Mom & Dad birthdays

 We were able to celebrate both of my parents birthdays in the last little while. For Mom's birthday in December, Amy, Mayela and I took her to the spa to have an hour massage. We got them too and they were sooo nice and helped shave off some years it felt like. That was my first time getting a massage and it was more fun to do it together. Then we went to lunch at Mimi's, it is such a fun place. I love my sisters and my mom especially! She deserved a nice day out. She is so sensitive to the Spirit and wants nothing more than to please her Heavenly Father. She is constantly using her talents to bless others. She is good at anything she does. She is always there for me. I am grateful for the example she sets for me!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday at Amy's house the day before his birthday. We had a Sunday dinner of Elk roast and chicken, with baked potatoes, green bean salad, rolls, fruit, and an amazing cake Mom made, a pumpkin cream cheese with caramel garnishes. She let the girls help her decorate, and it turned out so beautiful! She said she's been inspired by the British Bake Off show lately. On his real birthday, we sent him a pic of Cov with thumbs up and a blue bucket hat like the one Grandpa wears and told him Cov tried that on and said "Look! i'm grandpa Scott!" He got a kick out of that. My Dad is always so supportive. I may not live at home anymore, but he is always quick to offer anything. He is a hard worker, and has earned that nick name Scooter. I am grateful for the example he sets for me!

Use the 4WD

There are great lessons all around us each day to learn from. This is one I felt impressed to share. This past week, I had just taken Sydnie to story time at the library and it was great. As we were leaving and getting out on the road, I drove forward and then soon after started slipping backward on the ice and no matter how hard I gassed it, I kept slipping backward and ended up in a snow bank. I tried several things but was unsuccesful and not able to get out. So I went to call Dave and realized my phone was dead. So I went in to the library to ask to use a phone and they insisted that they would be glad to help me. So we had a team out trying to dig me out, putting salt down to gain traction, and pushing. What angels that day! It wasn't a big deal to them but all day I was beaming because of the willingness to help and goodness of others. We were working on it for a while and I was thinking the car was on auto, so the 4 wheel drive would have kicked in. But then I looked down and realized 4 wheel drive wasn't on. As soon as I pushed that, I was able to get out without a problem. That got me thinking a lot this week - what things are right in front of me that could help me that I'm not using? From a Gospel perspective, we have the word of God in the scriptures, we can communicate to Him through prayer, we have the words of the prophets and the gift of the Holy Ghost. How often do I have these things right in front of me but don't take advantage of them? This was a good question to ponder over this week. The more we use these tools Heavenly Father has given us, the better we will be able to grow, so we won't be stagnant or stuck in the ruts of the life, and eventually we will be able to reach our final destination of eternal life with Him. I am thankful for everyday lessons that come and hope I can learn and do. Put life in 4WD and everything will be okay!

Covid 2.0

The dreaded Covid hit our family again for the second time. The kids started complaining of not feeling well on the weekend in the middle of January. So we kept some home from church on Sunday, and when Monday rolled around same thing. We felt like it might be Covid as some of the symptoms matched those of Corona. So we got some kids tested and Cov was positive. Poor buddy! The other kids didn't get it. But they all had to still quarantine as they are not vaccinated. Dave and I got vaccinated, but they haven't. So technically we weren't quarantined, Dave still went to work and I ran a few errands, masked of course. The CDC now says 5 days from the time symptoms started, which is much better than the 14 it used to be!  We stayed home and rested lots, read so many books, had way to much screen time, made a bunch of gnomes, and tried to get homework done. One day I was getting a little impatient with Cov, who was feeling much better his last two days but resisting doing his homework and started loosing my cool. He told me, "Mom! Stay calm! When you stay calm, it helps me be calm, too." True point!  So we've been trying to keep calm, and Covid on. We also did secret service during this time which helped us all look for the positive and stay happy through service. They retested and were good to go back to school in less than a week. So we made it through again, woohoo!  Just had to mask up for five days after. It's so funny, we thought in 2020, Covid-19 would've gone away after a couple of weeks or months after making its way. Here we are a couple of years later, and with new variants (the lastest being Omnicron), we are still in this whole deal. I wonder when it's all going to go away or if it never will? Or some are saying it's going to be like the new flu. It is so politically charged and some say it's a conspiracy. I don't know what to think to think sometimes. At any rate, it has definitely changed the way we live. Hopefully in many ways, for the better. 

Snow days!

The snow has been dumping and dumping hard here! They rarely close school, but right after getting back from Christmas break for a couple of days, we got messages that the kids were getting out early due to snow conditions and then they had a snow day and no school the next day because of a basketball tournament. So it was like an extended Christmas break!  We dug out the best we could (and the Hagges came to help), built snow things (Cal was especially proud of his snow spider), made a snow maze, played games, read a ton, watched movies, and drank lots of hot chocolate. It kind of feels like an endless Christmas break! So snow away! I'd much rather have it this time of year rather than in May. ;)