Fighting the Good Fight

Today I was the hero in my own story. As much as I wanted Bryan to come rescue me, I took care of the problem myself.

If you ever find yourself trapped in a car with a jumping spider, I suggest wielding a tissue box. It was my weapon of choice today. That spider never knew what hit him.

A Compelling Argument

Topher has been lobbying for a pet for a long time. He accepts that Bryan is allergic to dogs and cats, so he asks for fish and birds and lizards instead. He doesn't accept as readily the excuse that I already have enough living creatures to take care of. Yesterday morning, after we had dropped the girls off at school and I was taking Topher to the bus stop, he found a compelling argument.

"Mom, if we get a fish I'll take care of it! And then when I'm done with my chores I won't want to play on the computer, I'll watch the fish instead. That means I'll get less screen time."

The answer is still no, but I'm very impressed at how well he knows his audience.

On the Run

Phoebe, Topher, and I got to see Cooper run the 1600M for the first time yesterday. And by first time, I really mean first time. He's been training with the distance runners, but hadn't run this particular distance at practice. He's hoping to figure out the pacing for his next race. Bryan finished work and got there just in time to see Cooper run the last lap.

We were glad we could be there this time!

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Topher: Mom, do you know what makes me so happy?

Me: What, buddy?

Topher: Math! I just love it so much! Can I get math stickers for my walls?

Me: What kind of stickers?

Topher: The kind that say 10x10=100 and 12x12=144.

Me: I'll see what I can find.

Honorable

This year Phoebe applied to and was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society. She's required to keep her grades high and complete many hours of community service to maintain her membership. The induction ceremony was last week. She was given the opportunity to read a short statement about one of the organization's foundational principles: service. I took pictures, but I was dodging a photobombing Topher the whole time, so none of them really turned out. You'll just have to trust me that she was poised and articulate and did a wonderful job.

Well done, Phoebe!

Never Alone

A few weeks ago Cooper was asked to give a talk in yesterday's Sacrament Meeting. And then he forgot about it until Saturday night. I learned about it on Sunday morning when I heard the kids discussing what he was writing. Thankfully, he was able to gather his thoughts quickly to write what I think is his best talk yet.

Never Alone

A few weeks ago, I found myself in an oddly dark place. I felt great sadness but I didn't know why and I felt extremely alone. It was late at night and I was by myself in my dark kitchen, confused with my sadness. After some time, my sister came in to get something, and I broke into tears, struggling to breathe. It wasn't a good experience at all, but afterwards I was talking with my parents. My mom had said that my sister had felt a desire to go into the kitchen to get something at that time. It was a time where I wanted to go into my family and join them but I simply couldn't. Yet my sister felt a strong feeling that she needed to be in that kitchen at that time. Standing in my parents room, I was overcome with a warm feeling as the Spirit washed over me. I had realized that at a time when I felt alone, Heavenly Father was watching me and I knew that he sent help my way when I felt too weak to get it myself.

While this was simply one moment of time, I was able to feel a profound sense of our Father in Heaven and our Savior's love for me, that same love which he has for each and every single one of you and every other person.

John 14:18 says:

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

In D&C 121, Joseph Smith pleads with the Lord against the suffering of the saints, saying:

1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?

And the Lord responds by saying:

 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; 

8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes

That seems so comforting to me, that even through our struggles, we will have power over our enemies, over the darkness of Satan, if we endure and turn to God in faith.

But there are times, like my experience, where we simply can't seem to find that faith, to know what to do or where to go, exactly like Peter when he walked in water. Seeing the Savior gave him that faith to step from the boat in the commotion of the storm and move towards Christ. But the darkness overcame him and the storm got to his head, and he fell. I feel like all of us can imagine what Peter felt, in that moment of falling, where he lost everything and felt like all things were gone. And suddenly crying to Jesus, he shouted, “Lord, save me.”

And the Lord immediately reached out His hand, grabbed Peter, and pulled him from the cold darkness of the water.

I love this word, “immediately,” how Peter simply wants Jesus to help him and the Savior does not hesitate to help Peter when he needs it most.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ suffered from every pore for not only our sins, but all of our pains and afflictions.

In the year 1871, Horatio G Spafford, a wealthy attorney, had lost his fortune in the Great Chicago Fire. His son shortly thereafter died from Scarlet fever. With all this devastation occuring he decided to send his wife and four daughters away on ship to England. But the ship had a terrible collision and tragically, all four of his daughters passed away. His wife sent a telegram from England that said, “Saved alone. What shall I do?” On the journey to his wife, he wrote the words to the profound hymn, “It is Well With My Soul,” from which I would like to read the second verse.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control:

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

[Chorus] It is well with my soul; It is well, it is well with my soul.

I bear my testimony that God is real. He is constantly watching over us. His son Jesus Christ atoned for us. I know that the Holy Ghost is sent to comfort us, and to be the ultimate source of guidance.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Run, Run Cooper

Cooper ran in his first track meet this week! He's tried a few different events during the couple weeks of practice they've had. He ended up running the 800M. Unfortunately the other kids had activities that were on the calendar first, so I wasn't able to attend. Bryan was in meetings that afternoon and rushed over as soon as they finished. Cooper's race happened earlier than it was scheduled for and Bryan got to the track meet just after Cooper had run. We're sad that none of us were there to see him.

He did pretty well for his first race. He placed fourth out of eleven. 

I'm looking forward to cheering him on at the next meet.

Green Day

Sophie helped facilitate fun a St. Patrick's Day party at the library yesterday and Topher got to attend. There was a leprechaun story, a treasure hunt with clues that took them all over the library, time for coloring, an art tutorial, and it ended with green refreshments and sidewalk chalk and bubbles outside.

Another Year Older

Cooper is now one year away from adulthood. He turned seventeen! His birthday dinner request was Red Robin, so we obliged.

After dinner came gift opening. Cooper recently joined the track team at school and his afternoons are much busier than they used to be. It was well after Topher's bedtime when we got home from dinner, so Cooper kindly agreed to push his cake to the next day.

Also, I had run out of time to make his cake on his actual birthday. That probably influenced his decision to move that part of the celebration.

He had asked for an ice cream cake or a chocolate cake. How about a chocolate (and vanilla) ice cream cake?! I didn't make this, but I did buy it. That counts at least a little.

That was a lot of candles for what turned out to be a surprisingly small cake.

It's been a while since we had a birthday interview...

FAVORITE FOOD: sushi

FAVORITE ANIMAL: cheetah

FAVORITE CANDY: Twix

FAVORITE BOOK: The Book of Mormon

FAVORITE COLORS: blue and teal

FAVORITE SHOWS: Stranger Things

FAVORITE MOVIE: Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse

FAVORITE SONG: I can't pick.

FAVORITE BOARD GAME: Monopoly

FAVORITE CARD GAME: Uno

FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Minecraft

FAVORITE THING TO DO: Be outside, having fun.

FAVORITE MEMORY FROM BEING 16: Going to High Adventure. (Young Men summer camp)

FAVORITE PLACE: The Temple

FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: music classes (concert choir and guitar)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: Either an engineer or I want to work in sales and marketing.

Spell It Out

Remember when Phoebe won her school-wide spelling bee? Well, that qualified her for the next level of spelling tests. That happened to be an online test. She scored in the top seventy and moved on again. On Sunday she participated in the regional spelling bee. I took everyone else to church while Bryan and Phoebe drove over an hour to the event.

Bryan texted a play-by-play of the action to the group chat we have with the three older kids (the ones with phones). I actually had to put my phone on Do Not Disturb during Primary because I was running singing time and I use my phone to keep track of the time. All those exciting spelling updates were too distracting.

They started out with sixty-eight spellers.

Phoebe made it through rounds one, two three, four, and five. After correctly spelling the word lacustrine in round four, the word turgor got her in round five. Fifteen minutes after she was eliminated, the bee was over.

She finished seventh, out of sixty-eight.

We are all so proud of how well she did! She was really happy to make it into the top ten.

When she got home she told me that several of the parents congratulated her afterward for how well she'd done. She suspects it's because she smiled encouragingly at the spellers as they took their turns. Since she was in the front row, the parents and spellers alike could see her. I love that she brought both her wonderful brain and her beautiful heart to the stage.

Priorities

On this St. Patrick's Day we all wore green. We had a wonderful dinner of steak, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and Irish soda bread. Topher made a leprechaun trap. (And was subsequently disappointed that no leprechauns visited his house. His mom is too tired to be that fun.)

But the only thing I took a picture of was the chocolate cake Bryan picked up from Costco.

According to those that partook, it was delicious.

Sparkling

We have no idea how old this dishwasher is. It had to have been at least eleven years old because it was hardwired. It's been having trouble cleaning glasses for a while and in the last few months it's been really loud. Like, sounds-like-it's-trying-to-blast-off-to-the-moon loud. On Tuesday morning some Costco contracted installers arrived and took this dishwasher out.

And then they put in an outlet and installed this one. It's nearly silent and, so far, everything has come out spotless.

Hurray for a new dishwasher!

Art Everywhere

Sophie contributed many pieces of art this year. We walked all around the school and she kept pointing out things she'd drawn or painted.

She did this one for her Graphic Design Club.

And this was her addition to a winter themed mural the Art Club did.

I think this one is my favorite. She did this during her art class and picked it for the official art show in the school library. I love that she got to celebrate the animal she most adores.

Look Back

Phoebe's contribution to her school's art show was this beautiful snow globe sketch. It's even more stunning in person.

Lava

I went to Parent Teacher Conferences for the three younger kids today. In addition to hearing how well they're all doing academically (very well) and behaviorally (Sophie works well with everyone, Topher is a natural leader and almost never uses bathroom words at school now (!)), I got to see their art work.

Topher created this eye catching volcano.

Not Quite Spring

We were invited to go hiking with a family from our ward on Saturday. Somehow we gave the impression that we do that kind of stuff. We hiked for two miles and Bryan and I were very tired and sore when we got back to the van. Also, it was about 40 degrees.

Still, it was nice to be invited.

I took the first and last of these pictures. Sophie borrowed my phone and took the middle three.

Waving Through a Window

Sophie performed in her school's talent show tonight. She was the twenty-fourth act out of thirty-three performances. When her name was announced the audience went wild. It was the loudest reception anyone got. I thought maybe that was my mom bias, but everyone else in the family agreed. Maybe we're all biased? She did a fantastic job and got an even bigger round of applause when she finished.

The only down side is that for some reason the video Bryan took didn't actually record. He was so disappointed. Sophie was willing to try again. When we got home she sang it, just so we could record it. The music should have been louder, but we didn't realize that until we listened to the recording on the computer and Sophie was busy getting ready for bed. So this is an approximation of what her performance sounded like.

NYC

Phoebe attended a Broadway acting workshop with several of her classmates last Saturday morning. It was taught by one of the acting professors from NYU and took place in Manhattan. The rest of the theatre kids rode in on a charter bus because they were also in the city to see a Broadway show. Phoebe wasn't seeing the show, so we drove her into NYC.

While she played theatre games in a studio in midtown, we walked around outside.

We went back to the studio when she was done and picked her up. Then our good friends who live in the city came and met us for lunch. We went to the original Shake Shack and it was delicious!

We let Topher run around at this cute playground just a few minutes from where we had lunch. He loved getting to run around without holding my hand.

From there we walked to the LEGO store and saw this amazing Wicked display. These ladies are life size.

Then we popped into the Harry Potter store. The last time we were here it was absolutely packed. The crowd was much more manageable this visit.

Our final stop was the newly finished Moynihan Train Hall. The building is gorgeous and that's where we learned that NYC has very tasty tap water. Who knew? We probably would have spent time exploring the station, but we were worn out by this point in the day.

We said goodbye to our friend (her husband and kids had to leave right after lunch to get to a rehearsal, but she hung out with us during the rest of our adventure), and walked back to our parking garage. According to Bryan's watch, we walked about 8.5 miles that day. It was a fun time, but we were thankful when we got back home.

When I was a kid I dreamed of someday visiting New York City. I love that we live close enough that we can drive in and spend a day there. It's one of my favorite places.