A "normal" week after Thanksgiving

This is a high/low post about our week of returning to "normal" after Thanksgiving break:

The highs:
Wyatt came home Tuesday and told me that his picture had been taken at school so that they could hang it on the wall in the cafeteria.  He scored a proficient on his end of year math exam last year.  Whoot!  Whoot!  I have not seen his actual scores yet, but he also indicated that his reading score was proficient as well.

This is a huge high because school is a real challenge for Wyatt.  He is really smart but has many obstacles in his way.  He started kindergarten without any knowledge of the English language and was barely moving into language proficiency with that at the end of the year.  Our county would not let him repeat the grade, so he had to go right into first grade without a solid foundation, and we have spent every year since then supplementing his education at home and fighting through frustrations and tears and lots of meltdowns to get him on track.  We want Wyatt to return to Christian school, but despite the grace we all get from God, Christian schools are not very forgiving when a child does not meet their academic expectations.  Our goal is to place him in a small Christian school next year or more than likely the year after so that middle school will be a better fit for him. Public school classes are just too big for Wyatt.  He still wants to be in school with his siblings, but that is not the best fit for him, nor is it affordable for us.

Zach hit 500 lbs. on his squats this week.  I will never understand how a human's back and legs can support more than double the weight of the human, but somehow Zach has accomplished this feat.  He can now claim to be the strongest kid in the school.  He is so excited about this accomplishment, so go Zach!  A funny thing about Zach is that people are kind of surprised when they find out that Andy and I have such a big, strong guy.  His pediatrician called him a mutant when he was a preschooler, and that always comes to mind when someone expresses surprise over Zach's size.

Julia got new glasses, and they are super cute, but the best news is that she made it through the whole year with her old glasses with only one minor repair and no loss.  Maybe there is some sense of responsibility in that girl after all.

We also really enjoyed some great down time and time together. We had more meals around the table this week than we ever do on a normal basis.

The lows:
We started the week with no central heat.  We returned Friday night after spending the day out of town with Andy's side of the family.  We found that our heat had just gone out.  Andy tried to fix it himself.  We had to call in help and replace a motor.  The motor did not arrive until Tuesday.  We kept three rooms warm at a time with space heaters borrowed from my brother.  We were really just beginning to get weary when heat was restored.

We also faced a costly van repair.  UGH!  I have decided that I don't want to replace this van with another van. I don't want an SUV either.  I am not sure how a family of six will manage without a van, but I just don't want the expense of another one.

Savannah finished the week battling illness.  She missed school for the first time since starting high school and is already worried about how to make up the work.  Every time we think she is better, she starts feeling rough again.

The biggest biggest high of all:  God's got this!