January

January kinda sucks in Wisconsin.  Either it's too cold to do much of anything outside, or it's like this January and the weather has been too rainy/drizzly to even enjoy the view of a snow covered landscape.  The anticipation of the holidays has passed, the enjoyment of the Christmas season is over, and the decorations are all put away.  The winter blues have hit our household.

Before the rain of the last week hit, we had a few frigid days, with morning temperatures below zero.  On one such morning, Ethan and I discovered a "sun dog" on the horizon.  We got home just in time to capture a few pictures of the awesome phenomena.

The picture doesn't quite do it justice; Ethan and I could see almost an entire rainbow surrounding the sun that morning.

The girls resumed the school routines pretty well a few weeks back, which is actually quite impressive considering Anna has had a few different substitute aides while the schedules are rearranged to provide her with a new permanent assistant.  Anna slid back into her therapy schedule fairly easily, too.  Ethan and I, however, struggled last week since several of our weekly activities hasn't started up again yet.  We had too much indoor time on our hands.

A few more notable events from the past couple of weekends include a bowling party one Saturday afternoon for Anna, Ethan, and me with Anna's therapy clinic, a playdate for Kate and her best bud from 2nd grade, and a swimming birthday party another Saturday that our whole family attended (along with quite a number of the 4th grade girls we know).

These weekend events help to provide a break from the weekly routines and the indoor play while also providing everyone with a chance to be social and active.

While the kids have been spending time playing indoors, Matt and I have been working on a nice, large stack of paperwork.  Forms to fill out for an upcoming vision evaluation for Anna, more forms to fill out for a potential benefit through Anna's life insurance policy, planning childcare for all of next month's appointments, financial paperwork, sorting out health insurance changes for 2017, extra work from work (for Matt), and a handful of other January-type tasks have kept Matt and I busy in the evenings and on weekends.

Thankfully, though, we have worked it out to ensure that our family can watch the Packers playoff games together the last two weekends.  Kate is old enough now to get sucked into the excitement and anticipation of the fourth quarter :)

After a rather pleasant and surprisingly busy Monday off of school in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Anna still had her 8 -10 a.m. therapy appointments, we went to a library program in the afternoon and then a friend's house for a playdate), we woke up today to the surprise of cancelled schools due to icy roads.  The kids were glad to have another day to rest and relax before school begins again.