The weekend was dreamy. I read Tolstoy. We went to the symphony and heard an amazing concert pianist. We slept in on Saturday and Sunday. There was a fishing trip. Richard shopped for yard stuff, which I am told is heaven.
So now it’s time to face it. It’s a new week.
Early morning seminary hit us like a frigid mass of arctic air.
Richard drove to work, forgetting his work computer.
And I have a dental cleaning. And lots of algebra to correct.
It’s time to get it together. The week has begun!
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could spend the day making sure that people know that you love them? Mark spends his days composing notes for people. Here I caught him putting *another* note on Dad’s bedside table… with duct tape… which he cut himself with his new scissor skills.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all science experiments matched my blender from the 1960’s? Maybe not.
Paige extracted the DNA from split peas this afternoon. I may be the only one who was moved by the sight, but I’m o.k. with that.
We drove up to the Mesa temple this weekend and Richard and I attended a temple session together. The kids came along and walked around the temple grounds for several hours during our session. They learned about citrus trees and played games in the shade. Mark composed this note while he waited for us. I reflected on the sacrifice that our children make when we go to the temple. They drive for 4 hours and wait for 2-4 hours once they get there. I never had to do that as a child. They are really good sports about it and I am proud of them.
Here’s the shiny Pinewood Derby track from last night. I filled in for our Cubmaster at this Pack Meeting. We did the cheese grater cheer, the race car cheer, the rocket cheer, and the big canary cheer. These photos were taken by Phillip Flores, one of our den leaders.
Here is Timothy with his awesome car. He has a Lego man inside.
Richard’s computer program kept track of race times and generated the order of races. We projected the race stats from the computer to a big screen. It was very cool.
Trying to contain his delight…
This boy won 4th place!
He earned his Bobcat, too!
Richard took the boys hiking yesterday and then spent time with Timothy working on his pinewood derby car and with Daniel working on a computer programming lesson. What a man.
With all the time I had without family yesterday I cleaned the house and then read a book. I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables in years. Reading it now that I have a teenage girl of my own puts a new dimension on the words and feelings of Marilla and Matthew. I think I cried seven times.
My Sunday plans include more time reading and attaching stamps to a stack of letters and notes that have been accumulating for two weeks. I love sending and receiving letters.
I am no longer teaching the 3 and 4 year olds at church. I will never forget them, but they have already forgotten me.
Paige played music from the Phantom of the Opera on the piano all morning. What a nice thing to have children who can play the piano.
Slooosh! Swish!
I’m just trying to remember what snow sounds like.
We contemplated running through the sprinklers today.
Timothy was baptized today.
Hooray!
Happy Christmas wishes to all. Here’s a picture of our family nativity on Christmas Eve. The Savior lives!
On Friday we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the Butterfly Magic exhibit. We did this last year in December and loved it. This year I decided to organize a fieldtrip for one of our homeschool clubs. This way, we were able to get in at discount and see our friends.
When we walked in to the butterfly house, we were immediately aware of the tropical conditions. The cold camera lens fogged up for a while. A butterfly quickly decided to camp out on Paige’s head.
Daniel took most of the pictures of this exhibit.
Here we learned about a Citrus Swallowtail caterpillar. Its strategy for staying alive is to look like bird dung and when you touch it, it rears its head and shoots out reddish orange tentacles and an odor that will curl your hair (imagine an odor as you note the reddish orange “tentacles” on the head).
As we finished our visit, a butterfly finally landed on me. Yes, it’s on my rear end.
How silly.
We made graham cracker “gingerbread” houses with Grandma and Grandpa.
These colors are irresistible on Paige’s house. I like the decorative frosting curlicues, the tootsie roll mosaic on the front, and the flawless star she made from a gumdrop on her first try.
Daniel spent time on a wood pile, fence, sparkly snow, and a marshmallow snow house out back for a Boy Scout winter camp.
Timothy has very classic taste. It took a long time to place those sprinkles in a row on the roof. I love the Lifesaver wreath.
Mark spent a very long time working on his house. He and Grandpa built a Ramada, a very tall “Dr. Seuss” Christmas tree, and scattered sprinkles… many sprinkles. I like the cereal windows and the “M” for Mark.
Our family is held together with royal icing traditions like this.
