Three Months – In a Nutshell

Any other year this post would have been broken up into several posts over the past few months.  But this is not any other year.  This is this year.  With this year’s challenges and opportunities.  And so rather than spending several posts trying to catch up on three months of our life, I have opted to quickly fill in and move on from where we are.

If you read the last post (written by my wonderful husband) you know that I spend every school day morning with some amazing teenagers teaching and learning with them the gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been restored in the latter days of the earth.  It is incredible and I love it.  It is also very demanding of time and energy and it has taken me a little while to get things figured out, thus the absence of blog posts.  But things are evening out and I’m ready (I think) to revisit my blog regularly. 

I’m sure there will be more posts about all of this, but for now, let’s recap.  ** Warning: Picture-Heavy Post. **

We had Thanksgiving at our house and took the opportunity to send a little Christmas love note to a relative on his mission.  You decide which picture is best.

Djeryd had a winter band concert and spent a lot of time practicing.  He really loves orchestral music, so band is not exactly his speed, but we are trying to convince him to stick it out until he can join orchestra in high school.

Anna is turning into quite the little artist (Djeryd, too, for that matter), and astonished me with this lovely picture she drew to fill up a completely blank box on the front of her folder.

I think this picture represents the only homemade gifts  created by these two hands of mine this Christmas.  And I barely got these little pillowcases finished as it was.

Sean took the entire week of work off between Christmas and New Year’s.  It was heaven to have him home.  We soaked up every minute (and I reveled in watching movies until way too late every night and sleeping in as late as possible every morning).

Djeryd made a Lego Ninjago board for a young friend of his.  He also created cards and bargained for Ninjago minifigs from his cousin all to make a complete set for his friend.  I loved watching him put his heart into this.

And his heart into this . . .

The grandkids completed another successful run of the annual Nativity.  I love this tradition.

Erik’s grandmother knit scarves, hats and mittens for all of the kids this year.  How’s that for love?  Believe me, we felt it.

(I tried not to include any extraneous photos, but this one was too cute to leave out.)

Life returned to normal as soon as Christmas was over.  Around here that means back to military drills and digging out the war trench in the back yard.  They all take it so seriously.  It cracks me up. 

In  my three-month-picture-dump I came across a few instances of my camera being commandeered.  As annoying as this can sometimes be, today I found it endearing.

Last, but not least, here is the only picture I have of Erik’s Pinewood Derby this year.  What?  You don’t understand?  He made this board to display his car when it was finished.  That’s it.  End of story.  I was feeling that taking pictures was futile since I would never have the time to even look at them, so I didn’t take a single photograph after this point three or four weeks ago.

I am not making any promises about this little blog, but I’ve missed having a record of our family life.  For that reason I will visit and post more often.  It goes too fast.  Too many memories are already long gone because I didn’t take the time to record them.  I don’t feel guilty.  I have been doing my best and that’s what counts and it is what it is.  But now it will be better.  ;->