art art art

I absolutely love the artist Brian Kershishnik.  I still remember encountering his painting of the nativity in April of 2007 at an exhibit at the BYU museum of art.  They have since acquired the original for their permanent collection and it is exquisite!  Matthew and I talked about getting our own print, but we spent years trying to decide which size would be best.  This past year for our anniversary we finally bit the bullet and then a few months later we also bought a print called "Climbing Mother."  I kind of wish we'd gotten the next size up for the Nativity, but oh well!  We finally just had them both framed and I think they look quite nice in our living room -- the colors fit right in with the rest of my favorite things.  

Piano Recital

It is gray and snowy here today.  And I am soooooo tired!  I've been getting up at 5:45 to take Lucy to seminary and it is wearing on me.  And even if I am tired all day, I am rarely tired at night.  My hormones are all out of whack!  So I can't go to sleep very early and the cycle starts again the next day. 

Yesterday the girls had their piano recital and Matthew joined Lucy for a duet!  It was really fun and was the last piece of the recital.  It was a hit!  And Lucy played a lovely Debussy piece right before that and did really well.  If she just put her mind to it, she could be really really good!  But she keeps talking about quitting piano lessons.  I know that she doesn't necessarily want to become a concert pianist, but she could at least study it in college and teach piano to other people.  How nice would it be to have a natural talent like that?  Ibby did really well, too, but she gets so nervous!  She just hates recitals so much!  I could see the dread on her face the entire time!  Poor Ibby.  The boys were really good, but towards the end, Archie was whispering loudly about how long it was taking and when I said there were only two more people, Phin practically shouted, Yay!   And then promptly assured me that it was his crocodile saying yay, not him.  Andrea Ringer came because she is the YW pres. and super nice.  And Rachelle Simpson came because she is thinking of having her girls take lessons from Pam.  She is also the Primary Pres.  Matthew told them that if he hadn't been at the ward council meeting he might suspect that our family was some sort of project, haha!  It looked that way for sure.

There really isn't much going on here.  Lucy has had some friends over to watch movies a couple of times.  I guess rearranging the basement really made a difference!  So that is fun to have fun and laughter going on.  I've been drawing and crocheting.  I'm almost done with Phin's blanket.  It is funny how they're turning out to be all different sizes.  Ella's and Ibby's are more lap blankets, but Phin's and Charles' are humongous!!!  I just finished the 108th square for Phin's and need to start binding them together today.

how we school

The boys have been loving playing with their trains and it must be good for their brains to be concocting all of the track layouts, right?  And even though it is winter, I've been trying to make sure that they go outside at least once a day.

This pic is dark, but comes with sound effects

I've been trying to do a drawing a day, so here are a couple of them

Sunday Speculation -- yoga at church

A couple of weeks ago in church I was so restless.  And so so cold.  Why?  Why must church buildings always be kept at such a frigid temperature?  Is it a symptom of the male-centric position taken in other parts of the institution that only those wearing a three piece suit are catered to?  There are women with bare legs and babies -- babies, people!  So after sitting through Sacrament meeting there I was, sitting once again, in Sunday School.  It has been years since I haven't had a calling second hour so I'm not used to having to sit in one place for that long.  And my knees were bouncing up and down, attempting to create some semblance of warmth in the freezing tundra that is the relief society room.  I look around and see that everyone else seems to be sitting still and calmly, but then I see her -- my kindred spirit!  She's moving and contorting her body in all the ways that my body is yearning to and I watch her, fascinated, as she moves through one yoga pose after another.  She starts with a little downward dog to get things loosened up and then some squats, mmm that must feel nice.  Then she curls up into child pose for a while -- efficiently stretching and keeping warm!  Then she turns over for a perfect example of happy baby, waving her legs in the air whilst holding onto her little toes.  Perfect, because, of course, she is a baby and has license to behave in that manner in public!  I, however, do not and was left there to simply watch with envy.  And then to start imagining... everyone in the room just getting up and moving in every which way they felt compelled.  Listening to their inner voice, responding to the physical and spiritual prodding that one can only hear when the logical mind is turned off.  Ha!  It would be delightful!  And the imagery of all of the old and/or fat fuddy duddies jumping up and doing yoga poses got me through another hour of Sunday School, yay!

The End of an Era

So last night at dinner, an earnest six year old boy looked up at me across the table and seriously asked, "Is Santa Claus still alive?" I put down my fork and gave him a long look because, well, he's six! With everyone else chattering on around us, I finally just shook my head very slowly back and forth. His face fell and with a shaky, but brave, voice he quietly whispered, "I thought so."

grumpy granny

It has gotten hot and humid here.  Really just in the last couple of days.  It has actually been so pleasant around these parts which is pretty unusual.  We had Charles' graduation party this past Saturday.  He did it with Sam out at his grandparents' cabin at Lake Bloomington.  I had never been to that lake and I've lived here for 11 years!  Isn't that crazy?  The cabin was very nice and they had a little speed boat for people to go tubing and a bigger pontoon boat for a cruise around the lake.  A lot of their friends came, but the only people who came from the ward were Jordan and Justin Myers and then I called the McLaughlin's and told them to come because their kids would love the boats, etc. so they came, too.  But we had invited tons of people.  I didn't feel too bad, but I did a little teeny bit because I have been to so many people's freaking graduation parties!!!!  But we're never first choice.  We're friendly and likable, but not popular, right?  It's a family characteristic.  So we had loads of food leftover.  And we had a lot of fun!  We were there from about 1-6 and everyone was happy and entertained the whole time.  I had never even met Sam's parents, but they were really nice.

I had more drama with Fara, but we're okay now.  And my period started.  I guess I have really bad pms.  I just need to be more aware of that and not take any of my thoughts seriously for a couple of weeks out of every month.  And people should be nice to me.  We did agree that she was a little rude and that I was sadder than I should've been about it.  We love each other -- a lot.   And she's gone now.

I guess nothing else is really happening.  I'm trying to remember to study Spanish, but I keep forgetting.  We're going to be staying in people's houses in Guatemala so it would be nicer if I could talk to them a little bit.

Oh, I just finished my first afghan!  It is a Granny Stripe and I got the pattern from Attic 24  and I think it turned out pretty well for my first project.  It is going to be for Lulu.

moody mooderson

Abe is chillin' on the couch playing with Sophie the giraffe, but who knows how long that will last? 
I'm trying to think if anything interesting or exciting happened this week... Hmmm.  Fara is here visiting, but mostly visiting her mom, which is completely understandable, but when she was down here last Tuesday and Wednesday, she hung out with us for about three hours on Tuesday afternoon and then said she would text me in the morning with what she was going to do that day.  She was staying at Cherrie's house because Cherries has a guest room and we don't, but when she told me that she assured me that she would still see us, but then she never texted me.  All day Wednesday I kept thinking I should go do something, but what if they wanted to play with us?  So we just waited around, which was stupid.  And when I woke up in the morning, I had gotten dressed thinking I would see her, etc.  Around 3:00 I started getting emotional about it, which I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help it and by the time she did call me (around 4:30) I was too upset to meet her because I didn't want her to know I was upset and I couldn't stop crying!  Besides, Ibby and I are doing Celebrate America (the thingy at Miller Park on 4th of July) and we had practice at 5:30 -- a fact I had informed Fara of the day before, so we didn't have time anyway.  Blah!  It was so stupid!  I know Fara likes me and she wasn't purposely trying to hurt my feelings, I was slathering my neck and arms with happy, feel good essential oils, I tried to distract myself, and still I couldn't stop being upset.  Matthew was very nice about it, but I'm sure he thinks I'm crazy.  Around 10 p.m. I was sitting at the kitchen table sobbing and Charles came in from work.  He asked what was wrong with me and Matthew told him that I found out about his secret.  He stopped and his jaw dropped, his arms went up, what???  I started laughing so hard and couldn't stop -- it was hilarious!  And finally broke my silly mood.  So then I saw her on Thursday morning and she never knew.  Yay!

On Saturday night I went to a baby shower and was talking to Melissa McLauglin telling her how much I love all of her clothes.  She said she liked mine, too and we should share.  I mentioned that it was too bad that we are not the same size and Sarah Patten exclaimed that since Melissa is pregnant and her belly is growing that maybe we'll be the same size soon.  What the heck?  I looked right at her and pointed out how rude that was then mentioned to Melissa that now I'm fat on top of being loud.  We're waiting for the next insult so that I can have a trifecta of unfortunate qualities.

I took some pics of the house for a type 1 facebook thing:

 

And a cute bub