January zipped by in a blink. Wait, did I actually just say that?! Somehow I made it through January without even feeling like I was "making it through." I blame nice, clear air, the returning light, and a warm escape. Here's what the month looked like:
Celebrating . . . Christmas on New Year's Day. We had to postpone my family's piano Christmas party due to illness, so we didn't get together until New Year's Day. Most of us performed a Christmas song on the piano, and there were even a couple of numbers on the ukulele and trombone/baritone. The little grandkids played "pass the present." We had a soup bar and ate Christmas treats. And there were even a few presents exchanged. My sister-in-law, Meagan, gave me such a thoughtful gift: she knew that I'd read (and loved) Gretchen Rubin's Life in Five Senses, so she gave me a collection of small gifts based on the senses. It was really sweet. I gave my mom a pair of socks I'd knitted and also the little embroidered cardinal ornament (see last month). I gave my dad a box full of yarn that I'm going to turn into a cardigan for him. And Mike made my brother a beautiful frame from the wood he got from my grandpa. We were lucky to have all of my family at the party, and it was such a nice way to wrap up the holiday season.
Introducing . . . the children in our neighborhood to their new teachers at church. At the beginning of the year, all of the kids in our ward move up to the next class in primary. Teachers usually get shuffled around a bit as well. So we had a breakfast on the first Saturday of the new year, so that everyone could get to know each other in a more casual way before church on Sunday. We had a cereal bar, muffins, and juice, and then each class acted out a story from The Book of Mormon. It was a fun morning.
Advancing . . . in the offices of the priesthood. Aaron was ordained a priest and Maxwell was ordained a teacher. This means we now have an elder, priest, teacher, and deacon in our home, which is kind of amazing.
Turning . . . another year older. The official countdown to 40 has begun! That exclamation point is maybe a slight exaggeration of how I actually feel, but I do have some fun ideas for how to mark this last year in my 30's, which I'll share in a future post. As to the actual day, it happened to fall on a Fast Sunday, which ended up being kind of miserable for me (sadly, I did not have the best attitude). But that meant that dinner tasted all the sweeter; Mike made clam chowder and biscuits and a yummy cheese sauce and roasted butternut squash and then a rich, dense, fudgy chocolate cake for dessert.
Making . . . memories in Florida. We took Aaron, Maxwell, and Bradley to Orlando, Florida, and we had the time of our lives. We went to Disney World, Universal Studios (Harry Potter), the Kennedy Space Center, and on an airboat tour. I am working on a whole post to really capture all the details, but it truly was a near-perfect vacation, and we loved every minute of it.
Missing . . . his family something fierce. Silas had a really hard time while we were gone to Florida. He has always been extremely partial to his immediate family, and so I anticipated some hard times. Mike's mom watched the kids for the first three days, and my mom watched them for the last three. Luckily, Silas slept fine at night, and he was okay during the day when Clark was home. But when Clark left for school, he cried and cried. He often hid in a cupboard or under a desk or just wanted to be in his bed. It was so sad, and I felt quite guilty for leaving him (but I also was so grateful for the time with my big boys, so it was a tradeoff for sure). We got home at midnight, so he was already in bed, and the next morning, Mike got him when he woke up and brought him to me. He curled up next to my side and laid perfectly still. He took big, shaky breaths. He seemed to be between sleep and awake, and it was as if he was scared to fully wake up in case it was all a dream. For the rest of the day, he kept counting heads: Mommy, Daddy, Aaron, Max, Bradley, making sure we hadn't gone anywhere. Sweet little guy. (And sweet grandmas for taking care of him.)
Getting . . . to be an engineer (again). For the past three years, Mike has been a manager at the company he works for. As the months went by, he became more and more tired of the endless meetings and missed the hands-on work and problem solving of engineering. When he was approached by a different company last summer and offered a job as a research engineer, he realized that if he could just have that position but at his current company, that would basically be his dream job. So he went to his bosses, told them about the offer, and asked if he could leave management and be a research engineer instead. They agreed but said it would take time before things could be rearranged. That was six months ago. So imagine Mike's surprise when he walked into work the week after we got back from our vacation, and there was a contract for him to sign to go back to being an engineer. It has been the happiest change for him. It is like the light is back in his eyes. He no longer dreads going to work, and he is spending his days doing things he loves.
Falling . . . in love with skiing. Clark's fourth grade class went on a ski trip. Clark had never been skiing before, but he was excited to try. After we picked up his rental skis the night before, he strapped them on and tried them out on the snow in the front yard. He said, "I loved it so much, so I know I'm going to have fun tomorrow!" And he did. It snowed all day, but it didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm. They divided the kids by ability, so he was in the lowest group, and it was great for him to get very basic instruction. He did get to do one actual run at the end, which he was thrilled about. And now I have to figure out what we're going to do (if anything) with this newfound love.
Weaning . . . Silas. We went to Florida two weeks before Silas' second birthday. I knew that this break would be the end of nursing him, and it broke my heart. I wasn't ready, but I also knew it was time, if that makes sense. Silas was definitely my hardest child to breastfeed. Between laryngomalacia, a tongue tie and lip tie, and mastitis, it was a rough beginning. And even after those things were resolved, he still rarely nursed for longer than two minutes at a time. But he still always wanted to do it, and I loved the time to hold him. Luckily, he is my best snuggler and cuddler, and that hasn't changed even now that he is no longer nursing. He asked for milk for about four days after we got back, but I told him it was all gone. Nursing has been one of my favorite things with each of my boys, and weaning each of them has been one of the saddest, hardest things. What a privilege it's been to get to do it at all.
Learning . . . how to play the ukulele. My dad taught Aaron and Bradley how to play the ukulele several years ago. At the time, Maxwell had little interest in it, but when all the uke players performed a song at the Nielsen Christmas party (see above), he felt left out. Although he has played the piano since he was quite small, his love of music wasn't ignited until sixth grade when he started to play the saxophone, and now music is one of the things that fills his soul. He wanted to learn how to play the ukulele, and my dad was only too happy to oblige. Passing on his love for this instrument is one of his favorite things. They've been having the best time getting together for weekly lessons, and Max has been catching on quickly.
Singing . . . happy birthday. Silas is a big fan of birthdays. He loves singing "Happy Birthday," blowing out candles, unwrapping presents, and eating cake and ice cream. To finally have it be his own turn for the celebrations was a dream come true. He had candy in his birthday bucket, doughnuts for breakfast, french fries for lunch, pizza for dinner, and chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. That pretty much sums up the kind of food he wants to eat every day, unfortunately. Mike made his cake and used one of Silas' favorite books, Don't Wake Up the Tiger, as inspiration. He nailed it. It was a bit sad to have to cut into it. Silas didn't make it through all of his presents on his actual birthday. Every present was exciting to him, and he totally forgot he even had more presents to open because he was happily distracted with whatever he had just opened. Favorite presents included candy (obviously), playdoh, a ukulele, toy fish that swims around, and two little dogs that look like his cousins' dog, Molly. Because the present opening last over so many days, I never got my traditional photo of him with all his presents. My favorite moment of the day though was when we lit his candles and he started enthusiastically singing "Happy Birthday" to himself before energetically blowing on the candles (without a lot of success until Grandpa Paul covertly helped him out with a focused stream of air). We love this little guy so much. Such a joy to celebrate him.
Volunteering . . . in Ian's class.One of my goals for the new year was to find a time to regularly volunteer in Ian's class. I just really felt like I needed to have a better idea of his classroom dynamic and get to know the kids he hangs out with. So I contacted his teacher and asked if she could use a weekly volunteer. She had the perfect thing for me: helping with Power Hour on Friday afternoons. I could easily fit it into my week, and I get to work with all of the kids every time I go. First graders are so enthusiastic and eager, and it's just been a delight to spend time with them and to watch Ian in his element.
Testing . . . a knitting pattern. Knitwear designers will typically have several people test their new pattern before it is officially released to make sure everything is as clear and accurate as possible. I have never done a test knit before, but my friend, Emily, is a designer, and when I saw her new scarf pattern (Mill Hollow Scarf), I jumped at the chance to test it. It is a narrow scarf with a beautiful lace panel that runs up the middle of it with panels of garter stitch on either side. It uses just one skein of fingering weight yarn, which is perfect for me since I tend to buy single skeins when I am visiting new yarn stores and then I don't know what to do with them. I don't think there are very many knitters who read this blog, but I highly recommend this pattern if you're one! Besides the scarf, I also made a pair of Valentine socks (this pattern was also by Emily) and a Musselburgh Hat (which had been on my needles for months). I also started knitting a cardigan for my dad.
Crashing . . . on the way to school. My kids ride the bus to school. They get on the bus at the last stop, cross one busy road, and are at school within five minutes. But one morning, just as they turned off the busy road, the back end of the bus skimmed a parked car. Another bus had to be called to pick up all the kids (even though they could have literally walked to school at that point), and they made it to school a bit late, but saying they "crashed" on the way to school is a bit of an exaggeration.
Kicking . . . off 2024 with a few good books:
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson (Max and I struck a deal, and reading this book was my payment to him. I ended up liking it quite a bit and will hopefully get to the other ones in the series.)
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (I forgot how much I liked this one; fun readaloud with Clark and Ian)
Atomic Habits by James Clear (I've been meaning to read this one for forever; totally my kind of book)
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (I really liked the way the plot developed with this one, but ultimately, I did not like the book, and I found our book club discussion profoundly depressing)
Mexikid by Pedro MartÃn (This won a Newbery Honor this month, and it gets my hearty stamp of approval. A multi-generational road trip memoir that made me laugh out loud many times.)
Receiving . . . some much needed snow. The snow finally arrived this winter, and we all rejoiced. I'm not a huge fan of snow, but this is how Utah gets most of its moisture for the year, so the more snow pack, the better. Lucky for me, a lot of this month's snow came while we were in Florida, so I got to miss a bunch of it. Bradley is also not a winter lover. He insists on wearing his crocs (maybe in protest?) even when it's snowing, and I had to laugh when he got home one day and took off his snow-laden crocs. Kids are funny.
Reacclimatizing . . . Silas to my parents. Silas became very distrustful of my parents (my mom in particular) after our Florida trip. So we spent the rest of the month doing our version of exposure therapy. Silas and I went to their house where he got to eat macaroni with Angela and feed their guinea pig. My mom also came to our house and we went on a walk (he was very resistant to this). Hopefully, we can repair this relationship that took quite a hit when Silas was missing us so much.
Watching . . . The Boys in the Boat. Our friends had some free tickets (courtesy of their brother because the company he works for had rented out the entire theater). We had been wanting to see this movie for several weeks, and it was so fun to go with friends. It has been years since I read the book, but the story was just as inspiring as I remembered, and now I want to reread it!
Listening . . . to Silas singing. This is one of my greatest joys. I have never had a child sing so much and so well at this age. It is truly a treat. He knows so many songs, and will attempt to sing along even on songs he doesn't know. He hums to himself during the day and makes up little ditties. One of the highlights of his week is when we have Family Home Evening and each choose a song to sing. We sing "I am a Child of God" when we're putting him to bed, and he always sings along and can now sing the whole song by himself. I should keep a running list of his favorite songs because it's just so cute. This month, he loved Heigh Ho and High Hopes, which cracked me up: two songs with very similar titles but very different vibes.
Getting . . . started on my 2024 goal. As I already alluded to earlier in this post, I am doing a little countdown to my fortieth birthday, which involves doing forty things with forty different people. I'll share more about this later, but I've already started planning and executing various activities, and it's been such fun. My first official outing was with my friend, Beth (one of my oldest and dearest friends). Our birthdays are a mere three days apart, and we celebrated by going out to dinner at a gluten-free restaurant (SpudToddos). Beth has celiacs, so this was the perfect place to eat out, and we all enjoyed it very much. If you have something you'd like to do with me during this year of 40, let me know! It can be in person or virtual.
Finishing . . . out a great season of basketball. Clark played with a whole team of friends, which is basically a dream come true for him. He had so much fun, played with so much energy, and even got brave and took a few shots.
Being . . . chosen for student of the month. Maxwell's science teacher nominated him for this award. Several kids in each grade get it every month, so it isn't terribly exclusive, but it was still a nice acknowledgment of Max's hard work. Both his science teacher and his math teacher said really nice things about him. There was a little breakfast before school to honor the students of the month.
Seeing . . . crystal clear. Max mentioned that he hadn't been able to see as well lately, so we got him an eye appointment, and sure enough, he needed glasses. The first time he put them on, he was so amazed with how sharp everything was. He looks quite scholarly in his glasses.
Ending . . . the month with some amazing spring-like weather. All the kids in the neighborhood were out playing together, and it was so nice. We know it's just a little teaser, but we liked it just the same.
