Off to the Temple

Sick Daze

I woke up Monday morning as a baritone. 

I've spent the last three days in and out of fevers and sleep. Bryan, Peter, and Cooper have juggled feeding and driving the rest of the kids while I've mostly stayed in my room, near a humidifier and a jumbo pack of tissues.

Today I felt well enough to shower, but it took all my strength.

As of this evening I'm starting to feel more like a human and less like a giant germ.

I'm really thankful for children that can drive and a husband who works from home.

Motivation

In addition to deep cleaning and sorting through papers, I decided hosting the youth was a good reason to take apart the great room and paint most of the trim. You know, normal house prep stuff. Topher helped by borrowing my phone and taking a bunch in-process pictures.

At first I thought I would be able to pull the trim off the wall without moving this big cabinet. I was wrong. Emptying and moving this added significantly to my project.

The contents of the cabinet were relocated to the table, then to the library when we needed to eat dinner.

This door trim was sanded and wiped down, but not yet painted. A few of the kids liked the distressed look from the sanding and tried to convince me to stop here.

I kept going though. In this picture the trim looks black, but it's actually a deep chocolate brown. I really wanted to paint the walls as well so they would match the white walls in the rest of the downstairs, but I decided sleeping was a better idea than painting for three days straight.

I also though about painting all the walls this beautiful blue color instead of just having the blue as an accent wall. Again, sleep won. The trim looks closer to its actual brown than black in this picture.

I was awake until 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday finishing the painting and cleaning up my supplies. Somehow we made it through 9am church and got the house put back together in time for the fireside. And now I'm so much closer to having all the downstairs trim painted!

No Elf on this Shelf

We hosted a fireside for the youth in our ward last night, which meant we spent a few days deep cleaning to prepare. I love the result and think we should have people over weekly if it means my house will consistently be this clean.

While sorting through a stack of school papers, I found this gem. Apparently Topher's class made elf applications in December.

In case you can't read his handwriting/spelling, in response to the prompt "I want to be an elf because" it says, "I'm sorry but I don't want to be an elf."

You should choose me because "sorry I don't want to."

Sing Out

Cooper and Phoebe had their winter choral concert last night. Phoebe sang with the select treble choir, Cooper sang with the select SATB choir, and they both sang with the concert choir. All of their songs sounded beautiful. I didn't get a picture of the treble choir, but I did get one of the SATB choir. And they stand near enough to each other that I got them both in the concert choir picture.

Phoebe's friend Isaac, who goes to seminary with her but attends a different high school, came to support her at the concert. I snapped this picture of Phoebe and her friends after the concert was over.

I continue to be thankful for our school district's wonderful choral programs.

Great job, Cooper and Phoebe!

Hats On

Cooper was generous enough to let Topher borrow his cowboy hat for silly hat day at school. It made Topher's day.

School at Home

We have used up all of our snow days, so Tuesday was our first virtual instruction day. Drawing on their three years of virtual school, my kids were well-equipped for this mode of learning. Topher was new to it, but he was so excited to have a meeting with his class on his school-issued iPad. I took very few pictures of the day, but Cooper took this one of reading time. I'm so glad he captured this moment. 

Topher also did some PE and art.

Cooper, Phoebe, and Sophie also did school, but I wasn't watching over their shoulders, making sure it got done.

Mountains of Snow

Sunday's epic snowstorm was followed by a snow day on Monday. It was warm enough for Topher and Sophie to play outside for a bit. Cooper and Topher are in the first few pictures, though Topher is off in the distance and not as easy to see.

This is a good example of high the snow is piled in our yard. That's 6'3" Peter trying to remove Topher from the snow cliff. That tall snow hill was created by the boys shoveling the driveway.

Sophie didn't have much time outside, but she enjoyed it while she could.

And poor Phoebe, who loves the cold and snow, was stuck inside with a terrible head cold. That's why she's missing from all the pictures.

Timeline of a Snowy Day

Sunday

January 25, 2026

10:27am

11:32am

11:47am

12:05pm

12:08pm

12:12 pm

12:35pm

2:40pm

2:41pm

4:39pm

4:46pm

4:47pm

5:01pm

5:41 pm

5:52pm

9:01pm

9:30pm

Snowpocalypse

I realized I forgot to buy bananas yesterday. Phoebe and I went to the store today. The bread, meat, and produce were seriously cleared out.

We are fully stocked with water and food. Now we wait to see how much snow this storm will bring.