2022! First half of January

Despite a lot of fuss on the media Melanie made it home as planned in January without even any covid complications to her plans. We were happy that she condescended to return to us.

 

Although some of us didn't notice much difference. :p Matthew

Jennifer was happy to get advice once again on her sewing projects. After all, for the three weeks Melanie was gone, I only spent 30 minutes in the sewing room with her.

Evelyn was happy to get help again too.

The kids like to approach me when I am peacefully relaxing for the evening with a big stack of school work for me to mark. They love to hear me sigh and complain about the extra work.

Daniel is working (not so hard) on his math. He does not work through it very efficiently. But here in the kitchen we can anticipate whatever cookie or treat Melanie is cooking up...if the math gets boring!

Evelyn does not enjoy having to speak out loud for her second language learning. I used to think there was a problem with the microphone. Or the program. But perhaps it is a problem with her accent! I got a picture of her before she got frustrated. Sometimes she just leaves.

We had some great days for skating in January. Melanie spent most of the time telling us how much bigger and better the ice was in Smithers.

Matthew spent some time practicing his foot work--kicking the hockey puck around is more difficult than doing it with a hockey stick. Plus it's just fun to do something different.

Daniel decided to enjoy the snow instead of the ice.

This snowboard is a bit tricky to use, but it looks like he's managing ok. When I try the board just digs into the snow and I stop. I guess I'm a bit too heavy for it. :( Unless the snow is really hard packed.

Such a lovely sunny snow day! Even Nathan made it outside on the ice for a break from his studies.

We spent an afternoon at a friend's house...well, actually at their river. It was a really cold day, but then the ice was guaranteed to be good and frozen!

It was fun having a nice big stretch to skate on. We couldn't go further downriver though, as there was open water at the end of it!

We had a nice spot for getting on and off, this is where I happened to awkwardly fall on my chest, and possibly even crack my rib. Just thinking about picking up the "mat" and move it over, and whoops, I'm winded on the ice. Oops! Melanie had been racing away for a tag game and fell hard (on her jackknife in her pocket too) but SHE didn't break anything!

Tag was especially fun! We skated for a long time! Our hosts were pretty cold by the time we headed in for some delicious hot food.

We had some games and conversation too. It was a lovely day!

Melanie's Christmas holiday trip

Melanie used some of her hard earned money of daily cleaning out horse stalls to fly herself across the country and enjoy some time with grandparents and cousins. She was brave enough to fly out on her own.

Cousin time was a big motivator to go across to BC.

She got many hours of cousin time! Grandma got some work out of the extra granddaughters being over, putting them to work peeling potatoes!

Melanie obliged Grandma by playing Scrabble with her. She also gave Grandma the special quilt she'd made for her.

And her dream come true, of getting a chance to snowmobile came true.

She was taken up the mountain on a few memorable trips, which included getting stuck a few times.

She got the hang of snowmobiling, though.

And enjoyed the beauty and the depth of snow with family. She won't forget her time there!

She also went logging with Katie and her Uncle (but I lost the photos I was given) and really had a fabulous time with that unique experience too. 

What a trip!!

Christmas break continued

Matthew and Evelyn decided to work on a puzzle.

Daniel added a snowplow to his truck, to make it fancier.

Jennifer read lots of books.

Matthew made a lot of progress on his model

And our ice rink broke. The weather had gotten really warm around Christmas Day. In about five minutes all the water was gone. This was not even at the weak spot we had noticed earlier.

The plywood actually cracked and the one section was blown open at a 90 degree angle from it's original staked position. The good thing is that we got a chance to fix the other weak spot while we were at it. Nathan helped out and it was reinforced very well the second time.

He accommodated me and played a round of Scrabble with me on a Sunday evening. :)

While the younger four played yet another game of Ticket to Ride.

Nathan also spent a fair bit of time watching online organ playing. He really enjoys listening, and is, presumably, also learning some tips.

Matthew had to do a lot of snowplowing for us this winter. It ended up being quite a winter for snow...you just couldn't tell yet in 2021.

Holiday time

Melanie abandoned us for three weeks, so we kept busy in her absence. Did you finish your school work before the holidays?

Matthew didn't, so he had to squeeze in some school work during the break time.

And so does Daniel. Poor guys!

Jennifer and I made some bird feed hangers.

We had no snow, but we got to play outside anyways. If it's cold enough maybe we can get some ice!

Daniel helped Evelyn out in the workshop.

Jennifer and I used the opportunity of an empty sewing room (Melanie is gone) to sew, each on a machine. We only did it once, though.

We saw Nathan a bit more often these days. He spent a fair bit of his time in the garage.

And inspecting things.

Evelyn tried out her new paint set.

Matthew started on his model. It sure has a lot of little pieces!

Jennifer made some delicious pudding cake, with a chocolate crust.

We started filling up the skating rink. And discovered a weak spot. I went hunting for stakes everywhere so we could try prop it up. You can see in the ice a line of where the edge used to be. The plastic has a small tear, so the leaking water made the ground softer and so the edge bowed out more and more. Yikes!

Hoping it holds up long enough to freeze!!

Nathan's garage projects usually require some browsing online for tools or parts. Nathan's getting good at figuring out what he needs and where to look for things. All he needs now is to graduate to the next driving level so that he can go shopping without me along too!