jedimentat

Cosy [NeverEnding] Winter, Polar Vortex etc.

Ice Harvesting at Howell Living History Farm

looking down into the ice house

HNY 2025

Valentines' Day

got some fresh bakery treats for my loves

Sledding

snow penguins

Every morning, no matter how cold, Liberty goes out in the morning before everyone else is even up, and tends to the chickens (she is an early riser!). her faithfulness and kindness is a daily motivation to me

Homeschool

Units on US Government, which timed well with the Inauguration and other discussions, (they can sing all the Schoolhouse Rock songs and say all the Presidents in order).. Unit on WWII, with a focus on Propaganda (we also watched so many WWII movies: Memphis Belle, Au Revoir Mes Enfants, Swing Kids, Band of Brothers, Great Escape, Empire of the Sun, Loony Tunes WWII cartoons and newsreels)

Birthdays

Liberty

Liberty got her braces off! ...Much candy was consumed in celebration.

Kirk

Kirk made his own "Italy" Monopoly game and we played it. for hours.

lots of Minecraft, but the kids also did a playthrough of Myst, which was cool. Also Liberty can beat me at Puzzlefighter now, which is a huge milestone bc I'm pretty good at it

Kingfox was away on multiple business trips which kept him busy for 2+ straight weeks in January

Dogs

One of our Chickens died suddenly, RIP Sunshine. we were very surprised and sad about it

My hip surgery is next week. There were sooo many pre-op appointments and clearances that I had to get done this month. Not used to that; usually I just roll in for an outpatient procedure for RRP and they sort of dump you off the gurney and out the door at the end. This is *much* more involved. Trying to be chill about it, but it's messed with my mind all month...I think that when you have a lifelong chronic thing that is *not* cured by surgeries, you're used to having a sort of expectation that things don't get *fixed*, just sort of kicked down the road. Really hoping for the best, and got some great encouragement and coaching by some people who have experienced it.

State of the Union

I can't even begin to summarize major current events of these two months, from the Inauguration until now. There has been an enormous flu surge, with Norovirus, Covid, walking pneumonia, and bronchitis etc all swooping around constantly (not to mention outbreaks of TB and measles in pockets of the US). Major Wildfires took out some parts of LA, there has been ICE raids and deportations of immigrants ("criminals"!), the Executive orders, dissonance, disinformation, and destruction, has been fast and wide-ranging. I can't write about the anger and dishonor in how the US is betraying the Ukraine.

A friend asked how I was 'dealing' with it all...I'm wired a bit differently than a lot of the people I know, I think. I have a deep hunger to know what's going on, to read *all* the news, to know everything, even if I'm powerless about most of it. It makes me more stressed *not* to know. I'm deeply grateful for a partner to discuss it with at the end of the day, even if it's to just look at each other and shake our heads in a 'Can you believe this shit?' kind of way. I'm grateful to be raising my children and teaching them every day, even if I don't know what the shape of their future will look like, only knowing that I must equip them to do the best that we all can. We don't hide from the knowledge that we're in a dark and increasingly dangerous time, and that we need to carve out joy and humor and good times while doing what we can. (the timing of studying World War 2 during this time has really helped me to mentally process through some of it as well and to keep a better mindset or attitude).

Currently reading this book on FDR