End of Quarter 1

My how time has flown! I can't believe this blog hasn't been updated since the first week of school, and we have just finished our first quarter!

So, what has been going on? Where to start?

The school WILL be staying open another year. We currently have an enrollment of 13. The school has transitioned from 6 non-Waarvik students doing work around 2 large tables to 10 non-Waarviks in a traditional desk setting. Some of the new students, to be frank, have had some difficulty transitioning into Mr. Waarvik's world. Can you guess that I'm a bit of a hard nose as a teacher? The newcomers are coming around, thankfully, and things are starting to settle down.

Alice's preschool program has been going well, although working everyday has been exhausting for the stay-at-home Mom. (My stay at home wife works and my homeschooled kids are enrolled in public school; this only works when work is 10 yards from home and Dad is the Principal/only teacher). It's not just pre-school she's been doing; just like last year, she's the all-around sub. We had a good solid week where both the janitor and the back-up were out of town, and guess who was cleaning the school after hours? (Alice was, if you didn't get that). The plus side? The school was CLEAN.

AND we haven't gotten really sick yet. Gavin had an ear infection for a few days, but no pnemonia. No strep. No emergency trips to town (finger's crossed! Or, better yet, hands folded in prayer)!

We also haven't been to town since the third week of August. I haven't seen a stop light, Wal-Mart, Starbucks or paved road in 9 weeks and counting! We probably won't, either, for 21 more weeks!

The snow held off this year until October 12th, almost 3 weeks later than last year. And it's been relatively warm, so we have taken full advantage of going outside and playing in the snow with the kids. Today we started uncovering the huge puddle that formed in the area behind our house. It was frozen solid! We are considering shoveling it up and using it as an ice rink.

We are also heavily committed to snow removal this year. Alice and I shoveled out the entire area around the school's truck (our front yard) with 2 shovels. Our neighbor must have felt bad for us; he offered to bring a backhoe over and clear out the snow. Thanks to technology for ruining our fun! It was great exercise, though.

We are trying to raise money for the school to go on a school trip to New York this year. We are a few thousand shy of the goal, but plenty of months to raise the money. There are a lot of things that could stop the trip from happening, but if it does, it is going to be a great experience for us and the kids! We had a mildly successful spaghetti bake that raised about a hundred dollars. More importantly, the school has ordered a whole bunch of junk food to sell to the community throughout the winter, which is bound to bring in some good cash.

The older 2 kids are starting to talk about wanting to get back into things like soccer and ballet. Molly Clara keeps telling Alice and I that we can go out and leave the kids with Nana if we wanted to. Time here is limited! We are trying to enjoy everything as much as we can. This might be our last year, or maybe next year...or the year after...

One thing we definitely have been enjoying is the northern lights! The displays have started earlier this year and have been spectacular. The aurora activity is promising to be higher this year than last. One night, the northern lights light up the entire sky and seemed to be dancing just a few hundred feet above our heads!

We're going to do a better job of updating the blog. This next quarter is the shortest and busiest of the whole year. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas Break in the next 8 weeks!