Snow, frost, ice

The kids are home again today!  The high today is -4˚.  It's really fun to have them, but my schedule gets a little messed up.

I seriously can't think of much that we've done here for the past week.  It has been super cold!!!!  So school was cancelled last Tuesday and Unit 5 was cancelled on Thursday, but we weren't.  I tried to stay inside as much as possible.  Archie started coughing a lot in the night I guess last Wednesday, so I didn't want to take him out, but then Friday I had a lot to do so we kept having to brave the unbearable wind!  That night we had the Elders over for dinner and Archie sat at the table not eating anything and his cheeks and ear getting redder and redder!  I went over to feel his forehead and he had a high fever!  I put him down early, but it stayed all night.  In the morning it was a little better, but we were planning on going to Nauvoo and didn't know whether we still should or not.  Lexi is pregnant!  She has little Lachlan who is totally adorable.  He just turned one in November and then she found out that she will having twins in July!  She'll have three kids under 17 months old!!!!!  And the Stouts are moving to Korea on February 13th.  Anyway, I didn't want to get the baby, the pregnant lady, or the soon-to-be traveling family sick.  Oh, Lexi is there because she is going to live there while her parents are gone for two years.  Okay. So I called them and they told me to pray about it and we decided to go anyway.  Archie slept the whole way down, dad and Brock went to the 3:00 session; Julie, Lexi, and I did initiatories at 4:00 and then we all had dinner together.  It was fun.  And the weather was in the 30's so probably one of the nicest days to visit.

Stacie put me in touch with a photographer here in town who is doing a project called "unearthed."  She is scheduled to come here to take my picture on Thursday, but just sent an email yesterday with what she wanted.  She wants me without any make-up or hair done, wearing a white tee shirt and black yoga pants.  It terrifies me!  I don't wear that much make-up, but a little concealer makes me feel so much better!  And I don't know if she has ever been overweight or not (we still haven't met), but a white tee shirt is probably the least flattering thing I could think of to wear right now!  I am so insecure and I don't want to do it at all!  I was complaining to Matthew yesterday about how ugly I am.   What do you think he should have said?  How about, "Well, I think you're pretty!"  But no, he didn't.  He asked if I could get out of it.  He never says I'm pretty.  It was shocking to me, but it shouldn't have been.  I didn't realize and it will just take me a bit to adjust, but for now I'm a little bit mad at him, but can't really tell him why.  I can't stop crying about it.  Oh, and surprise surprise -- I'm having my period.  I hate hormones.  And devils that whisper nonsense in my ears.

Piano Recital, Serendipity

So I had my first major birthing class drama with a couple that did not like the way I was doing things, haha!  She had had a friend who took the class and in her class they had done a relaxation practice every single week and I don't do real practice in class until class 5.  It's not in my class outlines and we didn't do it that way in the class that I took before Charles was born so it never really even occurred to me.  So this couple started taking classes a little late in their pregnancy and barely had time to finish up the whole series and then we had Christmas and then the next week we were sick so I cancelled class again. So the next week was their third time coming, but I was trying to catch up and we did class 4 and part of class 5.  I was really trying to accommodate them!  So once again, we hadn't done a practice and I said that we were going to start the next class with a 30 minute practice -- they were so annoyed!  And they told me that they didn't really know how to practice relaxation at home since we hadn't done it in class.  I just think that is stupid!  Have they heard of the internet?  Just look up relaxation exercises!  Plus, we have some in the book for every week that I read out loud and then they're supposed to do all week.   Go home and do it!  I did it before the internet and look how that turned out!  But, as they were talking, she said that she had found out that she was showing signs of maybe coming early so I'm sure she was just stressed out!  And in the end, I was kind of relieved that they just decided to quit the class (they didn't know what they were going to do, but seemed relieved when I offered a refund) because they were seriously sending off a negative vibe!  Which wouldn't be good for the other three couples.  My first instinct was to be totally offended and upset, but I was very nice to them and they appreciated that.  I might just be growing up, aaah.  I also decided to learn from the experience and will now do short relaxation practice starting from class 1.  Learn from trials and try to do better, right?
 
 I started doing the Artist's Way -- a sort of program to rev up one's creativity.   I'm doing it with Cherrie, Fara, Joy, and Rebecca.  We have a facebook group and hopefully it will be good.  It lasts 12 weeks and each week there are tasks to do and every morning you're supposed to write three pages of stream of consciousness.  I was nervous about that, but it hasn't been too bad.  It helps that my brain has a constant commentary marching through.  Anyway, this week I had so many ideas percolating in my brain -- it was really great!  I was rethinking my children's book that I started writing in France.  Did I mention that serendipitous thing?  Ever since we got back from France I have been searching everywhere for my little black notebook!  And I was never really losing hope.  Every time we go on a trip I would re-look in all of the suitcases hidden pockets still hoping the book would be there!  Every time I get out a box in the basement, I'm just sure it will be there!  I have cleaned out my cupboard multiple times since then, but I was still sure that it had to be in the house somewhere!  Well, on Christmas Eve, when the Thayn's were here, we were having so much fun singing songs that we got out these old songbooks that we had gotten free from the church.  They were in the messy cupboard where we keep the hymnbooks.  Moving those red songbooks made everything fall over, so later, while Dad and Charles were trying to set up the  Christmas presents, I decided to reorganize that cupboard.  First I found an unopened French hymnbook and then right behind that was my little black notebook!  It has been four years!!!! Can you believe that?  I was so excited!  I have tried to sit down and rewrite my little story, but it was totally blocked.  I couldn't even write one little sentence!  So this was really a blessing and I've been thinking about writing a whole series about little kids who move to different countries and the strange new customs that they find there.  And then in the back could be a list of simple vocabulary words, etc.  I was also thinking of either doing travel books or a webpage of traveling with children.  And then we just might have to travel more places, right?  Oh, the possibilities!   So it is fun to be thinking and planning, but the next step is the actual doing.  Hmmm, that is always the kicker.

I finished another Korean drama that was so good!   It was about a doctor who gets kidnapped back in time to the year 1350 so it was so fun to be discovering ancient Korea with her and then the things they thought were strange about her.  And the romance part was really sweet.  I think in about the 17th episode he held her hand, aaaah.  They are so clean and sweet.  Everyone here thinks I've gone crazy, though.  I never used to watch t.v. in the middle of the day.  It's a bad habit.

Yesterday was the girls' piano recital.  Charles favorite day of the year, woohoo!  He promptly fell asleep and then we were wrestling with Phin and Archie for the entire 90 minutes.  It is a little bit painful, but not so bad.  Poor Ibby was super nervous and had a pained expression on her face the whole time.  Lucy was the star of the show and played her pieces last.  When she started playing, Phin looked at me and said, "This is so beautiful!  Mom!  Have you ever heard this song before?"  Matthew and I were cracking up (quietly, of course)!  She plays that song like 10 times a day!!!!  Was it really completely new to Phin?  Hahaha!  After the recital we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  Matthew had gone upstairs to change Archie's diaper and I was in the kitchen and I hear one of the missionaries scream and then everyone was laughing so hard!  I ran into the dining room and Phin had stuck a marble way down into her rice!  I said, "Phin!  You can't do that!"  So he proceeded to stick his fingers in her rice again and try to dig it back out!  Oh my goodness!  So I yelled again, "Phin!  Just stop touching her food!!!!"  She was laughing so hard and said it was the funniest thing that had happened on her mission so far!  Later, they were talking with us and Phin wouldn't come in so we said, "They're going to show us a video."  He went and got that green velvet stool and parked himself right at her feet, but then when she started talking, he stood up abruptly  and said in a disgusted voice, "This isn't a video!"  And stomped out of the living room!  Oh my.  We are THAT family.  We tried to excuse the boys by chalking it up to having to sit through church and the recital.  They just were not having any more of controlled behavior.

I had better go.  The kids don't have school for MLK day and I hear crashing noises upstairs!

Dating, schmating

We had a very nice last week of Christmas break.  Except that Archie got sick on Christmas Eve.  He woke up in the night throwing up so we had to call off all of our plans.  We were going to go to the Clark's for a murder mystery dinner and then the kids were going to get together with all of their kids and the Johnson's kids, but I knew that none of them wanted to get sick so we were all quarantined at home.  Sure enough, a few days later Phin got it, too and the rest of just kind of stopped eating in defeat.  I don't know for sure if I got it, but Matthew told me that if I hadn't eaten for two whole days and never felt hungry, I probably had something.  True!  Overall, I just felt like it was completely unfair because we just had a stomach bug at Thanksgiving for heaven's sake!!!!  Once every two or three years is okay, but four weeks???  Anyways, then it was just really cold so we just stayed all snug in the house.  I loved it, actually!  Have a turned into a homebody?  We did puzzles, played games, and watched a lot of t.v.  When Charles came home from school last Wednesday he said, "Where's the t.v.?  I am having withdrawals!"  It is obviously a very addictive device, as you well know (smiley face, smiley face).

As I mentioned earlier, I'm teaching Charles' Sunday school class.  Sometimes I just feel like the lessons don't go well at all!  And I'm sure it is my guilt of not doing well at those things.  The new curriculum is also very difficult.  There are no manuals, just vague topics and you are supposed to teach by the spirit.  That is great in theory, but hard when the kids are either in lala land or talking up a storm.   So the lessons on sharing the gospel (I'm not good at that) and being a good teacher (I'm not good at that) didn't go so well, but this last week was about listening to the Holy Ghost and I love the Holy Ghost!  So the lesson went much better because I could use examples from my life where I felt promptings, or peace, or warnings, etc.  It is much easier to bear testimony of something that we're actually doing a little bit right.

Last night, Matthew and I were on a panel for Standards Night.  I was so nervous that I was going to get questions about rated R movies (ummm, sometimes?) modesty (it's subjective?) awkwardness (I don't want to talk about porn, thank you), but it turned out to be about relationships -- finding the right one, dating, having Christ in your relationship... I was sure relieved that we love each other or that would have been uncomfortable, right?  There were three other couples and it turned out well.  Matthew just said the most perfect things!  I am so glad that he's always tuned into the spirit and says things that just resonate, you know?  One other guy talked about how he dated so much!  And he was so popular!  And that's how he narrowed it down!  And they were talking about fun dating ideas, etc.  Then dad stood up and said that it was really okay if you don't date and it made everyone so happy.  Whew!  Another buggy things was that one of the women said that she had been told at BYU I that any two righteous people could be married and make it work.  Gag!  I understand where that is coming from:  don't be too picky, once you are married try to make it work, etc.  But really?  I don't think I could be married to someone who likes to go hunting for weeks on end, plays video games every night, watches football for hours every weekend, hates foreign films, never eats vegetables, loves watching Zombie movies, thinks I'm too liberal... But some women would be fine with that!  And that is great!  Some people and personalities just don't mesh well and you probably shouldn't marry them!  Not to mention that they should smell good to you.  It would just be gross to have sex with someone you aren't attracted to.  So there you have it.  You will be happy to hear that I didn't stand up and yell that to everyone.  I kept it bottled up inside -- until now.

Christmas Fun!

We had a very nice Christmas, and as usual I am thoroughly enjoying having everyone home.  Archie hasn't bothered me once today at all!  Ibby and Phin are keeping him completely occupied.  We've been casually working on a puzzle for the past week and then people run off and play with new toys, or sneak to a quiet corner to read a book. 

 Matthew and I are starting a diet today, instead of waiting for the requisite New Year's Day resolution kickoff, since we feel disgusting after being gluttonous for too long.  I bought all kinds of appetizers that looked appealing at Sam's Club so we're feeling a little bit post-cruisy if you know what I mean.  We've been invited to a party on New Year's Eve so we're going to take that evening off, but otherwise we are going to do a full 30 day detox and see how we feel.  With eating too much junk and I've also finally weaned that big baby (sad), I've gained almost 15 pounds in the last couple of months!  I wish I didn't have to worry so much about my weight, or that I naturally didn't enjoy eating quite so much, but it is my trial in life -- and there are much worse ones, right?

We couldn't decide what to get for Charles for Christmas so we decided to take a little jaunt up to Chicago and let him choose the itinerary.  We kept checking on weather.com to see when it wouldn't be ridiculously freezing and horrible up there and we decided on last Friday and Saturday.  Initially it had said that it would be in the upper 20's and lower 30's, but that would still be better than any day the rest of Winter break so we went for it and it ended up being absolutely gorgeous!  Friday was around 40˚ and Saturday the sun was shining and it got up to 45˚ I think!  Charles decided to look up offbeat places to visit and we had a great time -- by far our favorite trip to Chicago yet!  On Friday we left a little late, but got up there around lunchtime.  We stopped at a little Polish diner and had borscht, goulash, and lots of other things that included sausage, potatoes, and cabbage.  Our next stop was the Vietnam Vets Art Museum and it was really great!  Oh my, the emotion, though!  Young boys sent off to a foreign jungle and deposited in what was basically hell.  War is so horrible!  Anyway, both of those places were tiny hole in the wall type locations that you would totally just pass by if you didn't know about them.  The museum especially!  We stopped because the GPS told us we had arrived, but we couldn't see anything anywhere!  So we got out and started walking around, but it turned out we were parked right in front of it!  Charles had a church on the list next, but I suggested that we go to the Sears Tower since we had never been up it before.  So we drove over there, parked, walked into the building, but the line was so long and tickets were so expensive we passed on that and drove over to H&M.  Dad stayed in the car with the little boys and soon texted me that he couldn't find his wallet!  We looked everywhere, but it never showed up so we've had to cancel our credit cards, etc.  He also had quite a bit of cash and some gift cards that we had bought ourselves to go out to eat.  Total bummer!  And I blame myself for bringing on bad karma once we veered from Charles' prescribed plan.  We had dinner at Giordano's and then went to a hotel.  It took them two hours to get our keys to work and bedding for the hide-a-beds so I was quite frustrated with the little boys not being able to go to bed.  The girls went swimming.  Saturday morning, Matthew and I woke up early and went to the temple.  He had called the bishop the night before to ask if we could call him early to talk to the temple president (since he had also lost his temple recommend with the wallet).  The session started at 7 -- we had arrived around 6:25 -- but Matthew didn't get in until 6:58.  They were a little grumpy in the dressing room, but I made sure they didn't close the doors and he made it!  It was very nice to spend time there and we chatted in the Celestial room for a while.  We had thought there would be breakfast at the hotel.  It did say hot breakfast, but we missed the not complimentary part.  So we stopped at McDonald's and then went to the next spot on Charles' to do list which was a thrift store called the Brown Elephant.  He didn't find anything, but I found the most amazing painting!  It is just a floral still life, but I swear I've been looking for one like it for years!  I always see great art from thrift stores in magazines, but I never see anything I like at Goodwill or even Estate Sales, so that was very exciting for me. 

His next choice was a book store called "Bookman's Corner" and he hoped, hoped, hoped that it would have a ladder!  He wanted to climb up it and find the perfect old book, but alas!  It was closed!  I should've taken a picture of it because it was so amazing!  It had front windows that were full of toppling piles of books -- like they were mountains of garbage!  I was a little relieved that it wasn't open because I wouldn't have been surprised to see rats in there!  Next we drove over to a street that is famous for being a mecca for Indians.  Charles was really hoping there would be elephants wandering the streets and mosques calling people to prayer, but I'm sure that you can guess that once again he was in for disappointment.  There were tons of interesting shops -- hundreds of stores selling gorgeously beaded sari among them.  We wandered around a bit then had a spicy curry lunch.  Last, we drove over to Chinatown, bought some food at a very Japanese-y bakery, found some fun souvenirs, and learned more about k-pop!  

We drove home and arrived around 7 p.m. so that was nice to not have a late night. 

Love only requires one skill

This week has been better than last week, I suppose.  We whizzed through the stomach flu, but everyone has colds so no one feels very good.  Archie has some strange illness that I can't figure out.  He gets a fever in the afternoon and evening, but then it goes away without any medicine.  He just wants to sit in my lap so I watched an entire series, 16 hour long episodes, of another Korean drama.  It was so good!!!  But I felt very guilty about watching t.v. during the day.  I don't normally do that.

I'm teaching Charles' Sunday School class now and so I've taught two times so far.  They are a rough crowd!  They're either talking loudly and hitting each other or when I finally get their attention and ask a question they're all staring at me blankly.  Hello???  And there is a new curriculum that is very vague and strange because you're supposed to teach by the spirit.  I think the concept of teaching by the spirit is a good one, but a little direction would be so helpful for me -- especially because I have a hard time thinking on my feet.  I can have a conversation with someone for hours, but if I'm just standing up in front of people my mind goes blank and I'm barely coherent.  It's sad.  So there is a list of topics to choose from and the one I chose for yesterday was "Serving in the Church."  There are some great conference talks about that and a story from the Ensign this month so I was reading them things and asking questions.  At the end I gave them a plastic spoon with this story:

One day a man said to God, “God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.

God showed the man two doors. Inside the first one, in the middle of the room, was a large round table with a large pot of stew. It smelled delicious and made the man’s mouth water, but the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles and each found it possible to {mosimage}reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, "You have seen Hell."

Behind the second door, the room appeared exactly the same. There was the large round table with the large pot of wonderful stew that made the man's mouth water. The people had the same long-handled spoons, but they were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The man said, "I don't understand."

God smiled. “It is simple,” He said, “Love only requires one skill. These people learned early to feed one another. Those who are hungry are greedy people, and they think only of themselves.

But then the girls were flipping each other with the spoons!  I swear they are worse than the Sunbeams who at least are a little cowed by authority, sheesh!  But I just smiled, it really wasn't bothering me that much, and I loved that concept of just loving other people.  I've been thinking a lot about the scripture Moroni 7: 47-48 -- Charity doesn't come naturally to everyone so like other gifts, we have to pray for it.  I'm going to try to pray for it every day. 

Thanks a lot!

We had an absolutely memorable Thanksgiving.  It started with Phin throwing up on Wednesday afternoon around 5 p.m.  I had just gotten back from seeing the second Hunger Games movie with Lucy and was trying to get everyone to clean up the house a little bit.  Phin wasn't doing anything and was just laying on the floor.  I thought he was just being lazy, but then he said "I feel like I'm going to throw up and I'm serious!"  So I told him to go throw up then and he did -- halfway to the bathroom, grrr.  So I cancelled our plans with the Thayn's.  He was sick until halfway through the next day, but then we were all feeling pretty good for our actual Thanksgiving dinner.  By that night Dad wasn't feeling well and at 1 in the morning Archie started puking.  He was every 30 minutes or so with us having to change all of his clothes and bedding every time then Ibby started at 3 with not quite making it down the attic stairs... that carpet did not look pretty.  By the next day Charles wasn't feeling very well either.  Around noon Phin comes upstairs and asks why water is coming down through the dining room light.  I run down there and the chandelier looks like a fountain!  Quite pretty, I suppose, but worrisome!  We call a plumber, but no one can come for a while since it is a holiday.  When he comes he says that something broke in the tub above (and they were over here fixing that all morning -- $700 we weren't planning on spending).  Then Lucy got sick Friday night and I was throwing up all day on Saturday so Dad's birthday was kind of a bust.  We celebrated yesterday, but everyone's tummies were still a little sensitive.  We have tons of leftovers since I still made everything and we didn't share nor did we eat very much.  How do you like that appetizing tale?

Hipster Sunday School

Hellooooo!  It is Janis' birthday today so sing her a little song in your heart.  I was released from the Primary Presidency a couple of weeks ago and now I'm going to be Charles' Sunday School teacher!  I am a little nervous, but excited, too.  Matthew is now the executive sec. again  and he told me that they called me because I'm so hip and cool and they just want the kids to have fun in that class.  Then the other kids told Charles that they all think I'm really nice.  Those were compliments that made me feel good, but made Charles and Lucy laugh so hard!!!  Charles told them to not make me mad and Lucy told me that if thinking I was cool helped me sleep at night then I could go on believing that. 

I have been walking at the mall with Clare since it has gotten so cold and then I sometimes find myself at Old Navy when it opens... so I went in today and there was Trent Windsor working there!  He was very friendly and  is leaving for Mesa, AZ on Dec. 18.  Ben Bakaitis is in that same mission.