Hi everyone! It's been a few months since we've updated all our long distance family and friends, so I thought I'd try to type out a summary of everything we have going on these days!
Derrick's doing well with school! In less than a week, we will be in the 4th quarter! Hard to believe! We have a week of vacation in April, and school gets out just before Memorial Day weekend in May. I can't fathom how we are already talking about it, especially while we are still dealing with below zero temps here! But as I've learned so far about the weather and changing of seasons, things change QUICKLY. We were swimming on a hot day in September, and 3 weeks later it was cold enough to snow. Then right before winter officially started in December, we were playing outside in short sleeves! And shortly after the beginning of January, true winter set in. We have had about 2 solid months of extremely cold temps. It feels like we have seen more days below zero than above! I'm told that February is usually when things start to warm up, and that March is typically above freezing. So far, that hasn't been the case for 2019! But, as I mentioned in a previous FB post...regardless of the cold weather, our hearts are warm and our lives are full and blessed. We truly are enjoying life here in the northern plains, even on the coldest of days.
The kids are doing great in school as well! Chloe's going to be finishing up 1st grade soon, and Elijah's on track to finish Kindergarten as well. Judah just started a preschool curriculum with me last week! We are having a lot of fun. There's no February vacation here, but we felt the need for one last week, so we did our own version. We still did lots of projects, art, board games, and math...but we didn't do much book work! It was a nice change of pace. The kids are growing and changing by the minute and I am blown away by how much they love to learn and how much they understand. Not to mention the fact that they are often correcting me about things! ;)
Esther's doing great, she turns 18 months on March 6th. She's in true toddler mode. The world pretty much revolves around her, and she knows it. She's a joy, true to her middle name, and she's the star, true to her first name (which means "star"). So I guess we named her well! We are so thankful for our little "Queen Esther". haha
I started teaching piano lessons in February, and plan to continue that through at least part of the summer. So far I am the only piano teacher that I know of in this immediate area! Because of this, my slots filled up FAST and I found myself apologizing to a lot of people because I just don't have time to teach them all! I have 9 students right now. I love it, it's a nice change of pace and a chance for me to be out in the community on a regular basis.
I'm so blessed to be a part of a wonderful ladies' Bible study group now, which also started in February! And Derrick's part of a men's study as well. He also watches kids at our house on the nights that we have ladies' Bible study, so that the moms can go and have some kid-free time. So that's pretty great!
Hmmm, what else. I know I have shared this already with many of you, but we have a pretty incredible church family here, and we cherish our time with them. I think we linger a little bit longer after church every Sunday! Pretty soon I think we are going to just start having to bring lunch and just stay all day. ;) We just love having this community together...it's pretty special and I'm just so thankful that we get to be a part of it. One thing I will mention that I especially love is the way we all embrace and love each other's children. It's a place where I know I can bring my kids and other people are watching and caring for them, and will correct them when they need it, too. This frees me up to just relax and talk with people and not worry so much about what my kids are doing, because I know if they are out of line, someone will step in or let us know. And in the same way, we are there to help support other parents with their children. We are all in it together! This is so key to being part of a church body, I think. We are supposed to do this! Raising our children was never supposed to be a completely independent task. We need each other. The kids need other adults to guide them. It's so important and I'm beyond thankful to have it.
Well, I guess that's all! I had better get going. Hope you all enjoyed the update! Miss you all! <3
~The Howrys
