Beating the January Blahs

January is cold, windy and dark around here as the sun sets early and rises late. The winter blahs are a  real thing around her and beating them is a yearly goal of mine.  Since we can't spend weeks at the beach, we manage by filling our time with productive pursuits.

This year, Challenge B and friends had a Science Fair to wrap up an entire unit on the Scientific Method.  Flower came away with First Place in the Jr. and Sr. High School group with her project on, "Salt Crystallization and Super Saturation."

The kids were judged on the project itself, Research, Lab Book, Project Board and verbal presentation. A lot of time, energy, heart and soul were put into each and every project. I was immensely proud of my Challenge B class. As always, they rose to a challenge and excelled, even when planned events happened to fall on days with ice storms. 

Cub missed the science fair because he spent the week at our State Capital, interning for Family Heritage Alliance.  He was thrilled to work alongside Dale and Norman and can't wait to go back. 

Meanwhile, we were putting in about 6 hours a week dancing and practicing for Tantara, Festival of One Act Plays. Cub and Hannah both walked away with "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" Awards. the play was fun and funny and I was so proud of our Cast! We had 15 kids this year, 6 of whom had never been on stage before! 

Kari and Julie were an amazing part of the team, too and helped with choreography, props, costumes, wigs and the zillion little details that went into 1/2 hour performance with 15 kids! 

In the midst of all of that, Flower has been doing TeenPact alumni homework for our upcoming State Class, doing tons of research on entitlement projects. We brought TP to SD 10 years ago and now our youngest is an alumni. A decade sure flies by when you are having fun, working hard, being slammed, busy living.

Introducing TeenPact to the state of SD, with then Governor Rounds in 2006.

Our entire family, sans Flower is in the picture above. Cub is front and center, saluting! 

And here he is below~

Having survived 5 hours of Karate testing for his next belt, including the Bull Ring with Instructor Mike just yesterday. Mike is an awesome teacher and runs a fun and rigorous program. 

And because it's the season, we are also studying for the National Latin Exam. Cub didn't realize that the old tests had all 4 exams on them and flipped out, thinking he knew nothing! What a relief to just focus on LNE 1 and realize that he is, in fact, in great shape for the exam!  Cub is doing the LNE review with Memoria Press. 

In the middle of all of this the kids are reading great literature, studying Latin and Math, writing essays and creating 1 AC's for an upcoming debate, reading great apologetics books like Defeating Darwinism and Saving Leonardo, creating art, practicing Music and even hanging out with friends every now and then. 

And, best news of all, the days are getting longer, it's actually light out after 6 p.m. (o.k., just barely, but still) and spring is just around the corner! 

What are you doing to make it till spring? 

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