Living in the Moment

So, we here at the Blunier house are in perpetual disagreement. Part of the family hates winter while the rest of the family is in the heights of their glory every time it snows. Slowly, however, the warm weather lovers are gaining ground; and folks, I believe it's only a matter of time before we relocate somewhere south. 

In the meantime however, while we are still stuck here in the bitter midwest, we have been doing our best to make the most of these cold winter days. 

   

 We decided snow shoveling is good for your heart. 
Actually, I was basically only out there long enough to take the picture... It was cold!  Jared on the other hand has developed a new hobby of snow shoveling which has proved to be very helpful with all the snow we have gotten in the past few weeks! One important thing he has learned is that it really is pointless to shovel the drive while it is still snowing heavily. 

We are all about being resourceful here. Or something like that. 

Lily and Mom worked together on a fun winter project... a dress for our little sweetie pie!

So when public school has a snow day, everyone stays in because of the snow. But when homeschoolers say they get a snow day, they mean it in it's truest sense. In this case, Mom took the younger kids to meet up with other families from our homeschool group for an afternoon of sledding at - you guessed it - Timber Ridge! (because where else can you get sledding in this area?) On account of their rosy cheeks and bright smiles, it must have been an invigorating afternoon.  :)

Recently we came to two conclusions: 1) certain areas of our house are in need of some deep cleaning and 2) treasuring time with our sweet princess is more important than deep cleaning. After coming to these conclusions, our sweet cousin Jenae was so kind as to help us resolve our dilemma by coming to deep clean for us! And while she is here cleaning, we love having Brecken here to dote on :). 

Mom also took the younger kids ice skating one day with some homeschooling friends - it's always a favorite.  This time was Kenan's first time on the ice! Thankfully they all returned with no broken bones or cut wrists (yes, that happened once) ... just tired legs.

We are looking forward to traveling to Texas over spring break for a mission trip with the high school at church! In order to raise some funds for the trip, we hosted a soup supper one evening in January. 

When we had some different errands to run and appointments to accomplish in Peoria, we decided to make family day out of it for something a little different (yikes... it's beginning to sound like we are gone more than we are home actually doing school...). One of the things we fit into the day was visiting the CAT museum, along with a nice supper out with Grandma and numerous other stops :).

yours truly missed out on the fun at the museum... I just couldn't tear myself away from my textbook and so I spent the time doing homework. I was glad to be able to enjoy the rest of the day with the family, though! 

We ended the day by Dad giving us a tour of Serenity Villa! It is seriously taking shape and getting ever so exciting! 

Mom always goes out of her way to do something a little special on Valentine's Day!

Although I just told you about all kinds of activities that we have been enjoying as a family, in all honesty, a good portion of our days as of late have been spent like this:

Little miss sweetie is in that stage of smiling, talking, cooing, giggling and squealing with sheer delight when she is spoken to. She is such a ray of sunshine and brightens every minute of our days! 

Unfortunately, we still have to be careful what pictures we post of her... just know that she thoroughly  is loved and adored by all. In other words, she is spoiled. But oh, so sweet. 

And I think I better sign off now... one more quick thing, though. Just to clarify, we don't have any intentions of moving south anytime soon. However, that's not to say we don't regularly discuss it as a family - that part was true :). I do have to say, though, even though it's been really cold for us non-winter lovers, it has been a pretty winter and the change of scenery and daily activities have been refreshing. God is good! But now, just bring on summer already!! 

PS: While writing this blog entry, I was interrupted momentarily when little miss cutie pie needed to be fed. Somehow Jared took control of my laptop during that time and just sat there and typed continuously. I had no idea what he was writing about, because he isn't necessarily a wordy person. When he had finished, this is what I found. 

God is so good and Jim likes pizza, many people would say Hitler was a pig yet I like spaghetti, Bob Andrews has told me Startling news: my grandma broke her back because I stepped on the side walk crack. The Carhart coat I nearly like sushi. WOW! POW! ping pong is awesome sometimes because steak is not cheap and the golden rule is Do unto other as you would have them do unto you. my sister just said she is scared of perhaps a monkey eating rotten fish in front of a charcoal colored cooking stove. In all In out is a game made in 1657 and a game George Washington made game of the State. INTERESTING! The I phone game Mashed potatoes is new and old at the same time because of confusing things people have done with salt and pepper. but back to my point: God is good.

He told me he just sat there and typed anything that came to his mind. He also said that it is a really enjoyable activity. It's probably rather refreshing to just clear your thoughts like that?! But yeah, that's Jared, for you :).