March 24, 2014 - A breather, of sorts

It's been a while, eh?

I found Libby and Jake climbing a tree one afternoon.

Life became exceedingly busy one Friday afternoon with something that happened at work, and it's been an incredibly busy month there.  On top of that, Aria was in her final month of The Little Mermaid (she was Ariel), and Katrina's mother came out to see the show.  But she took Katrina away on a long weekend excursion first thing when she showed up.  Very hectic.  That's nearly always the excuse.  Ah, well.

The past month I've been working on a joint "life story" project with my mothers and wife.  I keep sending the questions to my dad, but he doesn't write much.  He reads a lot, not much of a writer.  A couple months back, a woman at church presented a lesson on family history, and provided some sheets with questions on them. 52 questions, 1 question a week.  Easy, right?  At the end of it, you have the bones of a life story.

Christian says he feels like an experienced camper
now that he can set up his own tent in 5 minutes.

I have wanted my parents to write theirs (so far), and have been meaning to write mine (so far), and this looked like a really easy way to get it rolling.  Each Wednesday (I try, but I'm not very consistent on the day of the week) I send out a question to the email address group.  And I send out my written section as well.  Questions so far: tell me about your mother, your father, the house you grew up in, and your challenges growing up.  Seems easy, and then you start to write and realize you can only barely scratch the surface in a couple pages.  I've learned a lot so far, and I feel very good about what I've contributed as well.  Good stuff.

My last photo of a frozen creek this winter, I promise.

We've had snow on the ground since mid-January, including a couple massive snowfalls.  I was not able to get out and spend time in the woods since Feb 2.  We got some real warming a couple weeks ago, and the snow has been gradually melting.  We were finally able to use our driveway turnaround last Friday, and I went on a nice (and challenging) trail run on Saturday.  9.2 miles through the woods.  A little slower than I had wanted, but it was wonderful nonetheless.  My longest trail run ever, tromping through 3 inches of wet snow much of the time, 40 degrees, overcast, with a little rain and wind.  Lovely time.

Some nice light and shadow on the trail.

In the mean time, of course, Aria has had her show.  I heard her singing as she was doing laundry (yes, that's normal at our house), and heard her sing for possibly the first time ever.  I had heard her put notes out of her mouth, but this singing was from her soul.  It was real music.  She was stunning.  Her performances were fantastic as well.  An amazing cast that was directed well and liked each other.  Seriously impressive in all the best ways.

She was a massive celebrity after
the Sunday matinee.

Do you see that?  That's how she
sounded, too.  Amazing.

And, of course, Christian turned 12.  So he is now in my Sunday School class, and joins me for the beginning of Priesthood class.  We studied the Word of Wisdom last week, going over it line by line, making sure we knew everything it said.  It's a really fun first discussion to have on the nature of revelation and the frailty of humanity.  We're waiting until the grandparents get here to ordain him as a deacon and baptize Jacob.  It will be an excellent weekend.




What else?  I was asked to serve in a different calling.  I accepted, of course, and we'll see what it comes down to.  I'm curious to see how it pans out.

And I suppose that's all.  And that ought to be enough.  So now work returns to a human pace, our family life calms down for a while, and we can catch our collective breaths.