Happenings around here lately

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope if you celebrated Thanksgiving that you had a lovely day. It's been a hot minute since I have updated this blog, but that seems to be the theme of my life right now. We've been up to a lot and some changes have happened once again. 

The kids have kept me busy as always. Rebecca has been very busy with lots of activities. 

She was inducted into her school's chapter of the National Honor Society. She was invited to apply, and she had to fill out an application that included reference letters, notations of her service activities, etc. It was a process. I am so proud of her and the induction ceremony was really nice. 

She also had a role in her school's fall play. She played Juror #9 in the play "Twelve Angry Jurors." It was really well done and I saw the play twice. Once opening night with a friend whose daughter was on the stage crew and on Saturday matinee with my dad. 

Finally, Rebecca auditioned for and made a spot in the Bowling Green State University Falcon Chorale Festival. This was an all day workshop on a Monday, at Bowling Green State University, where 140 high school students came together and practiced singing together and working with college chorale all day long. Bowling Green is about 2 hours from where we live, so I decided to take the opportunity to make a short 24 hour trip out of it for Rebecca and myself. (Look for a trip recap Wednesday). It was a great day for her and a nice trip for my sister and I. 

Ben decided this year that he wanted to learn how to play the violin in the middle school orchestra. He had his first 6th grade orchestra concert. He looked so grown up and honestly the concert went much better than I thought it would. I wasn't sure what to expect, but honestly the 6th grade orchestra sounded great for what they have learned. He was so proud of himself and loved the fact that his Aunts Mary and Ceal and cousin Ethan came to see him. 

And in all this busyness, I started a new job! I promise I will have a post up this week about the chaos that has been my employment, but let's just say that I started a new job with Head Start as an assistant preschool teacher and I am loving it! Such a change from my last job. 

Thanksgiving was good. I started the day by going to mass. The kids went to their father's apartment for a couple of hours. He was supposed to have them from 9-2:30, but changed plans the night before and said he was invited to a friend's Thanksgiving the next day so he could only have them from 9-11. URGH. It is what it is. After the kids were home, we went to my parents house for dinner. I only took 2 photos all day and that was of my plate and of my new niece. She is getting so big and has found her voice! 

In other news, we have been passing around a cold. Jacob was sick for 4 days with a fever of 102 and just didn't feel good. He then spent several days coughing and he is still coughing a little bit. Ben has had a runny nose and coughing. I have been dealing with head congestion for about a month. Now I am coughing. Rebecca told me today that she is congested. It is that time of year, I guess. 

The kids and I started decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We have talked about keeping some things the same and changing some things up. We put the Christmas tree up and changed out the garland and the star on top to more colorful ones. It was hard going through the ornaments and decorations as I hadn't gone through them when my ex-husband moved out. I didn't think it would be, but man it was. I love how the tree turned out though. I still need to add some more decor around the house and am going to try to put up outside lights (this used to be my ex's job.) 

Well, this is long and I should end this here. I hope everyone is doing okay and please know that I am horrible about commenting on blogs but I do read most blogs most days on my phones. I really need to get my stuff ready for work tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good week!!