Not that he needed one....

...but Mark finally got a haircut.

Before:

 After:

It's good to have him back.

Trying to be like Jesus

There was a problem at work the other night with a family refusing to wear masks.  The ushers elected Mark to be the bold one to confront them one last time and ask them to leave it they refused to comply.  The other ushers working that night were small timid young women.  His massive pile of red curls invites a certain amount of respect(?) if nothing else (I'm still waiting for his promised haircut to materialize).  

There was indeed a confrontation resulting in expletives hurled at Mark.  He came home feeling bad about the whole situation.

The next morning I was ready to saddle up my ride or die posse.  Adam, on the other hand, prayed for the family when he said our morning prayer.

You can see which of us is being more successful in emulating Christlike attributes.

In the trenches

I was going for magical and I didn't really achieve magical, but it is festive.  I had Mark help me hang snowflakes from the ceiling.  I set up a tree with ornaments of each students' name made out of Scrabble tiles.  I have another small tree with miniature school themed ornaments: tiny chalkboards and apples and rulers.  It even has a pencil "star" that Emma made when she was a little girl.  (That little tree used to be in our school room.)

I have Mary Engelbreit Christmas scenes on the wall. 

I set up a display of Christmas books.

The song of the week is from The Nutcracker.

I read them a beautifully illustrated Jan Brett Christmas book during read aloud time.

For the first day of our class advent calendar they all got Christmas pencils.

Yesterday I found out more sad news about one of my student's families.  Every day there is sad news.  This year the sad news is more often.

My feeble efforts at Christmas cheer don't seem enough.

Maybe learning the times tables will help to take their minds off things.  The only thing I can provide is stability and predictability and love.  Maybe every time I respond with equanimity when they spill their water bottles everywhere (seriously children...) it will make them feel safe.  Maybe knowing that Mrs. Davis will give them a mask when they forget, a bandaid when they spring a leak and lotion when their hands are dry will be something.

I hope so because it's all I have.

 

Holiday weekend

Such a nice time.  It was the perfect mix of getting ready for Christmas, resting and spending time together.

I did some online shopping, tied ribbons on gifts we already have, and we decorated for Christmas.  Well, mostly.  We haven't done our big tree yet and we need to switch our regular dishes for our Christmas dishes.  (Christmas dishes make me happy.)

I am steadily feeling better, but I am still trying to preserve energy when I can so I had Mark and Emma carry all the boxes up and down the stairs and I was just the boss.  Doing the actual decorating was really fast.  Mark handled all the up on the ladder stuff and he doesn't mind when I say, "Move it port side!" because that is easier for me than right and left.

My kids think I'm crazy but having a weird mom builds character.

Emma wasn't here to help decorate last year and it was a huge difference having her back.  Arranging things is one of the few things I'm very picky about and she always does it to my satisfaction.  She also keeps Mark in line.

For example, we were decorating the small living room tree and Mark was just sitting on the couch and throwing ornaments at it and Emma put a stop to that.  

Friday night both kids were at work and Adam and I had a top secret purchase to make in Salt Lake City (our kids don't read this blog but what if they start today?).  Adam said there was a German restaurant he wanted to take me to.

It was called Bohemian Brewery and that confused me because I think of Bohemian style when I think of Bohemian and this place was decorated in an Alpine ski lodge way and served things like schnitzel and brats.

Adam said Bohemia was a place and I didn't know that (there could be volumes written of things Adam knows that I don't). So we googled it, like you do, while we were waiting for our food and learned that Bohemia is a German speaking part of the Czech Republic.  Also, the food was delicious.  

Saturday I pulled out some felt and Emma and I cut circles for tree skirts.  She has a little tree in her apartment and I wanted a tree skirt for my little tree in my classroom.  She was going back to her apartment Saturday night to watch an edited version of The Shining for her horror film class.  Why she would take a horror film class is completely bonkers but she didn't ask me.  I showed her how to blanket stitch and do a running stitch with candy cane striped embroidery floss so she could work on it while she watched.  She wanted to embroider snowflakes.  I said, "You're artistic so you'll figure that out easily."

Before Emma went back to Provo, she joined Adam and me on a Trader Joe's stop.  For our regular grocery store shopping, I always have a list.  At Trader Joe's, anarchy reigns.  Peppermint JoJos, ginger scented hand cream, cedar balsam candle, peppermint meringues all got tossed in the cart with abandon.  Adam asked if we had a reason to buy lemon curd.  I said yes.

Because lemon curd.

Later in the evening Emma texted me this.

I don't think I've ever taught her anything that she didn't immediately become better at than me.

Yesterday evening Adam and I went back to Salt Lake to visit my grandma and my parents who were also in town.  We have had very few visits with my 93 year old grandma or my parents since the pandemic, but sometimes it just feels warranted.  We had a nice visit and ate pie (and my grandma chided me for not cutting bigger pie slices).

This morning I am back to school and I'm excited to see those little faces again.  I want to see their reaction to our Christmas tree.

Grateful Friday

When you are ridiculously tired and 1/3 of your family is in Virginia for Thanksgiving, Chuck-a-rama seems like a good idea.

Last year one of my friends posted pictures on Facebook of her family going to Chuck-a-rama for Thanksgiving dinner and at first it struck me as strange and then it struck me as genius. 

When I told my sisters, they said, "No!"

When I told Emma, she said, "Um..."

When I told Mark, he said, "Yes!"

When I told Adam, he said, "Whatever you want."

(one of many many reasons I love Adam)

It was pretty good.  We won't make it a tradition but when your goal in life is to be as lazy as possible so you can regain your health, it worked.

We listened to "Dave Cooks the Turkey" while we drove.  That is a tradition with lasting power.

We also went to a movie in an actual theater!  We hadn't done that in all of 2020.  We saw The War With Grandpa.  It was kind of dumb but also kind of funny and hey, we were in a movie theater!  We were eating popcorn just like they did in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. That counts for something.

I felt a little sad in the afternoon like I was a sort of unfit mother because I didn't make Thanksgiving dinner but my family rallied around me and hugged me and told me that it was fine.

They're keepers.

I'm grateful we got to FaceTime Braeden and Anna and I'm grateful to spend time with my family around here.  I'm grateful for the way they showed their stripes on Wednesday.  Adam and Mark drove Braeden and Anna to the airport in the 4:00 hour.  I said, "You should let me drive them.  I get up earlier than you do usually."

Adam said, "You would deny us guy time?"

Adam and Mark went to breakfast together after the airport and they love their time together.

I love that Mark went to help Emma clean her apartment because he "wanted to spend time with my sister anyway."

I love that when Emma got home, she was happy to leave soon after to run a few errands with Adam and me.  After teenage years of never wanting to run errands, I value every yes I get now. It's freaky.  She says yes to everything I ask.

Freaky.

 

Giving thanks

I have loved pausing to reflect on what I am the most grateful for this week.  It is humbling to recognize all the ways I've been blessed and all the wonderful things I experience just by being alive.  I have friends who have lost their sense of taste and smell because of Covid.  It has reminded me what a gift our senses are.

There's no ranking my gratitude list.  Who could say what is most important?  I think it's all interconnected though and at the very center is my Heavenly Father, the architect of everything wonderful in this world.  I know He loves me and I know He has a plan for me.  I know He doesn't take every hard thing away from me (even though I keep asking) because He wants me back and knows that it is through my trials that I will become better.

I know Jesus is the Christ.  I have felt the sustaining power of His mercy.  I have felt forgiven and the ability to forgive.  I have hope for a better world and I have hope I will see loved ones again because of Him.

I know President Nelson is a prophet of God.  He feels like an extension of God's love and the Spirit testifies to me when he speaks that it is the truth.

I love the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  It is grounding and soul giving to pause every day and read a little and be reminded of truths I know. I know that Joseph Smith was inspired by God to restore the Church of Jesus Christ and I feel connected to ancient people when I recognize that they worshiped Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ the same way.

Everything else that I'm grateful for can be traced back to these truths.

There is beauty all around

I think some really good evidence that God loves us is all the beauty to be found in the world. (Adam took every one of these pictures. 

The natural world is breathtaking.

I'm grateful for art and music and literature.  I'm grateful for the imagination people have been blessed with and then in turn share with the world.  I love art museums and libraries and book stores and museum gift shops where you can find all sorts of interesting things.

    I am grateful for National Parks where jaw dropping beauty is preserved.

I love color and texture and colorful contrast and sleek monochrome. 

I love sunrises and sunset and mountains and beaches and valleys and forests and everything in between.

There's nothing like blue blue skies, snow drifts sparkling in the sunlight, crunchy fall leaves, spring blossoms, warm summer nights.

It's a beautiful world.