Little Bits of Fun

 We've been watching a Chick Fil A being built 10 minutes away from our house. When Aliza found out that the grand opening was on a day when we were all home and I found out that if you "dressed up" as a cow your entree was free, it was decided that we HAD to go! I've seen lines at Chick Fil A. I've waited in lines at Chick Fil A. I thought maybe it was the craziest thing we had ever decided to do--to try to eat at Chick Fil A on grand opening day. Then again, I know how much it costs for our family to eat a meal at Chick Fil A and decided any line was worth a free meal!

We put white cow spot stickers on black shirts and--just like that--we were dressed up as cows. The drive through line was long, but, inside, we only had 2 groups in front of us. All of the tables were full, but one opened up pretty quickly. And we paid $0.37...for extra sauce.  

 

Friday night, Aliza, Anna and I got to attend Maggie's first dance show. (This was the same day that Maggie's Dad had sent his crew to clean up our front yard. ) We had so much fun cheering her on! Aliza knew a few other girls in the show too. 

 

 The whole auditorium was decorated and pictures of my girls never get old. lol.

Of course, we had to have a picture with a--very tired--Maggie. 

By the time we got home that night, the festivities for Josiah's birthday were getting started!
 

More Snow

 Today I am sitting on the porch with daffodils blooming, but two weeks ago we had 6 or more inches of snow in what they called a blizzard. 

The snow started Sunday afternoon. The flakes were big and I was watching winter Olympics which just made for a cozy afternoon. 

While I was laying with Isaiah that night, we thought we heard thunder. When I came downstairs I checked outside and saw that a large limb had fallen on the electric line that runs from the road to our house. We still had power, but the line looked quite precarious.  

Jeremy and Josiah went out and cut the limb so that it could be lifted off the electric line. Jeremy could see that the line had been pulled from the bracket on the house so it was still hanging low. 

We lost power at 4:30am. When the sun rose we had a winter wonderland--that included LOTS of limbs on the ground. 

I did nothing to prepare for this storm. In January the talk was that we were going to have a huge snow accumulation and we got nothing. Being past those weeks of bitter cold, I really wasn't in the mood to prepare for snow again. When we lost power, I was certain that we were going to be without power for at least 24 hours. My first concern was drinking water. I was pleasantly surprised that I could fill 3 gallons and all of our water bottles before the kitchen faucet lost pressure. 

Can you imagine the Heslop household without internet? Jeremy's work server was down which is located off site in downtown Salisbury. He was pretty concerned about that. We were all under multiple blankets playing cards that morning. No internet is that one thing that will shut down school for us. For that reason the kids were hoping the power was not back on too soon! Power was restored at 1:45pm. I was pleasantly surprised!

On Wednesday the electric company came to the door and told me that our tree needed to be cut down. In the end their definition of "cut down" was different than my definition of "cut down." Of course I know this was going to be necessary. I do like my trees though and it made me a little sad. 

These are the official "before pictures. 

An hour later the bucket trucks came. There were 2 trees across the street from us that also had limbs on utility lines and needed to be cut. Isaiah and I sat on the porch to watch!

While this was happening, our friend, Kayla came over with Maggie and Baby Will. Isaiah held Baby Will this time and it may have been the most precious thing. Kayla became an even better friend that day because she just sat on the couch and relaxed in the middle of the complete chaos happening. 

Aliza came home from school during the cutting. Trucks were blocking access to our house and so she decided to park on the side of the road. That would have been fine except that the ground was very wet and her front tire SUNK in. 

And here is the "after picture." What you can't appreciate from the picture is the mess. Our entire front yard was covered with limbs and branches. 

Kayla's husband, Will, burns wood and was in the area. So he stopped by and Josiah helped him load his truck with the bigger logs. 

 

Will and Josiah also pulled Aliza's car out of the mud. Yup, Will and Kayla are *basically* family now.  

You can see just a little bit, in the above picture, how low the electric line is. 

And then on Friday, Jeremy was driving to a job in Virginia Beach when he received a phone call from Will. Will called to tell Jeremy that he was sending out a crew to clean up the front yard and they were arrive in the next hour. Jeremy texted me and I couldn't believe it. Will was happy for the wood. I could not have been more grateful for that gift! 

(Josiah was also grateful. His birthday was the next day and I may have threatened that the grown up boys coming over were going to clean up the yard instead of play games! I never would have followed through on that, but I was tempted!) 

 

 Happy 20th Birthday Aliza!

You are so very loved! 

 

Happy 18th Birthday Josiah!

It's going to be an exciting year of new adventures! 

Galentines Party

 Aliza asked me to help her plan a Galentines Party for some of the theater girls. It turned out to be such a fun evening for the girls. They were together as a group the whole evening. Aliza had a couple activities planned and they played few games. Mostly, though, they just enjoyed being together. 

Aliza wanted have punch for the party. I decided it was just the right excuse to use Gramma's punch bowl. It made me so nostalgic. I would have loved to talk to Gramma that night. 

And that led me to remember use Gramma's banana split dishes for our family Valentine's evening. 

It was a Valentine's family night. We had ramen bowls for supper and I gave everyone cards and candy. Then it was a movie and hot fudge sundae night. They watched The Matrix. I sat on the couch with them and read my book on the kindle and kept asking Isaiah if it was "too scary" for him. NONE of the other kids would have watched The Matrix at 11 year old! 

 

Jeremy's Valentine for me made me laugh. 8,981 is a lot of days we've been married. But what I loved is that it is not a milestone day, like 9,000 or even 8,900, the Valentine sentiments are valid every day of our marriage. 

 

Winter

 We have had a winter! This morning I heard birds singing when I got out of the car at church. I made a comment about spring coming. Anna said..."uh, Mom, look down. There is still ice on the ground." I don't remember when we have had snow and ice on the ground for several weeks. This week, though, it is warming up! 

Isaiah will be quick to tell you that the few inches of snow we got was "not fun snow." There was one afternoon that it was fun to play in and then it was freezing rain and ice. He still went out just about every day.  

Instead of snowmen, I found messages this time. 

This one greeted me every morning when I opened the curtains. 

Aliza earned Best Sister Ever the day she went out with Isaiah. He wanted to slide on the frozen driveway on a boogie board. 

The snowy days called for snickerdoodle snowman waffles. 

I always say that snow days make the best school days. The kids have been working very hard! We haven't missed a day this since Christmas. 

 

Joy Dare::January 2026

 12,974. One more hibernation day
12,975. The girls got some friend time
12,976. Extra reading time with Isaiah
12,977. Celebrating Moriah
12,978. Decorating a cake

12,979. Sending Aliza off to Skycroft
12,980. Coffee date with Jeremy
12,981. A full house
12,982. Isaiah feeling better
12,983. Teaching Children's Worship
12,984. Sending Aliza off to Kentucky this week
12,985. The struggle of making changes means it needs to happen
12,986. An hour by myself in the car
12,987. The day went more smoothly than I expected
12,988. A friend to check in with
12,989. Josiah helping Anna with math
12,990. Listening to Cross Conference sermons
12,991. Being awake for Aliza's call
12,992. Sliding door open for fresh air
12,993. Taking a walk with Isaiah
12,994. Catching up with Elizabeth
12,995. Audrey and Henry Thursdays
12,996. Homeschool PE went smoothly
12,997. Celebrating Dad's birthday
12,998. Listening to all of Aliza's adventures
12,999. Being able to take the weekend to celebrate Karen's birthday
13,000. Dropping Aliza off for the first winter camp weekend
13,001. Taking in the time with Josiah, Anna and Isaiah
13,002. Making banana bread
13,003. Walking around Shepherdstown
13,004. The evening with Joel's family 
13,005. Driving home together
13,006. Organizing for the week
13,007. A podcast worth listening to twice
13,008. A really decent math day with Anna
13,009. Aliza still comes home ready to talk
13,010. Winter sunshine
13,011. Afternoon walk after school
13,012. Josiah working on college stuff
13,013. Coffee with Maria
13,014. Working on Aliza's puzzle (lol)
13,015. A few more extra evenings at home
13,016. Janell
13,017. Being the safe place for growing up kids
13,018. Psalm 23
13,019. Finding a very old mix CD that Jeremy made for me
13,020. The ache when Aliza drives off for her next adventure
13,021. My mother-in-law
13,022. Needed encouragement

13,023. A Saturday with no plans
13,024. Talking to Moriah
13,025. Starting a Charles Martin book
13,026. Listening
13,027. Aliza home safely
13,028. Jeremy took care of supper
13,029. Josiah's respectful spirit
13,030. The moments when I know Isaiah is still young
13,031. Hearing Anna play guitar late at night
13,032. My brother
13,033. Homemade chicken tenders
13,034. Reading with Isaiah
13,035. Aliza telling me it's her "last first day at WWCC"
13,036. Jeremy mail delivery messages on Alexa
13,037. When supper conversations turn hilarious
13,038. Gospel humility: thinking of myself less
13,039. Comfortably playing outside in sweatshirts
13,040. House full of children for the afternoon
13,041. First ESL class of the semester was really smooth
13,042. Friday.
13,043. Working ahead
13,044. Contemplating Psalm 23:2
13,045. Car time with Jeremy
13,046. Celebrating Chrissy
13,047. Surprised by daffodils

13,048. Sunday snow day
13,049. Snow day candle

13,050. Good day to thaw the shoo fly pie
13,051. A warm house
13,052. Planning a trip
13,053. Isaiah teaching Josiah piano
13,054. Anna's math test went well
13,055. Spontaneous conversation in Aliza's room
13,056. Everyone home for supper
13,057. Theology discussion to start the day
13,058. Finding random pictures on my phone
13,059. Laughing until I'm crying
13,060. Homemade sourdough gifted to us
13,061. Really engaged ESL students
13,062. Time with Anna
13,063. Grocery shopping with Isaiah
13,064. Seeing a testimony publicly shared
13,065. Josiah's "Thank you Mom" after every meal
13,066. Saturday mornings
13,067. Connecting over supper
13,068. The way Aliza has grown into her job