Winter Fun!

I was going to titled this post "Winter of Our Discontent," but actually the only part of our discontent is this never-ending blanket of white that keeps dumping and dumping and dumping on us. Here in the Northeast, we're feeling rather....smothered.

We were buried under 15" of snow this morning. That's not much of a novelty since this is on top of the gargantuan mountains of white stuff we've already accumulated thus far this winter. We are going a bit stir-crazy. Cabin Fever. The whole bit.

Anyway, I didn't dare traverse the miles between home and work this morning in the whiteout conditions and since I was shut-in for the day, I decided to do some catching up on dishes, laundry, general house stuff, and of course The Blog.

Welcome back, readers!

The three of us Hendricksons (plus Ronin and Jim the Cat) are doing very well. Ronin is busy recovering from some sort of skin allergy that's been dogging him (hartie har har) all winter. Maybe it's a reaction to the dry heat of our pellet stove, I don't know.

Jim the Cat has been promoted to Officer James Hendrickson:

Aaaaand.......Jesse is turning 5 this weekend!!!! Amazing! We are so excited to be celebrating his first birthday as a family! wooot!

Jesse is doing FANTASTIC! He went on a growth spurt a couple months ago, and has sprouted out of all his size 4 clothes (after eating us out of house and home). Now he appears to be on a verbal/academic spurt. His language is dramatically improving. More and more "outsiders" can understand what he's saying (or at least catch the drift). At home he talks non-stop. Pretty much from the moment he wakes up until he lays his wee head down on his pillow, he's a continual stream of verbiage.

One thing Jason and I have both noticed is how incredibly HAPPY Jesse is, and you have no idea what a joy that brings to our hearts. It's like we're watching redemption in action.

Jesse pretty much smiles all the time. This from the kid that wouldn't smile for orphanage pictures if his life depended on it.

HE LOVES LIFE! He loves having a family, he loves his extended family, he loves the people at church, he loves going to school..... His life has done a 180 from 10 months ago. And he knows it.

Jason is doing very well at his position at the county jail. The job itself is a CRAZY sort of job, which can sometimes be challenging for him. But he has the ability to compartmentalize this aspect of life from the rest of his life, so he does pretty well overall. The hours are difficult on family life; since he works second shift he's gone from 1:30 in the afternoon until about midnight, and he has to work weekends. It's difficult for Jason since he has limited time with family (and friends), and I can tell Jesse misses him. I certainly miss all the opportunities for conversation and socializing that I used to have with my best friend/hubby when he worked a "normal" shift. We do the best we can, though, and it certainly causes us to appreciate each moment we spend together!

But we're thankful to God for the fact that Jason has a good job with all the benefits, and even has some opportunity for overtime! In these crazy economic times, we are VERY grateful for God's continued provision for our needs every single day.

I'm still working about 40 hours between piano lessons, church responsibilities and my administrative job......hence the conspicuous lack of blogging entries.

One nice thing about our schedules is that we all have Wednesdays off, so we try to make the most of our so-called "Saturday" together. A couple weeks ago we took Jesse on his first sledding experience. There's a great park right around the corner from us (where Ronin and I usually go jogging when it's not buried until five feet of snow).