February!

We've had a good week here, lots of our usual stuff happening. Things still feel a little more quiet without the Tracy's around, but we are all adjusting. I ordered my groceries online and picked those up on Monday morning after taking the girls to school. When we got home, Jack went to a friend's home to play and I was able to get a lot of sewing done. I finished another skirt and started the 3rd one. Candy was on family night that night and she talked about forgiveness. Megan was SO excited for treats that night because she had planned out her treat and made it all herself as a goal for the Faith in God program. She made waffle cone parfaits with vanilla yogurt and blueberries on top. Yum.

Tuesday started with tutoring for Megan and Brooke before school at 7:30, then I picked Megan up at 11:30 to take her out to see Shad--new wire and 8 more week, but she may get her braces off after that!.  Then back to school for her and piano after school.  Megan and Brooke have both made great progress with their piano this year and it's fun to hear them play.  I finished the 3rd skirt that evening. 

Wednesday was beautiful weather, sunny and near 70.  We rode bikes to school.  At 10 I went back to the school to watch Megan and the 3rd graders do a "bike rodeo" where they learned bike safety from a sheriff and did some bike obstacle courses.  Then I took Jack and my nephew Luke and Emily to the park for playgroup.  School got out early and I told the girls they could ride bikes home by themselves if they stayed together--they did great!  And it was nice to just wait for them at instead of going to pick them up.  I took all the kids back to the park for a while and then home for naps and more biking with neighbors after quiet time.

My kids and some of the gang of neighbor kids they love to play with

Friday we biked again to school in the morning.  Candy was pretty excited to celebrate the 100th day.  They got to parade around the school and did lots of 100 activities.  Kat Barney (talbot) came over in the morning while Jack was at playschool to try on her skirt--it fit, yay!  It was fun to catch up with her.  Chad just got engaged, they are getting married in April.  I folded laundry and made pizzas and we hosted babysit swap that night which was busy and fun.

Saturday was a busy day in the yard.  It had cooled off a little (it was in the 50s), but it was great for weeding and mulching the front beds, putting out fertilizer, and clearing the weeds from the garden boxes.  It looks great!  I'm excited to get the garden going in a few weeks. The kids rode bikes while we worked and Dan's sister and her family came over to play and have lunch. 

snuggling during Saturday morning cartoons

It's been a nice Sunday.  Dan left early for a meeting at 6 but came home again near 7:30 which was a nice surprise to have help getting everyone ready and out the door on time.  Testimony meeting today was nice.  The themes I heard were that God is real and he is aware of our individual needs.  Brooke bore her testimony (she does it every month almost) and did great.  My class today was about Joseph translating the first 116 pages and losing them.  We talked a lot about the lessons learned from this story--the importance of praying and listening to God's answers, how repentance is available to all of us, and how it feels to receive answers to prayers.  We had a really good discussion on how sometimes the answer from God is "No.".  I talked about how when Mom was sick we really wanted and prayed for her to be healed and how the answer to those prayers was "No" but that in spite of that we felt peace and learned to trust in God and his plan.  One of the girls in my class is the daughter of my friend who passed away from meningitis 4 1/2 years ago and that daughter made the sweetest comment in the discussion about how we can feel peaceful during hard times because we know that we will see our loved ones again.