Family Time

I am so happy to have the time to enjoy my children! I spent Friday running errands and attending Christmas parties at the kids' schools. Both kids had a great day and I am glad I was able to be with them. It has been so hard adjusting to not being able to make it to all of the kids activities. I have missed several field trips this year due to my school schedule. After school and a few more errands, we picked up some friends to come over for the evening. I helped Courtney, Jordyn, Andrea, Erik, and Aidan bake sugar cookies and there was lots of giggling (especially when we noticed that Andrea managed to get flour on her butt while rolling and cutting out cookie shapes). I appreciate the noise and laughter.

Saturday was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. I spent most of my day in pajamas and played board games with the kids. We spent a lot of time snuggling and relaxing. I did manage to throw a few loads of laundry in and pick up the house a little. We rented movies and it was quite comical to see Aidan's reaction to watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He is getting into Indiana Jones now. Courtney's rental pick was The Longshots. It was a cute little movie with Ice Cube and Keke Palmer about a girl joining an all boy football team. Courtney ended up catching a stomach bug and an evening on the couch was much needed.

Today was another much needed lazy day. Andy and I spent quite some time wrapping Christmas presents. I am so glad to be done with that project. I ended up with Courtney's stomach bug today and it was not nice. Even though I was toilet bound most of the day, we braved a trip to the movies so see Despereaux. It was cute, a little dry for the younger kids, but still cute. Courtney read the book this week, so she already knew what to expect. We came home and played some board games. I beat everyone at Whoonu and Courtney won at Disney Channel Scene It. The boys even teamed up, but they were no match for us awesome girls!

I am definitely counting my blessings and not taking a single minute of family time for granted. I have truly missed being able to enjoy my family without worrying about exams and studying. I am so blessed and fortunate to have this time to enjoy. My heart and prayers go out to the Finzer Family. I am amazed by their strength and faith in this difficult time. I am not sure I could be so strong. I will continue to pray for Samuel and the rest of the Finzer Family.

As of today, Andy is still working. He has actually been working a lot lately. There are supposed to be more jobs cut in the next week, so we will see if Andy can hang on a little longer. We looked at apartments again last week. We have turned in an application to Willow Bend. It was not our first choice but it will ensure that Courtney finishes out her elementary career at Horizon. The apartment was just refinished with brand new carpet and linoleum and fresh paint. We will have to repaint because we need color on the walls. There are many more updates that could be made, but we can overlook appliances and cabinets if it means keeping our family together in a home that we can afford and enough room for all of our junk. I fully intend to do a ton of purging over the next few weeks and start packing. We will be moving during the last week of January. Our lease is up on Jan 31st. This will only be temporary until I finish school and then we will never have to worry about our finances so much.