Dancing with Daffodils

I went to story time with my kids last week and the theme was favorite things. While they talked about favorite foods and colors and animals, it got me thinking about my favorites and what really makes me happy. So pretend you just opened up your favorite magazine, of which I am of course the editor-in-chief, and here is my list of favorite things I think you should check out. 1. Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights. A few years ago I was teaching my co-op preschool kids about the zoo and I got a CD out of the library called What A Zoo by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights. I liked it so much that I brought it on a road trip with us and miracle of miracles, my husband liked it too. Here's why: She considers herself a rock star and even though she's singing songs for kids, they sound like real music. They are catchy tunes and clever lyrics and fun to sing along to, whether you are a kid or adult. I'm wondering if I should be ashamed to admit this or not but I really do love her ...

As I was watching my recorded Golden Globes last night, I was blown away by Ryan Gosling's speech after winning in the best actor category. He was gracious and thanked his co-stars and the director and mentioned how every actor stands on the shoulders of lots of wonderful people who help them achieve great performances. Then he thanked "my lady" (who is Eva Mendes). He said while he was off singing and dancing, she took on the responsibility of raising their daughter while she was pregnant with number two and also helping her brother in his battle with cancer. He said that if she hadn't been able to deal with all of that, that someone else would be standing on the stage right then. I love this as a wonderful example of how a relationship, and especially a marriage, should be. Husband and wife have different roles and responsibilities and it is in doing our very best in our part that we help each other succeed. I certainly wouldn't have the ability to manage our ...

12. The Mourning Dove by Larry Barkdull. This is a really short book we read for book club and it is the story of a boy who goes to live with his grandfather when his parents die. It was sad and I felt like the author wrote the story around the advice and teachings he wanted the grandfather to pass on to his grandson. It was fine; not my favorite but there are some nice ideas in it. 13. Under a Painted Sky by Stacy Lee. This is the story of a girl who lives in Missouri back in the frontier days when Missouri is the edge of the wilderness. In an attempt to avoid a man attacking her she ends up killing him and running west to avoid the law. I liked the story and appreciated that it had some suspense to it. It has good characters and it is also a bit sad but it worked out and was a good book. 14. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. This is a re-telling of the 12 Dancing Princesses and it was okay. I liked the characters but already knowing the story kind of ruined i...

My house is so messy right now but instead of cleaning like I should, I decided to write a post about the books I read in 2016. Some were good, some not so much and I always wish I could read more but here is what I read, in the order which I read them. 1 and 2. I am Half-Sick of Shadow and As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust by Alan Bradley. These are a continuation of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which I loved. These books I did not love so much. One of them took Flavia out of the house and to a school in Canada and I didn't like that at all. The Christmas one was okay but didn't nearly have the depth of the first in the series. Somewhat of a disappointing read because I really do love Flavia as a character and had been looking forward to more of her but it didn't work for me. 3. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. I read this for book club and was half-way through it before I realized I had already seen the movie. It is a good one though. Simple, good points, an...

I teach piano lessons to a few friends and neighbor kids and have recently started teaching my own kids. Lily has been taking for about a year now but her progress is slow because I am both her mom and her teacher. I don't have a set lesson time for her so we fit it in when we can, which means it can sometimes be three weeks before another lesson. I find it difficult to teach her and we've had some serious downs with very few ups lately when it comes to helping her practice and give her lessons. A few weeks ago we had a particularly bad argument that resulted in her crying and me ready to walk out the door. I told my husband I was done and that if she wanted to take piano we were going to have to find someone else to teach her. He was so calm and went on to tell me how important it is to him that our kids play the piano so he said he would take over as the practice parent, allowing me to just be her teacher.  I fell in love with him again during that conversation because he u...

Today I was able to attend a special meeting at church for all the women. In it we discussed our responsibilities regarding a program in our church called visiting teaching. I love this program and know it is inspired by God. It is called visiting teaching because we visit one another and teach the gospel to each other on a one-by-one basis, just as the Savior did. Each woman over 18 is assigned a companion and then two or three or four other ladies in our congregation to visit on a monthly basis. This is not always an easy responsibility. Some of these ladies we're asked to visit are not very welcoming, active in our church or open to gospel discussion. We're all mothers and wives and busy with life. Or we're shy or we're scared or we're hampered down by any number of other challenges. We discussed those difficulties today in an effort to figure out what is holding us back from doing a better job of fulfilling this assignment. I kept my mouth shut most of the t...

I have been remiss. I went on vacation and was having too much fun with my family to stop and write about them.  So I'm going to finish out the posts I had planned even though November is over. While on vacation I got to spend a good amount of time with my sister, KayLee. She and I are a lot alike and we have fun together. Other than one challenging year, KayLee and I have pretty much always gotten along. Especially since I've been an adult, she has been a good listener and very understanding. She has a way of making me feel like she really cares about me and what is happening in my life. A few years ago we were on a family trip and she and I were out floating on rafts in the ocean and talking. I had found out I was pregnant just that week and having miscarried previously, was planning to wait until after my first doctor appointment to announce. But being out there that day I found myself wanting to tell her and we ended up having a good discussion about baby names. No one el...