Herman's Humble Happenings: January 2019

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Kitchen Rules

Lydia wrote this up the fall after Nicolas left for college. It still hangs on the side of my fridge and makes me smile every time I see it. While he lived at home, Nicolas almost always did the supper/dinner dishes. He didn't really want his siblings to help. He preferred having the kitchen to himself so he could play his own music and do dishes his own way. He did let Lydia help him as she seemed to understand his system. So, when Nic left for college Lydia took his place in the kitchen during dishwashing time. Now, this didn't seem right to Russ and I, and we highly encouraged Anna and Seth to help her no matter what she preferred. She became so frustrated with them not doing anything and bickering about who got to play what music that she wrote up this list of rules. (She really didn't like Anna's pop opera music, i.e. Il Divo that was often in Italian or Spanish😂)

No More ice-Skating?

Russ fell while ice-skating on Christmas Day when Greg and Shantelle and family were here injuring his left wrist. It swelled and was quite painful for several days, but then seemed to improve somewhat. The wrist continued to nag at him, however, and after an incident in the kitchen last week when he tripped over the dog and caught himself on the edge of the counter with the same wrist and almost doubled over in pain I encouraged him (strongly) to see the doctor. Since he also had discomfort in the right wrist from a fall on the driveway earlier in December while scraping the girls' car windows before school, the Dr. decided to x-ray both of them. Diagnosis? Bilateral triquetral fractures--non-healing. He has been referred to a hand specialist, but while he waits he keeps them both immobilized.😂

Homeschool Ski 2019

Seth enjoyed another season of lessons on the slopes--three Fridays in January. I am trying to talk him into cross-country skiing with me next year...

Always beautiful from the top of Bogus Basin!

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Other Christmas Break Activities

I "Grouponed" an escape room adventure to do over Christmas break. I had hoped we could do this with Greg and Shantelle, but the place was booked the days the Bleekers were in Idaho. We did the experience as a family the day Greg and Shantelle left which was a good diversion for me after saying good-bye to family.

Let's just say that the kids totally carried their parents through this World War 2 adventure! I think Russ and I would have eventually figured things out, but our kids just think so much faster!

We enjoyed watching a few movies as a family. The pets seemed to enjoy having us all in the same room and even snuggled with each other.😃

Russ had to tape at the radio station all morning and part of the afternoon on his birthday. Late afternoon we headed to the antique mall to do some browsing and then went out to eat as a family. The sunset was beautiful that night!

At the antique mall we picked up the Playmobil zoo set for $13.00. We don't need more Playmobil, but it was too good of a deal to pass up. Guess who spent the rest of the evening setting up Playmobil? Yep, the three pictured below.😂

This was a familiar sight over Christmas break. Nicolas loves his books, his recliner, and his cat. The dog was just a bonus.

This, however, is not a familiar sight. Not sure the last time I heard this boy play the piano. We were all amazed that he even remembered! Nicolas did play the cello at church with Caleb. It hurt his hand a bit (he hasn't been playing cello because of a painful ganglion cyst/tendonitis in his left hand), but after finding out there really is not a good "fix" for a carpometacarpal boss, he decided he just better gradually get back into playing.

The CURC youth group leaders took the college kids who were home on Christmas break out bowling and for ice cream. It was so good to spend some time with these guys again!

The boys joined Seth and me for our homeschool co-op activity--a tour of the Basque Cultural Museum in downtown Boise. The Basque Market across the street was pretty cool too--like a trip back to Spain for Caleb!