Easing into the New Year

I was taken aback the other day when I wrote the date and realized we are almost three weeks into the new year. It has been such a quiet transition from Christmas break back to the normal routine that I really hadn’t thought about how much time is flying by.

Classes resumed for the boys and I two weeks ago today (the 4th). Jenna got a week longer at home. The dorms reopened last week so she went back Tuesday (the 10th) in time for classes the next day.

It has really been an uneventful beginning to the second semester for all of us. My course load is basically the same, though my Intro to Programming class is over and I’m teaching Web Development and Design in its place. I also have the other half of the 8th grade (including Nate) in my STEAM classes this semester. The boys’ schedules are essentially the same. I know Jenna is taking 17 hours this semester—she had 18 last semester—but I haven’t seen her schedule. I do know she was not excited about having 8:00 classes every morning this time.

Basketball season is still going strong. Ben’s team has played a wide variety of opponents; some easy, some hard. We’ve had more away games recently, some of them being far enough away that we couldn’t get there in time to watch Ben play. What I have enjoyed is watching him develop over the course of the season. We are seeing more confidence emerge in his performance which is good. It’s also been nice to see how he handles himself when a situation requires good sportsmanship. He’s made us very proud.

Vicki has joined a new choir in Springfield. This one is with the Willow Oak Center for Arts and Learning. The Chorale is open to folks from 7th grade through adulthood, and they are preparing to present an evening of Frank Sinatra era songs sometime this spring. I’m sure I’ll report more on that when the time comes, but for now Vicki is going to choir practice every Thursday evening.

I made Nate’s day an hour or so ago. He was standing next to Vicki last night and it looked like he was taller than her. Well, when I measured him earlier he is just a quarter inch shy of 6’. He at least has Vicki tied and will catch up with me in less than an inch of growth. It’ll be interesting to see which boy will be taller when all the growing is done. Ben has already passed 6’ 4”, but then he’s two and a half years older than Nate. Hard to believe the two big, lanky fellas living upstairs were once the cute little boys running around the house on little riding toys and playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains.

Outside of all that things have been fairly quiet. We’ve eaten over at Mom’s several times and enjoyed playing Spades with her. The other night the four of us played the game of Life on our kitchen table. And we all enjoyed the latest season of Sherlock which aired the last three Sunday evenings. Nothing really exciting to write about, but treasured time with the people I love that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Joe