A Lesson Learned

I know it has been a long blog silence. Rob hasn't downloaded pictures in forever and probably hasn't taken that many. Most photos we have are of Jasper and Lucy riding their bikes. Jasper got a two-wheeler Spiderman bike from Santa and on Christmas afternoon, in less than a minute, mastered riding it without training wheels. The credit goes to a great little pedal-less bike some friends lent us last summer that easily taught Jasper to balance so the transition to pedaling a two-wheeler was a piece of cake.

Speaking of exercise, I have found a way to combat the January blues that I got bad last year at around this time. We hike, bike and walk outside when we can manage it, but we also have slightly backed off of school work to pack the schedule with indoor adventure. We go to the indoor climbing gym - Stone Gardens in Ballard, we ice skate (who knew we would love that so much??), and we swim. It will not surprise anyone who knows Lucy well to hear that Lucy loves climbing. She, Jasper, and I go with a group of other homeschoolers and have a couple of experienced climbers belaying for us - that is tying us up to ropes so that we can climb very high without fear of falling. It is a great workout and an overall exhilarating experience. Last week, our belayer advised me that if I want to learn to climb well, all I have to do is watch Lucy because she has a knack for doing the right thing on the wall. That girl...

Lest she should have a spare moment, Lucy is also in a creative writing class, two art classes (one focussed on drawing, painting and sewing animals and one on sculpture), piano lessons, drama, girl choir and Wilderness Awareness school. I suppose all that is better than sitting around the house with a grumpy Mama, which is what defined January 2009. This all feels much, much better...