Easter and General Conference Weekend

Easter fell on the Sunday of General Conference this year.

The Saturday of Conference, April 4, was Vitamin C Day so our Conference Nachos had green bell peppers and salsa and we drank juice with Vitamin C.

A sister from our ward stopped by between sessions and gave us some rice crispy treats as an Easter treat.

That Sunday, April 5, was Caramel Day so some family members had hot cocoa with caramel syrup in it.

There was plenty about Easter during General Conference. Wonderful talks.

I don't know how many times during Conference this time that a speaker would mention a piece of music in their talk (hymn or children's song) or read lyrics and immediately someone in our home would start humming it. Sometimes it was even me. I love that.

We love to emphasize the Savior on Easter Sunday then it's okay to have a little Easter Bunny fun the next day. We usually do an Easter egg hunt for FHE.

For our lesson, Jr. Jr. led us in one more scripture and thought for Holy Week. For our treat and activity, the kids hunted Easter eggs and we ate candy.

Earlier in the day, the boys cleaned and vacuumed the living room without being asked. Thank you, boys. By the time the Easter Bunny came, there were things all over. Eh, more places for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs. We didn't even bother to pick up a blanket that was on the floor. Eggs were just hidden there. Ha Ha. Nobody complained.

Since Monday, April 6, was Carbonara Day, that's what we had for dinner that night before the egg hunt.

A Winter Poem

Poetry's not really my strong suit... at all. But I want free hot cocoa from the library so I will attempt to write a poem about the wintertime.

Here we go. Ahem. (Clear's throat)

 

Snow Falls and Melts by Kristin Telford

Snow falls

Creates stillness

In a chaotic world

For a moment

There is peace

Snow melts

Creates chaos

In a peaceful world 

No longer

Is it still 

Polar Express Party

Annual Polar Express Party!

Every year is fun listening to Jeremy read The Polar Express to us. Sometimes he gets silly. Sometimes we join in with the silliness. One year, Nichole and Jr. even provided the soundtrack to the book reading.

This year apparently a dinosaur attacked during the reading so the little boy in the book had to fight the dinosaur in order to receive the first gift of Christmas.

Because of this we watched very closely for signs of dinosaurs while watching the movie. We heard some a few times but didn't see any.

We had some Land O' Lakes Cocoa Classics at the appropriate time. Yumm. "Hot Chocolate!" 

We love this tradition.

Busy Week

It has been a busy week. We got a new mattress and box spring for our room so we had to get rid of the old ones and get the new ones in there. I had some helpers and "helpers."

 

Sure, Mommy, I'll help you organize things in your room. 

Hold me. 

Read me a story (or three). 

Blow bubbles. 

Oh, you've only got 20-something minutes left on the dryer. I'll push the power button then push random buttons and start it again. 

More books! 

I'll help you sort through clothes... by throwing them on the floor.

You mean you wanted to put the clothes in here?

Selfies!

Let's play dress up.

Hold me more.

I'll help you, too. 

Watch me juggle. 

See what I brought home from school?

I'll help you.

Monkeys jumping on the bed for National Monkey Day, December 14. I gave them strict instructions not to fall off and bump their heads.

Thank you, all my helpers.

Once the old mattress was gone, the kids wanted to play with Nichole's old dog toy since there was so much space before putting the new mattress in. The dog chases the ball around which they gave to Jet so the dog chased him around.

Then we got the new mattress in our room so there was room on the living room floor again.

 

Monday, December 13, was Violin Day. Nichole played violin. It was also Cocoa Day. Some family members drank cocoa.

 

Also this week the kids had a "snow day." Because of the weather overnight, the school district canceled school Wednesday. Well, sort of. They made it a "distance learning day," which means the kids still had schoolwork to do, they just did it from home. Remember when schools were shut down for the end of the 2019-2020 school year? The kids had to do all their schoolwork at home. Gone are the days of actual "snow days" when the kids have a free day to play in the snow at home. Now they can have a full day of school at home, which means an actual full day because the kids are all trying to share the computer and it takes so long.

President Nelson came out with a video on Thursday encouraging us to find personal ways to "help others experience the light of Jesus Christ this Christmas." It made me feel like I needed to try again to #LightTheWorld better even with being so busy. So I looked at the calendar for December 16 and made food to give to someone before running errands that evening. It felt good.

Saturday, December 18, is Maple Syrup Day so the kids made waffles and had syrup with them. It is also Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. Jr. wore what he wore to his last concert. His orchestra was performing at an end of the semester assembly. The high school and the junior high encouraged people to wear Christmas sweaters that day. 

Pictures and Not Pictures

Sometimes you feel like taking pictures of your celebrating, of the food you eat. Sometimes you don't. So often I have pictures of food because a lot of celebrating revolves around the menu plan. I didn't feel like taking a lot of pictures of food this last week so I didn't. So here you go- pictures and not pictures.

 

Thursday, January 28, was National Blueberry Pancake Day. We celebrated it "observed" and had blueberry pancakes the day before. Yumm. One response from Jr. Jr. was, "You should definitely make these again, Mom." Thanks, Jr. Jr., there are plenty of blueberries in the freezer. I think I shall. I made both blueberry and plain pancakes as some of the family members weren't as enthusiastic about the blueberries (I love berries myself).

I shouldn't be surprised that Jr. Jr. loved the pancakes. In years past, he's loved picking and eating blueberries at my parents' house.

 

Friday, January 29, was National Corn Chip Day. Since we have a bigger family now than way back when we first started making taco soup for this holiday, we don't celebrate "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top" holiday anymore. We have to make a smaller batch since we don't have enough freezer space for the extra. When talking about preparing for the holiday, Jeremy was mentioning other things we could fill the stock pot with instead of taco soup. I had to let him know the holiday was actually National Corn Chip Day not Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day. Ohhhhhh. So this year I tried a new taco soup recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It was good.

Since January 29 is also National Puzzle Day, Jr. put on music from video games that have puzzles, especially "Puzzle Plank Galaxy" music from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 

Saturday, we picked up prizes for doing Provo Library's Winter Reading Program. The completion prize for the teens and adults was a cocoa mug that says, "book. cocoa. sweater. repeat." Love it. 

Now I have two Provo City Library mugs. Jeremy and I each got one almost 20 years ago (whoa that's a long time) as a thank you when we did a show there. One of our many shows we've done over the years. It was probably a juggling show. We only have one of those left so it's fun to have new mugs from the library.

Anyway... we also earned packets of hot cocoa as another prize so we were able to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on Sunday, January 31,trying out our new mugs and cocoa.

The younger boys had fun with their prizes as well. Jr. Jr. and Lucky both got marshmallows that they were able to put in their hot chocolate- correction, they got marshmallows their marshmallow/snowball(?) plushies were able to throw in their hot chocolate.

 

 

By the way, I have to mention the sweetness of Lucky. When we went out to the van to go to the library on Saturday, he grabbed the scraper and wiped snow off the windshield for us. What a sweetie and what nice service.

Serene Sunday?

LightTheWorld Sunday was supposed to be "Serene Sunday," finding some quiet time to reflect on "what brings you closer to God." It was not a quiet Sunday. It was a hectic Sunday. We decided to do latkes and dreidels that day, however when Jeremy and I were planning it, we thought we might try some other foods for Hanukkah. Turns out some foods take a while. Everyone except Jet helped out (some more than others- but everyone did something). This is what we ended up with.

Jeremy made latkes which we ate with sour cream, applesauce, or BBQ sauce. He also made roasted Brussel sprouts. He cut up a pomegranate (because we had one). Nichole and I made challah (I've been wanting to try making that bread for a while). Great braiding, Nichole. I love how it turned out.

While we played dreidel, we drank cocoa since December 13 is National Cocoa Day.

The kids had fun playing dreidel and Jet got really excited watching the dreidel spin. He even tried to figure it out himself. It was so cute to see him holding it with two fingers and dropping it to see what it would do. It will be interesting to see where he is next year with that.

After doing a lot with the food preparation and before we ate and played dreidel, I did take Jet out for a drive. Sometimes going for a drive helps me have a needed break. We drove up to Pleasant Grove so I could see the Christmas star on the mountain. Jeremy told me about it and I wanted to go see it so I finally took the time to do that. It's so nice. 

The radio was playing Handel's "Messiah" which I was in the mood for so that helped. I don't normally listen to the radio on Sunday but I turned it on that day and I'm glad I did. There was so much going on in my head- tuning out distractions didn't really happen- but Heavenly Father still managed to remind me of certain little things while I was driving around. I'm grateful for that.

A Day Off

I told you it was crazy busy.  We've been celebrating and I've been taking care of sick kids.  Now I'm blogging.  Here are some more things we've done:
December 11 was International Mountain Day.  We made a mountain of grilled cheese sandwiches and went to see Nichole's orchestra concert.  Nichole took a challenge and practiced her violin every day for 100 days straight and was recognized along with several others during the concert.  She was also awarded a candy bar for her efforts.

Some of her Young Women leaders came to watch the concert to support her, too.  That was very nice of them.

December 13 was Cocoa Day.  We celebrated Cocoa Day (Observed) the next night by having our annual Polar Express Party.  Jeremy was very entertaining with his reading (it wasn't exactly as written), we had cocoa with peppermint ice cream in it and whipped cream on top, and I couldn't stay awake through the whole movie.

If you give Nichole a medium...

December 17 was National Maple Syrup Day.  We ate pancakes with maple syrup.

Other things we've done:
We also celebrated Lucky's birthday.

"Boo hoo.  There's a KAT licking my birthday cake."  

Points to you if you get the reference.

I went with some friends to see a local Christmas village put together by people in our ward.  Wow.  And wow.  They have a whole room the size of a garage with villages on tables along the edges.  Lots of lights.  Different themes.  And a lot of movement.  It's not just a bunch of houses and things that just sit there.  There are amusement park rides that move.  Ice skaters glide over ponds.  It is awesome.

Their outside is just as festive.  I only have a daytime picture.  It's all lit up at night.

I also went to a Relief Society cookie exchange.  I got to sit around eating cookies and chatting with other women.  So nice.  My family was happy when I brought home cookies from it as well.

Then yesterday, I took a day off.  After being up and down all night with a sick child, Jeremy let me sleep in while he got the other kids off to school.  Then he sent me off to go birding for the day while he took care of the sick child.  I needed it.  It was very relaxing.  After doing so much and taking care of so many people, sick or otherwise, it was nice to get out in nature and have some me time. 

After that rejuvenating day, now I can face what needs to be done again.  Thanks again, Jeremy.  You're the best.