Valentines, the beach, fossils, and orienteering

 

P does Daddy Time at 12:20 4 days a week.  Last week he did fossils with plaster and sand.

We went over to the beach to get the sand and there was white out conditions.

You couldn't see people 40 feet away.

It was colder than expected.  Where we live, we have trees so we don't get much wind.

This week P talked about maps and then set up an orienteering course at the park.  At the end he had a target that did not follow the sidewalk.  The kids had to come back and try it again.  P talked to them about being a few degrees off and how easy it is to get off in the wrong direction because the path doesn't lead to your destination.

On President's day we went to Washington Oaks.  It was the highest tide we ever visited there.  We walked farther than we ever had before and found this place with lots of flat loose stones.  The kids re-stacked some stones there. 

It was a beautiful day at the beach.

On February 13 we drove out to visit the grandparents.  Grandma C made us seafood soup and cookies to decorate.  It was so much fun. 

Food distribution

 I love the food distribution activity that has been happening at our church the last year.  I've been volunteering since August 2020.  I love being outside with a bunch of people serving.  I love the problem solving that it takes to re-package and distribute the boxes of food the warehouse sends.  I love seeing people from both wards there.  I love getting to bring home some of whatever is left over.

Lent

 I like the idea of Lent.  I think I'd like to give up something tasty and also something ugly for the next 40 days preparing for celebrating Easter.  So I'm planning to fast from refined carbs and hurting words. 

I saw this list on the internet and thought it was a great list.  As I looked it I felt overwhelmed at the possibilities of areas for growth.  But I also thought that I'm not really struggling so much with sadness, pessimism, worries, complaints, bitterness, selfishness, grudges...  But I do say hurtful words and I'd like to dedicate this effort to being more kind with my words.

Good things

 I go back and forth with setting good routines for the children.  Right now they have Piano, Handwritting, Math, Good and Beautiful.  This is B and lP.  M and G have online class work that has different schedules and they have a list of things to get done each day.  I am trying to help the kids know they need to get different things done throughout the day.  Handwriting in the monring, G&B before lunch, piano and math before dinner.

I'm in the buy nothing group and noticing someone who is interested in everything.  I'm glad to not be interested in everything.  Sure I could use this or that, but we have plenty!

Prayer and Temperance

Life is full of opportunities to grow.  Whatever we are struggling with, or want to be better at, or need to be better at, we should pray and let the Lord into our lives.  I'm thinking about the scripture "Pray Always..."  It's not meant to make us feel bad, like one more thing to do.  It's an invitation to let someone who knows all, to inspire us.

I'd like to start modeling for the children the habit of praying as they start out on a test, or adventure.  We pray when we're leaving for a bigger trip, but why not every trip.  Don't I want the Lords help in all things?

I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation and the accessibility of amazing blessings like prayer.  I don't have to understand them to try them, and as I practice these principles I get experience.  Of all the things I hope my children to learn before they go off into their adult lives, prayer is most important.   I haven't made it the priority that it should be.

In regards to temperance, I learned today that it is not to be luke warm, it is to be able to hold the hot and the cold.  Like an insulator.  You can have strong feelings, but not let them cause harm.  To be temperate in all things is to be a peace maker.  Value the higher good, or love, more than the minutia of rightness.

Plastic bags

 I was helping with a family lunch for a ward member who passed away this week.  This is the first event I've participated since Covid and it was sweet to see the generosity of the members supplying the lunch.  One sister had brought grocery bags to help pack things up.  She's so awesome.  At the end of the event as we cleaned up and distributed left over food to the family, she packed up a bag of cookies for my kids.  She said "This bag is clean."  Because I'm a person who regularly re-uses plastic bags, even washing them with soap and water, I actually thought "I wonder how she washed them."  But you can't wash grocery bags.  My definition for clean grocery bags is that they have sat in the garage for 3 days.  But I don't know anyone else's definition for clean grocery bags.  

I'm so grateful for the 4 agreements.  Be impeccable with the word.  Assume Nothing.  Take Nothing personally.  Do your best.  

Covid puts these principles to practice daily.  We were at the garden/park today and another family came.  M got masks for B and L who don't socially distance very well.  The kids of the other family asked why they were wearing masks.  Oh well.  I'm grateful my kids are willing to wear the masks.  They don't have to wear them often.  But they do wear them when they are outside of our family bubble.  We've been meeting up for a few months (monthly) with some homeschool friends.  My family is the only one that wears masks, the other 11 people don't.  I'm OK with them playing outside with people, as long as my children are wearing masks, but still, we do this infrequently.  lP plays with the neighbor almost daily, but they both wear masks, and so do any of my other kids who play with them.

I've lost count of the number of people in our ward who have had Covid.  I'm glad some are able to get the shot already.  I hope my family will be able to get it by the summer. 

I'm really looking forward to going to the beach when it gets warm.  We go to a beach that has a drive on the beach ramp that we can walk down, so we don't have to be too close to anyone.  We didn't figure out that loophole to my anxiety of catching a deadly virus, until August of last year, so we missed most of the beach days.  Also, the beach was closed for a few months.

I love quarantining because I am not good at saying no to things.  I'm grateful for all the activities we usually participate in, but the driving, and scheduling and looking for parking... not my favorite.  This past year, I have gotten to spend a lot of time with my kids and I am so grateful for that.

New roles of service

 Unfortunately, one of our ward family members passed away from complications with Covid.  I'm serving in the Relief Society and helped with a lunch for the family today.  I prepared flowers for a table of pictures and I also prepared music to play in the background.  I also helped by asking others to set up things and move things.  I'm learning how important it is for people to be allowed to be involved.  

I wore my mask the entire 4 hours I was there for set up etc..  Even when I was the only person in the building, and especially when there were 10 people in the kitchen.  It was so nice to see people, even if they wanted to talk about how dangerous the vaccine is.  I love people.