Life Lately | January 2022

I thought I’d share a little bit of our life lately over here.

We had our first snow for the winter and a lot of cancelled school due to snow, freezing temps and then a three-day weekend this month. It’s been so fun to play, cozy up, and drink a year’s worth of hot cocoa in a month’s time!

The first snow was our biggest in the last couple of years. Naturally, Ryan tied the tube to the back of our four-wheeler and pulled the kids all over the property. Naiya ended up taking over and pulling her siblings around, driving up over berms to maximize the fun. No injuries to report!

A perfect end to a snow day is eating out! This night, we took our crew to Five Guys. Which by the way, our older three are officially eating a double-patty cheeseburger and fries, all in one sitting.

My girls begged me to do winter swim this year. They voiced that it’s too hard to get back into shape for summer swim if they haven’t swam at all throughout the year. As much as I wasn’t looking forward to getting them to practice three evenings a week, when it’s cold and dark out…we have all loved it and it’s been a great rhythm for them!

It’s also nice that they practice at the same time and place as one another. This year they compete in separate age groups, but next season they will swim in the same and compete against one another. Which will be super fun to watch them swim in the same relay team!

At their last meet, Naiya came in second for the breaststroke event. She also swam butterfly for her first time, was super nervous and not looking forward to it, and then took third place in that event! So proud of this girl!

Alexia has enjoyed swimming fly since she was little, but hadn’t swam it since summer and wasn’t sure how she was going to do. Her event ended up being one of the most exciting of the meet, as her and a girl in the next lane were neck and neck in the final stretch. Everyone was cheering and then erupted in celebration as Alexia took first place by one stroke! We were so proud of her!

Once a week, I go on a run and talk on the phone with my friend in Florida. We used to live in the same neighborhood and run together twice a week, but now that we live in different states, this is our catching up time! It’s such a bright spot in my week! We have had to cancel for one reason or another for a few weeks straight, so when it came to this particular day and I was ready to go, I looked at the weather and it was in the twenties!

Oh my goodness, it was cold! There was a point in my run where my fingertips went numb and I wondered if this was the beginning stages of frostbite, and considered if I should turn around. I chose not to, and the rest of the run wasn’t as bad. But seriously, 20 degrees is cold.

We celebrated my beautiful niece’s first birthday! My favorite was watching her with her smash cake. She was so dainty with it, but as she ate, she got more and more excited! hahaha! Sweet girl. My kiddos LOVE their baby cousins and it’s a great solution for when they ask me to have another baby brother or sister!

Our ping-pong game is strong over here this winter. This is the greatest purchase! Ryan’s mom had it and we were so impressed with how easily it set up and broke down, is super durabe, so we bought our own. I love activities that are the great equalizer, where all ages can play together and have equal fun. You can find it HERE.

We have multiple heating and cooling systems throughout our house. It is an old farmhouse originally built in 1866, but has been added onto a few times by the previous owners. In the original farmhouse side, Ryan had a wood stove installed. It keeps that side of the house incredibly warm and we spend the winter months here. You can find Noah like this every day before and after school. He also tends to the fire by starting it when needed, and keep it going throughout the week.

Naiya is my earliest riser. Every morning before school, she sets her alarm for 6am in order to make herself a cup of tea and have her quiet time. She would much rather start her day slowly easing into it than rushing around and trying to get out the door. I LOVE our quiet mornings cozied up next to each other!

I spend each weekday morning homeschooling this little man. Josiah is by far, the most motivated of all my kids that I’ve homeschooled at this age (#enneagram1). This will be my last year homeschooling him, as he is ready to be challenged more academically and have a more structured schedule, so I am soaking up my time at home with him! I keep telling the kids that I’m “retiring” next year, ha!

I love running errands with this boy!

Here’s a little sneak peek at our latest (and final) renovation. We have all been excited to get our boxes and boxes of books stored in the basement, onto shelves of their own for easy access! The kids are pumped that they get their very own shelf for their book collection. Hopefully, this will be a good solution to our problem of misplacing and fighting over books! There’s currently talk of adding a ladder to the bookshelves, we’ll see….

And finally, I thought I’d mention what I just found! Nutpods is my favorite non-dairy coffee creamer. No other alternative is as creamy and palatable, in my opinion. And now it comes pre-sweetened with stevia! I’m excited to try it out and possibly eliminate one step from my morning coffee routine (and have one less thing on our counter).

That’s a little life lately at the Grossman house. Hope you’re having a great week so far!

See you back here on Friday. xoxo