Week 7 Around Here {2019}

{flashback to 2 years ago}

Enduring... a crazy weekend of blizzard conditions and so.much.snow.  Roads & highways got closed, certain stores weren't opened, and we were basically housebound for four days straight.  Thankfully, Josh saw the storm coming and went grocery shopping before the weather hit!
Once the wind quit, we were able to get out in it, and the kids were SO HAPPY to have snow.  Especially Carly who loves to eat it.  Haha!
The boys went sledding and dug snow caves.  They had snowball fights and climbed on the "mountains" created by the snowplows.  Wyatt laid down to make a snow angel and told me to take a picture and then put it on Facebook with the caption "#hardestsnowangelever" because the snow was so deep.  That kid constantly cracks me up!!!

Drinking... coffee and creamer this week as a special treat in the cold weather.  I (mostly) gave up coffee in 2018 because of how it made me feel with my anxiety.  But I've been craving it with our temps being so low.  I will occasionally get it at Starbuck's after a particularly rough night, but otherwise, I exist without it.  So it felt super luxurious to have it all week!

Snuggling... up with the kids & our kitties and tons of blankets every morning as school was canceled over and over 3x this week.  They would watch cartoons and I would read and drink my coffee.  It was the stuff dreams are made of!

Napping... almost everyday as well, which was so lovely.  Josh, who is a teacher, also had a lot of days off due to weather (he works in a different district than our kids attend) so we were all 6 home together, and I really enjoyed sneaking in a nap each day after lunch despite all the kids being home.

Reading... and finishing Orange is the New Black on audio.  I also finished 52 Things Moms Need to Know and started reading The Poisonwood Bible, which is deep (and long!), but really good so far.  All these snow days made for some awesome reading time, and that made my bookish heart so happy!

Receiving... my Book of the Month order (hooray!) and feeling like it was Christmas as I pulled each of the three books I ordered out of my big blue box.
This month I ordered The Winter Sister, Circe and The Heart's Invisible Furies . The Winter Sister is my February pick, Circe was the 2018 book of the year, and The Heart's Invisible Furies was the 2017 book of the year.  I am going to finish The Poisonwood Bible, then The Water Cure and then Five Feet Apart (both library books), then I will either start Maid (another Book of the Month book) or The Winter Sister.

Celebrating... Valentine's Day casually at home with dinner as a family, but planning a getaway with Josh for next weekend.  We are pumped!!

Getting... cell phones for the twins.  I am nervous to even share that here, for fear of judgment (#honestmoment) since they are only ten, but I like to be transparent here.  So there you have it. We got pay-as-you-go phones for about $40 each.  We decided to go for it because I got tired of going out into the neighborhood to knock on doors and ask the twins to come home for dinner. (#lazyparenting)
We had talked about getting them cell phones about six months ago at the peak of Logan's seizures so that if he had one while they were walking to school Jack could call for help, but we never made any final decisions.  Then, as of late, they've been spending more time playing at friends' houses and it's hard to get a hold of them.
We are nervous, but figure that we can always take them back if it's not going well, and the boys have to do well at school and be showing respectful behavior at home or they lose their phone that day.  We can log into their phones on our computer and see all their activity, which offers me great comfort, and they know that, so they have had good behavior thus far.
I think that this will be a good opportunity to teach them good phone etiquette and build their responsibility.  I'll let you know how it goes!

I saw this last week:

This is my virtual fist bump for you.

We got this, girls.

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