And the snow goes on . . .

Can we say TONS of snow here? More than I think I’ve ever seen in my life. My prayers were answered with Gavin and Arwen back at school for two days last week before theirs were answered with another snow day on Friday. By that time we had gotten smart enough to create a plan balancing work and play in stages throughout the day. The highlight for me was a tea party planned by both kids involving all the stuffed animals. We managed to stave off both general restlessness and crabbiness over too many chores, arriving at the evening’s pizza party not too much worse for the wear. After cowering at the capers of Sid in the original Toy Story, we had fewer retreats up the stairs and some out-and-out laughter over the mock-Star Wars dialog between the fake Buzz Lightyear and Zurg in part two.

Thursday night I attended a highly inspiring Relief Society meeting about home storage. Our church encourages us to prepare for emergencies, including building up a supply of food, water, and financial reserves. While Chad and I have worked on this over the years, we were in need of a jumpstart and the information my friend Kelly shared was just what I needed. Among my favorite tidbits were an online Food Storage Analyzer where you can enter an inventory of your storage and get a list of just what you need to round out your food supply. Also the Pump-N-Seal, a popular item for storing dry goods in glass jars. I sampled some boiled wheat (not bad) and freeze-dried strawberries (delish!) and garnered enough motivation to inventory our storage and hopefully take it to the next level. Thanks Kelly!

Saturday morning Chad and I split up to take Gavin and Arwen to their respective birthday parties. While Gavin navigated the sledding hill and downed hot chocolate, Arwen wielded a flamingo mallet in a game of hedgehog croquet and attended a Mad Hatter’s tea party. Definitely a highlight for both of them.

And in the last of our news this week, after two and a half years of managing the music for our church congregation, I received a new calling. I will be teaching Gospel Essentials, a weekly Sunday School class focusing on the basics and fundamental principles of the gospel for those investigating or new to the Church. I’m excited for the chance to both focus on basics and work with a fabulous group of people.

After a couple inches of new snow today (in which I got some useful instruction in winter driving), we’re looking at several more in the forecast over the next few days. Any ideas of fun at-home activities???

Holding out for Back to School

With 18 inches of snow still on the ground after last week’s storm, we’ve all but given up on the illusive back-to-school routine. Between weather-related closures, the weekend, and yesterday’s holiday, Gavin and Arwen have spent exactly one day of the last week in school. That has translated to lots of unstructured play and time together around here.

Chad managed to miss out on some of the fun at home by taking on some of his own with our friend Brad who was completing the family’s move. Delayed by the storm, they set off a day late for Texas, spending 30 of 36 contiguous hours on the road to arrive in time to unload the car and get Chad to the airport for his flight home.

In the moments I’ve stolen Gavin and Arwen away from Legos and Wizard 101 we’ve enjoyed reading aloud together. The other night we were up late finishing Bridge to Terabithia after I made the mistake of reading right into a critical twist of plot at bedtime. While the book sparked some difficult emotions for the kids, it is beautifully written and generated some meaningful discussion for us all.

One of my own few official resolutions this year is to read more on my own. And I got more help than I bargained for from a book club friend who selected Gone with the Wind for this month’s discussion. What a long yet enjoyable read, not to mention a great source of insights on women’s lives in the South. I managed to finish the book and the movie with five minutes to spare before last week’s get together. While I enjoyed the movie, as is often the case I got so much more out of the book. Unwilling to let go at the end, I found myself reading article after article about the various sequels. If you’ve read Scarlett and/or Rhett Butler’s People I would love to know what you thought. As much as I want to read more, I’m having a hard time picking up a tome of equal length without a glowing recommendation.

Sunday we had our traditional Martin Luther King Day dinner with Nancy, Ben, and kids. There’s something amazingly stabilizing about family traditions – celebrating the same holiday with the same food and amazing company year after year. After studying the involvement of women in the Civil Rights movement last semester, this year I was inclined to broaden the circle of appreciation to the thousands of others who helped sculpt the increasingly integrated society we enjoy today. Also to reflect on the blessings of having Gavin and Arwen attend school with such a diverse group of students in an environment “where uniqueness is treasured.” Here’s to hoping they’ll be back there tomorrow!

Sledding Spectacular

After the first week back at school, we’re beginning to settle into our post-holiday winter routine. The lack of exciting events to report on is wonderfully balanced by the comfort of putting things in order, investing in stabilizing activities, and setting new goals.

One of our family Christmas gifts was a new set of cordless phones. We’d done without the caller ID display since it stopped working a couple of years ago, and the buttons were no longer responding to a reasonable amount of pressure. For Arwen, with the phones came a new interest in communicating with people outside our family. After school she’s apt to exclaim, “I want to call someone!” and dive into the speed dial. One afternoon I overheard “Who is this?” and found her talking to the 13-year-old son of one of my friends. But her most frequent (and admiring) contacts are her grandmas.

One of our challenges with Gavin this year has been carving out time for him to just be a kid. Determined not to overschedule his afternoons, we reluctantly turned down an opportunity for him to study Chinese, Russian, or Arabic after school this fall, only to be offered the opportunity for him to participate in Mentoring Mathematical Minds. Despite the doubling of his daily homework (which challenge he has risen to) it has been a fantastic program, exposing him to advanced concepts like algebra in a way that works for third graders. Having given up sports this year in favor of continuing piano lessons and starting Cub Scouts, Gavin is often in need of active play. Thank goodness for a little sister willing to duel with light sabers, wrestle, and play Legos, and for an awesome playmate down the street. Also for the two days a week devoid of after-school activities and early dinnertimes when he can take advantage of these great assets.

With the pace of life as it is, we really appreciate the time we get together as a family. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that ate breakfast and dinner together daily, which made it easy for Chad and me to establish the same habits. Family meals are our most consistent time to connect with each other and catch up on the day’s activities. Weekends often give us a chance for work and fun activities together too. With the onset of winter we’ve resumed our tradition of Friday night pizza parties. This weekend by popular request and in honor of Gavin’s favorite Christmas present we watched Bionicle: The Legend Reborn while we chowed on our amazing value of a Big Y party pizza.

After an hour of cleaning up the basement Saturday morning (a constantly recurring task), we had planned an fun outing to a kids rock concert by a great local artist. Discovering the show (while fantastic) was geared for younger kids, we took off for an impromptu session at the local sledding hill instead. After a busy week, it was great to just hang out together.

Tonight we’re anticipating a big storm and looking forward to a snow day tomorrow. Can’t wait to see how many of the predicted 12-20 inches will fall!

Happy New Year!

Our New Years week was everything a stay-at-home vacation should be. No alarm clocks, some outdoor frolics, no meal plans, spontaneous playdates, and tons of time together. It was particularly great having Chad home with us.

After a few days of sitting around we packed up for a walk around the neighborhood. Things stayed pretty tame until we’d been hanging around the playground for awhile. Then the snowball fight broke out. I somehow managed to avoid the fray enough to snap the photos. (The downside to our laid-back vacation was neglecting to get pictures of much more than that.)

We spent New Years Eve with some friends, Holly and I on our dueling Christmas ukuleles while the guys challenged each other at Dominion. We even dusted off my old favorite, Taboo, and tried some new contortions of Uno as well as a round of Carcassonne that took us right up to midnight. I have to admit to feeling more drowsy than the kids by that point. I’ve not yet succeeded at convincing everyone to celebrate at a more reasonable hour – please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Chad ended the break with a rendezvous with a thankfully short-lived stomach bug. Once he’d recovered we found ourselves setting the alarm for back to school. As much as I look forward to patterning our next vacation after this one, there’s something nice about getting back into the swing of things. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!