Jump Around

While the girls were at camp and Cooper was out with friends, Topher and I spent an afternoon at a trampoline park. It was an hour well spent.

Drenched

We had three days of beautifully warm weather. 

And today it snowed.

But yesterday, it was still warm. Rain was expected right about the time I needed to pick Topher up from the bus. Sure enough, just as he ran from the bus to our van, fat raindrops started to fall. He asked if he could please run home while I drove next to him, even though it was raining. I would normally have said no, but on a whim I said yes.

He was soaking wet when we arrived, but so very happy, despite the look on his face in these pictures.

Just Dance

Our ward had a family dance last Saturday night. Peter and Bryan both had to work, but the rest of us went and danced more than just about everyone else. On the way home I asked the kids these questions:

Me: Did I dance too much?

Cooper/Phoebe/Sophie: No.

Topher: Yes.

Me: Did I dance more than any other grownup?

All four kids: Yes.

I think it was clear which families have dance parties at home and which families do not.

Cooper did a lot of dancing, including this double-decker version. This is two priests versus two teachers. I'm not sure whose idea this was, but they all had fun. 

On the Move

Topher loves his scooter so much that he spends most of his time wearing his helmet, just so he can hop on and ride whenever he wants to.

Sophie happened to take a panoramic picture of our kitchen as Topher was zooming past. I think it captures what it feels like whenever he's on his scooter.

In Case of a Crash Landing

Phoebe and Sophie helped Topher decorate his new rocket ship last week, then they pulled and pushed him around the house. Fun was had by all. And, based on the driving, the helmet was a must.

It's the Perfect Day

There's a couple in our ward that are close in age to my parents and who have a gigantic backyard. A few weeks ago the wife called me and said she knew we didn't have a yard, then invited us to come run around their yard while they kept their distance. They weren't the first to offer their yard to us, but I know them the best, so their's was the first offer we accepted.

We ran around and soaked up lots of vitamin d on Monday morning of this week. The kids had such a wonderful time that this morning we went back, this time with four of the five kids in swimsuits, including one that was probably a size too small for Topher, ready to run through the sprinklers. I think the kids decided today was the best day of the entire summer.

Hot Air

In preparing for our Sunday School/Primary lesson last Sunday I felt strongly that we needed to talk about the forgiveness section of the material. Our reading for the week taught that God will forgive as often as we repent and that we need to forgive as well. This is something our fiery, justice-loving bunch needs to keep relearning.

I brainstormed and internet-searched for a good object lesson. I came across several that would have been fine, but wouldn't quite communicate what I wanted to teach. Then, shortly before we were supposed to start church, I found an object lesson that sparked another idea.

After we had had a good discussion about the chapters that we read last week, which included forgiveness, I pulled out a balloon that hadn't yet been inflated. I asked them what happens when we choose not to forgive. They said your heart would get hard and you would be grumpy and you wouldn't hear the Spirit. I told them that was all true.

Then I started to blow up the balloon.

When it was still fairly small I told them that not forgiving is called holding a grudge, and that when we hold a grudge we give space in our heart and our thoughts for whatever has hurt us. Sometimes the grudge is small, but the more attention we give it, the bigger it gets, and the more space it takes up. I said that when we decide not to forgive we put energy into the grudge.

Then I blew the balloon up even more.

I kept blowing and blowing until it was really big. I told them that we have a few choices when someone is unkind to us. My original goal to demonstrate the first option had been to blow it up until it popped, but as I got closer and closer to that point everyone (Bryan included) got really anxious. So, instead of popping it, I talked about what it would be like if the balloon did pop, how shocking and messy it would be. Then I said that sometimes we give so much space to the grudge that our feelings pop like a balloon and we lash out at whoever happens to be closest to us whether or not it's the person that caused us the pain in the first place. We talked about a few real life examples where that's happened in our own house. And we all agreed that we didn't like that solution.

The second option required Peter's help. I'm not good at getting balloons to make that high pitched squeaking sound that happens when you let the air out slowly, but Peter is a pro. That's how this picture that I shared on Monday came to be.

I said that you can decide to forgive, but then keep complaining about the wrong that happened to you to everyone around you. It's like the balloon letting out a little air at a time. It'll finally deflate, but it's pretty painful for everyone around you while it's happening. The kids thought this was hilarious. I had warned Bryan that the lesson was going to get loud, so he removed himself to another part of the house for that bit of teaching.

I retrieved the balloon back from Peter and I blew it back up to its full size. Then I said that a third option would be to just let go of the grudge or the hurt and forgive. And with that I let go of the balloon and the kids squealed with delight as it zipped around the room, growing smaller and smaller as it flew. 

Then I handed out balloons to all but Topher and I told everyone to blow up their balloon but to not tie it off. Almost everyone followed the directions and the one that didn't handed their full balloon to Topher to enjoy while they tried again with a new balloon.

I instructed them to think of something they were upset about, something maybe they hadn't been fully forgiving over. Then I told them that when they let go of the balloon they would let go of the hurt. And they did. Our balloons went flying.

Until I taught the lesson I wasn't sure what I was going to say about forgiveness, just that it was important. But it's true. We can choose to feed the beast of hurt, the grudge monster, by focusing on it and filling our minds and hearts with it, like a balloon filling with air. We can complain loudly about it, and slowly get over it, and sometimes the hurt is so big and so deep that we have to use this approach to work through all the pain and confusion we've experienced. But sometimes, often, we have the opportunity to take that offense and simply let it go. I'm going to try to make this last choice more often.

No Groundhog Shadows Here

It got up to almost sixty degrees at our house yesterday! Compared to how cold it has been, that felt wonderful. We took advantage of the warmth and played outside for a bit when the kids got home.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Part of the reason I was willing to let Peter go tubing this week was that I went tubing for the first time just a few weeks ago. That's right, this thirty-nine year old faced some pretty serious fears and joined in for a friend's birthday celebration.

I wasn't going to go at first. It would take me away during bedtime and it sounded dangerous and I was feeling anxious about the whole thing. Bryan encouraged me to at least go and be social, even if I didn't actually slide down any mountains. I begrudgingly agreed.

I didn't tell the kids what I was doing until I was about to walk out the door. Then there were tears and pleas for me to be safe. The last thing Phoebe said to me as I walked out the door was, "I love you Mommy, please don't die."

This was our adventurous group. The birthday girl is in the orange jacket. Two of us had never done this before, but I think I was the most vocally apprehensive about it, though I did try to come off as funny instead of just terrified. Fun fact: I knew two of these women while I was at BYU as a student. BYU makes the world a smaller place.

Behold, the slope.

I look happy, right? Not like I'm about to do something that scares me to the point of a mild panic attack, yeah? That my friends, is proof that I'm a good actress.

We were all bundled. I wore a base layer, regular clothes, snow pants and a sweatshirt, a scarf, a warm jacket, ear muffs, a hat, two pairs of gloves, cozy socks, and sturdy snow boots. And it was a warm-ish evening, somewhere in the high 40s, which isn't too bad for January in Pennsylvania.

I'm the one in the picture close to the camera, but turning away. For most runs we hooked our tubes together and slid down tandem in groups of two, three, or four. This upped the velocity significantly, but I opted for that rather than a solo flight. There was one run where all but two of us went alone. The chance of spinning while speeding down the hill increased dramatically when not hooked to another tube, and that didn't appeal to me.

I did not know this picture was being taken. Once we got to the bottom of the hill we would carry our tubes to a moving walkway and ride it back up to the top. Except for when it was turned off, then we carried our tubes and huffed and puffed back up the hill.

And those are my legs and feet. When it was almost time to go down the hill I would plant myself and hold on tight to the tube, ready. I didn't want to be caught off-guard, especially since I would be pulled down by the tubes I was attached to.

After the tubing we got pizza and sang happy birthday and laughed until we couldn't breathe. The talking was the best part of the night. It is a blessing to have friends to go and have this kind of crazy adventure with. I carpooled up and back and didn't get home until after midnight.

The next morning the kids asked how it was. I told them I was glad that I went because it was wonderful spending time with friends. Then they asked about the actual tubing. I told them that it was terrifying on every single run. As we started down the hill I would have thoughts like, "I really like my teeth, I hope they stay in my head" and "I am a mother! I have children depending on me! What am I doing?! This is insanity!" It wasn't until the last run that some of those anxious feelings started to fade a little.

That said, I'm glad I went. I need people and since I have made the choice to stay at home with kids, I don't have that many chances to be around people. Talking and laughing and listening filled my soul. And it's nice to know that during the year of my fortieth birthday I can still be adventurous and do new things that scare me.

Lift

One night last week, after the younger kids had gone to bed, Peter stayed up and built a LEGO automaton.

Getting Out Their Wiggles

Yesterday I said we played at the church after the baptism. What I didn't say was that my kids spent most of the time running around the gym and singing at the tops of their lungs. It was Saturday and most of the people were gone at that point, so I didn't stop them.

Also, that's when I pulled out my fancy camera.

Nope

I am not ready for Topher to learn how to climb out of his bed. My lack of preparation doesn't seem to be stopping him though.

He's just barely seventeen months old. For comparison, that's how old Cooper was when he started walking.

I snapped this blurry picture quickly before redirecting his attention to something other than climbing out of his bed.

Head Over Heels

Do Do Do Do Do Do

Ambulatory

The Tip

When I picked Peter up from volleyball practice on Wednesday he told me that most of the A team was in Alabama for an engineering competition. That meant that he would be playing much more than usual during his game on Thursday, an away game that we hadn't planned to attend. At his request that we come, I quickly rearranged our Thursday schedule so we could be there to support him.

He did a great job! He played in three out of the four games, had several strong serves, and tipped the ball over the net for the first time. This is a screenshot Peter pulled from a movie I took, capturing that tip.

I'm so glad we were there.

Over the Net

Peter has about two weeks left of volleyball. He's really enjoyed being on a team and learned a lot. He's also improved as a player. Some games are better than others, but at least he gets to play. We went to a home game yesterday. I was holding a wiggly Topher and sitting next to an active Sophie, but I managed to get this blurry shot of Peter serving the ball.

Serving is his strength. I added some information directly to the picture, just so you can tell what you're looking at.

The Outtakes

When we took our family pictures on Sunday after church I kept saying that I loved those trees as a background, but I didn't like that we were standing on a slope. I like to look at pictures and see how everyone is growing, but if we're on a hill that's not an accurate representation of height. So after we'd taken many, many, many regular pictures, Bryan had a few of us switch places. That's not exactly accurate either, though Peter looks pleased with the arrangement.

The kids had been begging for a silly picture, so we obliged. I had no idea what pose Bryan had picked until I looked through the pictures on Sunday night. I think it's hilarious.

On Holiday

We are officially on Spring Break, which in our case is simply a glorified four-day weekend. We'll take what we can get. We celebrated by having piano lessons right after school and then coming home to do chores and eat leftovers. I know, we're party animals.

One highlight of the day was playing in the backyard of our piano teacher. The girls loved taking turns on the trampoline and Topher thought it was hilarious to watch them bounce.

The Business of Play