January Happenings

To start off the new year, we were diligent in taking down all the Christmas decorations and attacking the Garage.   The kids went through their saved art and edited their belongings as well.  We threw away two garbage bags full of school papers, reports and art that the kids had wanted to save.

I gave away and condensed a lot our garage possessions and organized my she shed.  

It's so nice to know where all our storage is and be able to access it easily.

Flower by an 8 year old Tim

A side note: Tim is nearly done with braces.  (Mind the gap)  The ortho said that all they have to do now is finish off closing up the gaps in his teeth.  I thought the gap in front was just part of his genetics and would stay, but they assurred me it would close up soon.  I'm excited for him to be almost done!

3rd grade Tim

Watercolor by 6 year old Aaron

Dinosaur pre-school picture by 5 year old Aaron

While I held down the fort and organized the garage/shed, Scott went on his first work travel Conference in two years to San Diego.  

Of course Scott positioned himself in the least visible spot (the back right)

His professor, Tony Waas, from U of Michigan got an award 

and had a gathering afterwards for alumni who had worked with him.

The hotel.  Scott said next time he hopes to reserve his room earlier to get a room in the conference hotel.   He had to walk quite a lot back and forth from his hotel to the conference, but he said the hotel was in a really "hip" part of town with lots of outdoor cafe's and fun nooks.

We had our first big snow and the kids got a REAL snow day with NO virtual learning!  

They enjoyed being outside and getting to drink cocoa and watch a movie.

Before.....

I went to the open house for Campbell farm, just a few minutes from our house.

No one at home wanted to go, and they missed out on a cool tour and delicious refreshments.  I enjoyed some adult conversations and treats.

......After! 

They added a beautiful covered porch, and are keeping the charming while updating everything to modern convenience.

We have had several good ice skating days this month.  The ice is perfect right now.  Once we get another big snow, we'll have to shovel to find the ice again, but for right now, it's all perfect for skating!

I was motivated to learn and read and improve my yoga teaching this month and read a lot of different literature.  I learned more about breath, functional awareness and was reminded of poses I don't use as often, etc.    One tip: Nose breathing is much healthier than mouth breathing.  I knew this already, but it solidified my resolve to breath more through my nose during yoga, and to train my night breathing as well.

"Nothing Much Happens" is a great read for anyone who wants something soothing to read to get you to ready to sleep.  It's much better than I expected and certainly had the right effect!  It's also available on podcast.

I also read "Lincoln's sisters" a historical fiction with lots of truth about Abraham Lincoln's wife and sisters, and "Christmas Bells" with lots of history about Longfellow, the poet.  

It was really interesting and I learned a lot about the era.  Longfellow lived in Cambridge and is buried in Auburn Cemetery with his two wives.  I would love to go visit their graves now.

Aaron getting on an early morning bus to school.

My first Amaryllis bloom (from Lisa).  

I ended up with 4 blooms at once!

Making a volcano at Paribo's house

Her mom has a lot in common with us!  She teaches yoga at the studio with me and she and her husband who graduated from U of Michigan in Engineering!

Ollie thought of an interesting way to eat his English Muffin

Cora Jane 

age 8

Tim's First Lego League teachers and his teammate Daniel.

They came away with 2nd place in the state of NH for their Innovation project on Nanofibers.

Very exciting!

I got to pull out the XC skis for the first time this season and ski around around Mack's applies and near the Rail trail, first with Tim and Aaron and the next day with three girl friends.  It was icy, but manageable skiing.   We need to practice for our hut to hut ski trip next month in Maine!

A pandemic update: COVID cases have been the highest they've ever been since 2020 this month. 

Somehow we've been able to avoid COVID the last two years, however, testing for every cough or belly ache is part of life these days.  

We are grateful that Scott, myself, Tim and Aaron have been able to get fully vaccinated and get boosters.  Cora has had her 2 vaccines and Oliver will be able to get his starting next month after his birthday.    

We had a long break feeling that we could unmask, however, we have again continued to mask at school, at church, and in public again as cases are so high.  We look forward to summer when we will likely be able to unmask again and have some normalcy.

Ashton Woods in Winter

 

On Frustration and Hard Work

Today and yesterday we did a lot of clean up and chores.  I heard things like...

"It's not fair."  

"I need to take a break."

"Why can't we just watch a show and do the work later?" 

In my cleanup......I came across a list of very good quotes from church leaders that I received years and years ago. They are quotes that deal with frustration and living a life with our imperfections and weakness, and how to come to terms with living in a world as imperfect people with other imperfect people.

I'd like my kids to know that our blog journal is full of happy pictures, because we love to remember the highlights of each month.  However, the day-to-day is full of hard work, boring work and tedious tasks that challenge us.  That is normal, and though it's not fun, it's certainly necessary in order for us to enjoy those highlights, to prepare for the future, and fulfill our duties and obligations to others in the present.

We can all get frustrated with life and the mundane and difficult tasks we have to face each day.  It's important to know who we are, whose we are, and to know our very purpose.

DEAL L LARSEN (1986, "The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom")

"Some of us create such a complexity of expectations for ourselves that it is difficult to cope with the magnitude of them....when this compulsion is intensified by sources outside ourselves, the problem is compounded.  Everyone needs to feel successful and worthy in some ways at least part of the time.
Overzealousness is at least as much to be feared as apathy.  Trying to measure up to too many particular expectations without some sense of self-tolerance can cause spiritual and emotional "burn-out."

"Displaying our humanness does not count against us."

BRIGHAM YOUNG, 31 Aug 1854, 37, Deseret News Weekly

"We all occupy diversified stations in the world, and in the kingdom of God.  Those who do right, and seek the glory of the Father in heaven , whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect....Be as perfect as ye can, for that is all we can do." 

BRUCE R. McCONKIE, The Probationary Test of Mortality pp 11-13 

"You don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved. You don't."  I'm not saying that you don't have to keep the commandments.  I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved.  If you did, no one would be saved.  What you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path - thus charting a course leading to eternal life - and then, being on that path, pass out of this life in full fellowship.  This life is the time that is given to prepare for eternity."

"What you have to do is.....live as upright and decent people...keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in the organizations of the church, loving the Lord, staying on the straight and narrow path....for all intents and purposes, your calling and election is made sure."

BOYD K PACKER, That all May Be Edified, 94

"We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification.  We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems.  We are indoctrinated that somehow we should always be instantly emotionally comfortable.  When that is not so, some become anxious.   It was meant to be that life would be a challenge.  To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment even some failure is normal. Teach our members that if they have a good miserable day every once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them.  Things will straighten out.  There is great purpose in our struggle in life."

D. W. J. MARSH, BYU Devotional Speeches, March 14, 1989

"Perfection is not something we "do" in this life - it is something we become in the next.  It is to become more like Christ, more kind, more compassionate, more caring.  Here we lay the foundation.  In the next life, we put on the capstone.  But Christ is always the cornerstone.  Perfection is not manifest in outward appearances, but in the quiet, almost imperceptible changes of the heart."

NEAL A MAXWELL, Not My Will, p 127

There is a difference between stumbling along the pathway to perfection even as we display our humanness, and wandering about aimlessly in a desert of despair and disbelief."  

GORDAN B HINKLEY, 1990, 2002

"I certainly make no pretense of being perfect, nor do any of my brethren.  There was only one perfect man who ever walked the earth.  The Lord has used imperfect people in the process of building His perfect society.  If some of them occasionally stumble, of if their characters may have been slightly flawed in one way or another, the wonder is the greater that they accomplished so much."

"Follow the Sound of My Voice"

artwork by House of Maria

CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Bethlehem Dinner

Scott's done a great job shopping for, setting up and preparing this meal each year for the last 4 years.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

With freezing rain on Christmas Morning, there was ice coating everything!  The trees, the roads the walkways.  It was beautiful, but treacherous.  Many families postponed their Christmas gatherings to the next day.

Our traditional Egg Casserole

Opening Gifts

Second Breakfast was baked French Toast

Cora enjoyed taking many photos with her new Instax (Poloroid)

Instant printing camera.

Sunday after the Christmas program

Monday - Visiting Jordan's Christmas village.

Ollie and Tim

Cora and Aaron

We played Racing Reindeer.

We passed on the 3D movies (crazy lines) and the fake ice skating and sledding.  

They looked pretty bad.

After, we went to IKEA for dinner, which TOOK forever!

Good food though!

Then.......the sickness began.

Luckly, negative tests for COVID, but there were some runny noses, sinus pressure, chills and coughs.  Everyone is well now, baring a slight nightly cough.

However, it meant that we did essentially only "at home play" for all of the Christmas Break.