Welcome to the Year 2016

I had not recovered from our trip to OK by the time New Year's Day 2016 arrived.  We did very little that week except purge, unpack, take down decorations, and begin a long list of home improvements.  The kids were still enjoying all their new gifts and riding the Christmas high while going on plenty of play dates with hospital school friends.

We did take a break from all the home reorganization and redesign on New Year's Day to take the kids to see the Chinese Lanturn Festival.  While I still think the tickets were terribly overpriced (particularly after paying ticket master, handling and processing fees), the displays were very impressive indeed.  Many of them reminded us all of their paternal grandmother we had just visited in Oklahoma.

When we brought Orwell home after our trip, he started puking out of both ends, and while he can use the litter box, he cannot use the bucket.  I kept wondering what all those rank smells were that kept occurring throughout the house.  It took me a day to discover that our kitty was sick and leaving presents no one wants about the house.

Then our son started throwing up as well, so the 2nd week of winter break wasn't exactly what any of us would have wanted.  Yet there were twinkles of happiness in my life during the sicknesses, for my husband's shoulder had finally healed up enough for him to assemble an install a light fixture I had purchased for our master bath last summer to spice it up a little.

That labor of love probably reminds him of James 2:3-4, for assembling all these chandeliers (which are only "affordable" because they arrive in a gazillion individual pieces and take all day to assemble and install) has been a trial he fell into unexpectedly. (How could he have known that the left-brained, low maintenance tomboy he married would develop such a zest for whimsy in her 40s?) But the testing of his faith through such trials has produced steadfastness, that he may be complete, lacking nothing. And watching him work has produced in me enormous gratitude for him and insight which I will share now. "Some assembly required" + affordable pricing = costly retrofit kit and an extensive array of tools required + wearing white gloves while hanging every crystal one by one overhead after the ceiling plate is installed. Ladies, don't do that to your man. It took me three chandeliers to finally figure that out. I sure do love the way they splash rainbow twinkles all over the room, though. 

Both kids are better now...unless you consider the back-to-school blues. I always thought cats seriously lacked empathy, but Orwell sure seemed to commiserate with our daughter during her post Christmas break back-to-school blahs.

We've also been gradually preparing for an upcoming trip.  I wish I had known that American Express exchanges money into all currencies without a fee before I made this exchange.  

Money comes and goes without any true lasting value, but the price paid on our behalf in the land of the shekel completely transformed the lives of both believing Jews and Gentiles forever. 

My workout regimen has fallen apart as I find very little time for weights, and it finally grew too cold after Christmas for biking.  It did warm up enough for me to bike to the lake for this sunset this past weekend, though.

I have a lot of before and after pictures to share in future posts for our many house projects undertaken this month.  I'll post them once it all nears completion.

 

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