a snack or for breakfast, who am I to say no?! They arrived earlier than when my own kiddos got off the bus, so we headed down to the basement/toy room to entertain. Hunter is totally into organizing (if I didn't know better, I'd think he was mine right?) so when he asked if we could clean up and organize I jumped on it. Now he thought we could finish before Isaac and Olivia got home, but I knew better. The pic of the art cart is just a small example of how much he helped. We organized the pens by color and the crayons too. Everything had it's place. It was beautiful. I asked him several times if he needed a break and wanted to go play for a while. He said no....seriously, did God send me an angel or what?! He stuck it out for around 4.5 hours. What? We threw out 3 bags of trash and had a pile to go to Goodwill, but OMG where has he been all summer! This was a pandemic project that never got finished. It took Hunter coming to make it happen. Thanks buddy!
The girls did a lot of things together. Secretly I think Olivia loved having a little girl around, although she'd never admit it. They had a spa day in the jet tub and made a fort in Olivia's bedroom. Another thing we did is break into the April box from last year's "year of experiences" board (thanks pandemic for ruining that!) and pulled out the glow golf tickets. We have a cool place right inside the mall so decided to let the kiddos go have some Lima fun. Since the cousins live in a big city where everything is at their fingertips, wanted to be sure they didn't get bored. Well, since it only lasted about 20 minutes tops...not sure it was loads of fun, but definitely entertaining for a bit.
Then Sunday was Valentines Day. Started off the day with church and then headed to lunch with maw and paw at Banditos. Jeremy and I are still exchanging the same card since 2005 Valentine's Day. It's honestly the best idea ever and so much fun to read back through the last 16 years-worth of notes to each other. Jerm and I got Isaac a snoopy mug for his hot chocolate and a little car and Olivia got a water bottle for all her activities and a stuffed puppy because she's been begging for real one and that's 100% not happening. LOL. Stuffed one will have to do for now.
We ended the day with skate party at Edgewood. Our church sponsors family skate night. Olivia couldn't go because she had dance and Jerm had school work to finish up, so I volunteered to take Issac. I love roller skating. I'm just afraid I might break something now. But I went and had so much fun.
Oh my goodness. February came in dumping snow and ice and more snow. This week my kids stayed home more than the went to school. Monday- went to college 🤓snow day! Tuesday- virtually went to school online while the Elida teachers got vaccinations. Wednesday went to school! Thursday- Olivia went to school all day, Isaac had me pick him up at 1:30 with a belly ache. Friday- snow day! What is a momma to do when you are trying to teach in person at the university but have a two-hour delay (then cancelled) on all these days?! Well, Monday they had to come with me. I don't teach and had already lined up maw (thankfully she lives close!) to watch them on Tuesday when I teach all day. They bring stuff to do- Isaac watched 5 hours worth of cartoons. Olivia plays teacher and helped me grade a few papers that had one particular answer so she could while I was answering emails, using the scanner and sitting on Zoom calls from my office. I treated them to their favorite lunch on the way in exchange for good behavior!
Tuesday they went to Maws and did homework online. Speaking of which, here's a picture I've never been able to take before and couldn't be prouder-thus refrigerator-worthy! Both kiddos made the honor roll. For Olivia this is regular...but for Isaac it's monumental. He's obsessed with checking his grades online nightly now. He was over the moon that he got all A's and one B and so were his parents. These will remain on the fridge until the next report card-which Isaac reminds us daily is March 9. LOL
Wednesday is my work-from-home day. I typically also do my grocery shopping on Wednesday and those who know me best, know I love me a list and shopping at Ruler or Aldi. This week found me at Aldi. Here's my cart bagged up. Four heaping bags will get us at least a good two weeks worth of planned out meals. And the best part? This cart-load of groceries was around $100. Yep. Aldi always cost a bit more than Ruler, but I also buy at lot more produce because I like Aldi's better than Ruler. There are always about three things (cheese pizza rolls for kids lunches, spaghetti o's, and Breyer's Lactose Free ice cream or Toft's ice cream) that are very specific I have to go get at Meijer afterward. Other than that, I can save a ton of money by sticking to the planned out meal list and shopping at my favorites.
Thursday shortly before my noon class I got a call from Elida schools to say Isaac wasn't feeling well and asking me to pick him up. Nurse Lauren was awesome enough to hang out with him for 1.5 hours because I had a test in my noon class and it still takes me about 35 minutes to drive from ONU back to Elida. I think it was something little man ate because he looked white as a ghost and said he had a tummy ache, but no temperature. He came home and I made him lay on the couch and watch HGTV 🤣 Sorry buddy, you don't get to come home and watch cartoons or you'd want to come home everyday!
Friday it poured down snow in the early morning hours and school was cancelled. Because I don't teach on Fridays, I just sat up shop at the end of our kitchen table and told the kids to do their homework online and have me check it before submitting. Highlight of the day was Isaac asking if H-E-L-L was a bad word from the other room. Me confused said yeah, why do you ask? He said it was on his homework 😳Yikes! I put it on FB initially (check out the screenshot) and within 45 minutes the poor teacher was calling me apologizing. I took down the FB post (no intensions to get her in trouble!), but it did give us a good chuckle for the day.
Saturday= Swim Meets. Again the kids did a great job. Here are screenshots of their times. Isaac swam similar times as before. Olivia continued to take time off of her events. As the season is starting to peek, the first weekend in March will be the championships at BG. Both kids have qualified and are excited to head north for the big event
These last pictures are just some fun ones. Jeremy continues to work on his PhD, so here's a picture of where we find him working on his classes. Olivia was being a kid and decided to take the Jenga pieces and make dominoes throughout the dining room. All-in-all a pretty busy indoor week! ❄️
Wowzers! How did the end of January come so quickly? This past week flew, which I knew was going to happen because I FINALLY went back to work. Well at least that what Jeremy tells me. Of course we all had Monday off because of MLK day, so we started back up at ONU on Tuesday. I had such a fabulous day, I took my normal Wednesday off (worked from home) and Thursday came and mother nature did us dirty. She struck lightening, which took out all internet power in Dicke College of Business. I still held classes, much to the students despise, but we still didn't have it on Friday so I got another 'work from home' day. My 13th year at ONU as a professor has lived up to its unlucky number. A global pandemic and lots of adjusting. I'm hoping my 14th year here will be much more calm and collected.
Speaking of school, another member of our family started back to school as well. Jeremy started his first class at NCU for his doctorate! Yep folks, you read that right. The guy who hated reading and writing in undergrad has now completed a masters thesis, graduated last spring and now has begun the doctorate journey. It's only week one and I've already spent a few nights helping proofreading his paper and correcting all his citations. Good thing I enjoy those 'academic weenie' things.
We love playing board games with the kiddos. This week they picked a few that we haven't had out in awhile. As you can see from the pictures, we had some wild games of Jenga. We thought for sure Isaac was going to be the one to take the fall, but Olivia got it this round and she wasn't happy about it. I think the falling of the pieces actually scares her and makes her more upset than losing the game.
We had a busy Saturday. Isaac had a basketball game in Spencerville the same time as the swim meet started. Jeremy coaches his team, so they took off for the game and I took Olivia to her swim meet. Sorry, apparently it's too hard to coach and take pictures of your kids (LOL) so I don't have any pictures of Isaac playing basketball. However, Olivia crushed it again this week at the swim meet. She PR'ed in every single one of her individual swims. Picture of her and coach April who put her in the 12 & U open IM. She crushed it for being the youngest in the fastest heat. Check out the screenshot of her times.
Sunday we decided to watch church online while traveling to Cincinnati for Top Golf. We have so many bonus cards that need to be used before the end of March and we know that dance competitions will start up soon (along with spring sports), so holding out for an open weekend is impossible. So we just loaded up the kiddos and didn't say where we were going and headed south. They were so excited to see it when we arrived. I played one game out of my mind (scored 115 which is unheard of for me) so we took a picture. Isaac was excited to win a game too. I think we even got all four seasons when we were there. It was snowing when we started and then moved to rain. About halfway through it stopped and was just chilly before the sun peaked threw the clouds for a few minutes. We played for 2 hours and then headed to the outlets for a little retail therapy before heading back to Lima to get Olivia to dance practice.
Week 3 already? How did that happen? We kicked off the week with a NCAA National Championship for football between Alabama and our OSU Buckeyes. We invited Phil and Deb to come over and Sheri was visiting as well so she was able to come cheer on the team as well. Even though the outcome wasn't what we wanted, we were still super proud to play in the game! 52-24 was a butt kickin, but we got to hang out in the basement with family, which was our win of the night.
Well the only thing that really stinks this last week off of school is this nasty shaker jar. Yep, for this entire week, three meals a day are replaced with toxin absorber drink with apple juice. It smells as awful as it looks. I have to choke it down. Good news is I'm starting the year off right by cleaning out my insides. I'm losing a few pounds with it too, bonus!
The oddest thing that happened this week was Wednesday at the YMCA we lost power during my morning core class. Luckily the sun was shining through the windows, so we finished in the sunshine. While it ended up staying off for around 3 hours, those who were already at the Y were allowed to stay and finish their workouts. I found the one Elliptical that was still powered up, so I stayed and did my workout by myself. It was kinda cool to have the entire place to myself!
Isaac had some downtime this weekend while his sister was at dance and asked me to play Monopoly. This is the Incredibles Jr. edition, but I still agreed to take him on. I loved Monopoly as a kid and could play it for hours on end. Well, it didn't take but 20 minutes in this version for me to lose all my money. LOL. Isaac loved beating my butt in the game- I kept saying, "Can you give your mom a loan?" He wouldn't. He wouldn't even let me free-load on his properties. He's ruthless!
We finished out the weekend with another swim meet. Both kids did amazing again. Isaac got DQ'ed in the breaststroke...again. I think we should throw in the towel on that event. Seems he' can't get the hang of it. Oh well. They both took off times in their other events which makes both them and momma and dad smile. We have a bit over a month until swim championships. Olivia is way more excited than Isaac, but I think both might qualify and swim! Looking forward to seeing what competition in person looks like!
Siblings. I LOVE these two monkeys. They love each other two, but I find them arguing a lot. I came into the bedroom to find Isaac saying "mom!" not to get her off, just to prove that she was trying to fight with him before he retaliated and had her crying. When he gets fed up with her and fights back, it eventually leads to her coming to me crying saying Isaac hurt her.
