Catching up – the Post Holiday edition

Mr. Pete and I were very blessed to have all of our kids home for the holidays. It was a very wonderful and special Christmas!

Just before the holidays, Izzy finished her first semester as a college student. She also was able to get certified with her particular learning needs. That will allow her to get accommodations for some of her classes. But even without those, she pulled a GPA of 3.49, which is very impressive. She will also have some pieces in the school art show so overall, that’s a successful first semester.

She has 2D art and oil painting twice a week this semester, which are her favorite school days! She is also taking speech and math. Luckily, she had a great speech class in high school at our co-op so she feels very confident about this course.

After five years, Izzy resigned from her position at Michael’s to be a full-time college student. She has five years of work experience, including managerial work, and has a lovely bank account. Overall, I think this was a great strategy and really takes the pressure off of her financially. I’m gonna miss that 30 percent discount on craft items though!!

Sam and Kass are staying in New Orleans for now, at least until Mardi Gras. It makes sense that if you’re living in NOLA, you might as well experience at least one Mardi Gras! It was great to see them both at Christmas. Sam is working at Brennan’s restaurant, which is a big deal down there. They can serve up to 400 people just for Sunday Breakfast!! He’s also learned some southern specialties and prepared seafood.

Honestly, I’m a little intimidated about cooking for Sam anymore! I learned to cook from my grandma and Betty Crocker. And while grandma was a good cook, it was actually survival cooking. That was my approach to cooking for my family as well – keep the little people alive and the husband happy! But Sam knows all of these techniques and things I never considered. I learned a bit when he was here.

While Sam was here, we celebrated his 30th birthday together. I had little pictures from JC Penney and Walmart that I finally cut up and scattered over the table. We called them SAMFETTI. It was a blast and I’m glad we could do it.

The really big news familywise is, I’m going to be a grandma again, sometime around Easter. Miss C is 9 and such a young lady. While I appreciate every day that I have with her, it will be nice to hold a baby once in a while.

My Co-op started. It is 12 weeks long. It seems like a very long time to me, but I know that at the end of it, I will be so much closer to meeting this little one. In the meantime, I’m teaching American History to high schoolers at 9 a.m. and at 10, elementary schoolers for Little House Literature. This semester we are tackling Farmer Boy!

Musically, I am finally able to play every Sunday for mass, but they are short on voices every week so I have been called to sing a few times. My apologies in advance.

How is your New year?