January is certainly turning out differently than I imagined. 

We had a wonderful holiday break.  Thoroughly enjoyed Christmas time, celebrating New Year’s, and having grandparents come visit.  It was hard to go back to school, especially mid week on a Wednesday.  But the kids did pretty well and tried to have a good attitude.

We set new family goals (you can check out my post about that here) and tried to get organized and ready for the new year.

And then the storm hit. 

The school asked us to pick kids up early on Monday, January 8.  The snow was already coming down.  I felt nervous driving to pick the kids up, but we were safe and the kids were SO HAPPY.  School out early!  Snow day!

And the storm kept coming.

Tons of snow, wind, and ice.  The temperatures dropped, the roads became impassable, and another snow day was announced.  And another, and another, and another.  We ended up having seven snow days in a row, not including the weekend.  It was the strangest thing we  ever experienced.  In Utah, even with big snowy weather, school would very rarely close.  If anything, the district would announce an at home learning day.  But that was not the case here.   It felt like an extended winter break.

We played games, build legos, played Nintendo, read lots of books, watched almost all of the Harry Potter movies, played in the snow, went sledding, bundled up on the couch in blankets, and stayed up way too late.  It was so much fun!

Crazy Weather

The other crazy thing was the temperatures.  I don’t know if I have every experienced temperatures below zero.  But we now have in Missouri.  Look at these weather forecasts:

I have never been more grateful for a functioning heater!  

Oh, and church was also canceled because of the crazy cold.  So I literally did not leave the house for 6 days straight.  Somehow, we were not all going stir crazy!  Tender mercies 🙂

Back at it

It is now Thursday, January 18 as I am writing this.  The kids went to school today.  And that was hard.  Ethan has been having a hard year and after the snow day break, he really didn’t want to go back to school.  How do you help a kid who doesn’t like school?  How can you help them be tough and know that they can do hard things?  I guess they need to do the hard things…. But sometimes it just feel so … hard.  And as a mom, I feel like crying right alongside my child.  

Upcoming birthdays

So January is turning out different than expected.  We have had a lot more family time;  we have felt the cold more than ever before; we are preparing for Lily’s and Charlie’s upcoming birthdays next week; we are starting the house addition.  And most importantly, we are trying to move forward with smiles and positive attitudes even if things don’t turn out exactly as we were expecting 🙂

I hope your New Year is going well so far!  Stay warm and be happy!

~ Rachel