Post Holiday Roundup

Wow, I have totally dropped the ball on this. I wasn’t sure when the last time I had posted was, and I never even wrote about Christmas! And it almost Mardi Gras! I am thoroughly ashamed.


We had a nice but busy Holiday. We gave and received some nice gifts. I cross-stitched my sister a no-smoking sign and a dollar sign which I think was one of the more inspired gifts we gave. Our most exciting gift received was a Kitchen-aid mixer. The first thing we made was homemade whipped cream. Since then Phillip has been making us fresh bread every week which is very nice. And of course we visited lots of family and friends. Other holiday fun included: We finally took a tour of the Abita Brewery with my sister. We looked at the stars and the moon with our telescope. We went fishing. Daddy shot a wild boar (the sausage is delicious!)

We started listening to the Radio Dramatization of the Hobbit in the car one day and JD listened and liked it. We finished it and started on the Lord of the Rings.

For Martin Luther King Jr Day we went and saw The Princess and the Frog which I thought was a fitting way to honor the day. We all liked it. Although JD asked why the shadow man was bad and I said “Because he sold his soul to the Devil” without really thinking about what I was saying. This led to discussions about the Devil which I think is more difficult than discussing God.

Pixie has been in declining health. She lost a lot of weight and we just recently discovered it is because she has almost no teeth left. We’ve been soaking her dry food in water and this seems to have made an improvement. She looks a little better and seems to have more energy and to be in a better mood.

Last week was the Parish Mission at our church which was enjoyable. And then this past week-end Phillip and I went on a married couples retreat. We went to the same retreat last year and decided to go again this year. It was very nice and we had a lovely time.

We have started teaching JD how to read. I think it is a lot like potty training. There are signs of readiness but ultimately you have to wait till the child wants to do it. JD has been resisting but is doing very well otherwise. Like potty training we are trying to give him the opportunity without a lot of pressure. I think about a year ago I had bought a sight words pre-reader set so we have been using that. I also have some of the Dick and Jane books but I think we will have to wait till JD wants to read those. So far we have been learning “a”, “and”, “it”, and “is”. Next up is “look” and “see”.