Greetings from windy Wyoming! We got a couple Christmas cards in the mail this week. I didn't plan on sending Christmas cards out this year. I've had issues with grumbling my way through the holiday season the last couple years as I try to fit Christmas shopping, shipping gifts to faraway family, neighbor treats, holiday parties, and getting photos taken and cards sent out all into the month of December. With a toddler who takes one short nap a day, a husband who's working 13+ hour days (including most weekends) this month, and no nearby family, I knew that I'd need to cut down on some of the Christmas to-do list and finish my shopping ahead of time if I wanted to try enjoying the holidays this year. And whaddaya know, it worked! I finished 90% of our shopping in November, I'm not stressing about neighbor gifts (feels almost taboo with covid anyway), and we'll stick to a virtual Christmas card.
I've enjoyed December 1000% more this year through intentionally slowing down. But the other day I realized we hadn't set up a tripod for a proper family picture at all in 2020. Jared doesn't get home until well after dark, but he had Saturday off of work so we seized the opportunity to run out into the prairie and snap 4-5 pictures. The winter air is bitter cold here, so that's all Jared would give me. Can't blame him. This is the actual best shot we got, mostly because it's the only one where my hair isn't completely covering my face. Wouldn't have it any other way though, as this is a pretty accurate portrayal of what prairie life is like. Yay wind.
Well hey! It's been another uneventful week. Jared and I have been going through our house category by category (the Marie Kondo method) and getting rid of stuff. It's been years since we've done anything like this, so it's needed. We donated 10 garbage bags full of clothes, a box of old textbooks, and now we're going through any old papers to get rid of. Feels good. Today Jared started a very demanding 6-week OB rotation, so I'll probably be finishing up most of the rest of the categories on my own. I've got this. I don't have many recent pictures, so here are a few older ones that are fun. As for potty training updates, it's going well! We haven't had any accidents in several days so we're feeling good.
Oh hey! We've had a bit of a slow week. Jack is in full-on potty training mode so we're staying home as much as possible. I guess 2020 is probably a good year to potty train. It's going great so far! I tried doing this six months ago and chickened out after one day. I think the biggest problem was that I wasn't ready, but Jack is for sure much more ready this time around than he was before too. It's been a completely different experience. He had two accidents when we first started, and then he figured it out pretty quick. We'll still have an occasional accident, but not every day. He's very motivated by toy bribes, so that's been a big part of our strategy this time haha. He gets a sticker when he goes #1 and gets a little toy every time he fills up an 8-10 sticker chart. Then there was a bigger toy for the first time or two he went #2. Very exciting stuff over here.
Other than that, nothing new to report. I'm going through my DSLR memory cards and I'm going to try to get some unposted older pictures on the blog during uneventful weeks like this one. So here are some pictures from our first big snowstorm here in Casper, back in the first week of September. It was shockingly early to get snow (it was a LOT of snow), since August is the hottest month of the year here. Luckily it only lasted a day or two. It was actually a very fun fluke storm. Jack was a big fan and Jared gets all the credit for this great snowman:
