The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas cards are sent. Most of the decorations are up. We missed putting up any outside lights this year (it snowed on us before we could get to that). We were looking into some solar powered lights this year. Maybe we'll have to wait to put them up next Christmas.

As Christmas trees go, ours is no designer creation. It's full of all the gnarly preschool/hand-made kid ornaments we've collected over the years. Plus we strung some cranberries this year. Messy but so pretty. We even have MY kindergarten ornament, which my mom gifted back to me a few years ago.

10 more days... of Sully pulling all the ornaments off the tree & smacking the angel on the Little People Nativity to hear "Away in a Manger" all day long... love it.

David McCullough and Natalie Cole

David McCullough next to the tiny cottage/office in his yard where he writes.

Mike was lucky enough to score coveted tickets to the annual MoTab Choir Christmas concert. I was all over that when I found out that my favorite author, David McCullough, would be the guest narrator/speaker. Natalie Cole is great and all...but I was there for the super-star historian. In another life I would do what he does (except I would probably use a computer - he writes his books with just a type writer - his publishers must love that). He spoke at Mike's graduation at the U. this past year (too bad we didn't make it in person to the ceremony). I was bummed that he didn't speak longer than he did at the concert - but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Almost a Snow Day

Ok...I don't think this was actually a snow day - but it's a great photo anyway. This is 1992... I think...some of the gang from Ingot Way. Why didn't anyone get any pictures of our real snow-days? Pulling each other at break-neck speed around the block on tubes behind 4-wheelers & motorcycles? Man, we had SO MUCH FUN!

After shoveling ten feet of snow from the drive way (twice) and 300 feet of sidewalk...I opted out of my morning run. We received NO snow in November ... but no worries, we caught up last night. As I drove the kids to school this morning I was trying to figure out how much worse it would have to get for them to call a snow day. Morning traffic was at a stand-still. We sat in a line of cars trying to keep pace with a guy who was WALKING next to us on the side of the road. Whenever he passed us the kids would moan,"Oh man! He's passing us!" But then every few minutes traffic inched forward a little bit and we'd creep up behind him, kids cheering wildly ("We're bookin'! Look we're going to catch him!!!) Ha ha ha ha! It was so hilarious.


We've had the fire on all day long (I hope our gas bill isn't a million dollars next month).

Wednesday Morning

Cold this morning.

In the carpool we watched a GIANT full moon set over the Oquirrh Mountains to the northwest, and then the sun rise under a bank of clouds between Lone Peak and Timp in the east. It was a sublime moment in the carpool.

Then I came back home to hang out with Sully.

There was a time (when Jess was little) when this stay-at-home-mom thing felt like dull business, like I'd given up something more important, like I was wasting my options and talents. I can't say I ever regretted having kids or staying home to raise them - but there was a time when it seemed like I was being left behind by the world.

That all changed several years ago. I realized that the "sacrifices" I thought I was making weren't actually sacrifices, that I had gained the most.... I was embarrassed that I had ever felt negative and apologetic about being a mom.

Even though there are lots of times when I still feel frustrated and exhausted, I can honestly say that I appreciate my job as mother more now. I think I see it in a more truthful light = THE most important (and satisfying) work. Motherhood (actually parenthood in general) does more to refine and teach us the essential lessons in life than anything else I can think of. It's constantly humbling, challenging, thankless, and beautiful. Makes us into creatures who live to give to others. I can see that better now.

I'm back...and better than ever.

You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

Amen to that.

Our new computer arrived via UPS this morning!! - and our man Tim had everything transferred and running smoothly tonight. Oh man - it is so nice.

So, a bit of an update is in order.

As a family we've finally worked our way through every viral and bacterial malady known to the CDC. Our grand finale was my attempt at the flu and pink eye at the same time (thanks Sully). We appreciated all the well wishes and concerned phone calls over the last month. I think we've fulfilled our illness quota for the next 5 years (and probably come pretty dang close to maxing our lifetime insurance limit). My mom was there when I needed her: picking kids up from school, putting dinner on for my family, folding laundry, the beautiful roses she cut and brought just to cheer me up (it worked). Thanks also to Mike's mom for the yummy soup and the nebulizer just when we needed it.

Three days into my Tamiflu regimen I felt well enough to take a day trip with my friend Kirsten to Heber to print our Christmas cards on a vintage letter press. Her brother and sister-in-law own the studio and press. I had a great time & the cards are pretty cool as well. Here's a picture of me at the press (scroll to the bottom).

Jessie performed with her class last week in A Mid-Summer Night's Dream as Hermia. They did an outstanding job, really. Here's a little clip with Jess - (in purple):

After the play Mike ran into his mission president and his wife (their grand kids apparently go to our school). That was crazy - it's been 15 years. They were so pleased to see Mike and talk to him. I snapped a picture.

As usual we have lots going on. I'm just glad I'm back in the game...and that I have a computer again.

Wha...???

I was sick for a while. Really sick. (I still sound like a toad.)

Our computer breathed it's last. Our new system hasn't arrived yet.

Result: I've been pretty much disconnected from the outside world.
This post comes to you courtesy of my mom...and her computer (which I stopped to use so I could find out just how much of life has passed me by over the last two weeks - you'd be surprised).
Still...there's something kind of nice about having no internet in your house for a while (once you get past the anxiety of missing important emails, having to wait to start all the Christmas shopping, going without convenient information, balancing the check-book, etc.)...
Anyway, I should be back in the land of the connected this week. Until then...if you need me... my phone still works. :)

Addendum

As a supplement to my last post, this documentary aired on PBS tonight - the influence of the Beatles on the opening of the USSR. Pretty cool.

...and the WALL came tumbling down

Our computer's been in it's death throws this week... but thanks to the skills of my bro-in-law, we've got it limping along until our new system is up. (Actually we're not technically related at all. He's married to my Russian "foster sister", Lena - which segues nicely into my post for today.)

Twenty years ago yesterday the Berlin Wall came down. I remember, as a 14 year old kid, thinking that the impossible had just happened...and it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union dissolved. For anyone who grew up during the Cold War (who watched Red Dawn in horror as a child -- I know, it's laughable now) the fall of the Berlin Wall represented a gigantic change of paradigm.

I spent a summer in Russia not too many years after the collapse of the Soviet Union (where I met Lena) & saw some of the painful transition from a communist state. Later, in college I did my senior paper on the roll of western pop-culture in the demise of the Soviet Union/eastern bloc. It's a subject that has continued to fascinate me.

In commemoration, here are a few of my favorite books on the subject...for anyone remotely interested:

A very cool little children's book - one man's experience growing up in the Soviet bloc (and later defecting).

In my opinion, probably the best book written on the subject. I literally cried reading it.

Simple Food

My Mom's Chicken Eggs

My mother loves to keep a small brood of hens around her orchard - both for company and for the eggs. I think they have something like 6 chickens right now producing, as my Dad calculated, 15 dozen eggs a month. Subsequently, we receive a dozen here and there. I LOVE them.

Happy chickens ranging free around the orchard...the good life.

Halloween Highlights

As with any holiday in a large family, Halloween was pretty action-packed. Too much to show here on the blog (by the way, if someone could show me how to do a photo collage or slide-show in a post - that would be great). To begin with everyone was mostly over the plague which over-took us this week (in the end, everyone but Jessie, Mike and I fell victim). Tillman did an abbreviated trick-or-treat this year - just our circle - before he settled in, watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The other kids went full-throttle, the oldest two trying to set a record for pounds of candy accumulated in one night. As you might surmise, at the end of the evening there was a great divide between the "rich" and the "poor" (one child to the next) if you measure prosperity in candy. In the past we have let the kids eat some on Halloween night and then dumped it all into the communal candy bucket where everyone partakes equally until the candy gives out sometime around Christmas. They've complained in the past about this...but with some effort they usually see reason. This year the kids held a special emergency meeting in one of the upstairs bedrooms - and then came down with a whiteboard and note cards to lay out their "Candy Objections" (that was literally written on the white board). Each of the kids stood and read their grievances from their note card ("It should be our choice if we get a stomach ache." "We went out in the night to get our candy, we should be able to keep it." etc.) - followed by a vote: for the "Bucket" OR for the "Kids". We didn't know the kids could unionize like that. Mike and I felt a little rail-roaded...for about a minute. Then Mike started in about Democracy vs. Parent-ism, and calmly explained how parents had to be responsible for certain choices involving their children. Then he opened the floor to suggestions for compromise. In the end we resolved upon a new official

Halloween Candy Policy:

Introduction:

In order to provide for a more equal distribution of Halloween booty, and to ensure the health of each family member while protecting the rights of those members to enjoy their hard-earned holiday treats, we adopt these rules.

Article 1:

To preserve the rights of trick-or-treaters to enjoy their own candy, following the yearly acquisition of said candy each child shall choose 25 of their favorite items to be reserved in a bag for their own consumption. No trading or bartering shall be allowed after the initial selection process (also see Article 3).

Article 2:

To ensure greater equality of candy distribution, after the Favorites Selection, all remaining Halloween candy will be pooled into the Jack-o-lantern bucket to be shared equally.

Article 3:

For the protection of the health and well-being of family members all Halloween candy shall be consumed in moderation, by parental consent.

Halloween 2009

The crowd favorite at this year's Sullivan Halloween Bash: Casey, Helen & clan as Ghost Busters / ghosts (or Ghost Busters meets KKK)

Randy & Ralphie (if you don't get it, we'll have to talk)

Neighborhood kids... I especially love the sweet Optimus Prime (or as Noble called him "Awesomeness Prime")

Sully in the living room enjoying some Smarties