Dancing with Daffodils

 Last Friday night Lily got the email that she was accepted to BYU! It was so very exciting. We all expected her to get in but until it was official, I was uneasy. It was such a relief and now we can get planning. We have to figure out housing, getting her out to Utah the same weekend we were supposed to be in Rochester for my nephew's wedding reception, trying out for theater ballet company, registration and all the fun college life stuff plus all the financial part of it. It is a lot but so exciting! I'm so proud of Lily; she worked really hard to make BYU happen. She did NHS and has volunteered about 75-80 hours of her time over the past two years plus Spanish Honors Society and she was a freshman mentor and did Student Leadership Council. She has gotten perfect grades (not easy when you are often up late doing homework and have to get up early for seminary), she always goes to seminary, she has been a leader in our ward and stake and all while dancing 20 hours a week, plus ...

 February (the shortest month of all--I learned a song in 4th grade about February and can still sing it!) started with our stake conference Sunday meeting and it was so good. I was disappointed we didn't get to hear Josh give his talk but Lily spoke and gave such a sweet talk about service and loving others. I also loved Michelle's talk about moving forward from mistakes and Elizabeth's and President Boyd's talk about taking care of the poor and the connection to fasting. The music was also super beautiful and moving and it was just a great meeting. Josh had to stay after for a presidency meeting so we went home for a relaxed Sunday afternoon and he barely got home in time for dinner.  The week was busy with taking Curtis to and from drivers Ed (so glad to be done now!), play practice, basketball, dance, and some substituting. I went to Inklings and the gym and we made valentines at our valiant girls activity. I also made three lasagnas for WARMs Thursday night. Thankf...

 What a lazy week this has been. Saturday I ran a few errands and we went to Brandon's basketball game (which was against his best friend's team) and Lily went to dance and then it was hunker down time. It didn't start snowing until midnight or so and Sunday there was only a few inches; quiet disappointing after all the hullabaloo. It was also sleeting most of the day so not the most ideal playing situation either but three of my kids went out for a bit and Josh, Lily and I went for a walk so that was nice. We had a short family sacrament meeting that afternoon and played a game and I made a nice dinner and it was a lovely snow day.     The fun just continued Monday--games, laundry, movies, piano practicing, pjs, sledding, and then I did teach the Wiests piano since the roads were clear enough for them to get here and Curtis still had drivers education. I was surprised when they still got Tuesday off and that was a little disappointing because that meant no Inklings and n...

 I have come to really like how relaxed January is for our family compared to September-December. Since Brandon's birthday there just hasn't been too much going on.  Highlights from last week are that Emma got her braces (she has not been happy with them especially after we had to go back the very next day because a bracket came unglued). She ate ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal and rice for a week and is finally just now starting to eat more regularly. Thankfully she doesn't have to wear rubber bands quite yet so she has some time to adjust to just the braces. I also went to the temple with Michelle and it was so great to catch up after both of us being so busy the last month and of course, it was beautiful to be in the temple. I felt such peace, especially after having followed the prompting I had last time I was there. As we've been reading about the creation and the fall in Genesis I've felt a renewed gratitude for what we learn in the temple about God's plan for ...

 What a week this has been. I had so much to do to catch up from Christmas and then I got asked to substitute Monday morning for a few hours. It was for one of my favorite teachers so I couldn't say no. As it turned out she has a teaching apprentice so she did all of the teaching and I just supported. During recess I made friends with a kid who was kind of just standing around by himself but was willing to walk the track with me so that helped us both stay warm because it was barely warm enough for us to be able to go out. I got home and did so much laundry and ironing and made a grocery list and taught a bunch of piano lessons and tried to get my house clean. It seriously feels like a never ending task and I have to often take deep breaths and tell myself that it is okay that my windows are so gross and the baseboards so dirty and my kitchen floor and cabinets always have stuff on them and the counters and things are dusty and then I have five other people leaving their stuff arou...

Our first day of Christmas break we slept in and had a big family breakfast; it was so nice. Then we left around 2 to head up to the Nationals stadium for their Winter Wonderland. I wanted to do something fun as a family and it was the cheapest per hour so we went up there and it was fun. There was an ice slide that we did a few times and miniature golfing and a snowball throwing thing and curling and you could go in the dug out (which thrilled my baseball lovers) and there were lights and a silent disco that was funny to watch. We spent about two hours and decided we were hungry so we went to the Silver Diner and even let the kids get milkshakes--quite the splurge. It was a fun family day and a good way to kick off Christmas break. As we walked back to the car, we found these cool bell things on the wharf and they were swings but they played music as you would swing; super fun.            Tuesday we were busy and in all different directions and then Wednes...