February: Lent and Valentines Day

Well it's February which means "I Love to Read" month at Hamiliton, thus also at the Novaks. 'Cept, I HATE "I Love to Read" month. I like the concept-- extra reading time, less t.v.-- but all this documenting and setting timers while you're reading-- what a drag. Our kids are doing pretty well with it, though. We've been reading a lot more to Josiah (even Juli is helping him out with his reading) and Clara has been reading a lot of chapter books this month. I think she's surprised herself with how well she can read now. She started off 2nd grade with some problems but she's been working very hard all year and has made big improvements. Jephtha, although the best reader of all these kids, doesn't particularly like to read (I suspect it's because he's lazy and prefers the passive activity of t.v.). I've had to hold off on signing some of his reading slips because he keeps putting down the same chapter book and if he'd really been reading it for 500 minutes I think he would be done with it. So I'm not signing his 700-minute slip until he finishes that book. The slip has been sitting here all week...

It's been fun listening to everone's reports of Valentines Day (or even their plans for Valentines Day). We didn't really celebrate. The last couple of years we've gone out to Erte's, a pretty nice restaurant in NE. We just didn't get around to making any plans for that this year. So we may be going out to a local restaurant tonight (like Timberlodge or Olive Garden). It's hard to celebrate Valentines Day during Lent.

Speaking of Lent, how's that going for everyone? I haven't put a lot of effort into it so far. It felt good going to Stations and Mass last night (and it must be a good "penitential" thing to do, 'cause Anna griped about it before, during and after). Sometines, being at a church all the time, it really makes it difficult to differentiate between these seasons. Plus we spend so much time looking ahead and planning that I'm already thinking about spring and summer events.