Making it through

The virus that plagued Ethan and Kate during Thanksgiving weekend hit the parents last week.  (So far Anna has either not caught this one or proved herself to be immune!)  Matt worked from home on Tuesday - Ethan's birthday - so that he could rest as needed, but had to plow through the rest of the week at work.  Almost 10 days later, he's still having trouble with a cough.

Mine hit me on Wednesday night on my way home from at meeting at church.  I did my very best to rest on Thursday and Friday, but there were plenty of things that "needed to be done" - grocery shopping and Anna's speech therapy were at the top of that list.  Almost 10 days later, my sore throat only bothers me at night and my sinuses are slowly, slowly, slowly starting to feel less pressure.

Kid germs ... yuck.

I'll reiterate that there are now about  total 1,500 students/staff that have direct or indirect contact with our children in the three schools they attend.  That's a lot of germs to be exposed to.  Chances are if there's something going around McFarland this winter, it's going to hit us.

Since it was the first weekend in December, that meant that our community celebrated Christmas in the Village this past weekend.  As our family now participates in 4H activities, we had plenty of events over the weekend ... bell ringing for the Salvation Army on Friday night, Christmas shopping at the Village Hall on Saturday morning, brat fry and bake sale on Saturday mid-day, all in addition to a birthday party for Anna to attend on Saturday afternoon.

Let me also add that the weather on Saturday was not exactly cooperative for an outdoor brat fry and bake sale ... 35-40 degrees, windy, and rainy.

But we all made it through and have a few more memories to add to our stash of family holiday memories including our little crew collecting donations from almost every patron of Walgreens during our bell-ringing shift (I sure hope they enjoyed the energy and carols of this group) and meeting the local State Farm representative while Kate and I went into his office to warm up during our cold, cold shift at the bake sale.  He's a nice guy.  He makes homemade cheesecake every year to hand out during the Christmas in the Village celebration; it's good :)

Sunday was church and the first set of Christmas pageant practices at church.  Then the family worked together to do some of the home tasks before some of us watched the end of a pitiful performance by the Packers.

The Sunday preparation was in part due to the fact that I subbed on Monday at the middle school, this time covering an 8th grade math class for a former co-worker.  This was my first experience subbing as a classroom teacher, instead of support staff.  The day reminded me of many of the good parts, but also some of the more challenging parts of teaching middle schoolers :)

Our kids are working through their December experiences at school.  Anna still works hard and has enjoyed being able to share some of what she is learning with us in the evenings.  But, school takes its toll on her.  I was reminded of this again when I joined her at her locker on Monday after my position in 8th grade; her fatigue was extremely apparent to me.  I usually don't see her until she's on her way out the door and excited to see me.

Kate is still doing well, but we have had several conversations this year about interpersonal relationships, both with friends and with group work.  She is growing up a lot this year.

Ethan has been struggling lately with going to school.  He seems to be fine once he gets into the routines of school, but he has had an especially difficult time saying goodbye to me some mornings.  I remember both girls going through stages like this in kindergarten and hope that Ethan is able to work his way through this stage quickly and easily.

Even though it is December 6 (St. Nicholas Day!), we still have very few Christmas decorations out.  The Advent wreath and calendar, at least, made their way up from the basement on Sunday.  Today was the first day that I felt like my energy was almost back to normal so now some of the boxes of decorations are at least out of storage.  Maybe we'll get the tree set up soon!