Definitely Winter Time

Definitely Winter Time January 9, 2017

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 2:31 pm

The first week of 2017 has been a white one. The snow that came in last weekend stuck around thanks to freezing temperatures. One night our low got to 9 degrees and the next morning I had many Facebook friends saying their pipes froze! Yesterday we had freezing rain that kept the boys and I home from church and put a layer of ice over everything. Today we got a new fresh inch of snow. It was lovely to watch it come down in beautiful, fat flakes. Now our new inch is melting away. I’m still hopeful we’ll see more snowflakes in the near future. It’s been so snowy and icy lately. It’s definitely winter time. I’m the kind of PNWester that doesn’t mind the rain, but I especially love snowy winters. I could sit and watch it snow for hours. It makes my heart happy!

We’ve been fairly home bound the last week. I’m just now recovering from my major sinus bug and I’m starting to feel human again. Probably should have gone to the doctor and gotten meds for that one… Oh well. Hindsight. Friday was eventful when Graham had an accident and cut his mouth. I wasn’t in the kitchen when it happened so the first thing I saw when Jeremy called for me was all the blood on the floor and then all blood on Jeremy, Graham, the counter, the sink… Oh my! It was a scary sight! We took Graham to the doctor to check out the cut and we got a chance to catch up with one of our favorite doctors. Luckily the cut was in a safe place and should heal up fine. In fact, Graham is his happy normal self and you would never know the trauma we all suffered on Friday. I’m glad that God made kids resilient.

We’ve officially entered a very crafty stage of preschool life with Owen. When Graham goes down for his morning nap, we pull out the craft bin and get creative. Over the weekend Owen got his first pair of kid scissors and he can now cut a lovely fringe on any piece of paper you put in front of him. We received a shape truck craft kit from a friend so he also got to use a glue stick for the first time yesterday. And if scissors and glue sticks weren’t enough, we finally opened a water color book he got for Christmas last year. In one week he can add cutting, gluing and painting to his list of crafting skills. We also do Bible time during Graham’s nap time and I try to have intentional conversation with him while we craft. Yesterday we talked about how God loves us and how Jesus is God. Soon I’ll have to blow his mind and try to explain the Holy Spirit! Today we talked about how God takes care of us like a good shepherd takes care of sheep. We prayed together for someone in need. Bible time certainly isn’t long or college level theology, but I enjoy these conversations and these moments together. They are small foundational building blocks.

The other fun thing we’ve been doing is re-decorating Owen’s room now that Christmas is over. We changed the Christmas tree to a “winter” tree. It now has a heart on top for Valentine’s day. The lights have changed to a cool white color. We kept his blue and silver ornaments up because they fit the winter theme and we added paper snowflakes that Owen helped me make. Above his bookshelf we have a collage of Thomas & Friends valentines and hearts that we colored and cut out. Owen helped me arrange the valentines and hearts. He is very proud of his work. I love seeing his excitement for each holiday, especially as I explain them and he understands their purpose. So now the room is decorated through February. Maybe we’ll switch to a spring or Easter theme in March.

I feel like Owen gets most of the blog time because he is doing “new” uncharted things for me while Graham keeps up the very basic eat, play, sleep routine. Not always exciting to blog about, but seriously, these are my favorite days! I love the time frame from 12-18 months. He is a baby and a big kid all at the same time. He loves Daniel Tiger and Mickey Mouse. He dances to theme songs. He loves to play Play Doh with his big brother. He also likes to play trains with his brother. Once he looses interest in the train table, he goes over to the bookshelf and pulls all the books off. He certainly keeps me on my toes. The combination of Graham and Owen certainly has me busy too. Owen often takes whatever toy Graham has and that creates WW3 level drama. Also if you tell Graham “no” you can expect an end of the world reaction. Life is a mixture of happiness and tears when you are 1 & 3.

Jeremy and I are doing our best to keep up with the kiddos. Jeremy has been extra faithful to check on our Winlock house during the cold weather. Our for sale sign should go up again tomorrow and we are praying for more showings. Jeremy keeps tabs on the property too and often visits it to check his trail camera. He is hopeful to spot the abundant wildlife. Mostly we know what is around because of the tracks on the ground. He has yet to get good footage of an animal. This last time he got a video of the bulldozer working on my parent’s driveway! Jeremy continues to be the most supportive husband and father that I could ever want or need. He does bath time with the boys regularly, he gets up with them first thing in the morning so I can stay in bed for a little while longer, he watched “When Calls the Heart” with me (a Hallmark Channel TV show). The last few nights we’ve watched Sci-Fi movies after the boys went to bed and I forgot how gross and destructive they can be. It was a shock after watching such mushy TV. I was glad that Jeremy was able to catch up on his “to-see” movie list and watch something a little more manly than a prairie romance series.

Well, that about sums up life for now. My 31st birthday is this coming weekend, so I’m sure I’ll have lots to share in my next update. I’m sure it will include at least one picture of me with a chocolate cake. I’ll have to do some pondering and reflecting on 31. I truthfully haven’t given it too much thought. I’ve been a bit distracted by our lovely, crazy life!

The Winter Tree! It now has a white towel tree skirt because the Thomas sheet was needed back in bed with Owen. However, I think the white towel looks like snow so it fits the theme nicely.