FIVE HEARTS

Yesterday, Shelby was having a difficult morning.

I was busy getting breakfast ready and getting everyone where they needed to be.

She was crying because nothing was going right for her.

Clothes not right

Breakfast not right

Hair not right

Backpack not right

Tired Tired Tired

Michael came in and pulled her to him and snuggled her on the couch. He whispered calmly to her and just held her for a while.

Emily watched all of this and came to me and said "Dad has five hearts."

What? I wasn't sure what she was talking about.

Then she explained,

"He has one whole heart for each of us."

What a sweet way to explain a father's love

Week 5 of No-Screen Sunday's

Well, I thought I would just do an update on the No-Screen Sunday's. If you ask my kids, the girls will say it is great, the boys might complain a bit. However, I have made some interesting observations. First, we play a lot of games which means a lot of laughing. Homework gets done early. We went on a country drive yesterday. Kyle tied some fishing flies, a hobby he has not "had time to do". Suddenly, there is time. We had a royal wrestling match with Kyle, Shelby, and Emily against Michael. Michael still is the king. A sweet 16 year old took a 4 1/2 hour much needed nap. The sweet 16 year old even admits that if he could have played video games he would not have slept. I think it is a great success and I look forward to Sunday's.

Medieval Feast

the dress
the hair

The 7th graders study the middle ages and at the end they put on a huge Medieval Feast. It is no small event. The girls get big flowy dresses and the boys dress up as Knights or townsfolk. When Christopher's class did it, I had no idea what a big deal it was. He wanted to be blacksmith, so his costume was easy. But when I went to help out with the party, some girls had rented huge dresses and the costumes were crazy. This year of course Shelby wanted to be a lady. I found the perfect dress for her but it had no sleeves so I made her a long sleeve shirt out of velvet to go underneath it. In the pictures it looks like a different color green, but in real life it is exactly the same color. She loved it and had a great time. Today she is off on a ski trip at Bogus Basin. Hey, doesn't anyone have to go to school?

Here Comes the Sun

I am happy. The sun is OUT again. And yes, I have spent some time on the tile floor in my kitchen just soaking it up. I am doing laundry and folding socks(which I dislike immensely), and I decided to just fold socks on the kitchen floor. I am also happy because I just got my dream calling of being the Camp Director in our ward. I have wanted to go to camp with the girls for a long time and finally I get to go. I am just giddy. I am also the Mia Maid advisor which will be fun too. By the way, what does Mia Maid even stand for? And for those of you at the Girls Night Out, I got my callings on Saturday morning, so I was not trying to be tricky! I've got to get back to my sunshine tile.

Solar Power

I really do love the snow. I want it snow a ton. Until January 1st, then it all must go. I don't mind the cold as long as there is sunshine. You see, I am solar powered. I don't function well if there are too many days of clouds. What is even worse is the dreaded inversion. It is like pure misery pushing down on us. Everything loses it's color. The past two years have been great as far as inversions go. But now after two weeks of gray dreariness I am ready to move to Arizona! A few years ago, we had a long inversion and when it was over, I remember sunshine pouring in my kitchen window. I sat on the tile in a puddle of sunshine and just soaked it in. I could feel it bring me back to life. I am ready for the sun. Although I love my Alaskan, I could never be one. Juneau gets about 30 pure sunshine days a YEAR. I am ready for flowers and sunburns and sunsets on the beach.

Cousins

What is it about cousins? My kids have just spent this holiday season with all of their cousins. Including our cousins from Virginia. It was a continual sleepover. Boy cousins at one house. Girl cousins at another. All cousins at Grandma's. Really they could have spent every waking and non-waking minutes together. I was thinking about my own cousins and how important they are to me. Cousins play a special role in my life. They are the ones I played with, fought with, laughed with and got into trouble with. These are the people who helped me learn the finer points of pinochle and how to cheat the younger players. We camped and cross-country skied together. We cheered each other on when learning to waterski. They are the ones who love me and support me and would drop everything to help me. We share a history. We took care of our Grandpa as he struggled with Alzheimers. We love and take care of our funny Grandma. We share inside jokes. They get me. As we left our Cousins Christmas Party this year, my heart was so full. I thought of how lucky I am to call these great people MY FAMILY.

One Perfect Day

Stephanie gave a great lesson in Relief Society yesterday. It was about tuning out the world and tuning in your family. I was sitting there thinking about what we could do to tune in more to our family. I came up with no-screen Sundays. This means on Sunday, we will not watch movies or tv. There will be no blog checking or spider solitare. No playstation. Just us. I made my family a nice brunch and then I proposed this crazy scheme. Probably lots of people all ready do this. I must say that my favorite thing to do on Sunday is pile everyone on our bed and watch a movie together. So this plan is going to be hard for me. Also, I can't go to sleep at night without listening to a movie. I think I must have some sleep disorder. If the tv isn't on, my mind will not go to sleep. I just keep thinking and planning and worrying about silly things. With the tv on, I am out in less than 5 minutes. So back to our day. Everyone somewhat reluctantly agreed. We played Quiddler and I laughed so hard my ribs hurt and tears were running down my face. Then Emily suggested the Corn on the Cob game. After a bit of investigating, we realized she was talking about Pit. So we played a few rounds of that game. We did a small family service project. I put curlers in both of the girls hair. Michael read his new fishing magazine and had a nap. We all went to bed at a reasonable time. And I even went to sleep to the sweet sounds of Norah Jones. Now I am not so delusional to think that every Sunday will be like this. But it was One Perfect Day.