February vacation...and back to school

Last week was our February vacation, which wasn't much of a "break" for me (hence the reason you didn't get an update). I was teaching a professional development course for the city, and attending classes as usual in the evenings. Jason made a LOT of progress (thanks to Dad Winchell, who stayed with us for a few days!) on the baby's room--an enclosed front porch that was not enclosed well, and needed to be totally re-built (floors, studs, walls, electricity, heat, and all). And Orilus and Jackson enjoyed themselves in an art program for four days during the week--so much fun to attend their art show on Friday and see their drawings and watch a play they had helped to write, and then performed. Of great amusement to me: to watch Jackson dance in front of the entire audience with absolute confidence, and might I even say, swagger?! Too funny, and such a joy to see him growing out of his previous shyness. :)

Last Monday the boys and I also had a great visit at Gordon College--we caught up with a former student/babysitter there (now a senior, which Jason and I can't believe), and she spent a few hours with the boys, giving them a tour, playing basketball with them in the gym. We ate lunch together and toured her dorm apartment--such a great age for exposing the boys to "college life," and such a strange feeling for me, to return to my undergrad institution with doctoral homework in my bag and think about how many years have passed since then (um, 10 actually, since I graduated...wow).

We also had opportunities over the break to catch up with some dear Worcester friends, to hang out at the YMCA, to see the boys' buddy Joseph, and to celebrate February birthdays with the Winchells.

This week has been the usual tiring week of back-to-school-after-vacation. By the time I returned home from class last night, I literally fell asleep while listening to Jason catch me up on the day...he had to wake me from the couch and walk me to bed. :) But we're healthy (Orilus' cold finally waning), hard at work on homework (between them, the boys have FOUR tests tomorrow!), and enjoying the last week of basketball season (final games are Saturday). And I'm especially relishing crawling into bed each night (usually well before Jason) and feeling good, strong movements from the baby before I fall asleep--like muscle contractions. These couple weeks have been weeks of great JOY as we are staring to truly understand that we have a baby on the way!