January

Trips and Activities

book swap party at Jess's house, potato and poetry theme

spent a day making candy with Cherissa. We did pralines, toffee, and peanut brittle.

stayed busy with my calling in the Young Women presidency

science fair for Katie. She didn't win any awards, but she had fun.

Birthdays and Holidays

James turned 38! I made a bunch of pretzel dogs to freeze and take to school when needed.

Weather

very warm and dry

Sickness

a cold, but nothing serious

Repairs

new brakes for the Yukon, and more repairs incoming for all of our cars

Projects

I got into 3D printing because there were a bunch of small spools of filament that we needed to use up. I successfully did that and made some cute organizers for the bathroom closet. I also figured out the ideal temperature settings for the all the filaments we currently have.

As for our house, we had 3 showings and we looked at 3 houses. None are the right one. We also had a very mixed bag of news. Our realtor called and told us he thought we'd need to list as cash only (no VA loans). We felt okay about doing that but justifiably upset. A couple days later while helping set up for an art show at the elementary school, I was talking to a couple of friends about my problems with selling my house and a woman there approached me and told me she writes loans for my exact situation. Needless to say, I was shocked, but I got her my old loan papers, and she's working on coming up with a loan that will work for this house. She seems to know what she's doing (unlike the last lender in October, who dropped the ball). I haven't heard back from her yet, but I'm hoping for some good news. It seems so unlikely that we'll ever get to move, but we realized in this process that miracles happened for us to buy this house in the first place. Miracles haven't ceased since 2013, either. I know that. I hope I can hang on for a little while longer till everything works out.

December

Trips and Activities

helped Katie with her science fair project (making boba through reverse spherification)

baking with Cherissa. I taught her how to make every kind of yeast bread I know, and we also did yogurt.

had the Boyles over for a Southern style turkey dinner, which tastes better than the original combo

Joseph had a robotics competition at the high school. His robot is much better than last year's.

Katie had an orchestra concert during school, and James was able to go since it was during his prep.

missionary music devotional. Music is what kept me happy and sane during the Christmas season.

the Nutcracker with the girls

Annie. James, Katie, and I went, and it was so cute.

Rexburg:  We enjoyed family dinners, board games, dipping chocolates, Zootopia 2, and plenty of time lounging around.

Birthdays and Holidays

Christmas! We kept it simple at our house and left for Rexburg the day after.

Jacob's birthday

New Year's at Sam and Jesse's house. We had lots of yummy appetizers and burned a muneca. I definitely included our house not selling in that. It was kind of cathartic to watch it burn.

Weather

unusually warm, and we didn't get a white Christmas. I didn't mind at all!

Sickness

none that I remember

Repairs

the washing machine, which broke just in time for Nash to fix it while he was visiting during Christmas. He ended up needing another part, which we already had sitting in our shed from 4 years ago when he left us an extra. This is the 4th time (at least) that this kind of thing has happened, and it's especially miraculous since I don't get visits from my family very often.

Projects

2 showings! We didn't expect any for the month of December.

storage for cookie sheets, cutting boards

new faucets for bathroom sinks after I tried cleaning the handles and realized the valves were leaking. That was a rough day.

Overall, it wasn't a bad month, but I struggled to really feel the Christmas magic with the sale of our house (or lack of) looming over my head.