We are getting some seriously cold weather here and it always makes me appreciate our mostly mild winters. While I like 4 seasons and all that, this kind of windy wintry weather always takes me a bit by surprise. Fortunately, I have a lot of sweaters.

So, what’s going on with the fam?

Well, Sam is having a great season in wrestling. He had another win tonight-and the best kind of win-a PIN! The meet was against Reservoir (an in-county rival), and while they lost the meet, I thought Sam did great. I may be slightly biased, though.

Sara and Sam have midterms coming up next week, so they have no homework right now, just “studying.” So far, they must be resting up for all the studying I guess they are going to do over the weekend. Either that or they’ve written all their notes on the insides of their eyelids. I can’t complain though, because they are both having a pretty good quarter. Test times often call for a “good breakfast” in the morning which is a stretch for me, because I’m an avowed cold cereal mom. Thus, my kids get excited when I buy them Eggos and Hot Pockets during tests. Seriously, that is what cold cereal does for you-it creates low expectations in your children. I feel sad for those moms who make breakfast all the time and then all of a sudden they have highschoolers who have to be out the door before the sun rises but who still expect a hot breakfast. Start them on cold cereal now before it is too late! Just kidding. I think those moms are amazing and wonderful and maybe a bit crazy, but then so am I so it’s all good.

Evan’s team is getting creamed in indoor soccer. It is a totally different sport than the outdoor version, and they keep playing these world-cup caliber teams with fancy matching uniforms, right down to the shoes and the personalized backpack for each player. Our little guys look like the Bad News Bears of Soccerdome. Bless their hearts. On Saturday, they only lost 7-2 and they considered it the highlight of the season because it was the lowest point spread so far.

Johnathan is doing great in Chile. His letters are long, detailed, thoughtful and spiritual. Maybe I’ll put one or two in here so you can get an idea of what his days are like. He is experiencing everything I would want him to: joys and challenges. Bring on the growth and independence!

Jeff reads my blog, (hi Jeff!) so really, I should let him write for himself. But, I’m his mom, and we talk about this stuff, so it’s okay. He is doing just what it seems a young man his age should be doing: going to school, dating a lovely girl, working at a job, and arranging his class schedule with Tuesdays and Thursdays off for skiing. Perfect. I want him to have these days. I want him to learn to balance his life and know that being a grown-up can be dang fun.

As for me, marathon training is well underway and today was a chilly 8-miler. It feels good to say I did it, though, when it would have been a perfect day to stay under the covers. I think that is why I keep up this insane sport (Yes Eric, it’s a sport). It’s one of the few things that I consistently finish. If nothing else gets done in a day, it is a good thing for a flibertygibbet like me to be able to say that I finished my run.

On the Looking-Forward-To-A-Lot list, I have several things making this January continue to just whiz by:

• my little in-person book group here at my house tomorrow
• seeing how Sam does in his big tourney this weekend
• having Eric home Monday and Tuesday
• two four-day school/seminary weeks
• and last but not least, my annual girls weekend up in the hills of Pennsylvania.

Add to that the fact that I’m actually reading and commenting on blogs again, spending some lovely times with my mom and other friends, and managing to keep an eerily tidy house for the last week or so, things are going pretty well.

BTW, I took the stockings down today and put away one nativity. Check back with me on Valentine’s day. Sheesh.