We found out how fierce our chickens are - there was a little shrew in their coop a few days ago. It was found dead in the run today. Apparently uninvited guests are not welcome!
A photo note about a large family and winter in Minnesota - it necessitates bulk chapstick auto-shipped from Amazon. LOVE that.
A regular morning at church, with Jim in Sunday school, the kids in youth group and me on worship team (with vocals). Afterward, our friends came over for our every-once-in-a-while small group fellowship. It sure is crowded in our kitchen with 24 people trying to get their food, but I am still grateful for our nice home and the ability to host.
I worked on putting together a little tree we are going to use for the Mills Church Women's Retreat early in February. All the girls think it's adorable.
The tree is from the thrift store. The birdies are from the craft store; the fairy lights are from Amazon.
Monday, Jan 25
Lauren went to her friend Kristine's birthday party, which included ice skating at Centennial Lakes.
Meanwhile, I took Gloria + Natalie + Jamie skating at Gro-Tonka. We got lucky and arrived when someone from the city let us into the warming house for a bit even though it wasn't supposed to be open. We had brought chairs to sit on for putting on skates - they also made for fun on the ice!
I even skated - it felt great to be able to without the excruciating foot pain I had last year.
Tuesday, Jan 26
Today, we hung out at the library while Lauren worked.
We all used the computers and then headed over to Kowalski's to grab some baked goodies for afternoon poetry tea time, which we have not done since December.
We all got super yummy doughnuts and treats. I need to work on my photo photos, though. BLURRY!!
Since the weather was so nice this week, we took advantage of it - AND the free admission, to go to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was GREAT to get outside and have the sun on our faces! Natalie and Lauren took lots of photos - they are HERE.
I took a few with my phone, too.
Thursday, Jan 28
Today was a regular school day, along with gymnastics and violin. We tried to set up a science experiment on Gravitational Potential Energy, which ended up being a bit of a fail but oh well. It turned into a good discussion about potential errors in experimental design instead!
Here is our toy car, with coins taped to the top, that was supposed to smash banana slices at the bottom of an incline.
Friday, Jan 29
Jim took off for a weekend with his buddies today. We played with our little friends from church and took them skating/sledding at Thorpe and then to McDonald's for a snack and playtime. Again I was reminded how exhausting it used to be to take six kids on outings!
Since Jim was away, I took the easy route with dinner and we went to Noodles & Company. (First time for me, Lauren & Natalie). It was YUMMY!
Saturday, Jan 30
Lauren had her Winter Retreat for GTCYS. The rest of us caught the end of rehearsals so we could hear them working on Jupiter, our favorite classical piece. I sat there with tears rolling down my cheeks because it was so beautiful, even in rehearsal. The kids think I'm so sappy but too bad.
We headed to Minneapolis to pick up a little leather ottoman we found for sale on Craigslist. (Don't be worried, Mom! It was a safe exchange!). We had planned to tromp around at Loring Park and then head over to the Stone Arch Bridge, but it began to rain so we had to change plans.
I discovered that I still had 2 days left on my MN Historical Society Membership so we headed to Mill City Museum. We enjoyed the flour tower (as always), the view over the river and the room with the water running and the dam models.
It stopped raining so we were able to walk on the bridge for some photos. I spent part of the time blatantly staring at a wedding party doing photos by the mills ruins. The bride looked freezing and the photographer looked confused.
We finished with some JUMP shots. It was hilarious.
Meanwhile, Katie worked FOURTEEN HOURS today.
Sunday, Jan 31
Jim got home from his retreat today. Here are a few photos from the cabin where he stayed with his friends.
And later, we mostly enjoyed a quiet day at home after church.
What a busy, but wonderful week!
