Some of winter 2016 that I don’t want to forget

It’s so easy to forget the everyday little things that really make up a life.  And, to be honest, there are parts of the winter that I’m always happy to forget.  But, for family history sake, here are some little things I found on my phone from January and February that I don’t want to be lost forever. First, Jeff had a birthday!  And he got a great cake made of twinkies.  I think maybe he thinks if he keeps asking for twinkies for his birthday it means he’s not actually growing up.  We had a little party for him at home and then sent him on an errand on his way to church for bishoping/mutual stuff so that we could rush ahead of him and pull off a little surprise party. Bless those dear youth of the church and their leaders who participated in some crazy birthday games meant mostly to embarrass the bishop.  We played the never-fail-to-laugh-make-you-laugh dress up game and … THROW THE WIG ON THE BISHOP! It was pretty epic.  I’m sure the best birthday ever for poor Jeff who went along with our crazy plans and even seemed to enjoy them.  We did some Joy School.  Peter has a cute little group of three and we meet once a week, rotating houses.  If you don’t know much about Joy School, check it out.  It is, hands down, my favorite mothering activity (oh, maybe not, maybe reading aloud is).  Either way, I love how Joy School forces me to do all these fun mothering/teaching things that I might not do otherwise.  It has give me a language with which to talk to my pre-schoolers about the most important things and has helped me to re-discover so many joys in life….joys these little ones feel so naturally. I got to go out to dinner with these women.  Two of the most incredible women it the world, doing really pretty miraculous things with their lives, and I get to call them my friends.  They’re an inspiration.  And, since it was Karaoke night at our favorite Indian place we requested, and got, our own private room.  That was good for the soul.Peter started piano lessons!  He has been SUPER eager to start.  I love watching him during his lessons, he can hardly sit still with all that excitement bubbling up inside of him.  I love our busy with music lesson Wednesday afternoons.  I love watching my kids work hard for their teachers.  I feel all this love swelling up for them that isn’t around when I’m practicing with them.   We got to go up to New Hampshire to stay with a former work colleague of Jeff’s before he gave a presentation at Dartmouth.  This couple was so kind to us, so gracious to our kids, and, miracle of miracle, our kids were pretty civilized!  They had me sweating up a storm, wondering what follies they might commit, but all went smoothly.  It amazes me how good they are at stepping up to the plate when the stakes are high.  My kids know how to be polite!  How to carry on a conversation with an adult!  How to look them in the eye!  Yeah! We had our first big snow of the season while we were up there.  It was so magical to wake up in such a beautiful old farm house with snow all around. 

After sledding we were famished so we decided to take the kids to the Dartmouth Collage dining hall for dinner.  I highly recommend this kind of excursion for college motivation.  After all that all you can eat pizza, soda, ice cream, Mexican food, cookies etc etc etc our kids are SOLD on going to college.  I got to go to a little women’s retreat, out to Western MA to stay in a beautiful house with some pretty stellar women.  About 10 women, all incredible thinkers, talented in so many unique ways.  This is where my obsession for planets was born, inspired by the incredible Leslie Graff.    More Joy School. More selifies (at the Rock Climbing gym….we really wore out that three month membership!)Convinced these kids to go on a total of two family Sunday walks.  Still trying on that one.  These two celebrated a DECADE of friendship. Yes, their friendship began in utero.  I’m so happy that they have each other.  People at school all think they are brothers.  Friends like that are treasures.  Rare as rubies.    Our cousin Max left on a mission.  The first cousin to go.  The kids were so excited about this, and so sad to miss his farewell.  We poured all our energy into letters and a package the Sunday after he left.  I’m so thankful for Max’s example to my kids.  They’ve always thought he was the coolest person ever and are hanging on every bit of news we get from his mission.  This amazing family got baptized into our ward in February.  We are growing to really love them.  We’ve been praying for friends Hazel and Charlie’s ages at church and bam, here we go!

Santa pretty much nailed it with the roller skates for Em for Christmas.  This girl doesn’t take these things off.  Every day she goes back and forth down the little stretch of open wood floor between our entry way and kitchen.  Over February break we got to go to the MFA to partake of all their totally awesome kid friendly school vacation week stuff.  I love that our friend Stacy is always willing to come along with us…makes us all a lot happier about being out and about.  Here (above) they are with the instruments they made.

We also got to go up to our friends Lake House for a few really relaxing, snowed in days.  I love being together without a single place to go or person to see.  We played lots of games, read lots, watched some movies, did some painting, ate way too much rich food and went for two short outside walks.  We were gluttons, feasting on family time.  It was great. 

Jeff took Hazel and Charlie skiing one of the days as their Christmas present from him.  They had the time of their lives. 

We also played a lot of foosball and Legos.  I love these Lego games Em sets up with Peter.  All those poor lego guys waiting in line for their pizza and ice cream.  That girl at the counter did not understand customer service.

  Saturday morning cuddles with these two. 

And I stole away a few times this winter to the Public Library to try to work on some mind and soul enriching projects (more on these projects later).  It feels good to start to use my brain in different ways again.  But boy is it hard to make that happen.  I thought I’d do this once a week starting in September.  It amazes me how quickly my time is sucked up by just getting life done around here. 

Oh, normal day.  Please, help me be aware of the treasure you are.  These days are feeling slippery.  They’ll be gone before I know it.