Try again...

Well, I am going to once again try to start blogging regularly. I am hoping that it will be able to be a much more regular occasion because we finally did it...we broke down and got a laptop. We just really felt it would be beneficial to all of us, especially the kids. Our desktop is so old it doesn't have the software the kids need for school projects not to mention it is sooooooooooooo slow that it takes forever to do anything. When you have 2 that have lots schoolwork that requires either research or to be done on software it gets pretty frustrating. Of course, the only time I am actually awake enough to blog is when I have to be here at work. I won't go into all we went to get this laptop on Black Friday because that is a major blog in by itself.
It was so nice to see all the family for brother Mark's 50th! I just wish that it had been for longer. So many to visit with and so little time!
We are all doing fine since then. Busy is really an understatement to our lives right now. I hardly know where to start telling you about all that is going on. I am so glad that the kids didn't start sports till now. That seems to have added so much to our already busy schedule. We are so glad that the both boys are in basketball and are thrilled to see their improvements over the last year but I'm not sure I could have handled this for too many years.
Also adding to the craziness of this time of the year is the weather. We went from having no snow at all to getting 9 inches over night (forecasts were for 1-4 inches). That was the first week of December and all the kids got a snow day. Then last week we had a 3-4 day storm (near blizzard). The administrators just didn't know what to do with themselves. Ended up that Stephen & Joshua had 3 days off while Rachel only had one day off. One of the days she went may also not even count toward the states required hours because not enough kids were in attendance. In the 10 years that Rachel has been going to school, I don't remember a single year that they have had 4 snow days for the whole year. Now it is only December & they have already had 4! Or 2 in Rachel's case! This week now we have had 2 days of above freezing temps which has brought rain & fog. Today we are headed back below freezing & the lake effect is starting up again. None of my kids' school closed this fall for the flu though so we did bypass those days off. There are some systems in the area that I think used up all the "Snow days" as "flu days" this fall. Those kids may be in school till 4th of July next summer.
The snow days have also affected the basketball schedule which in turn dominoes and affects all the rest of our carefully planned out activities. It did, however, give Stephen lots of time for a research paper he had due this week.
Now don't expect something every night because I do sometimes get nights off, not often, but occasionally. And also, like I said, I have to share it, especially for homework. I also have other things I like to do when I have the chance too.
Love to all who actually keep checking on our family.