Creating is its own reward

 I like to write blogs, music, stories, journals, make movies etc...  While there are some people who make money doing these things, it's OK that I get to enjoy doing them.  P enjoys the things I create.  I recently submitted some pieces to a competition and did not get chosen.  That's OK.  This is the great lesson I learned from Group Solitaire "It is enough to play."  Don't expect to win.  Do your best and have a good time.

Trip to see family

 This weekend we got to visit my brother for my niece's baptism.  It was so nice to see them and support them on this special day.  They took us out to lunch afterward.  So nice!

On the way home we stopped by Mardis Falls which was a short hike for such an amazing waterfall.  It was a beautiful day.

Conference Weekend

 M is at a band trip for Indoor Winds in Kentucky.  P and I enjoyed watching the National Brass Band competition this weekend.  We took the boys to the natural history museum while lP did a duet at Solo and Ensemble.  We've been enjoying conference between these activities.  The inclusion of new music has been very nice.

I love our new home.  It is quiet as we hoped to find.  I like the features that are more updated than our previous home.  We live in such convenient proximity to schools and shopping.  The yard is beautiful.  

General Authorities often tell cute stories from their early days of courtship or marriage.  P and I have some good stories and I hope that we can see the Lord's hand in our lives.

Easter feast

 We don’t celebrate holidays as big as some do but we do some special things.  When we have a holiday meal I like to have the kids sign up to bring something.  G chose to bring hamburgers.  M brought strawberries and crepes.  Penny brought green bean casserole.  B brought pickles and flat bread.  L brought ice cream.  P brought carrots.  I helped make and buy many of these things. LP and I made sugar cookies with m&m bunny faces.  I also made French toast.

We go to the ward party and community events but don’t do baskets at home.   I feel like they already get so much candy at these community events that we don’t need to do more.

I do love a family meal.  Maybe we’ll start doing this monthly.

Apple tree

I pruned the apple tree.  Maybe too much.

This is our beautiful flowering cherry tree!

This is our peach tree.

The giant tree behind our house is a Bradford pear.
 I love our house so much.  We have amazing trees.

Alabama Kayaking

M gathered treasures from the river.  One of our first kayak experiences 8 years ago was a river clean up with the county naturalist.

We went kayaking for the first time in Alabama and the first time in about a year.

Last year at this time we were so busy preparing the house for sale and showing it that we didn't go kayaking.

This river flows to the Tennessee river.  We thought there would be current but there wasn't much of one.

The weather was cool and sunny.  Perfect weather to wrangle everyone out on the water. 
 

Holy Week good

 

G and I got to attend a session today.  He had to ask over and over for the ASL video.  The temple worker kept whispering that there was captioning for the video.  I’m proud of G’s persistence.  I was so tempted to get up and mama bear, but he prevailed.

Singing Time Leader

 Around Halloween our Primary President asked me to cover singing time.  The Leader had had a baby and would be out for a couple of months.  When the leader moved at the end of the year I was called.  Once I had the official calling I got serious about cultivating a culture of movement and engaged singing times.  I joined the Sharla Dance facebook group.  I bought the book "To teach a child a song"  After deep diving on the methods I got 10 months planned out go teach all program songs using techniques that appeal to different intelligence.  She has the techniques spelled out in the book and the facebook group (started by fans of her methods) has great discussions and ideas.  It is a joy to prepare the materials.  Melody map, bell charts, patterns to beat sticks with a song, that we use just one Sunday.  Knowing I am just using it one week, I am able to plan exactly that much effort.  Sometimes it does take an hour to make a melody map or a couple of hours to make a bell chart.  It's fun though.  And the children are so engaged. 

Pride and Prejudice

 Our book club read a Jane Austin book, "Persuasion", my first.  I read the wiki summary so I could know what was happening before I began.  Afterward I watched 3 film adaptations.  It was fascinating.

I decided to finally read "Pride and Prejudice" and watched the Kiera Knightly version.  The BBC version had old feelings for me.  I'd first seen it as a Jr. high kid tagging along with my older sisters at their friends house.  Being 13, it seemed really long and confusing.  Over the subsequent 30 years I never did watch the whole thing contiguously.  Even after I had borrowed it from the library, it sat unwatched for a long time.  I watched it this week and really enjoyed it.  

Everyone was so young!  In previous exposures to the film I was 12, or college age.  But now, as I'm the age of the parents in the film it is so amusing.  Now, married for 24 years I watch things differently.  I see the contrast in the actors expressions.  I see the awe and joy when they marry.  It really is a masterpiece.

light and the love of God

 Today I bore my testimony to the primary about light and rainbows.  The rain does not make the colors.  The full spectrum of colors is always there.  Under special circumstances, we are able to see them.

The love of God is that way.  It is always there but sometimes we are able to see it.

Beautiful visit

 

caramels

 lP wanted me to make caramels.  The first batch was cooked at too high a temperature and wound up as toffee.  I used some of the toffee to make cookies.  I'll keep it in the cabinet to grind up for future cookie batches.

The batch I made today turned out great.  I made a half batch and cooked it at low temperature.  Half a batch is still tons of caramels.

7 oz. sweetened condensed milk (measured by dividing the can into two 1 cup jars)
1/2 c. light brown sugar because I was out of white sugar which it should have been half of.
1/8 c. corn syrup
1/4 c. salted butter
1/8 t coarse salt (I used pretzel salt because I had it)    
     cook for 25 minutes at med-low with it boiling for the last 10 minutes and becoming the color of caramel.

1/2 t. vanilla added and whipped in right before pouring it out onto parchment paper in an iron skillet.  The point of the iron skillet is to help the caramel cool slowly.  If you have a slab of marble, that would be the best thing to use.

They turned out so great.  I'd be willing to do this again some time.  We wrapped some up to take on the road, and set some aside to give to grandma L. 

Spring!

Phillip pruned the peach tree and I got the branches to bloom.

Bradford Pear Trees are everywhere and it is so lovely.

This is the first blossom to open on our peach tree.

These daffodils have been giving us joy for a few weeks.

Bluebells!

Dandylions.  So awesome.  I grew up with spring, and had spring in Utah.  I kind of forgot how awesome it could be.  In Florida we had azaleas and lots of pollen.  I'm loving the flowering trees.
 

When it rains it pours

 February has been a month of weekly unexpected difficulties.

This February has also been the month I finally went to water aerobics and got a weekly walk set up.

This week I heard back about grad school, and will be interviewing for two jobs.  One job is to be a parent mentor for deaf children.  The other job is to interpret for a child at a local school.  Now that I have choices I get to choose.

something to do

 Today P noticed a neighbor had some large tree limbs down in the front yard.  I texted her to see if she wanted help.  She quickly replied yes so P, G and I got our work gloves on and headed over.  She had a chain saw, rake and loppers.  I'd say it was less than 30 minutes and we had it all cut and piled on the side of the road.  I'm so grateful that P loves to serve.  He and G have done hurricane clean up so many times.  They know just how to work as a team and get the job done.

I was interested in writing some instrumental music and decided to start writing tunes for the local middle school band I was volunteering with.  At the 5th grade preview they had the pep band play 10 quick tunes of about 20 bars each.  I feel like the limited range and length of tunes was something I could do.  I like being able to contribute.  So fun.

Temple an the pew

 

Home for an undetermined visit

 Elder P came home for a medical situation.  We don't know what comes next.  Unexpected with G!  Shocking.  Not the worst thing ever.  Not even the worst thing in his life.  It's good to see him.

music I write

I've been writing songs lately.  I started in 2019 with a new tune for "We are Sowing" and have gone on to write new hymn tunes and a few primary songs.  I love writing the music.  I feel the spirit so strong when I write.  I don't know what will ever come of it, but we have a ward choir willing to sing my pieces and I'm submitting the music to various forums and websites. 

In the fall I plan to start Grad school to become a speech therapist.  Having that plan helps me enjoy writing music without the need to make it commercially viable.  It's good to just do something you love without needing it to do anything else for you.

Iced in, 10 day weekend

 School was canceled Friday 1/12 for a wind storm.  Monday 1/15 was the Martin Luther King holiday and it snowed mid day.  The snow turned to sleet and then froze.  School was canceled each day that week.  We stayed home and had fun.  The kids did some sledding, some piano practice, some math and a lot of computer time.  It felt a bit like covid quarantine, and way better than a hurricane, as far as isolation.  

We are so grateful for our home.  It is such an incredible blessing to have a nice home to keep us safe and dry.  The kids still feel she smallness of it, but it is so awesome.  All 6 of us were hanging out in the kitchen/office one day.  I love the different spaces of this house.  I'm looking forward to warmer days when we can use the porches again.

M wanted to hang out with friends and most days we told her "No, it isn't safe to drive."  Today she finally got to go out with friends.

lP has a friend that lives down the street and we went sledding with them twice.  

P and I went on a walk together Tuesday and saw that the roads were all completely covered in a hard layer of snow/ice.  Even the big road at the end of our street was a solid sheet.  I couldn't believe people were driving on it.  

On Thursday and Friday we treked over to Murry Dr. that has a steeper hill.  We had to cross the big road and it was still mostly covered in ice at that point.  By Friday afternoon the big road did have ruts mostly to the pavement and it rained in the evening.

We shoveled our driveway in the rain and by Saturday the remaining ice had melted.  I'm glad we got it clear then because now temperatures are below freezing for several days. 

P did a grocery run Friday because we were out of milk, flour and sugar.  Saturday we went out again because the boys wanted a treat for cleaning their room.  We decided to get pizza too.  I enjoyed having everyone home for every meal for 9 day.  Church will be just Sacrament Meeting.  lP, B and I have colds so we'll stay home.  This has been sweet.

Snow!

 We're sheltering at home for a few days.  Friday there was a wind storm so school was canceled.  Monday we were off for school for Martin Luther King day but would have had a snow day because it snowed!  The kids enjoyed going sledding.  I found snow pants and sleds at the thrift stores over a few months in the fall.  So we prepared and it was great.

More of a good visit with Grandma and Grandpa

 We went to the rocket museum with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandpa was on the ground checking out this ant mound but I was too slow with the camera.

We hiked spring trail on Rainbow mountain and found water!

The hike was so steep.  Hiking in the winter is better than the summer.  Grandma and Grandpa are such goo sports and in such good shape.

Someone brought an RC truck that could climb on the rocks.  That was fun to watch.