July 2019
July is when summer started to pick up. We were gone almost half of the month so our time in town was spent doing laundry, working, taking our cat to the vet, and packing for our next adventure.
February 2019
One of the things I like about blogging at this stage of my life is the reflection. Our life is pretty fast paced and one day often blends into the next, so it’s really beneficial to me to look back and really appreciate how much we’ve accomplished, grown, lived up life, and even struggled. It’s probably not as meaningful for you dear reader, but if you’re here hopefully you can find some sort of enjoyment out of my February recap.
November 2018
Here we are almost at the end of December and I’m doing my November recap. I feel like every year when Thanksgiving rolls around life goes into hyperdrive and doesn’t slow down until we hit Christmas. We’re finally to the part of December when the social engagements have petered out and we’re left alone to recover spend time with our families and do things like reflect on how we got here.
October 2018
In October we: Got flu shots. Ellen put on a cat fashion show. (It gives a whole different meaning to the cat walk 😉 ) Cooper designed lightsabers. I volunteered to take over the school garden and am currently “in training.” I’ve gotten myself so involved with all things health related at the school that the PTA made up a position for me and I now can impressively tell people I’m the “Officer of Wellness.” (For the record, I never…
Spring Break 2018
This year for Spring Break, we decided to go to Las Vegas, and Zion. We have a considerable amount of family in the area, Noel’s mom is buried there, and we love the desert. We debated whether or not to fly or drive and ended up buying plane tickets. Then as the trip drew near we debated the decision again. (We were flying Southwest so we easily could have cancelled the flights and banked the points for another trip.) After…
February 2018
I’m always glad when February ends and March begins because I foolishly like to think March = Spring. All hard feelings aside, February was actually a pretty good month though. The beginning of the month brought my favorite holiday: Groundhog’s Day. Life has been pretty busy (all good things of our choosing) so I actually kept forgetting it was coming up. The kids were so excited though and kindly reminded me to make plans. We celebrated by putting up our…
Winter Break 2017-2018
Based on my research in the field, there are a multitude of ways parents survive winter break. Some stock up on alcohol or chocolate, others allow unlimited screen time and ice cream for breakfast, some plan exotic (or not) vacations, and a few send their kids to day camps. This year, my method was to pretend like we were on vacation in our hometown. I’m calling this method a success. Before the break, the kids had their holiday parties. It…
Halloween 2017
The kids have been talking about what they wanted to be for Halloween since last Halloween. They’ve also changed their minds around 3,000 times so whenever they came to me and told me that they absolutely wanted to be a ninja cat for Halloween, I’d say, “That’s nice. How about we talk about it in October.” Once October rolled around, we started talking Halloween costumes in earnest. Since Cooper is the more consistent one, we based our costumes around him….
Easter 2017
I love Easter the same way other people love Christmas. Easter is all about hope and joy and light and so often the outside world reflects that as we turn our back on the long, dark months of winter. Both the plants and our souls are revitalized. This year, Easter was especially tender. Lately, we’ve become more aware of our own mortality and our absolute need for our Savior. As we celebrated Easter our hearts swelled with gratitude for the resurrection that…
Groundhog Day 2017
Most of you know that Groundhog Day is inarguably my favorite holiday. (You can read about the origins of that love here.)  This year though, I was not feeling like celebrating. Matters nationally (almost every cabinet pick and every executive order has upset me on some level), locally (there was a proposal on the ballot in November to raise money for schools that didn’t pass and the school district is looking at closing schools as early as next school year), and…