Books I read in January 2018

I started and then gave up on about four books this month.  They were either icky or felt like homework or something.  There are so many books to read and I am a library devotee so I can afford to be picky.

These are the ones I actually finished.

I reread this one for book club:

Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel ****

I think I liked it more the second time around.  And most people in my book club didn't like it.  I loved the characters and they thought the characters were weak.  I thought the software company seemed realistic (based on second hand info from Adam working at Amazon) and they all thought it didn't seemed realistic (based on second hand info from wherever their husbands work).

So I guess this is to say, take my recommendations with a grain of salt.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead ****

Braeden gave me this Newbery for Christmas and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's about a girl being raised by her single mother in New York City.  It's a little bit mind bending and a little bit sweet and a whole lot real (even though the mind bending part wasn't real).  Authors like this who can pack so much goodness into a pretty simple story are the best.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer ***

I read this one for book club.  It isn't the genre I prefer and I probably never would have read it because I didn't really like Cinder by the same author.  It wasn't a neat and tidy happy ending sort of story but Adam said I talked to him about it more than most books I read and I also kept reading it in any snatches of free time I had.  So I guess I liked it.

Big announcement!

Last week Marianne called me and I'm always happy to hear from her.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Well..." she paused kind of dramatically, "I guess hurt.  Yes, I'm hurt."

"What happened?" I wondered, feeling sort of concerned, but not all the way concerned because she seemed like she was joking.

"When were you going to tell me about Mark's parts in the play?" she demanded.  "That's a perfect thing you could have put on Marco Polo."

(Marianne is a one woman campaign to get our family to use an app called Marco Polo where you send short videos to each other.)

"I didn't send it on Marco Polo because we didn't have the app yet," I said.  "I think we found out in like November or December."

That didn't help my cause.

"You need to tell me these things," Marianne said.  I offered up a short list of things I had told her.  See?  I tell things.

Yesterday, Marianne commented on my blog (anonymously, because she can't always be bothered to sign in) that she was still waiting for the big announcement.

Marianne, consider this the big announcement.  Mark got a part in the play.  

And we do Marco Polo.  When Mark is in the basement and I want him to come up, I call down the stairs, "Marco!"

And he answers, "Polo!"

And he may or may not come upstairs.  Depends on if he's hungry.  (So he usually comes upstairs.)

*

**

The best part of this story?  Mark has people like Marianne in his life.  How wonderful to be loved enough by someone that she'll reprimand your mother if she's not kept abreast of your life.

Lucky Mark and lucky me that she's my sister.

(And later that day I talked to Olivia and told her about Mark's play.  She's the same kind of aunt and I didn't need both of them mad at me.)

I love to see the temple

source

Saturday our family went to the Provo City Center Temple to perform proxy baptisms.  It was not without its challenges.  We had to talk at some length about a time that worked for everyone.  We had to change the time.  Then we had to delay the time.

But we persevered!

We had some names of very distant relatives that I had found and the names of somewhat closer relatives Geri had found.

There's just something about hearing ordinances performed for a name you found.  There's just something about hearing your son baptize your other son and your daughter on behalf of those people.  It was one of those times when your heart is full.  That is all.

Adam and Braeden confirmed Mark and Emma for the people and that was also wonderful.  We are blessed by temples and priesthood power.

After, they asked us if we wanted to record the names, which is a new thing that patrons can do.  Before that, my job had been handing Emma a towel after she came out of the font so I said an enthusiastic yes to recording.  Emma and I sat down together and scanned and stamped the cards.

Adam said, "You had a big smile on your face while you were doing that."  And I did.

Braeden said, "You just added to a big book in heaven."

...Whatsoever you record on earth shall be recorded in heaven...It may seem to some to be a very bold doctrine that we talk of—a power which records or binds on earth and binds in heaven. Nevertheless, in all ages of the world, whenever the Lord has given a dispensation of the priesthood to any man by actual revelation, or any set of men, this power has always been given. Hence, whatsoever those men did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same, it became a law on earth and in heaven. (D&C 128: 8-9)

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven... (Matthew 16:19)

Grateful Friday

Today I'm grateful for health.

Mark has been sick all week.  Hopefully he'll be well enough to go to school today but I've thought that all week.

Last night Mark said the prayer and prayed that he would be well enough to go to school.  After he said, "I think that's the first time I ever prayed to be able to go to school...."

Fortunately he's a generally healthy kid and while he's been knocked a little flat this week, he'll bounce back.  Our bodies are amazing.

I'm also grateful for medicine.  I've felt a little run down the past few days but have not succumbed to the full blown flu and I credit zinc and the antiviral medicine I take for my eye.  I'm glad I have had Advil and cough medicine and electrolytes for Mark.

We've come a long way from leaches.

Last night we were telling Mark about when Adam had cellulitis.  Mark doesn't remember it although Mark is part of the story for me because while Adam was in the hospital, Mark broke a window at Marianne's house.

Mark said, "I did what?!?"

Life with Mark has always been an adventure.

Adam is still alive (and still has his leg) because of modern medicine.

So today I'm grateful for our usual mode of operation, which is healthy and I'm grateful for medicine for when we're not.

Momming

Braeden needed to go to the doctor.  I said he could either go himself once I got him the new insurance card or I could meet him at the doctor's office.  He opted for me to meet him.  He said, "You know stuff."

So we met at the doctor's office.  The doctor said I looked more like Braeden's sister than his mom.  Later I asked Braeden if he thought that was really true.  Braeden said he thought people were just trying to be nice when they say that.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is why some questions are better left unasked.

The doctor asked Braeden about medicine he was taking and Braeden said, "Nothing else besides Coke Zero."

I don't think the doctor heard him.  If he did, I hope that was when he was pretending to think I was not Braeden's mother....

The doctor asked him where he was going to school.

"BYU."

"Are you dating?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to."

"I sound like your bishop now," the doctor said with a chuckle.  "I used to be a bishop in a BYU ward."

And that, ladies and gentlemen is going to the doctor in Utah County.

It wasn't quite 11:00 AM when we were done.  Braeden wondered if we wanted to go to lunch.

I said, "Isn't it early for lunch?"

He said, "I'm ready for lunch."

And that, ladies and gentlemen could be why he wanted me to meet him at the doctor's office.

I didn't mind a bit though.  Lunch with my entertaining and handsome son is always a welcome treat.

Contentment

Mark has been sick.  Could be he slept/didn't sleep in the falling snow all night last Friday.  (scouts = shaking my head)

If there's one thing I can do though, it's take care of my kids when they're sick.  I bring them a constant supply of juice.  I plug in the humidifier where it is out of danger of being knocked over, out of the way of the TV, and close enough to be effective.  It's very scientific.

For that reason--my self proclaimed knack for tending the sick--I was slightly offended when Mark told me I would make a terrible doctor.

I asked, "Why would I make a terrible doctor?!?"

Mark said, "Because you'd be one of those doctors that overprescribe antibiotics and give out opioids."

I was up to my elbows in the hall closet at the time where we keep the medicine.  I had quizzed him on symptoms and I was coming up with a cocktail of drugs for him.

He makes a fair point.

Adam had a business dinner but I made a big pot of creamy chicken noodle soup for my boy.

Then I put a big container of creamy chicken noodle soup in the fridge.  We'll have leftovers until June.  I forget sometimes that our family is small now.

I also lit some candles.  January means cozy scenes around here.

Mark read me Boys' Life jokes while I cleaned the kitchen.  We don't get the magazine any more; he found them online.  Some of them made me laugh out loud.

The contentment that swirled around me reminded me that life is good.  It isn't perfect.  There are frustrating situations and tiresome people and thwarted plans.  These aren't big problems though.

Maybe one of the blessings of real troubles is recognizing when you aren't really having any.

People

Mark has a joke he likes to tell: A vegan, a bitcoin trader and someone who didn't vote in 2016 all walk into a bar.  Who tells you about it first?

What can you do with people who know everything and can't contain themselves? (Answer:  smile and nod.  Just smile and nod.)

Recently a self-appointed food expert unexpectedly lectured me.  She railed against cornstarch and told me it was basically poison and as bad for you as fluoride.  "Look it up," she said authoritatively.  She told me pudding from a box is of the devil. (I wish I was making this up.)

Another category of people are the conspiracy theorists.  They're the ones who think we need to "wake up" to what is happening.  A different woman warned this week of how dangerous social media is.  We have all this information out there and who knows what's going to become of us?!?

There is an up side though.  For one thing, since there are a million pictures of all of us on the internet, we will avoid the fate of Margaret Mariah Beckstead.  She is my 4th great grandmother and there is one solitary picture of her in the world.

Just one.  And this is it.

See?  Now don't you feel better about your pictures?  I call all those pictures of us out there covering our bases.  Hopefully our 4th great grandchildren will happen upon a good one of us.

(Also, I think if Margaret had had a little fluoride, she may have had some teeth.)

Weekend

In the same incomprehensible way that Mark takes PE classes when it isn't mandated, he chose to go camping with the scouts on Friday night.  It was the 12-13 year old boys who were going but the leader invited Mark and another boy Josh to join them and they went.

But it's January...and you have a bed here....

Didn't matter.  He wanted to go.  I had to make a concerted effort not to project my feelings of foreboding about the endeavor.

Coincidentally, Friday we got our first real snow of the season.

Mark said their tent collapsed three times during the night because of the snow (over a foot and it snowed the entire time).  He seemed to have fun though.  It was a Klondike campout and the boys participated in a sled race.  Mark and Josh were in the front, powering the sled for the littler boys.  This could be why they were invited....

As for Adam and me, we went to dinner in our kidless state on Friday night.  My favorite dates are dinners because I like to just sit across from Adam and talk about all the things.  And eat garlic rosemary fries.

Saturday afternoon Mark came home cold and tired and starving.

Adam made him a big bowl of chili and every little thing was all right.

It was a happy weekend because Adam and I had two dates.  We left Mark to hang out with Jack (our neighbor) and Adam and I had tickets for the Hale Theater on Saturday night.  We saw Dear Ruth which we loved.

Emma was working.  She is the patron saint of our going to the theater.  She gets us the tickets and chooses good seats and then directs us to the seats.  I love watching her work.  She is this serene center of helpful calm and competence.

When Emma saw Dear Ruth at the door meeting, which is where the ushers see the play for the first time, she noticed they pronounced New Haven wrong.  The actor put the emphasis on Haven when it should have been on New.  Emma mentioned it to her friend Rose.  Rose said, "You should tell my mom."

Rose's mom just so happened to be the producer of the show.  I noted with satisfaction that when we watched the show, New Haven was pronounced correctly.  It's where Emma Jayne was born.  She knows how to say it.

Sunday after church and visiting teaching and time spent on a futile search for holes in the Beckstead side of my family history (I want to find unfinished work and I can't and that should be a good thing but it still disappoints me), the kids came over.

They bring noise and laughter and we spend the time talking over each other and cracking each other up.  It's chaotic and fun and I need to plan simpler meals because being together is the thing.

After they left all was calm.  I pulled out my new little white noise machine that I'd ordered.  (Mark has one and I aspire to be like Mark in more ways.)  Mark's favorite sound is ocean waves so he pushed that button and read the scriptures to us with the background of ocean waves.

We were reading in Alma 31 and when Mark read in verse 3

Now the Zoramites had gathered themselves together in a land which they called Antionum, which was east of the land of Zarahemla, which lay nearly bordering upon the seashore...

He paused for effect so we could hear the waves crashing.

Grateful Friday

I hosted book club last night.  Book club is one of my favorite things.  There's just something about getting together with like minded women.  Also, there's something about getting together with sort of diverse women who all like to read.  There are empty nesters, almost empty nesters, mothers with elementary age kids and mothers with newborns.  There's the one who really wants to read vampire books, the one that loves an unhappy ending, the ones who really have good insight about the characters and the ones who are really just there for the food.

I love them all.  I'm grateful they're in my life.

For the book I chose Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel.  Mostly people didn't like it and I predicted that, but there was a lot to discuss (which is what makes a successful book club pick).

In the book one of the characters hung model airplanes from her ceiling.

Mark helped me do the same.

Another character made cheese.  Also, it's set in Seattle so I had a theme to run with.

It was fun and I'm grateful for book club.  I'm one of the old ones in the group and I'm a tiny bit exotic too (I've never been exotic in my life) because I didn't grow up here and marry a boy who grew up here.  Almost all of them went to Pleasant Grove High School back in the day and then they got married and stayed.

I kind of like being the old one too.  When one of the women said her kids were obsessed with cats and she didn't want a pet cat, I said that Emma used to be obsessed with cats too.  I said, "She got over it."  Then I introduced her to Horace, the world's best pet.

I also told another woman not to take her kids to Disneyland until the youngest was six.  The first time we went, Mark was four and I ended up carrying him all day.  And he wasn't light.

That's me, the wise old sage, dispensing cautionary tales about Disneyland.

Delight in simple things

Things that are delighting me:

1) I have fresh herbs in my kitchen window (the top one isn't an herb, it's my crazy medusa like plant that gets a haircut about as often as Mark does)

2) We got our carpet cleaned and these two did all the heavy lifting. (And then Adam moved almost all the furniture back late at night when Mark and I were asleep.  If you want to be happy for the rest of your life marry someone like Adam.)

3) These doves hang out on the tree outside our front window.

4) With all the furniture moving I took the opportunity to clean and sort some things.  I wanted a new way to store my cloth napkins so I asked Pinterest.  In less than 10 seconds, I had my answer, stack them on their sides.  Pinterest is a genius.

5) Even though we've had unseasonably sunny and warm weather, it's dark early and I love candles.  More than that, I love that Mark smelled every candle at Target with me until we landed on the right one.  He's my most patient shopper.  (Which seems contrary to his entire personality, but there it is.)

6) This picture delights me.  Every day.  I wouldn't wish away the ages they are now, but I love those little cherubic faces!

An upside

When Emma started college, she asked me if I was glad she was leaving.  I told her I was happy for her, but sad for me.

She was surprised, "Aren't you glad?!?  Won't your life be easier?"

I said no.  I said, "Other than being happy for you, there is no upside to you going to college."

I have finally decided there is an upside!

Emma's room makes a spectacular greenhouse.  It is situated perfectly to get winter sunlight from late morning until sunset.

I would rather have Emma in that bed than those little seedlings, but I'll take what I can get.

Birthday surprise

Yesterday morning I texted Olivia because it was her birthday.  I knew that she was going to be in the area and I wondered if I'd get to see her.

She texted back that they had time to stop by right then.  Yahoo!

Here's the thing when you stop by our house in the morning in the 8:00 hour.  I will look like I just rolled out of bed (it's not my best look).  And the house may be a little unkempt as well.

None of that matters when it's your little sister though.

The night before when I was (mostly) cleaning up the kitchen, I had thought about Olivia's birthday (it was after all, Olivia Eve) and how she loves chocolate cake with mint frosting just like my January baby does.

Happily when Olivia came over, I had some cake left to give her.  It was a delightful start to my morning to visit with Olivia and Edgar briefly and to be able to hug my sister on her birthday.

You just never know what happy things might occur.

*

* *

Here's something not too surprising.  I got my results back from my DNA test that Adam gave me as a Christmas present.

Turns out I'm white.  There's a reason I get freckles rather than a suntan.

What it's like now

Saturday morning, we met at Kneader's to celebrate Braeden's birthday.  (All you can eat French toast, which for Mark means going back two times.)

I told them about my dream where I was part of the French Resistance in World War II and we were preparing for an attack by the Russians.  My awake self knows that Russia was not France's enemy during WWII but apparently my sleeping self has other ideas.

Emma told us about her recent dream where our family decided to join Mark on a scout campout which was, you know, a cruise for a few months.  In order to save money we were picking the option of not going to any of the ports and not getting any food.  We did however have all the yogurt we could eat.

We stopped at Harmon's on the way home for lemongrass.  I was a first time lemongrass purchaser.  I thought it would be grassy, like chives or something.  It's more like the hard part of the asparagus you cut off and don't use.

While we were there, Mark got a text that he had church basketball games.

So we zipped home for that.

Like church basketball games everywhere, they were forfeited because there weren't enough players. They played anyway, mixing up the teams, and we watched a little.  Mark had fun.  If he's moving, he's having fun.  That's Mark.

We hosted a mini service project at our house, assembling kits to hand out to homeless people.  It was quick and felt like a good way to spend a little time and money.

On something of a whim, Adam and I went to the BYU Women's Basketball game.  We sat behind Braeden and Dillon and Braeden and Dillon make me happy like Mark and Gavin make me happy.  Plus BYU won.

We came home and I cut Adam's hair and baked a cake for the further birthday celebrations happening on Sunday.

On even more of a whim, Adam suggested we go to the movie at Water Gardens.  It is super cheap plus we had a buy one get one free coupon.  They're pretty much paying us to go to the movie!

The three of us quickly made our Vietnamese pork meatballs (why we needed the lemongrass) and they were delicious and then we headed to the movie.

We saw The Post which I loved.  You can't go wrong with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.  I cried a little when Meryl Streep's character was exiting the Supreme Court and walking past a line of admiring young women whose opportunities were opening up because of people like Katharine Graham.

It was a full day but also a relaxing and hassle free day.

The almost empty nest is a happy place.

*

* *

Sunday we celebrated Braeden's birthday some more.  We made seven pizzas (only repeated one type--margherita--because everybody loves that.  My favorite was the one I created with peppers, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella, peppercinis and lots of kalamata olives.  Mark called it my V. I. Pizza.  At the end of the night, he told me there was one V. I. Piece left for me.

And I ate it.

Delicious.

Here's Braeden lighting his candles:

The cake (chocolate with mint frosting--Braeden's favorite) is slightly wonky because that's the only way I know how to make cakes.  Braeden looks exhausted because he's a college kid and has 9:00 church.  He's always exhausted on Sundays.  He's wearing a shirt Adam wore in college and those are the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards he's had since he was six.  Sam brought a box full of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards back from Switzerland and I interrupted the game Mark and Sam and Braeden were playing so we could have cake.

(Sam's cards are in German.  Also he sang Happy Birthday to Braeden in both German and French.)

Grateful Friday

Today I'm grateful for President Thomas S. Monson.  His funeral is today and I'll be watching it and remembering a great man.

When I was growing up, his were always my favorite talks in conference because of the stories he told.  I loved to hear him speak because he entertained me and made me feel warm inside.

As an adult, I have had various real experiences where I have felt the Spirit confirm to me that President Monson was a prophet of God.  I've felt lifted by the words of a prophet and amazed that he seemed to be speaking just to me when he was in reality speaking to everyone.

There are many ways that President Monson has inspired me.  The internet has been littered with quotes by him lately and I've loved that.

One that I've always remembered and appreciated is this:

I aspire to be like that.  I want to be trustworthy and on the Lord's errand.  I'm grateful I get chances to try.

Sometimes the things I'm asked to do are not that hard.  I have the time and the ability.  Sometimes they are hard.  Sometimes I don't want to.  Sometimes I feel like I don't have the time or talent or inclination.

I'm grateful for a prophet of God who has inspired me to be better.  To keep trying.  To be someone who will run those errands.

Birthday boy

Today I have an official adult son.  He's 21.  Every mother says this every birthday her children have, but I need a minute to wrap my head around that.

Somehow he has gone from this...

to this...

...in an astonishing blink of the eye.

The good news is that I enjoy that kid more all the time.

He's celebrating with his friends tonight and we'll mark the occasion this weekend.  But I'm going to lunch with him today.  I missed the last two birthdays and I want to see his face.  Braeden is worth celebrating.

Here is my love letter to my firstborn.  Here are 21 things that I love about Braeden:

1- He is up for anything.

2- He is a dispenser of wisdom that doesn't seem like a kid his age should have.

3- He wants to do the right thing.

4- He's a little boy in a man-sized body.  Seriously.  Or a lab puppy in a man-sized body.

5- He is the first to sign up to help.

6- He knows a lot about the gospel and scriptures.

7- He is a humble receiver of correction.

8- He is funny.  So funny.

9- He makes people feel comfortable.

10- It doesn't matter how many times you tell him, he can't remember where stuff goes in the kitchen.

11- He still enthusiastically empties the dishwasher every time he can, putting stuff in wacky places.

12- He has an insatiable appetite for all things politics.  He wants to discuss.

13- He has a strong work ethic.

14- He has a strong play ethic.

15- He is loyal.

16- He is forgiving.

17- He is able to lift heavy things and reach stuff on the top shelf.

18- He is quick to apologize.

19- He is steady in adversity.

20- He is the big brother everyone wishes they had.

21- I am lucky enough to be his mom.


Happy birthday sweet Braeden.  Thank you for making me a mother 21 years ago today and for forgiving me when I've fallen short and for making me happy and for being you.

Because you are pretty great.

Quiet

It's been rainy here and quiet.  Without Braeden's booming laugh and him crashing around the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher every day, it's quiet.

Emma swung by yesterday afternoon because she forgot a few books.  She's happy.  She likes her new classes and pointed to each book fondly and told me she had some reading to do.  "I'll have more reading this semester," she said with a smile.

My girl loves reading.

Last night Adam was refereeing basketball games and Mark and I both had headaches.  He was in the basement and I was upstairs in my room and it was quiet.

Quiet leads to thinking.

Yesterday I read by C.S. Lewis:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. 

Sunday I was at a meeting where I heard things I didn't know about people.  It was one of those raw conversations where you find out hard things people are facing that only makes you love them more.  The more you get to know people you realize the person who seems to live a charmed life has big struggles too.  You realize the person you thought was perfect is anything but.

We aren't ordinary people.  We are at once striving to hold up under our burdens and also vessels of great potential.

Thinking.  It's what happens when it's quiet and rainy around here.

I know what you're wondering

But how are your plants doing?

(Maybe you weren't wondering.)

Mostly all is well on the plant front.  I have a few plants that need to be repotted and that's always good news because it means growth has happened.

I have a few exceptions.

There's Bob.  Emma left him in my care and I don't have a lot of confidence.  Even if by some miracle he starts sprouting chia hair, he will have some weird bald swaths (and "hair" growing out of his collar).

Emma said if it doesn't work, she'll start over when she's home for the summer.

There's Travion.  I've started calling him Jacob 5.  What more could I have done for my vineyard?   Adam, who seems to be the lord of the vineyard, keeps telling me to just get on with it and throw him away.  I am the servant and I keep pruning and digging about and moving to a new part of the vineyard.  I have moved him seven times and he's down to just a few leaves.

I mist him every day (every day that I remember) with distilled water and speak encouraging words to him.

Speaking of distilled water, that's all Felicia gets.  She's finicky and spoiled.  I've moved her to a spot she likes and she has stopped dropping leaves.

It might be too sunny in the summer but for now, she's happy.

I just need to keep Adam in check.  One night he was flying the drone the boys got for Christmas and got a little close to Felicia and chopped up one of her pretty leaves.  I was walking down the stairs and he was on the floor gathering shreds of Felicia.  "Thelma," he said, "I have to tell you something."

I forgave him and turned the devastated leaf toward the wall.  I told our boys that it's really important to be the kind of husband that when you chop up a leaf of her fiddle leaf fig, your wife will love you anyway.

We need Mr. Erickson!

Braeden and Emma had ninth grade English from Mr. Erickson.  He challenged them.  They learned stuff.  They enjoyed it.

And now Mark.

I pulled him out of English and I'm dusting off my homeschooling persona.  He's done two days so far of his online course that is one of the few the district will accept.

It is weak.

After two days, he's almost 1/4 of the way done with a semester's worth of work.  It is super easy and bare bones.

When I was growing up, I remember my accountant mom frequently saying, "I don't know why I have to fix the accounting problems of the world," as she would call businesses or insurance companies or the like whose errors had affected her.

Now I feel like I don't know why I have to fix the education problems of my world.  I have pulled out some grammar and literature books.  I'm going to come up with a curriculum.  We'll continue to use the weak-sauce course we're required to use but we'll do more too.

I had Braeden and Emma tell me everything they could remember from Mr. Erickson's class.  It was a discouragingly wonderful list.  I'm not an English teacher (maybe you can tell from my sometimes wonky grammar).  I'm no Mr. Erickson.

I will try to be 10% as good as Mr. Erickson.

Here's what I know:  whatever I can add to what we're already doing will be better.

And better is better.

Grateful Friday

We are at the tail end of the vacation and it has been wonderful to have our children home.  It's been more laundry, more food, more dishes, more noise and more fun.

Sometimes it has been like this:

But mostly it has been things like Wednesday when I went to the chiropractor and asked the kids to change the sheets on their beds and clean bathrooms while I was gone and they did.

One night, Emma and Adam and I read Tom Swifties to each other and then came up with our own.  (Adam is a very clever and funny man, but this is not his best form of wit, let's just say.  Days later he did come up with a winner:  "Let me in your restaurant," Tom said without reservation.)  My favorite one of our invention was, "My son has a clone," Thelma remarked.

Yesterday I cleaned the pantry.  It's the kind of job that can't be undertaken lightly.  I pulled everything out and there wasn't a flat surface in the kitchen.  There was even stuff on the floor.  The pantry is maybe some kind of miracle like Mary Poppins' bag.  How did it all fit?

Emma read every package and determined any food that had expired.  Braeden, surveying the kitchen, suggested we go get lunch somewhere.

I reminded him of the post-Christmas austerity measures I had declared.  He said, "I haven't been spending any money this vacation.  You've been buying me everything.  I'll pay for some pizza."

And that's exactly what he did.

Children that are mostly grown are pretty awesome.

Hygge

As I've packed up Christmas stuff, I've pulled out my winter whites.  Last night I lit candles and told Adam and Braeden that I was going for a hygge feeling.

 

They didn't know what that meant and I told them that since they are Danish they should know.  (Adam's grandma was born in Denmark.)

I explained that it basically means cozy and then Braeden accused me of cultural appropriation because I'm not Danish.

I might be though.  I got an Ancestry DNA test for Christmas.  When I get the results back, I may have a little Danish in me.  I'm not going to back off of hygge yet.  (Also, according to Wikipedia, hygge, while part of the Danish culture, comes from a Norwegian word.  And I'm pretty sure I'm Norwegian.  My DNA test will clear a lot of this up.  Besides, when you're this pale, I think you can safely appropriate Scandinavian culture.)

Books I read in December 2017

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate ****

This was a good one!  My mom loaned it to me and I liked it from the first page (I love it when that happens).  It was sad and complicated and hopeful.  It's about a family that lives on a riverboat.  They are poor and when the parents go to the hospital because the mother is having complications giving birth, the rest of the kids are taken.  They stay in a horrible house for awhile and then are adopted.  What was really sad, is that the story is based on truth.  There really was an evil woman who ran the whole operation of kidnapping and selling children.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan ****

Another book to love!  This one is about a young girl who is a genius.  After tragedy strikes, she is taken in by a cobbled together family of quirky mostly lovable people.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin ***

This is one of Mark's favorite books he read while I was homeschooling him.  Since it's a Newbery and since he loved it so much, I decided to read it.  While I was reading it, I realized Mark and I have very different taste in books.  Which is maybe not too surprising.  I didn't love it.  It was constant action with little time spent on characters.  (Mark = action)  Toward the end of the book it all came together with a great message and I liked it more.

Crazy Ladies by Michael Lee West **

This was a very aptly named book.  It's about the women in a family.  The most normal one was Gussie, the matriarch, who had a body buried in her garden of a man she killed.  The characters made pretty bad decisions (again, the dead body wasn't the worst) and weren't exactly relatable but there were bright spots of family and loyalty so I gave it an "OK" rating.

Happy New Year

We took a quick trip to Nevada to celebrate the new year with our people there.  On Sunday, before getting to Starr Valley, we stopped in Wells to see Enoch's family (since they weren't going to the party--Enoch had just returned from a trip).  I always love spending a little time with them.  Isaiah is significantly taller than Mark is now.  I guess you look at Enoch and then at Adam and it is no surprise.  We saw some of their Christmas haul and the boys had a nerf battle that extended into the room where we were sitting a few times.  It's what happens when four boys get together.  It doesn't matter how big they are.

The party was at Marianne's.  They had had a sort of traumatic day with Hyrum fainting and hitting his head which knocked him unconscious and a trip to the ER and 16 stitches (which all happened at church...except the ER part).  You can't keep a good family down though and the party went on.

We had a lovely time eating an incredible amount of incredible food and playing games and laughing.  Around 11:00, my dad and I left to go back to their house and go to bed.  It seems like more often than not, I'm the Ebenezer Scrooge of any given holiday.  I had even been "training" by staying up later than usual, but switching to Pacific Time proved too much for me.  I've never been very good at late nights.

I was up fairly early though (because I also have never been much for sleeping late) and had a nice visit with my parents.

We had our annual ladies' brunch hosted by Olivia and Liliana.

Here they are with the final touches.  It was delicious as always.

We had our traditional topic of conversation, presented by Olivia and we went around the table and talked about the past year and at least all the adult women and a few of the girls cried.  Like I told Liliana, it's genetic, you can't help it.

I love those women.  Without exception they bless my life and give me joy.

We visited some more and wrote wishes for ourselves and each other for the coming year and played games.

Even though it was getting time that we had to get on with other things, we played a round of After the Manner of the Adverb because it's what you do at brunch, at least our brunch.

I had to snap a picture of these darling girls:

Their adverb was honestly and they were being "interviewed" about what they wanted to do this upcoming year and their honest answers were lovely and revealed their sweet and good natures.  I love that these girls are in the world.

We took the obligatory pictures:

Olivia being Olivia

I loved being there with my girl.  I love doing anything with my girl.

We went back to my parents and had another delicious meal and hit the road for home.

There was an amazing moon that guided the way.  It was just rising as we made our way over Moor Hill:

We listened to music, passing the phone around to pick the next song.  Time flies when the music is good.

Our final stop before home was Del Taco City (our family's designation for the group of restaurants at the Tooele exit).

While we waiting for our tacos in the empty restaurant, the boys went and played in the play structure.  (Adam asked the teenager behind the counter if it was OK first.  He said yes.)

What a nearly 21 year old's shoes look like in the little shoe bin.

weirdos

I went straight to bed when we got home, a happy but tired traveler.

I'm grateful for my family, both immediate and extended.  I love them and enjoy our time spent together.  I am looking forward to a fresh start and a new year.  I love the potential of a blank calendar.