January 20

Today was inauguration day.

The thought of our new president makes me feel hopeless and ill, but I am trusting that God has ordained even a presidency such as this. I'm also hoping to show my children the importance of respect for our leaders, so today's school was mostly inauguration-related. 

As we watched the lead-up to the swearing in of our new vice president and president, the kids and I found a drawing tutorial and made our best attempts at portraits of the new president.

This was the end result. 

Caleb's features a pirate with a sword, saying, "ARR! Donald Trump!"

Mine is pretty awful.

And Daisy's may or may not look more like a terrifying clown than our new leader. Both children said his hair was the most fun to draw. Ha! Later, Daisy began coloring in my drawing and she immediately reached for an orange crayon to color in his skin. I promise I tried wholeheartedly to help the children produce good results,  and did not coach them in the least!

Lily tried to follow along with us at first, but ended up drawing swirls and circles.

Eli made a mighty scribble.

Caleb was pretty proud of his work!

I think Daisy knew hers was a little bit goofy.

And then it was time for the actual ceremony. 

We popped some popcorn, sat on the couch, and watched as our new leaders were sworn in.  The kids were mostly unimpressed, but they gave it a valiant effort!

Then we headed to the library, had lunch, and the little ones went down for naps. Lily was exhausted after her throw-up session last night, but it appears to have been entirely too-much-cake-related, and not stomach bug-related. Praise the Lord.

While the little ones napped, I popped a movie in for Caleb and Daisy, then joined a video chat with a babywearing educator in Hawaii to complete my skills assessment.

^^^This?^^^

This is a girl who passed her test with flying colors. Oh, and also the two heavy babies who made the assessment possible, since Eli is really fighting being worn about 90% of the time. My evaluator said I did such a good job that she didn't even have any constructive criticism for me. (That's probably thanks to the excellent coaching I received from Amber. Thanks, friend!) I'm still waiting on the official paperwork, but it looks like I am finally going to be a Volunteer Babywearing Educator for Babywearing International. Yay!