Last Time Skiing with Kids

Today we went skiing in a blizzard again. 

We woke up super early so that we could be sure to get a parking spot, cause we were going to Alta, and they don't have reservations like Snowbird. Corey packed a lunch and loaded up the car the night before. We all got up at 7 and had a quick bowl of cereal before heading out. It's never good to wake up a sleeping baby, but Hyrum was gone at a Moxie retreat, so we couldn't leave Peter with anyone. I got him dressed and ready and we were all in the car and on our way at 8:06! And that is also what time we started waiting in the line that had formed on little cottonwood road waiting for the canyon to open. They closed it last night for avalanche control and it was supposed to open at 8, and I think it did? But it was very slow moving. Actually it was not moving for the first hour. So we sat there in the car and listened to kids complain about how we should just bail and go home. Or if any of us did just want to go sit in the car and do nothing, we could go do that in the garage at home and grant freedom to those who actually want to do something with their day. Wes undressed Peter cause he didn't want his boots or coat or socks on. We moved probably .25 miles in the first hour, but then in picked up, and we went the rest of the way up the canyon road in the next hour. We got there at 10:00 right when it looked like the last parking spots of the Wildcat parking lot had filled up, but we were on our way to Albion parking and were able to park by our kiddie hill near the Snowpine Lift. We got everyone out and got Peter dressed again and then unloaded skis, helmets, goggles, and one by one they headed down to the rope tow. I didn't take pictures of any of that cause I realized I had left my phone in the car. Corey took Peter in the backpack, I followed Owen and Daniel. There was a lot of pain and discomfort for everyone, but we finally made it up to rope tow and over to the lodge where we parked our skis and took a break. 

Corey went to get our tickets and our last ski passes. These are going to be the kids last ski passes atleast, cause I'm ready for a break from taking them. It's a lot of work! Peter was still sad cause he hated the backpack, so we took a break and broke out the hot chocolate. Plus O had to use the bathroom and he made such a mess in there I couldn't believe it. I cleaned it up, but I was a bit shocked. Sorry to share that O, but I'm going to start making you sit down to pee. So then we decide to let Peter ski and NOT be in the backpack, so ALSN got their passes and took off to the lift, C stayed with P, W went back to the car to take back C's poles and to get P's skis, and I took O and D back down the rope tow hill and we were just going to do Snowpine. Corey decided against paying for tickets for O and D and we didn't want to use one of our day passes, cause we didn't think we were going to last very long. And we didn't. I took O and P down a few times. We saw Wes heading back to Corey with Peter's skis, and he gave me my phone (thanks Wes) and we kept skiing in the blizzard. 

It's much better in a blizzard if you use goggles. O didn't want goggles and he had snow on his hair and eyelashes. I was able to text Corey that O needed to use the bathroom again but that I tried but it was beyond my abilities to take two toddlers up the rope tow. He texted me this photo letting me know that he was stuck too...

WALSN were on the hill and he was with Peter, who had resorted to survival mode by playing dead. I told Owen he'd just have to hold it, and I was surprised he had to go again after all he had let loose just the hour before. But I didn't want to risk a mess... then O said he was ok and that he didn't have to go, then he REALLY did, and I was thinking of having him go behind a snow pile. Then all of a sudden I see my rescuer coming. Corey was skiing towards us sans poles waving his arms. I hurry up to be with Peter, who was being tended by Natalie.

She was done skiing. I went back to check on Corey. Kids were starting to come back. We had made it over 2 hours and they were ready to be done. Natalie had a birthday party that she wanted to make it too. "This is probably your last time skiing this season... you sure you don't want to go for one more run?" No, she was done. And soon the others were gathering by the elevator with us. 

I guess we'll call that a success and we'll also call it a day. Let's head home. You guys have proved that you are tough. 

Peter was awake now, so we took a group picture while we waited for Corey to come back with the car.

Loading up.

We all squeezed in the car. Peter watching Cars on Corey's phone.

It was good that there wasn't a lot of car traffic when we left, and it's so nice to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear. We don't have fear of driving in snow anymore! It's nice. Corey teased "I was just wanted you guys to learn that it's not fun to ski in a blizzard." "We learned that from last time that we skied in a blizzard! and the time before that! All we've done is ski in blizzards!" Then all of a sudden the sun was shining in the canyon. Perhaps we quit too early? Maybe we left right before it got beautiful. 

The kids were ok with that. And now they're done, and Corey and I are going to take a few ski trips on our own without any kids. I still have 2 days at Alta and one at Snowbird, so that will be fun for us to go, maybe we'll go next Friday while the kids have a date night "day" home alone to do homework and stuff. 

Feel Happy (if you want)

We have plans to go skiing tomorrow for one last time. Abi was complaining, she doesn't want to go.

Man, everything is a battle! Doing fun stuff - "I don't want to". If we're don't have any plans "I'm bored, why don't we do something?!" These kids! I talked with Nicole today - I shared with her some things from Jody Moore's podcast episode #256 "Happiness Fix" which I really liked. 

Some natural ways to get dopamine without sabotaging myself and my goals (via over eating) 

"The toughest battle you'll ever face is between what you feel and what you know." I also liked #44 - How to Make Your Husband Happy. I think that applies equally to How to make our KIDS happy! Bottom line is - YOU CAN'T. You can only control YOU, so work on you, be an example, and offer LOVE, offer a safe space for my kids to NOT be happy if they don't want to. Actually, I'm just going to type up some of the notes here, cause it's good stuff... Things I want to apply more to myself and my everyday life with these kids. It's ok for them to not want to go skiing. I can show love. It's ok to feel how they feel. Some notes from episode #44 that can apply to everyone we interact with:

Love - allowing people to be, do and feel as they wish. True Love - we love people exactly how they are. If my kids want to be grumpy, my love is a safe space for them. Sometimes I want to be grumpy and unhappy too. Sometimes I want to be stressed and frustrated or angry. The reason we want anything in life is for how we believe it will make us feel. Why do I want my kids to be happy? Because then I’ll feel like I’m doing a good job, that I am making a good home. Why do I want to feel like I’m doing a good job? Because I doubt myself, I see where I’m not doing good.

It’s always about emotions. That’s not selfish that’s just humanity that’s how we operate as human beings. "Because then I will feel better." Grumpy - tired - withdrawn - not available emotionally - difficult to be around...  I spin in my thoughts and worry "I should do something to help, I should do something to change him and how he feels... it’s my job to help. NO. All that "meaning" that we ascribe to our husband's or our children's feelings makes us feel bad, so we really want them to change to make us feel better. Trying to manage our husbands or children’s feelings is not helpful. Do they want to feel better? The last thing people need is for someone to try and talk them out of how they are feeling. It’s OK to be angry. Ask them "Do you want to feel better?" If not, then we can’t help anyway! Do you want to any help from me? In some cases they want help from others but not from me. Coach yourself  - pay attention to why I am what I am thinking and believing before I try to help others. How can I get to a place of peace? What am I worried, upset, stressed about anyway? Work? Drama? Family? Kids ?Am I just tired? Frustrated? Is it just the day-to-day challenges of life? "When you have kids it’s like a bird pecking at your head nonstop..." (HA!!) Find empowered thinking, coach yourself. Where do other's feeling come from? From what they're thinking. Where do MY feelings come from? From what I'M thinking! Release yourself from the obligation to control others thinking and feelings. We can offer love. LOVE works for almost every situation. LOVE without need for reciprocity or acceptance of my love. LOVE with empathy listening, and support. LOVE without conditions, expectations, or requirements.

Good stuff!

Above The Line

A few weeks ago in a Sunday School zoom breakout session, a ward member shared that his wife's parent's family had this thing on their fridge called "Above the Line" and how you want to keep your feelings and emotions above the line. I finally got around to texting him today to see if they have a picture of it that they could text to me. But in the mean time, I googled around and made my own version (bottom left) and also found this cool behavioral thing that I liked (bottom right) and so I put them on our fridge. 

Above the line are the Christ-like and Godly characteristics and attributes that we all want to develop. I put them on the fridge in hopes of helping ease the sibling rivalry and pecking order around here. But then it turned out helping me this past week (pms) when I was being very critical of myself and blaming myself for things. I want to learn to get my thinking right (belief box) and I want to stay above the line. So this is a good visual for us. I'm hoping to learn more of how to put it into practice. As Pres Nelson imagined us saying in Oct 2019 "This sounds wonderful, but how do I do it?" Hopefully I can learn a little bit of the how soon.

Today I dropped off Hyrum at frontrunner. He's almost all grown up *sniff* and off and doing independent stuff!  

He stayed home from school today to pack and then caught the 2:30 train to Provo where he was meeting up with Joseph and other Moxie fellas and they were going to Southern Utah for a pre-selling season retreat. They also had a retreat at Bear Lake and went skiing a few months ago - all paid for by Moxie (hmmm, something tells me that we might are overpaying for our pest control...) But the Elm Seed bugs seem to be gone, and Joseph and Hyrum are set up with a promising summer of selling, so I guess it was good that we signed up so that Joseph could network with Daniel. He was a nice guy. 

Natalie has a few playdates set up this week (I usually always feel a little weird texting and asking for my kids to play... the concept of playdates is a bit weird to me as an 80s kid) - Her friend Emma came over today - They got all make-up'd and dressed up for a tea party.

Tomorrow a friend August is coming over, and then on Saturday she has a birthday party. With all the fun Natalie has been having, she has been avoiding practicing her violin, so these will be her last playdates for a while. It's Thursday and she has not practiced yet. Corey started paying Abi $1 for every 30 minutes of practice, and is also giving her $5 if her teacher is amazed and gives her an A+ for her lesson grade. Sophi and Natalie are practicing for cash now too, and Sophia is very motivated and she's doing great, getting all A's from her teacher and from me for her practice sessions. Natalie doesn't care about money, so we're also going to start to impose a $1 if you don't practice at all fine for the girls. With that and a threat of no playdates, I think that it should help Natalie have a better practice week next week. Last night she and her brothers were doing the sundown runaround - running everywhere. 

Then they changed their attire to dark clothing and started playing spies. Natalie made a computer lap top out of paper, and they were making their spy mission plan. It is fun to see them be creative and play.

Yesterday was also parent teacher zoom conferences for the elementary kids over zoom. I like online conferences much better than in person. Logistically it's just a lot easier and less stressful. They are all doing well and I hope to help them do better and be prepared to know how to do homework and stay on top of life when they get to Jr. high and high school and their workloads get heavier. Also last night, Lily went outside for something and then started yelling at all of us to come out at see the moon - It was pretty cool and I think it could be a moment of awe that gets etched in their childhood memories, so this was the night that happened, Lil, that it looked so cool behind the clouds and it seemed like we could see it moving!

I remember watching lightening storms from our front room window when I was a kid and loving the sound of thunder. Also having my dad show us things with his telescope was fun. It's good  to pause and enjoy nature when we can.

Books and Journals

Peter came with us to violin yesterday. He was very good and sat quietly and read books most of the time, and I'm very glad that he has not destroyed any of Miss Amy's books (that I am aware of)...

It's a different story at home. I recently ordered some new Cars books for Peter: 2 Seek and Find books and one Collection of Cars stories. He has destroyed 1 of the seek and find books (but I'm keeping the hard bound cover on his shelf cause it's got a nice picture of McQueen and Mater.) The collection book is ruined but not totally destroyed. It's currently on my shelf to see if I want to hot glue and tape it together again. And I am hiding the last seek and find book from him. 

That is a different Pixar collection book that you see destroyed above him in the picture above. Aww, but he's just so darn stinkin' cute! But I do not plan on buying any more books for him until he learns some proper book ettiquette. Maybe he gets it from seeing how his siblings treat some of their books. Natalie ripped out a few pages of her bullet Journal and said she wants to start over and get a new one, and I was totally bummed cause I thought was so cute!

I might try to tape it up and put it in a sheet protector in her scrapbook.

Or maybe this photo will just have to be it's memorial: "It's me agin. I'm telling you about me giting baptis. I'm gitin baptis next year. I'm 7 and in 2nd grade. I go to school in granit elimentry caneyns school discert. My teacher is Miss Walker. her rell name is Leeanne. She is so nice and I'm so exsided to git baptis so I can have my own Book of Mormen."

When the kids are baptized, there is a tradition of the bishopric gifting them a hard blue cover Book of Mormon with their name engraved on it. She already has several Books of Mormon... ("Book of Mormons?" She actually has 4. She did something to some books recently that I didn't like, but her heart was in the right place. And it was something that she had seen me do. She wrote her name on some of the NEW Book(s) of Mormon(s) that I bought for us that I DIDN'T want anyone's names written on the side... 

I don't think any of these are the one she was working on in April 2020... But Natalie, I like the diligence and the habit you're is aspiring to acquire. She stayed home from school yesterday (said her tummy hurt) and she was trying to help Owen and Daniel stop teasing and fighting each other by sitting them down to read the scriptures with her. ...but FIRST they needed their own book and a highlighter! So she got one for Owen and Daniel and Peter so that they could all have their own Book of Mormon too... Owen chose to highlight in orange, Daniel chose yellow... And then Owen wanted to write his own name himself. And then Owen wanted to do Peter's, and then he kept doing Peter's cause he kept messing it up... and don't think they ever got around to reading but when I found them they had prepared a dozen new books and marked them up on all the sides... Five of them for Peter. Daniel has two, Owen had 4, two on his desk and two extra in this stack here, which are the books that the rest of us will be using when we get out books for scriptures. 

Usually Corey brings up the scriptures online on the computer and casts it to the big screen for us to read. But we've got these ready when we need them. It looks like Peter's got a lot of work to do. I hope he learns how to read quickly so he can get started. Here we are gathered in the side room for scriptures.

Daniel was feeling feisty toward Hyrum as usual... Hyrum trying to show that he's a nice guy and has done absolutely nothing wrong that could have possibly bring Daniel's wrath upon him. But D is mad anyway. Watch out Hyrum! Corey has started a weekly kid highlight where we each say something nice about a kid. Tonight we went around and each shared things that we love about Natalie. 

I love that she is so diligent in her scripture reading. And it's ok that her journals and books come and go. I am the same way. I have a whole shelf of notebooks that I've bought for different purposes, most of which were not finished and have not fulfilled the measure of their creation. I found this small one that I did in 2012, re-started in 2016, I had some good nuggets in there.

I'm restarting again now. I want to keep a record of all the ways I see the Lord's hand in our life. 

February Family Feast

We had our Anniversary/Love/Valentine's Day/February Family Feast today. Last Sunday (Valentine's Day) might have been a more appropriate day, but we had just gotten home late the night before from our little anniversary-get-away-turned-family-ski-trip to Jackson Hole. So we were in a bit of recovery mode. Today was a good back up day for our feast. Abi and Lily were my helpers and they did a splendid job. I had them pose for a few pictures before Corey got back home with all the kids -

Lots of pink food - Salmon, roasted red potatoes, mashed potatoes, beet salad, red grapes, lots of pink desserts, pink and purple and white flowers everywhere - 

Abi made the mashed potatoes and we put a little bit of beet juice in from my roasted beets, that was fun! Beets have such a pretty and vibrant color! I love it

Corey took the kids over to his parents house from like 2-5 so we could get everything ready. We told them to go get dressed up and then we could eat. Natalie is excited about the dessert tower!

Hyrum was smart and just stayed in his church clothes. He had mission prep at 2:30 and headed over to Corey's parents after that, around 3:45, even though he knew they were all coming back soon. We had a fun surprise when Joseph walked in the door! Around 2pm I thought "Bummer! We should have invited Joseph up!" and then lucky for us, Corey had already thought of that and told him. He cleaned up a little while we girls finished cooking and decorating. Everyone ready for the feast to begin. The girl's side (and Daniel... Lily had to rearrange the place seating when Joseph showed up)

Boy's side - 

Peter was excited about the berries in cream and didn't wait for us to give thanks. 

A few pretty pictures of our place settings - china that we got for our wedding from Corey's grandmother. We still have a few pieces that are not broken, although there is a crack or chip in many of them.

I love this balsamic beet and citrus salad...

Fine dining... seeing which kids pass the test. Joseph gets a point.

Owen putting salt on his brownie. He didn't make a mess though, so maybe we'd be willing to bring him to a restaurant.

Peter enjoying more desserts. 

This is a simple and do-able tradition that I'm hoping we will keep. I thought we'd done this every year but I might have missed a few... 2013 was our first family dinner, 2014 we had monthly parties that were over the top, 2015 was a decent showing... 2016 was good... (note to self, always get a group photo of the kids), 2017 Corey and I were in San Diego, in 2018 a snowstorm cancelled my last minute fancy dinner plans. Looks like I didn't do a family meal in 2019, but that's ok cause I had a one month old infant. Corey and I did get a night away. 2020 we did a fancy breakfast (I wish I had found that post first cause it has all the links I just posted above which I had to search for and find). Ok, well anyway. I've added this to my calendar to have a Family February Anniversary Feast sometime around valentine's day and our anniversary. It will be a little family feast celebrating the month that Corey and I were married and the month that we had our first kiss (19 Feb 1995) and the month that we were married in the temple. We watched our wedding video as part of our tradition tonight. I wonder if all these little people's spirits were there celebrating with us that day. It was an important day for all of us. It was the day our eternal family began. I'm grateful for my belief in the promise that because of Jesus Christ and temple, we can be together forever.

Siblings

We had a little talk tonight about sibling rivalry and the pecking order. 

The kids don't fight a ton, but it's still more than I'd like. Hyrum and Wes get along pretty well, but Wes and Abi are picking fights, Abi and Lily a lot, Lily Sophi and Natalie get along pretty well, they call themselves "The Three Sisters" which might explain why Abi feels left out, not that she wants to play down to them, but Abi says that Lily turns Sophi and Natalie against here, Owen and Daniel laugh and play and then fight and cry in a constant loop... Sigh. But I trust that they will be friends when they leave our house. Mel and Ethan get a long great now. The older 5 are all good friends. I had the usual squabbles with my siblings when I was growing up and we're all pals now. So I know that this is all just a normal part of childhood. But we'll still try to teach them a better way. From President Russell M. Nelson in his talk "A Plea To My Sisters" - 

"Attacks against the Church, its doctrine, and our way of life are going to increase. Because of this, we need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ and who will use that understanding to teach and help raise a sin-resistant generation." 

Wow, the idea of raising a sin resistant generation, how do we do that? This talk by Sister Joy Jones - "A Sin Resistant Generation" - wow... how to we help our children catch that vision? Service, love, selflessness, overcoming trails, encouraging one another... this is a topic I will study more.

22 Years

For our Anniversary, Corey and I went out to eat, twice! Going out to lunch was my idea. We went out to lunch at Wasatch Broiler and Grill, which was very nice. 

And then we went out to dinner at Tuscany. Corey had a card for me, and flowers, and chocolates and he is wonderful and it was a nice day even without having a ski weekend get away that we had planned. Corey took a picture of us at Tuscany, I'll need to get it from him. I think that restaurant would make a lovely layout for a house. 

Back at home with the kids, we gathered for prayer and scriptures and a little bit of laughter watching some Studio C videos.

They were laughing, and Corey wasn't watching it but said he liked watching them watch it. So then I went to get a picture of his view -

Where were all these little souls 22 years ago on the day Corey and I got married? 

I'm guessing they were there in spirit, and we are thankful that they are here in physical form now and a part of our lives. And for history's sake and for fun, here are our anniversaries of the past 22 years, atleast what my research has let me find so far:

1999 - Marriage - Honeymoon at the Homestead in Midway, Utah (Dinner at the Lion House)

2000 - 1 Year, went Blue Boar Inn in Midway, Utah (Dinner at the Roof and the Blue Boar Inn)

2001 - 2 years, went to the Worldmark resort at Wolf Creek in Eden, Ogden Canyon, Utah

2002 - 3 years - Pepperdine Weekend at Malibu, California (Corey was there being recruited for his MBA so we turned it into a trip)

2003 - 4 years - Wharton Visit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and trip to Washington DC

2004 - 5 years - Homestead in Midway, Utah (trying to relive that first night)

2005 - 6 years - Hotel Monaco at Salt Lake City, Utah (Dinner at the Roof)

2006 - 7 years - JW Marriott and Teotihuacan in Mexico City, Mexico

2007 - 8 years, Barao Geraldo Chacara in Campinas, Sao Paulo Brazil. We had just moved to Brazil for our first adventure and Corey spent the day looking for a car with a friend, and I spent it with his wife learning Portuguese. 

2008 - 2010 - undocumented here on the blog, so sad. We were living in Sandy in the Crosswood house at the time... him, I'll have to go break out the scrapbooks to remember what we did.

2011 - 12 years - in Chile, took little Abi to the ER after getting her finger slammed in a door by the wind in our windy apartment.

2012 - 13 years - Skiing and The Roof with baby Sophi

2013 - 14 years - a romantic dinner for 10, went to Park City, kids stayed with Corey's parents, bought red flower framed pictures.

2014 - 15 years - Skiing at Solitude

2015 - 16 years - Dinner at the Garden Restaurant, Night at Grand America

2016 - 17 years and a quote from the Proclamation on the Family, Corey and I took a little early anniversary trip to Hawaii, in Feb we had our anniversary family dinner

2017 - 18 years - I uploaded our wedding video to Youtube, went to San Diego and Tijuana

2018 - 19 years of family pictures, big snow storm on our anniversary

2019 - 20 years - Grand America with baby Peter and night skiing at Brighton. I made a list of 12 kids, 10 moves, 7 cars, 4 countries, and 2500+ blog posts

2020 - Bed and Breakfast fail, then Hotel Monaco, family breakfast feast, 21 years and a little trivia

2021 - Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee anniversary Ski Trip turned Family ski trip, Wasatch Broiler for lunch, Tuscany for dinner, family dinner

Kids Help With Dinner

Over the weekend we assigned a day for kids to help out with dinner. Lily and Sophi made dinner today - they made a bean dip and some simple 3 ingredient cookies. 

I don't want us to have dessert everyday, so I'm going to have to learn how to tame that excitement to make treats. I'll try to let them every once in a while. But the main goal here is that they will learn how to make some simple meals. Maybe we can make a little "family recipes" book for when they fly the nest. 

I've been reading a book "Naturally Thin" by Bethenny Frankel and she shares 10 rules to live by to become naturally thin (reposted below with a few notes/comments from that link) - I hope to start to apply these to myself and our family:

1. Your diet is like a bank account.
2. You can have it all, just not all at once.
3. Taste everything, eat nothing. 
4. Pay attention. Notice what you are eating. When you eat, eat. Don’t eat while doing something else, because you won’t get the satisfaction out of your food and you’ll end up eating more than you realize.
5. Downsize now. Eat less. Portions are out of control in this country. We have no idea what a normal serving looks like any more, especially when it comes to restaurant food. Plates are often generous enough to serve a family. I was shocked and amazed when I first learned that the typical bagel is equal to four slices of bread!
6. Cancel your membership in the clean plate club. Nobody is going to slap your hand with a ruler if you don’t finish it all. Let it go. Pay attention to how you feel. When you have had enough, stop. This can be a real struggle, especially if you’ve been raised to believe that wasting food is wrong because, “There are starving children in the world.” But, the truth is that “cleaning your plate” is an illogical solution, since it does nothing to eradicate starvation and only hurts you. Remember, “It’s better to waste than to waist."
7. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Don’t binge. Never, ever again. Again, this is easier said than done if you are a binge eater, which Bethenny acknowledges, and she suggests that if you have an eating disorder, it would be wise to seek professional help. And if you are an emotional eater or if years have dieting have left you with a fear of certain foods, it’s important to remember that food is not the enemy and it is not your best friend. It is just food.
8. Know thyself. Forget about what all the “experts” say and pay attention to you. Become your own expert. Learn. Study your likes, dislikes, tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. What are the triggers that cause you to overeat? Are there certain foods that cause you to lose all control? What are your biggest food challenges?
9. Get real. Eat more real food and less process stuff. It’s healthier and more satisfying. Focus on eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins. Think local, seasonal and organic when you can. But be realistic. Sometimes processed food will be the best or only option and that’s fine.
10. Good for you. Take care of yourself. Invest in yourself. Do what’s right for you, what’s healthy for you, what’s good for you. Exercise. Drink lots of water. Take a vitamin. Get enough sleep. Build a firm foundation of good health and self care and you can do anything.

Last night for dinner I made some grilled panini sandwiches, they were pretty good. I made two kinds - BBQ mozarella and mozzarella and tomato I made some panini's for dinner on Monday. On Monday we assigned each of the kids a day to make dinner. Abi did Wednesday - she made a potato bar. It's one of our simple basic meals.

Some of our default meals are: potato bar, taco bar, salad bar, spaghetti, and we'll also make sure they each know how to cook up the frozen meals from Costco that are our regulars: orange chicken, chicken alfredo, meat pie and shephard's pie, and pizza, 

It snowed yesterday, a good amount. The elementary kids had a snowday, which now just meant it was an online day - sweet! I thought that worked out perfectly. W and H stayed home too, cause they didn't want to drive the fiesta in the snow.  The kids had fun playing in it and sledding. There's one more month of winter and we finally got some deep snow! We need it.

Other news - Mel got her last vaccine needed for her Visa application to Brazil.

The clouds last night were beautiful - I took this quick picture after running to Smith's for a few ingredients for Abi's salad bar. I thought it looked like the perfect cloud for Jesus to come back in -

Peter saying prayer last night. 

I did watch the Mars Rover landing for a little bit today. The kids were at school and they didn't mention anything about it after they got home, so I'm guessing they didn't watch it there. Today I also bought another thing to try and help my weight and digestion - I ordered Activated You's "Morning Complete". It has a 90 day satisfaction guarantee, so we'll see how I feel come May. I'm still listening to the Naturally Thin Podcast and am working on overcoming my food brain.