The People

For many years we've discussed world events with our kids. We made the choice early on to talk with them about big and scary things, not because we wanted to frighten them, but because we knew if we didn't someone else would. This often happened when they attended school in person. A friend or teacher would mention something that had happened and the kids would come home and ask questions. I guess you could say that awareness of current events is part of our family culture.

Bryan and I had been watching Russia encroach on Ukraine, holding our collective breath, praying that they did not invade. Last Thursday morning we woke to news that Ukraine was under attack. We were both heartsick. Peter and Phoebe are both avid headline readers, so they were also aware of what was happening early on. We've talked with them and tried to answer their questions.

I keep thinking about the people. There are good and innocent people in Ukraine, people who are being attacked, people that are being driven from their homes and their country. And there are good and innocent people in Russia, people that do not support the wicked actions of their leader, people that are being imprisoned for speaking against him and his horrible actions. It hurts my heart.

And I'm worried about what will happen if the leader of Russia claims Ukraine. Will he press forward? Will one country be enough for him? 

We will continue to fast and pray for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia.

I wish I could do more.

Cookie Elves

Last night Sophie had a Primary activity. She joined over Zoom while the rest of the girls gathered at their leader's home. They all decorated cookies. I had been in contact with the woman in charge so I knew what supplies Sophie would need. I didn't get any pictures of her during the activity, but I got one before and after. We had enough frosting left over that I baked another roll of cookies (I'm not great at making sugar cookies from scratch, so Bryan picked up premade dough at the store) so the other kids could frost some as well. Because of the frosting colors the whole activity felt like we were celebrating an early Easter.

Order Up

Last night when I called everyone to the dinner table for Chicken Parmesan, Topher loudly refused and hid under the futon instead. Several of us tried to coax him out, but he would have none of it. Finally I went to talk to him.

Me: Buddy, why are you under the futon?

Topher: (with intensity) Because I don't want that food!

Me: Oh? What food do you want?

Topher: I want ice cream with bananas!

He was disappointed that I didn't offer that as a dinner substitute.

He did finally come to the table. He ate the cheese off the chicken, two noodles, and drank two glasses of Crystal Light lemonade. Oh well, something is better than nothing.

Careful, sometimes I take pictures of kids throwing tantrums...

Play On

I complain about how loud my house is, then I take pictures like this and realize I'm largely to blame. I guess if quiet was really my goal I would stop encouraging them to use all the musical instruments we have.

Bring on the music.

Run For Your Life

The girls and I made a goal at the beginning of the year to learn how to run a mile without stopping. I've only been able to do this once in my life, ten years ago when we lived in the hotel in Wisconsin. That took a summer of walking/running on a treadmill for 45 minutes a day. I figure this will take some time too.

The girls were eager to start right away, but we had to wait for the weather to be accommodating. It's been an exceptionally cold winter. We finally had a few days of warmth two weeks ago, so we started. We're following a program that is supposed to have you running in six weeks. However, that requires four warm days each week for us to be outside and we don't have that quite yet. We've had to modify the plan. That's okay, our goal is to run it by the end of the year, so we've got some wiggle room.

Cooper and Topher have joined us on each outing. Peter has tagged along on a few. We take the stroller with us for two reasons. The first is to carry the water bottles and jackets that are inevitably shed as we run. The second is for Topher. Some days he walks and runs most of the time. Some days he rides. And some days he gets in and out of the stroller as much as we'll let him.

The first day we did ten rounds of running for 30 seconds followed by 90 seconds of walking. After a few days of that we shifted to eight rounds of 60 seconds of running then 90 seconds of walking. Yesterday we moved to ten rounds of 60 seconds of running followed by 60 seconds of walking. 

Yesterday was rough for all of us. We really had to push ourselves to keep going, especially as we got closer to the end. Sophie dropped back just over halfway through and was having trouble running. Peter dropped back too and helped her by holding her hand and walking with her as I ran ahead with the others. Sophie and I were both impressed with his choice.

For most of our runs I have my phone (timer) in one hand and either the stroller or Topher's hand in the other. I spend so much time watching for cars and calling out when to jog and when to walk that I failed to take any documenting pictures for several days. I finally remembered last week. If you look at Cooper in the penultimate picture it'll give you a good idea of how tired we all are at the end. That's right, he rolled himself home in the stroller once Topher decided to finish on foot.

Easy As ABC

Last Monday evening, as we enjoyed our very late Valentine's dinner, the following discussion took place:

Bryan: (giving me the "I'm about to talk in code" look and speaking quietly) It's getting really late. I'm thinking about the little guy, maybe we shouldn't do the C-A-K-E tonight for him.

Me: I don't know, he's already seen it, that might not go over well.

Topher: Wait a second! Am I the little guy?! Does this mean I'm not getting cake?

I knew he was doing a good job learning his letters, but I had no idea he could figure out our high-tech spelling code!

It's All About the Costume

Play Along

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted about how skilled Bryan is at getting the kids to sleep? Well, I showed that adorable picture to Topher. He liked it so much that for the last few days he's been pretending to go to sleep during naptime in the hopes that Bryan will take his sleeping picture again. I guess Bryan didn't pick up on his plan, because Topher finally announced what his aim was. Bryan obliged and this picture is the result.

Hmm, I wonder if he's actually asleep...

The Cookie Elf

All the Valentines

Sophie loves Valentine's Day. She loves it so much that she asked me to buy balloons and a cake and planned a fancy dinner. Of course, Bryan and I were the ones that actually made the cake and fancy dinner, but it was Sophie's brainchild.

Our Valentine's Day celebration started on Saturday afternoon. Bryan's mom had put together a box of goodies and mailed it to us. Once morning chores were over, we opened the box. And we've been enjoying its contents ever since.

Here the kids are enjoying their Valentine's Day treats (a little candy, a few art supplies/books/slinkies depending on the kid) yesterday morning after their special breakfast of pink oatmeal.

Sophie's friend (who is her age) has her own baking business. She makes cookies, cake pops, and hot chocolate bombs which you can order from her website. We were lucky enough to get a free delivery of sweet treats after school.

Phoebe's heart:

Sophie's heart:

Cooper's heart:

Our fancy dinner consisted of steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, strawberries, rolls, sparkling juice, and strawberry cake.

A young man in the ward bought and delivered flowers to all the young women that didn't have boyfriends. I thought it was very sweet. Phoebe also had a morning valentine delivery from one of the members of the Young Women class presidency. We had one more delivery that didn't get photographed. My ministering sister brought a loaf of homemade bread and a small bag of Dove dark chocolates. Topher immediately claimed the chocolates as his own and went skipping back into the house with his prize.

I baked the cake and started the frosting process, Sophie took over with the frosting and had complete control over the sprinkles. She was very pleased with the end result.

It was well received.

It was a full day of love. I think my favorite activity of the day was a game we played at dinner. Each person had to say one thing that they loved about the person sitting to their right, as well as recite what each person before them had said. We do this a few times a week and say what our favorite thing about the day was. We call it the Listening Game because you have to pay attention and listen well to remember what all the people before you said. I really liked our holiday variation yesterday.

Also, I might need a day to recover from all the cooking.

The Conductor

Out of the corner of my eye, during the closing song on Sunday, I noticed Topher moving. I looked up to see him leading the music. This is interesting because we can't see the person conducting the music during our church broadcast, the camera isn't pointed in their direction. In the almost year and a half that we've been watching these broadcasts, we've only been pointed toward the chorister a handful of times. That means he's mimicking what he's seen me do around the house, or he's remembering back nearly two years ago when we were last at church in person. And I think that's pretty cool.

Tie It Up With a Bow

After working on and off on this particular skill for more than a year, I'm happy to report that Sophie can now tie her shoes!

She wanted to show both the shoe that I tied (her left foot) and the one that she tied (her right foot).

We've Been Framed

Like Rapunzel, But At the End of the Movie

If you've ever wondered how thick Sophie's hair is, I can tell you: it's thick enough that I had trouble cutting that ponytail off at the beginning of the haircut. She has SO MUCH HAIR. We've known for weeks that she needed it cut. She and I have spent too many hours brushing the early stages of dreadlocks out of her hair. I was relieved when she finally agreed to the cut.

She loves the result. It's much easier to take care of and looks really cute with headbands and clips. I'm just glad she was happy with how it turned out.

Room for Everyone

On Sunday I did Primary with Topher and Sophie upstairs in Topher's room while Bryan and the big kids watched the Sunday School lesson over Zoom. Near the end of our lesson we took some time to listen to a song about Noah and draw pictures of the ark and animals.

Topher asked me to take a picture of his ark when he finished. It includes an octopus, he told everyone that would listen.