The Greg and Debbie Family: 2 Weeks into 2021

Welcome to 2021!

With a new year comes a time to try new things and make new goals and habits.

One new thing we are trying this year is getting the kids more involved in planning and making meals. They are both pretty good at making cookies and cereal right now but at some point, we figured we ought to expand their horizons beyond those (good) beginnings. The way we have it structured (and we'll see how long this lasts) is that each kid picks one meal for one day each week and then owns the making of that meal (with help as needed). So far it has gone pretty well with no total disasters. Which is more than we can say for some of Greg and Debbie's early cooking.

Abby's choices so far have been chicken noodle soup and rolls, a chicken panini, and pulled pork hawaiian sandwiches.

Alex's meals were French toast, baked potatoes (with bacon... that was his necessity), and home-made chicken tenders with raw carrots (ok, that one turned out a bit rough).

Thanks to an extra day off work at the start of the year and another day off for MLK day, we have had lots of time to play games and try new Christmas presents.

From Debbie's parents, we got a fun game about the National Parks. We've played it a few times - it is simple enough for kids but has enough choices to make it not too boring for adults. Alex won the first time we played with Abby coming in a close second.

The kids also got a chemistry experiment set. They tried a few experiments but then started to get bored and decided to try one last super-experiment by combining all the chemicals together in one dish. It actually got a good reaction with bubbles and color changing and fizzing so we'll call it a success. Not sure what was learned in this 'science' though...

Abby's most exciting present has been the bunnies she has adopted. She has two bunnies that are fluffy and cute and fun.

Before getting the rabbits, Abby made a rabbit hutch using a combination of a hutch that was already on the property plus the creation of a rabbit-run using some chicken wire Abby bought plus posts and other random wood we had lying around. After some experiments (and a few escapes) it is in pretty good shape. It doesn't look pretty but the bunnies and Abby are both happy so things seem to be working.

School and work have started back up which is a bit rough after such a long break and getting used to having the whole days to ourselves. At least the weather has been pretty good and we've had some amazing sunrises and (partially) clear days.