What worked in 2014

When both Annie and Elisabeth posted inspiring What Worked in 2014 posts, I wanted to write one too.  And I just barely managed to do it before February!  No, the photos don’t match anything.  But hey, I got photos up, y’know?

1 Taking a walk when no one wants to; because I behave better when I get outside, and so do they.

2 Dressing like a college girl.

When I was behind in laundry, or freshman 14-ed out of my jeans, my wool skirts were still hanging in my closet, warm, forgiving, and dressy.  Only Betsy knew that the tidy look meant I’d been lazy.  Last fall my friend Sue gave me several lengths of wool plaid. I pleated one, and made an a-line bias skirt out of the other.  I think I’ve worn one or the other most days this winter. It’s been cheering me up to know I look pretty while I’ve (still) been sick.

3 Public Transportation

Dan figured out how to get to Pautucket and back by way of the train/bus so I can have the car on Ballet/drama/GCT day, Ben has been bus/walking to his flute lesson and we’ve taken the train up to our Monday board game with friends time.  So far, one car is fine.

4 Visiting with Uncle Warren
He makes talking about job searches, college planning, and growing up cool.

5 Giving Ben a list of questions to answer so we can organize his work week together, instead of asking step by step questions to lead him to telling me what I need to know to organize his work week…
6 Swimming.
Which I haven’t been doing since I got sick over Christmas.  But it’s been hard to know if what I have is contagious, and I’ve been really, really tired.

7 Potatoes and corn tortillas for lunch
GF bread can taste good if you toast it – but it’s not the easy, inexpensive staple that wheat bread was.

Stuffed baked potatoes, and quesadillas have become our quick cooking go to lunches.  Some days I’ve even managed to get lunch started, then take the kids to the park/library.8 Teaching Sunday School with my Mom.

For several years, our tiny Sunday School had two families in it, all the kids from too old for nursery to M got my old CEF lessons in chronological order with occasional “They usually skip this story lesson,”  thrown in because I wanted the kids to get a sense of the sweep of history (and while Haggar might make us blush, it’s hard to understand Galatians without her.)

But K was having trouble with the older concepts, and the older kids needed to be using their Bibles themselves and using their logic stage brains. When Mom retired from her office manager job, she got inspired about the Sunday School situation, wrote a curriculum, hounded anyone with middle school kids related to them who don’t usually come to Sunday School, and wound up with a class of 9 kids.  9!

I’m her helper, but somehow, since I don’t blush as much over earthy passages I got Genesis 17.  As I explained what circumcision is, one of my kids said, “Don’t worry Mrs Guest, in health class they don’t even separate us into girls and boys, I can handle it.”

Our class is outside the pastor’s study, sometimes we hear him trying not to laugh at our discussions.

And K’s class?  She adores her teachers, and can mostly recite the 23 Psalm now.

9 Sending Ben to Good Company Tutorials10 M and K’s Ballet and Drama at A Work In Progress Productions

11 Monday afternoons playing Manhunt, boardgames, Minecraft and eating yummy gingerbread with our friends.  It’s just our two families usually, but sometimes you just gotta party like introverts.