Forts & Food

Peter and Katharine slept last night in a fort I made yesterday.

Peter was ON me for this - he wanted to make a fort Saturday night. He started it, then it all fell apart and made a huge mess, he asked for help, I said it was too late, plus his room was too messy and we need to clean up to find space for it. "Well do it tomorrow after we get home from church." But then after church I was busy making dinner and company etc. At 10pm Sunday night Peter wines "YOU SAID WE COULD MAKE A FORT!" He tries to do it himself usually, but usually gets frustrated and wants help (cause the books will just slide off when the blankets get pulled at all). I said I could do it while he was at school, which I didn't do - honestly forgot. Yesterday I set two alarms so I would not forget, and I cleaned his room and I got some toy chains and did a pretty good one. It was strong enough that it didn't collapse on them as they rolled around last night, so go me. 

I went to pick up Daniel today. This was kinda funny to watch their experience from a distance. This morning it was way easy getting Owen and Peter off to school. Daniel is often very reluctant and non responsive, and if he is conscious, he is indifferent and disobedient. So Ethan got to deal with that last night and this morning. (and Bella too, sorry Bella!) Ethan sent 4 voice messages sharing his frustrations with Corey. E thought D was ungrateful and had a few other complaints. It was his least enjoyed experience of the kids that have gone down so far, although E said he originally got the idea to do it from seeing a pic of Daniel and wanting to have a better relationship with him and have a fun time. But, among the many little things - D peed on the toilet seat and refused to wipe it up, said it wasn't him, lol. Ethan "Well I KNOW it wasn't me!" D eventually did it. Also this morning, Daniel said he was so hungry at breakfast, he said he could eat 10 pancakes. Ethan was in the shower and Bella started cranking out the pancakes. D took a bite of one and might not have liked the pure/natural maple syrup, so took one bite then said he didn't was done. E wasn't having it. Ethan told him no food if he didn't eat the pancakes, so poor D didn't get any food on campus. No cheetoes, which was the highlight of the whole trip for Peter. As we were meeting up, Ethan called and said in Spanish that he didn't want D to be starving, but he/Ethan had ALSO said "no other food without eating the pancakes" and D didn't eat them, E wanted to be a man of his word and make good on his threats but also was worried it wasn't going to end up being a good experience for Daniel. I said it's ok for him to be a big brother and not a "dad". So then they bought him a slice of pizza at Costco. I met them there to pick him up. "Daniel! I missed you! How was it?!?!" 

"Awesome!" Daniel only had good things to say. Luckily their memories are malleable.

Ethan took a few videos, one of their pancake standoff... Ethan had to go to class and wanted to take D but D hadn't eaten and E knew he would be hungry but said he wasn't going to buy him anything and he checked with D "Is that ok?" to which D shook his head "no". He also sent this pic - 

Looks like Daniel slept in his clothes... I believe Owen and Peter both did as well, even though I packed a change of clothes for all of them. Thank you Natalie for wearing pajamas and changing your clothes. 

On the drive home I listened to some Dr. Berg videos about Post Nasal Drip and Reflux. I think Corey might have GERD... He has an appointment with a gastroenterologist next month. We'll try to find some natural cures if we can. I, for one, have done great so far this week helping my good gut bacteria. I've been eating my new "sauerkraut salad" everyday so far this week since Sunday: beets, saurkraut, and avocado. Today I also added onions and cauliflower to my salad. 

I stopped by Good Earth and bought some radishes and a few supplements (like Betaine Hydrochloride) that, according to Dr. Berg, could help Corey's reflux and both of our post nasal drip condition. 

Abi had a concert downtown tonight. Wayne went, Corey too. I'll get those pics from Corey later. I'm in a bit of a funk, but overall was another good mortal experience day. 

Storms May Rage

I had a moment this morning when I was driving home from the temple. It was snowing, and I was listening to the 2022 Youth Theme: "Though fires may burn And storms may rage, When darkness comes, We’ll find our way back home. We will trust in the Lord." And I looked out at the cars in front of me, all going forward, in a dark snowstorm, yet pressing on, not stopping - all confident that we'd make it to our destination despite the storm around us. 

The music fit the scenery around me and I just had a feeling to keep on keeping on, Trust in God, there may be be mountains on my way, but I chose faith, not fear. Actually, it's not "may" - it's a sure thing that there will be mountains and storm. Corey shared a scripture with all of us from Doctrine and Covenants 24:8 - "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days." WE SHALL HAVE MANY. So yikes, buckle up, make sure the kids are all in their carseats, and if we're prepared we'll make it through. I also like the covid "bumpy road" line that President Nelson said in 2020, which has new meaning to us since we've started biking. With biking we've come to enjoy the climb up the hill, the trail over the obstacles. Work work work. It's a bumpy ride, but we can do it. We've got good bikes, gloves, helmets, and happy tunes to get us through. “The road ahead will always be bumpy, but the destination will be serene and secure. So, fasten your seat belt, hang on through the bumps, and do what’s right, and your rewards will be eternal.” - President Nelson. I'm sure there will also be beautiful picturesque moments along the way, and we've come to think the bumps are mostly fun too!

Another little spiritual thought. So on Tuesday mornings, I got to the temple to participate in 5 am initiatories. I wake up around 4:15 and get dressed and go. On way to temple this morning, I happened to look at the clock at 4:28 and I remembered this little game - I heard somewhere this past year that when the clock says 11:11, it means that God is trying to get your attention or say he loves you. That's fine for the internet, but I felt like if God was trying to get ME and have ME pause and notice Him, it would be more personal, like it would be my birthday. So for me, April 28, would be 4/28, aka 4:28. And I've been starting to notice it more. And usually when I'm not thinking of it, but I'll just happen to look at the clock at 4:28 and I'm like "Hey! Happy birthday to me!" God loves me and let me come to this beautiful world, and I'm grateful for life. Then, this morning after I got home, I sometimes go to the gym to climb, but today I came home cause it was snowy and bad weather a bit, so I just headed home while I could, and I pulled in at 6:15! And that number is for Corey! So then I pause for a moment and remember this little game and I said a prayer of gratitude for Corey. 2:19 is for us too (anniversary). Also once I was entering something for a credit card and the expiration was 04/28 and the 3 digit code was 615, ha! So that made me smile too thinking that it was fun to have Me and Corey together on the card! Yesterday I was doing whatever after the kids got home from school, then I did go grab my phone for something and again, 4:28. So it's kinda fun. So there's just a little silly thing you can try and see if you notice it. If you do, it can be little reminder that God notices YOU too. 

Took Daniel down to Lindon where we met up with Ethan and Bella, they are taking him today. D almost didn't get to go, cause last night he wouldn't practice music, so Corey told him to go to bed and that he wouldn't be able to go. Then D said he was not going to go to bed until he WAS allowed to practice, but now it was way too late. Daniel threatened if Corey didn't let him practice, he was going to stay awake all night. But last night, he didn't practice, did fall asleep, and this morning I told him if he practiced right after he got home, I would take him down. He did, and he practiced for an hour, so I said that was good. We left at 5:30. Oh, that's what I looked at my phone for - to see what time Daniel was starting to practice. :) We I met up with them for the drop off, then K and I headed back home. Bella said Ethan wasn't sure about this outing...

We always say that Daniel is a little version of Ethan, and Ethan seems to take that personally. He took a video of Daniel singing in their car, and said "There is NO WAY I was this annoying..."

Hopefully it will go ok! (I think Daniel is a bit of a performer...)

Fruit Rainbows

We made St. Patrick's Day fruit rainbows tonight for FHE. I loaded up on fruit at Costco on Saturday, so we had enough that we were able to make a big tray of these yesterday when all the college kids in Utah were here for dinner, AND still had enough to make these tonight for the 8 kids at home. They all helped me cut and didn't eat too much of it as we prepped.

Strawberries, clementines, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, and purple grapes! Katharine was excited) (Aww, look at that little face!)

Then we added a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the clouds, which was left over from FHE last week, and would have been eaten had I not taken steps several times to preserve it. I also kept the Rolo's hidden, so we added those on to be the gold at the end of the rainbow. Everyone say "thanks mom, we love you..."

Ready for prayer. K was being cute. She was very excited for this sweet meal. We had her say it, I helped, she started the prayer our but that was it. "Dear Heavenly Father..." 

I helped and spoke toddler language: "We are thankful for yummy strawberries and bananas, and thank you for chocolate and for ice cream..." She was really feeling gratitude for the cookies. 

So that was the FHE treat and dinner (kids had been munching since after school, so I was fine to call it good for the night.) I'm glad the rainbow fruit tray is a hit with everyone. We also had one more yogurt pie still, so everyone got a slice of that, in honor of Pi day. Then Corey had some "Minute to Win-it" games ready to go. The only one we actually did was Back Flip where we had to grab different groups of pencils... 

Corey had several other's ready to go, but we only did that one, cause just that one took us long enough to work through with everyone.

Natalie and I practiced more after we cleaned up and we both were able to do a group of 10 pencils!

Nobody got 12. Then it was already 10pm and we needed to wrap things up. The day just goes by too fast! 

Owen in Provo

Owen had fun hanging out with Ethan and Bella last night and today. They had Costco pizza for dinner, and Owen's slice was bigger than his face!!

And then they went to Classic Skating for games and fun. Owen is a little athlete.

Playing video games.

Air hockey - 

They also got together with some of Ethan's friends and played Spikeball and threw around the football. Owen asked if they could go to a carwash, and they tried to last night but it closed earlier than they thought, but they did it today and Ethan reported that "it was lit". Then for the fun today, Owen got to tag along with Ethan to his classes. 

Ethan shared: "Owen seems to have a good time but wasn’t shy to tell me he hated coming to my classes. He told me he felt bad for me that I have to do that every day"

After a fun 24 hours at college, they headed to American Fork to meet up at Lyceum so O could get a ride home with Abi.

He only had a half hour to wait. I think Natalie had a 2 hour wait. I'm glad it wasn't like that for Owen.

Super fun. We're really grateful that Ethan and Bella have been doing this with the younger kids, who don't remember much of way back when Ethan lived here. I'm glad they are able to make some memories this way! 

Need a New Transmission, again...

Corey went to the gym this morning, and on his way back, his car wouldn't change gears. It's an automatic, and he could tell it was stuck in 2nd cause it was revving, and then it started smoking from under the hood. He was at an intersection and was able to turn into a neighborhood and then he called a tow truck. He had it towed to Freeway Transmissions, where we should have gone in the first place. Tanners has a 5 year warranty, but we are NOT taking the car back there to just have it be stuck there for another 3 months. Ugh, so frustrating. I am, however, grateful that it didn't break down on me when I took Corey's car to the temple this morning. Yet, despite our trying to be optimistic, the problems caused by Tanner are not over. It "worked" for 17 days. I am, however, grateful that the car is now at a place where there is customer service and a place where we have reasons to believe that they are competent. We talked with Mario a lot in December, and he was more helpful to us than anyone at Tanners. I'm sure we'll find out soon what the bad news is, and that Freeway Transmissions will call us and we won't have to call them over and over again to get any answers. So yes, that is good news. And, two more items of good news: This isn't Valley Forge, and we are not stuck on an ice flow in Antarctica. The sun is shinning today and spring is coming and this is just a mortal experience. Thankfully we are not faced with making any decisions where life or death  hang in the balance. I'll take it and I'll try to keep murmuring at a minimum. I will probably need to go on morning walks and watch the sunrise. I did that this morning.

I saw the sun set tonight too, on my way home after a ride on the road up the canyon.

I watched the sky until all the pink was gone, so for 5 min or so. I took a ride after getting home from the park. Logistics today were: Abi had a rehearsal in American Fork for a lyceum concert this Saturday. She came home and went by the school to pick up Owen to take him to sleep over with Ethan and Bella. I didn't have a car, so I walked to the school with K in a stroller to meet Abi and get Owen. Owen got checked out and he and Abi headed out, K wanted to go to the park, so we stayed there and found Daniel and Peter before they got on the bus, they wanted to play, so they played and it was a nice weather day, yay.

They had fun and then we walked home. Usually K doesn't want to walk. She wants to be held or pushed in the stroller, but today she walked the whole way! Of course that left us at the mercy of her agency if she didn't feel like following us, which happened once and caused a 5 min delay. Daniel and Peter were very patient and just sat on the sidewalk while she started to walk around in the church parking lot.

She's cute. The kids had leftovers for dinner while I cleaned up after my ride. Corey worked late but he's home now, time for scriptures. 

Family Feud

Corey planned a FHE activity for tonight. It was "Family Feud". 

And I just learned that I don't know how to spell "feud" - I did it "fued" - is that cause of a Utah accent? I say it like Fyud, not Fee - ude. So in my mind it's "if two vowels go walking the first one does the talking, and it was just the U talking saying is name. I shall try to say Fee - ude from now on. We are already working on saying "moun - tain" not "moun - uhn". Sorry, little side tangent there. So Corey gave us all a paper to fill out and then complied our answers. I can't find the paper of the survey questions, but some of them were:

• Who leaves their shoes out the most?
• Who always does their chores?
• Who is the favorite child?
• Who is the most girly girl?
• Who reads the most?
• Name a favorite family movie
• Who is the most spiritual?
• Who likes dinosaurs the most?
• Who avoids the family the most?
• Who sleeps in the most?

The teams were boys vs. girls. Team Girls having a huddle before giving a response:

Hyrum and Wesley joined in playing with us over fb messenger (it is Wesley's pday, and he usually calls during FHE). Mel and Christian joined as well, but only as spectators. 

I don't know how much our online guests were able to hear of the questions, cause there was a lot of screaming going on by everyone. It was funny. The boys were jumping up and down as they shouted to get Corey's attention and let him know that they knew the answer. And the girls were shouting too. Abi trying to stop Natalie from saying an answer when the boys were up - she didn't want Natalie to give them any help or have them steal the girl's response.

It was fun, and for the treat we had a little dessert sampler with bite size pieces of apple fritters and sourdough donuts. I remember having apple fritters a lot as a kid, so I thought I'd introduce those to the kids. Oh, and a small slice of apple pie with whipped cream and caramel topping. It was prob too much, but dinner serving sizes were small, so we'll call it even.

In The Midst of Struggle

Today was my turn to give a talk at church in sacrament meeting. The Relief Society presidency spoke, except we let the 1st counselor take a pass, cause she just had a baby last month, and cause she spoke in October and December of last year (not sure how she got to speak twice! Her husband is in the bishopric, maybe he was responsible for that cause some speakers cancelled last minute or something. So, it should have been the three of them, or the 4 of us, but we let her take a pass, so it was me first, then the 2nd counselor, and then the ward RS President. Here is my talk. I wrote it this morning in a bit of a rush, so I'm grateful that the inspiration was kinda coming. Some things were just quotes and I tied them together on the spot without writing everything out. 

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“In my ninety-plus years, I have learned a secret. I have learned that when good men and good women face challenges with optimism, things will always work out! Truly, things always work out! Despite how difficult circumstances may look at the moment, those who have faith and move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out.”― Gordon B. Hinckley

We are speaking today on Doctrine and Covenants section 19. I want to mostly focus my remarks on the choice we are invited to make in verse 4, where Christ says “Surely every man must repent or suffer…” We see in the story of Martin’s experience here of being asked to finance the printing of the Book of Mormon, that life is going to test us and push against us constantly. The only way to make it is by constantly turning to Christ, also known as REPENTing. The choice given in verse 4 isn’t to repent or not, but to Repent or suffer. That’s the choice everyone is actually making everyday. If we don’t repent/turn to Christ, we will suffer in our experiences cause we’ll be tossed by the adversary. 

In Luke 22:31, Jesus told Simon Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat. “Sift you as wheat” is a metaphor from the Bible that means to shake someone apart or break them down. It's used to describe a test of faith. So Martin is facing a test of faith here by being asked to mortgage his farm, which represents his wealth and status and reputation - everything he’s spent his life working for up to this point. This is also a great trial to him because he is lacking his wife’s support to do it. Dark clouds are gathering. All of us should be able to relate to that cause we all experience periods of dark clouds.

We can insert our own trials and fights of faith into this story, because we are a lot like Martin Harris. He is in the midst of a struggle. But the Savior comes to him and basically says I know you're in a tough situation, but let me introduce myself to you. In verse 1:

I am Alpha and Omega. It starts out right with the Savior telling him, reminding them, look, this is who I am. Alpha and Omega beginning and end, I will be with you from the beginning of this project to the end of this project. There's no reason for you to be afraid. I've got you. I've got your back. If you'll put some confidence in me. 

As Elder Holland said in October 2011 General Conference: this is a life and death contest we are in. I'm going to get in your face a little nose to nose with just enough fire in my voice to singe your eyebrows a little. The way coaches do when the game is close and victory means everything.” And in this moment with Martin, the game is close. Victory is everything. I am Alpha and Omega, Christ the Lord. Yay. Even I am He, the beginning and the end, the Redeemer of the world. And it starts from there, one verse after another in power. And verse one maybe is to give Martin a little bit of perspective. I know what the booksellers are saying. I know what the publishers are saying. I know what your wife is saying. I know what the lawyers are saying, but I'm a little bit bigger than that.

Satan is trying to sift us, shake us, break us apart and destroy us, but The Savior says, HE retains all power even to the destroying of Satan and his works at the end of the world. That the Savior knows Martin is suffering. So he gives him, he makes it very clear you can continue to suffer like you are because at this point he hasn't mortgaged his farm yet. He's saying you can continue to suffer and carry this burden, this doubt, this dark cloud of not sure what to do and fear OR you can repent. Change how you SEE things here. Christ simplifies it. 

Repenting and turning to Christ is the only way find peace when we face our struggles. Peace comes from learning of Jesus Christ and following him. As he counsels Martin in verse 23 “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.”

In the Bible Dictionary says that Repent comes from a Greek word which denotes “A change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world.” So repentance is really a battle of the mind and how we view things. Can we see clearly? Are we seeing things as they truly are? At this point, Martin hadn’t mortgaged his farm. But he was suffering just at the thought of it. So I think the answer of how we repent lies in our fighting to look to Christ, think of him, and keep an eternal perspective based in TRUTH when we face our variety of circumstances. 

We’ve been watching a few National Geographic documentaries at our house recently. One of a young soccer team that was trapped in a cave in Thailand and miraculously survived, another one on the Tsunamis of 2004 - while there was great devastation there, the documentary also told of great miracles. The one that’s been on my mind the most, though, is titled “Endurance”. It is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic, and the Endurance was the name of his ship. The documentary weaves in two stories - one was Shackleton and his crew’s original trip to the Antarctic, and the other was a 2022 search to locate the wreck of his ship at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Briefly, if I can summarize their almost two years of experience into one paragraph, they left England with a goal to land in Antarctica and cross the continent by dog sled, but their ship got frozen in the ice and they were forced to winter there. Despite the incredible hardships they faced of hunger, thirst, freezing temperatures, fatigue, scurvy, frostbite, snowblindness, they had a rule of optimism. Shackleton kept his crew busy to keep their MINDS on things they could control as much as possible. In the spring, the melting and shifting ice ended up crushing their ship and they abandoned the vessel, with a goal to find land before the ice flows below them melted. Shackleton was determined to save all of the 28 men in his team, writing in his journal “I pray God I can manage to get the whole party to civilisation.” With the ship gone, they trekked across the ice, hauling their three lifeboats and the provisions they were able to save from the ship. They did finally make it to Elephant Island, and from there Shackleton and five companions had to go for help. 

(This is the actual pic of them launching the James Caird boat as they set out) They voyaged across 800 miles of mountainous ocean to South Georgia Island. To do this, they continued their optimism, they navigated by looking at the sun which only was visible one time because of the clouds and storm surrounding them (spiritual comparison there - sometimes Christ is not always in view in our storms) by when the sun was there, they focused on it and measured their route by it and got their best estimate. They ended up landing on the south side of the island. They were still 17 miles from help. They needed to get to the Stromness Whaling Station on the north side. Shackleton knew that three of his companions were too weak to make the trek, so he and two others set out, and they endured a 36-hour struggle over icy mountains to find rescue for them and the men left back on Elephant Island. I do not doubt that Ernest prayed constantly. They really should have died. There were dozens of ways they could have died over that year and a half. But Shackleton would not give up. On his final 36 hour quest across the mountains of South Georgia Island, Shackleton later wrote “It seemed to me often that we were four, not three.” It was so hard for them but there were many miracles along the way. It is such an amazing story and I highly recommend that documentary to you. 

Linda S. Reeves - October 2015 “Worthy of our Promised Blessings” Now is “not the time to receive all of our blessings. President Packer explained, “‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line belongs in the third act, when the mysteries are solved and everything is put right.” However, a vision of our Father’s incredible promised blessings must be the central focus before our eyes every day—as well as an awareness “of the multitude of his tender mercies” that we experience on a daily basis. 

Sister Reeves continues: I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?

Repenting and turning to Christ is the only way to find peace as we face our struggles. Peace comes from learning of Jesus Christ and following him. “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.”

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I think it went well enough and I recognize the Lord helped me. One brother stopped me after church and said that he grew up with his mom telling him stories of Shackleton. So I was on a Shackleton kick and after we got home I wanted to watch and learn more. I watched this short video that I thought was good. Also the first minute here: "The crew refused to let go of their last trace of hope. Where mental and physical endurance of the human body were pushed beyond their limits, where every decision carried the weight of life or death." Yep! I put the others on my "watch later" list and then I went and crashed/took a nap. I woke up before Wayne came over at 3. I invited him last night at the violin thing. I told him that I was speaking today and we talked briefly about Shackleton. We were going to watch Endurance with him. I texted my parents to see if they wanted to come too, but they opted out. My mom mentioned that she just saw a show on BYUtv called "Thirteen Lives" about some kids trapped in a cave in Thailand, and I was like "Oh! We just watched something on them too!" The National Geographic thing on them was called "Rescue" and interviews the actual people. The BYUtv one was a movie from a few years ago that was a reenactment of what happened. So I looked it up, found it on the BYUtv app, learned that I could cast to the tv from the app, and then we ended up watching that (Thirteen Lives) instead of Endurance. And after Thirteen Lives, we watched Rescue. Ethan and Bella were up in SL and stopped by for dinner and watched it with us (they were celebrating their anniversary!) After it was done, Ethan jokingly said "Ok! Is there another movie about that same story that we should watch?" Haha, I googled it and there actually is! A Netflix one called "Thai Cave Rescue". There are probably more. We didn't watch that one, we'll save that for another time. :)

So, I guess my take away is that life is a struggle and our test is if we will have faith in our struggles. We have to hold on and be optimistic, and that is super super SUPER hard sometimes! But if Ernest Shackleton was able to do it in his circumstances, and if those Thai boys were able to be calm and reject fear in their circumstances, I hope that I can too in my struggles, which really are far less challenging by comparison. As I "Face (my) challenges with optimism," I can trust that "things will always work out! Truly, things always work out! Despite how difficult circumstances may look at the moment, those who have faith and move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out.”― Gordon B. Hinckley (I'm grateful for living prophets!) 

Violin Recital

Daylight Savings time is upon us. I changed all the clocks this morning, so the kids could get a heads up on what's coming tomorrow. I really don't know why we still do this to ourselves. Utah almost passed a bill to stop day light saving time. It passed the house but then wasn't presented in the Senate before the legislature session closed, so it's probably dead. I'm bummed about it. It usually takes our household about a week to adjust to the spring time change. Our heads and the clocks trying to tell us "you had 24 hours..." and our bodies and emotions are confused "It doesn't feel like it... it feels like something was missing..." 

I'm giving a talk tomorrow at church, which I haven't finished. I did work on it for over an hour, and made two talks - one was random thoughts and notes about repentance from Pres Nelson's talk, and for the other I was actually cheating and trying to do a redo of a talk I gave in 2018, reading through it and changing a few things to make it fit with D&C 19. I decided it was too risky - I'd feel really stupid if anyone recognized it "Hey... she's done that 'JEWEL' acronym thing before..." Corey said I should be flattered if anyone remembered it from 7 years ago. Corey said he'd write it for me cause he's been having lots of good thoughts, but I don't think he's started and I don't know that he'll get up early enough to do it tomorrow, so I hope I can crank something out in the morning. I have an alarm set for 5:30. 

Tonight was busy with a violin recital - Natalie playing. 

The boys were outside playing on the playground in the dark with Katharine, Corey's car lights shining on it so they could see. I texted them to hurry in when it was Natalie's turn, which they did (a little too slow and they missed the start of it) and then they went back outside. That is well enough, cause there ere 20 kids playing, which is a lot for my kids to handle. Then they came back inside cause it was cold and dark. 

I was multitasking a little bit too - listening to podcast trying to find things for my talk. We made Owen come, he wanted to hang out with friends. The other kids, including Abi, wanted to come for the refreshments. Hang in there, it's almost over. Let the students bow...

Ok, now you can go. Katharine happy with her cupcake.

She licked the frosting off of 3. Abi took Lily to a friends house before she came, and then after the recital was done, Corey and I took off to go climbing and she took the kids home. We each did 8 top rope, but had to hustle cause we only had 90 minutes. It usually takes us 2 hours to do 8. Then we were going to pick up Lily but she said she'd get a ride home with a neighbor. And now I should go to bed so I can wake up and have something to work with of my brain as I pray for inspiration. 

Peter to Provo

Today I drove to Provo to take Peter to sleepover with Ethan and Bella. First we stopped by Blendtec to buy a new pitcher. Inside their reception area, they have upside down pitcher as their hanging lights. Kinda fun, I'm seeing there's a blender theme here. There was one receptionist and she was busy for a few minutes. The kids kept themselves busy.

Then we got the pitcher, it was $110, which was $30 less than I was expecting, yay. Plus a 3 year warranty (Order #SOI0950671 so I can throw away this receipt). Looks like the last pitcher we had that died on Friday was purchased in 2019, so it well survived it's 3 year warranty. I'm sure this one will too. But good for me to keep track of things here. Ok, now let's take you to Bella! Outside I took a pic...

Peter asked to see the pic and was disappointed. "Aw... I wanted to be holding it..." - oh. I guess that's why his hand was out. Ok, I told him to turn his hand like he was holding a cup, and we have to walk out a little further, and you come a little closer to me... there we go.

Very good. He was happy with that one. Ok. We met up with Bella at the bank and they set off for 24 hours of sibling bonding. Bella took him to a park and while they waited for Ethan to finish work.

Then they went out to dinner. I think it's so fun that they are doing this for the kids. 

I went to the Temple this morning. I woke up at 4 on my own, although maybe it was Corey that woke me up. He was awake with heartburn, and since I was now up, I decided I'd go to the temple even though I didn't have an appointment. I was playing this morning by ear, cause we stayed up last night past midnight talking about news and watching a few videos and talking about Trump/Zelensky things. There is crazy stuff going on in the world. I was thinking maybe that's causing Corey stress? Maybe he's got ulcers? As I got ready, I told him we prob need to cut back on his news intake. We've been talking and reading about the White House mistreatment of the Ukrainian president since it happened on Friday. I know what I think about Trump and no amount of spin can convince me that he's a good person, sorry. I just can't believe it. As I drove back from Provo I listened/watched this video, documenting his treatment to local Scotland residents when he built a luxury golf course there. He really is not a kind or good person. And about the confrontation with Zelensky, I'll share this quote by Longtime Republican columnist and commentator David Brooks who said the following about it, and helped me realize that that's what I felt too - nauseous!

“I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we're a flawed country, but we're fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they're usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance. They're not because we're ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen. Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that's safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office. And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I'm in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It's a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way."

So yeah, it's nuts. It's consuming Corey's thoughts for sure, as he listens to more news than me. When I left to the temple, I told him to try to go to sleep by reading and I passed him the book "Shackleton's Stowaway" - it was probably exciting enough that it would capture his attention and help him not think about all the bad news in the US right now, and maybe he could fall back asleep too. He really enjoyed it and shared a part of the introduction with us tonight at scriptures that was riveting! Corey tied it into the idea that what we are really here on earth to learn is how to have faith in our circumstances - ANY circumstance, whatever it might be. Don't like the president of your country and think he's ruining the government of your country? Have faith and trust. I'm excited to read it. Corey might read it to the boys. They are having a reading marathon this month, so that might help them get more minutes in plus it would be bonding time. 

Chocolate for FHE

Tonight the kids and Corey had talked about making sushi, but none of them did anything about it, and Corey got home late, so then we did a quick other plan. Natalie had talked to me about putting your hand in ice water, then puttin gmelted chocolate on your hand and then dipping your hand in cold water again and it would freeze in the shape of your hand. I said that was too much chocolate for each person. She said we could also write stuff, so I said that works. I ran to the store for strawberries, a small thing of vanilla ice cream, and 3 extra large chocolate bars. We got some water boiling hot in the microwave and melted the chocolate in the wrapper it was in, then just snipped the corner and it worked perfectly as a little frosting bag. I tested it out writing "Mom" first, then I Katharine and each of the boys' names. Natalie helped me. 

At the table, Corey thought it would be fun to make houses of cards. 

Peter couldn't get his cards to stay up and was so frustrated, he was crying pretty hard and not having fun. I couldn't get mine to work either and told him it's ok to not do something if it makes you frustrated and it's not something that's important/stupid. That's why I don't play video games! (Mario Kart "rainbow road" makes me want to cry, I think I haven't played video games with the kids since I tried that years ago and that's ok, cause video games are stupid.)

I told him to come do the chocolate with me. I let the older girls do their own. 

It only took us one XL chocolate bar to do all the names, but I had already melted a second bar, so we used that to drizzle the strawberries. Add a scoop of ice cream on there and tada - our FHE dessert is looking pretty fancy. 

Corey said I did a good job and said it was good, and thanked me for compromising my standards by buying chocolate. I had a goal to not buy any chocolate this year and I'd kept it so far, minus when I bought Peter's b-day cake, and some dark chocolate for the anniversary dinner. Corey said I get a pass, this didn't count. Ok, thanks, though it's true, I do feel annoyed that the kids' happiness seems to revolve around sugary foods. 

Wesley called during scriptures, and it was fun to talk with him. He shared a scripture and Hyrum said a prayer. Hyrum almost prayed for J&E and E&B and their _____ but then he paused and kept going, hoping that it would just be seen as a glitch in the audio. After Wes hung up, Ethan said "That was a close one Hyrum!" Ethan hasn't let Wesley know that they are expecting, and Hyrum almost gave it away. Maybe Wes will think Hyrum was saying for them to be blessed in their marriages, haha. 

Mel shared a pic of JMEHW in messenger today, from when we were in Pucón. 

Fifteen years later and those 5 cute little kids are all grown up and gone! Where'd all the time go? We sure love these kids. It's the best having a part in their lives. We are excited for all the future holds for us together with them forever!