January.

I haven't been using my nice camera or taking many pictures lately.  It's not that I've lost the desire to do that, but it's just been cold, cold, cold.  I will try to fill everyone in on what we've been doing lately.

Jones:
After a month-long break, Jones started back to school last week, and they got going right away.  He is busy, busy, busy!  This semester he is going to class and also working on an entrepreneurship project with a group of classmates.  He's also playing rugby for 2 teams!  He's playing for his college, GTC, as well as for the business school.  He really enjoys the sport, and he's starting to understand it more and more.  Oxford runs a 3 term school year:  Michaelmas in the fall, Hilary in the winter, and Trinity in the spring/summer.  Jones has begun Hilary term, and our time here seems to be going too fast!

Bess:
I am trying to be more active, even though it's cold outside.  I have some nice friends who walk with me in the mornings most days of the week.  I still go to Monday Mums Bible Study at our church.  It's the best part of my week, hands down.  I have fallen into a group of wonderful, smart, Godly women who are great friends and encouragement to me.  I also try to get together for a girls night at least once a week with my fellow business school spouses.  We go to dinner or to get drinks, and we have the most wonderful conversations.  I have met the most interesting people from around the globe, and I'm fascinated by so many cultures now.  I've been cooking a lot more, and I'm trying to eat a lot more veggies and whole grains.  I can't say the whole family is on board with my healthy eating, but A is always willing to eat whatever I am having.

EC:
EC is enjoying school very much.  She loves going to school every day.  Her teachers say that she's very keen on art.  She draws, cuts, pastes, paints, and colors up a storm.  She has some cute little friends in her class, and they all seem to really enjoy each other.  EC is taking ballet, and she just moved up a level, where she wears a pink leotard, skirt, cardigan, socks (!) and ballet shoes.  She got a scooter for Christmas, and she loves scooting all over town.  She's very fast, but cautious, and I can't believe I didn't buy her one when we first moved here.  EC is learning to read.  She brings home little early reader books, and she does a great job sounding out the words.  She has a lot of the common words memorized.  It's very interesting seeing her making this huge leap from a person listening to a reader to being the reader herself.  Oddly, EC's British accent seems to have gone away, now that she's back at school.  Maybe she just used it over the break to remind herself of her classmates.  EC does not like any vegetables, and she still mostly eats starch, sweets and cheese.  It's a daily battle.  I have discovered that she likes apple slices, so she has those many times a day.

A:
A is a tornado of constant motion and destruction at every turn.  If I am not reading him a book, he is tearing something up (like pages out of books, sister's art projects, anything he can find.)  He still is obsessed with someone reading to him.  He would be happy if that's all we did all day long.  I have bought about 200 pre-owned books since we arrived, and we've read them all hundreds of times.  A is also a charmer, and he loves going to the childcare at Monday Mums and at church on Sundays.  He plays really well with other kids, and if they take a toy from him, he shrugs his shoulders and moves on (most of the time.)  He's a tough cookie, and he doesn't cry much when he falls down or hurts himself.  He loves climbing things, turning off lights, throwing all his food on the floor, going to the playground, getting dirty, eating random non-food items like crayons, rocks, dirt by the handfull, etc.  A is not talking as much as I would like, but he does say quite a few things.  He also signs "more" and "please" (usually in reference to a book.  A is a great eater.  He will eat pretty much anything I eat.  He loves avocado, tomatoes, lentil soup, Indian food, hummus, cucumbers, apples...pretty much everything.

So, there we are in a nutshell.  Oxford is such a little perfect place to be.  We are surrounded by some of the smartest people in the world.  People here are so much less concerned with money, and more concerned with ideas.  Less showing off, more being interested in others.  Less commercial products, more time with family and friends.  Less bling, more kitsch.  Life just seems to be good, real, honest, and exciting here.  I can't imagine living anywhere with architecture as stunning.  I also can't imagine finding more intelligent people to hang out with.  I feel perfectly safe all the time.  I walk everywhere.  I adore my local shops.  I only hope we can take some of this magic with us wherever we move next.