January

Just prior to our (ill-fated) November trip to Utah, the kids and I made the decision to go back to homeschooling.  I told them that they could choose to remain in public school, or come back home, either at the end of the grading period, at Thanksgiving, or at Christmas.  Elise said she was ready to come home.  Connor, however, wanted to stay indefinitely.  I told them that was fine, and made plans to pull Elise out in two weeks' time.  A week before her last day, Connor changed his mind and asked to come home, too.  His reasoning was kind of surprising to me.  He said, "I think I was learning a lot more with homeschool, and I'm afraid I'll start acting bad like some of the kids at school in order to make them like me."  We had all enjoyed the time at Lincoln Elementary.  The kids had wonderful teachers and good classmates, and it was overall a positive experience for them, which is exactly what I was hoping for.  I feel like the stakes aren't as high anymore.  I know that they'll do great in whatever educational setting they choose, and we can freely decide year-to-year without worrying.  For now, we're really liking the freedom and fun of homeschool!
  
So, in January Elise started back with her Girl Scout troop as a Brownie.  They earned their snack badges, in part by learning how to make California rolls!
  

  

Evan started a soccer class on Friday afternoons.  These are the same coaches that did Connor's basketball class - there were lots of games and silliness, but a ton of skill-building as well.  Evan jumped right in and loved it!
  

Waiting for Evan

Connor and Elise started attending a co-op on Friday mornings, put together by other homeschooling friends of ours.  Connor studies Latin, Grammar, Composition, Greek Myths, and Astronomy, and Elise's class does Science, Literature, Art, History, and Music.  I babysit my friend's kids while she teaches the younger class.  Evan and Corinne love the regular playdate.
   

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we went with our friend Tomomi and her family down to Torrance, where there is a giant Mitsuwa supermarket, and a Daiso (a Japanese dollar store.)  She shepherded us around, putting stuff in our cart.  I was proud of Elise for independently finding most of the ingredients for more California rolls.  We had several meals from Mitsuwa that next month, including rolls, fried tofu wraps, Japanese curry, stir fry, and lots of ramen and snacky things.
  

  

I don't think I mentioned either Ryan's or my Christmas gifts.  Ryan got me a great wireless pedometer/sleep monitor called a Jawbone UP.  It allows my phone to nag me to exercise more, and lets me prove just how little sleep I get!  Actually, it has been an amazing motivation for me to take better care of myself.  I can finally say that I have a regular exercise program, for the first time in years.  Ryan got a Jellyfish Art kit.  It comes with a specialized jellyfish tank (regular fish tanks will suck them up and kill them,) and all the chemicals, food and instructions needed to get it up and going.  Then you receive the jellyfish via overnight FedEx.  It took him half a month to get to that point, though.  He cleaned out, painted, and built a shelf/cabinet in our unused fireplace to hold the tank, which looks pretty awesome.  We're happy to say the jellies are still alive after over two months!
  

Connor did a Cub Scout project on Dad's new pets.

The kids continue to love their occasional kid yoga time.  I got two more yoga mats at the Japanese dollar store, so they don't have to fight as much.
  

Evan's Joy School did a Fire Station field trip.  The firefighters were super nice, even though you could tell a few of them hadn't spent much time around kids.  The main message was not to be afraid of firefighters in their gear, even if they look scary.
    

Evan got to check the strength of this respirator.

Wiley celebrated his ninth birthday on January 27th.  The kids thought he deserved a party, so we took him to the dog park for a couple hours, then surprised him with a chili dog from Weinerschnitzel.  We lit a candle and sang to him and everything.  As far as I could tell, he didn't even get sick from eating it.
  

Other stuff that happened in January:
  

Evan continued to make awesome art on his easel.

We found a morel growing near our Apricot tree.  We didn't pick it.

The kids enjoyed the fancy mini-trampoline we got for Christmas.