Zooming through December

This week was much less eventful than the last few weeks. But I'm going to do a quick post so I can keep up prior to busy Christmas time. 

Veronica drew this picture while I was blogging last week. It's the world surrounded by the Coronavirus. The X's on the continents are people that have died. Later she added swirly hurricanes to the oceans. 

 

I guess Veronica is paying attention better than I thought whenever I show Brandon charts like these. This is a chart from the New York Times daily email that I received on Thursday December 10th. It's a little faint, but you can see that daily deaths have now surpassed the amounts from the spring. (Use this link to sign up for your own daily briefing email)

Here's a happier picture from Sunday. Brandon asked me to grab a cookie sheet for him. I was kind of reluctant to do that because getting a cookie sheet out of the cupboard usually means all the other pans will fall out. But I went into the kitchen to help him. I was so surprised when I opened the cupboard and found it nicely organized. I'd talked to Brandon about doing this, and I knew he'd taken out the shelf, but I didn't know he'd build everything yet. He'd done it on Saturday and I hadn't even noticed. 

On Sunday night I was a little grumpy about the fact that the weekend had gone by so fast. I was not looking forward to getting back to the grind on Monday. I ended up going to bed at 10:30 which is the earliest I've gone to bed in a long time. I woke up the next day feeling so good. I've realized lately I need to take better care of my body. I've started taking iron suplements and those have helped. Going to bed at semi decent times is also helping. 

Monday started our second week of trying to catch up on some of our school work. It started out well. I think we are actually going to make it to the end of the semester. 

In the afternoon we had to get out of the house so we went to the park for a bit. Charlotte and Lydia noticed the tennis courts had a fence and gates on them. They suggested we bring Marcia on Tuesday and let her chase a ball around in the tennis courts. 

So that is what we did on Tuesday. And it was the best idea EVER. Marcia got her energy out by chasing the ball, and the kids got their energy out by chasing Marcia. We did this on Wednesday afternoon too.

On Tuesday night I got to have a super fun zoom meeting with the hosts Baconsale. This is my favorite podcast and I've been a patron for the show for about 2 years. They usually have an event for Patrons this time of year, but I can never go to that because I'm out of state. So when they announced they'd be doing a zoom meeting for Patrons I was super happy. They divided us up by what level of money we contribute to the podcast. I contribute $8 a month so I'm a Tier Two patron. My call was at 8:00 and there were about 5 other patrons on the call.

It was so great to actually talk to the show hosts. I've listened to this show since it began in 2015. I've interreacted with the hosts through email and Facebook for a long time, but this was the first time really talking to them so it was great. I like all three hosts of the show, but I have a special affinity for Kenny/Kent. I've listened to him on other shows and I often joke that he's been most stable friendship during the many times I've moved. 

At one point Derrick wandered into the room with me and I had him come sit with me. I said, "Here is a visual representation of how long I've listened to Kenny. This is my 8 year old. I discovered Kenny on the radio when I would drive to my appointments when I was pregnant with my son. I even planned my appointments to be on Tuesdays' and Friday's so I could hear Kenny's radio segments."  Kenny got a kick out of hearing that.  

The zoom meeting was only 30 minutes long, but it was so much fun! I was in such a good mood after the call. 

In fact I'd had such a good time that I signed up for another zoom meeting with another podcast host. I occationally listen to Leading Saints and the host Kurt Frankhom was putting together informal meetings with listeners. So I signed up for one of those on Thursday around 5:00. That meeting was fun as well. I've listened to podcasts for so long that it's really nice when I get to actually talk to the hosts. 

I also interacted via technology with my mom. She loves seeing pictures what the girls make for their doll houses. So I suggested we do a Google handout so she could get a tour of the houses. That ended up being super fun. She was able to see ALL the little things the girls have made.

Then I realized that she's never had a tour of my house. So I took her all over the house and gave her a tour. 

Our neighbor Jennifer brought over some hand knitted dish cloths. Well, they were so pretty we decided not to use them for dishes.  Charlotte and Lydia used them as blankets for their barbies. Here's one of Lydia's all wrapped up and taking a comfy nap on the couch. 

And here is one of Charlotte's Barbies enjoying her new bedspread. 

Veronica spent some time making presents for her house. She also has a tree made out of magnet blocks. 

And here are some adorable little letters the little barbies wrote.

Kathy, another one of our sweet neighbors invited the girls down to her house to pick out some facemasks she made. (You can see them wearing theirs in the pictures at Derrick's baptism.)  While we were there she told us her birthday was the next day. Charlotte remembered so she put together a plate of cookies and made a card for Kathy.  

Kathy was so touched she reciprocated by knitting some adorable things for all four kids. (She told me that knitting is like breathing for her.) She made scarves for Derrick and Veronica's stuffed animals. She made dresses and wraps for Charlotte and Lydia's barbies. 

Here's Veronica's lion with one of the scarfs. 

And here are the barbies in their new dresses. 

On Thursday we ran a whole bunch of errands. One of them took us to DI where Derrick found this amazing Hotwheels track for only $5. He'd just got $5 in a baptism card from my Grandma Mary Ann so this was perfect timing. I was so impressed by his luck. I've been to DI twice in the last month hoping to find Hotwheels so I know what a rare find this was. He and Charlotte put it together in the car while I was in another store. It had all the pieces and had batteries. When we got home he played with it for hours. (And has continued to play with it for hours.)

Derrick has been doing 10 hours of behavioral therapy every week. At the end of the week he gets a reward if he's done all his work for his goals. This week his reward was to buy a soda from a vending machine. He was so excited! Miss Nisha said that he didn't even want to drink it. He just wanted to hold it and occasionally gave the bottle a kiss. When he was playing on a playground he would often ask, "Is my soda okay?"

We've continued to watch a Christmas movie nearly ever night. Here's what we've watched. 

Sunday - The First Presidency Christmas Devotional, The Christ Child, and a few other youtube videos. These were all really good to watch. Veronica started crying because she felt the spirit. 

Monday - How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original version.) We were all tired so we needed a short movie. I know I was awake for the whole movie, but I completely blanked out and I have no memory of watching the Cindy Lou Who part. Like I said I was tired. 

Tuesday - Elf. We all laughed super hard at this one. I ducked out for a bit to do the zoom meeting with Baconsale, but came back for the end. 

Wednesday -  Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version) No one in the family besides me has ever seen this movie. And I only ever saw it once when I was about 10. All I remembered was the very end. After watching it again I see why, this movie is not very exciting for kids. But I'm glad we gave it a try.  

Thursday - Home Alone 1. This movie is a classic for a reason. We loved every minute of it. The kids love "the traps."

Friday - Home Alone 2. Watching these two movies back to back makes you wonder how in the heck that family let Kevin out of their sight the second year. I would have been holding onto him the whole way through the airport. But whatever, it was still fun. (Though the parts with the bird women drag a bit.)

Saturday - Curious George Christmas. Brandon was in the zone on a project in the garage so we picked a movie he didn't mind missing. I've listened to this movie a lot and seen parts of it, but this was the first time I sat down and watched the whole thing. It was adorable. 

Saturday was the day we'd planned for "Dollar Store Christmas Shopping."  This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Brandon waits in the car with the kids while the I take each kid into the store one at a time to help them pick out gifts for their siblings. I also have them pick out a tube of wrapping paper.  

We went to the store and then came home and cleaned the house. We hadn't cleaned very well last Saturday because of the baptism, so it was really nice to get the house cleaned up this week. It looked so good. 

When we were done cleaning the kids took turns coming into my room to wrap presents. That was really fun. Now we have presents under the tree. 

Brandon spent a lot of the day out in the garage. I went out to talk to him and found him hard at work with a hand planer. He's working on a headboard for our bed. He's had so much fun using the new router and his table saw. I'm so glad we bought a house with a big garage that Brandon can fill with toys. 

And that gets us to today. It was our turn for church at the building today. It was our Christmas program. There were no choir numbers this year. Instead we had 3 musical numbers. One man played a Christmas medley on the viola (he's first chair in the Magic Valley Symphony so it was very good.) Another man played Carol of the Bells on the organ and had it programed to play bell sounds. When he started playing Derrick perked right up to try to see the bells. And Charlotte whispered, "YES!" under her breath. The Bishop spoke for a bit and then a lady sang a really pretty solo. 

After church Brandon and the kids frosted Gingerbread cookies. They'd made the cookies last Sunday. Then Brandon put them into the freezer until he'd have time to frost them. That was today. 

And now we are having a relaxing afternoon. Brandon's taking a nap and I think I'll join him. We only have one week left of school, but we still have a lot of work to do to make sure we finish on time. We need all the rest we can get today.  

Thanks for reading.