Spring in January

We had really nice weather last week. It was in the upper 50's most of the week and on Saturday and Sunday it was around 65! Colorado Springs is a cold place, we have winters with awful wind but we also get these super nice spring like days a few times a month and we love them. I went running in the evening twice last week. It was great.  We were playing outside on Friday and decided to have a picnic on the porch because it was 50+ degrees.  I know a lot of people think that's still pretty cold but the sunshine was so warm and there was no wind, they loved it. 

Saturday was even nicer than Friday so we spent the morning at the zoo and got lots of sunshine. It was awesome.  Mark even went out to play disc golf with a friend. Although he goes out to play any day it is not windy and 40 degrees or higher. This week looks really good. All upper 50's until you get to Thursday where we have a 80% chance of snow and the high is 21.  Then Friday it is back up to 53 degrees.  Weather is so odd here.

Friday night Mark and I went out on another date.
*Tangent: Having regularly scheduled date nights was one of our goals for this year and every year after. We planned out a date night for every week through April. Each month we go "out" to the temple and the Philharmonic performance and then do date nights at home for the other weeks. This week is board games with our favorite snacks at home. End tangent)
We went over to the nearest high school and watched their Varsity basketball game. It was so much fun. Seriously. We don't really know any of the players and don't have a real connection to the school but loved going. The middle school Mark teaches at feeds into this high school so he knows a few of the admin and faculty and he saw some old students but there is no real connection to the basketball team. Mark really enjoys basketball and it is my preferred sport to watch. It was fun to see Mark get so into it and to hear him cheering and jeering at the refs. We did find out that our stake president's son is on the team, second string and we ended up sitting right in front of him. He was hilarious and ultra competitive which I never would have known until I heard him at the game and heard some stories from Mark. On Sunday I had a stake training and he was conducting/teaching so it was strange to think of him at the basketball game and then in this church setting.  The home team won and what was as much fun as the game was the conversations it started between Mark and I. I will completely support Jared and Lydia should they have a desire to play sports but it sounds super stressful to me. I have always been wary of team sports. I never wanted so many other people counting on me to not mess up. It would also be hard to watch them play and then lose all the time or to not get mad at referees. Maybe they will choose tennis or cross country or even swimming? Mark and I had a great time and it was a pretty cheap date. He gets in for free since he is a district employee so it was an even better deal. I didn't realize how much more I enjoyed basketball games to football games until my senior year in high school.  Since I was on the color guard team all 4 years I was required to go to every home football game and perform at half time. I didn't mind it but football seems to take so long.  Basketball is much faster paced and a lot warmer. I am so happy we are having these set dates. Not just watching a show and eating ice cream although we enjoy those too.

Feelin Groovy...

I remember sneaking into my older siblings rooms when I was in middle and high school and listening to their CD's. Lots of They Might Be Giants, The Fugees,  and LOTS of Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.  Whenever we drove around town with my Mom we either had to listen to her Country station (which none of us wanted) or the "Oldies"station. I LOVE Oldies.  I enjoy a lot of today's popular music as well but Oldies are the music of my growing up years. They hold so many memories for me. Music is really powerful like that. It can make you feel and remember so many things.  I love it! Even though I am not a very musical person I truly appreciate how musicians/songs can make you feel.

This past weekend Mark and I went to our monthly Colorado Springs Philharmonic performance and they were featuring a duo who performs the music of Simon and Garfunkel. I had been looking forward to this performance since we learned what each month would be. It did not disappoint. When I graduated from high school my sister gave me a CD of Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits and I listened to it often.  Their song "I Am a Rock" was my standard post break up song while in college. I explained this to Mark and he was grateful he had never had the song applied to him.  I was surprised at the emotions it brought out in me. (Not bad ones just strong ones) It was fun to share stories with Mark about what the songs made me think of. I am truly not that dramatic of a person but music can bring it out in you. Mark was aware of Simon and Garfunkel and knew quite a few songs but I don't think he had any real emotional connections with Simon and Garfunkel's music but I still have deep connections. I love them. I think musicians do great stuff today (and I am painfully unaware of how songs are made, how "tracks are laid") but it always feels like musicians from this era did more of their own songwriting and singing without crazy synthetics and auto tones. 

It was such a great trip down memory lane. Next month is Rodgers and Hammerstein and you can bet I am excited. I love this performance series the Philharmonic puts on and going out with Mark.

More January fun

We added some more activities into our routine. I love activities that can be adapted for Lydia easily. There are so many fun creative learning ideas out there. Last night I was planning some Valentine ones and am looking forward to all the fun we will have. I am always so excited September through April because there are so many holidays to help spice up our daily routine especially if you are a holiday nut like me and celebrate them all. I love how I can use the same basic game and adapt it year round.  I think my kids may be a little disappointed when they go to school because teachers sadly don't seem to have the time or resources to do learning things in the most fun ways. I know I don't really want to home school my kids.  There are so many fabulous teachers out there but we sure make learning fun at our house. I definitely plan on holding some kind of "after school learning time" so I can keep learning with Jared and Lydia and find fun ways to supplement what they have learned at school.  Fortunately I have over a year before school will be added to our life and things get a little crazier.

Last week we made a snow volcano.  It was the basic baking soda + vinegar + food coloring trick only so much cooler with snow.  Jared and Lydia had fun pouring in the vinegar than trying to back away fast enough to not get any on them.

We have learned with marshmallows and hot chocolate and made a snowman with M & M's.

Jared rolled the dice then added the two number together and filled in that many M & M's. Lydia filled in the circles, working on 1:1 correspondence. And we may have eaten one, two or five as we worked.

I have been trying to think of what to make for Lydia's cake next week. It's crazy how fast this past year went by. She has learned so much and is so fun to be around.  I was planning on making a Cinderella cake with a pair of dress up shoes on it for her (the whole glass slipper idea and she does love shoes) but last week we watched "Beauty and the Beast" for our family movie night and she seems to have moved on to Belle. I always liked Belle because she liked reading, had brown hair and a yellow dress which was my favorite color for a good long while. (I have now moved on to aqua) Maybe it will be a cake with lots of princess's on top. Or I may just attempt the castle cake with ice cream cones. We will see. It's fun to think about them but hard too because I am not skilled at frosting cakes and think fondant cakes look amazing but don't want to go down that street. I read the tricks online and talk to people but I always get crumbs in my frosting. I know she will love it though and it will taste good. I am thinking it may have lots of sprinkles to take the eye way from the crumbs. I'll figure it out.

New month, new fun.

SNOW!  We had a great snowstorm yesterday. It started snowing around 7:30 AM and didn't stop until around 2:00 PM.  It was such nice snow. Big flakes and not windy at all a rare combination here.  We went to the church in the morning to help clean the building and as we walked out to the car Jared and Lydia jumped up and down and tried to catch snowflakes on their tongues. They were so excited. Lydia was extra excited as she hasn't spent a lot of time in the snow. It was super cute. Lydia kept saying "Yucky Yucky!" Apparently her snowflakes did not taste good. Jared was excited to help clean so he could be a garbageman and dump the trash into the large rolling trash can and carry the trash cans around. We were glad to help out. It always makes me feel good, like I am contributing.
When we got home from cleaning Jared and Lydia went into the backyard and played far awhile.  They spent a lot of time trying to catch snowflakes. Jared has this unfortunate habit of copying what Lydia says. Since Lydia is just learning to really talk (I swear she adds new words every day) she does not speak in full sentences so when she says "Water" or "Shoes" or "Yucky" Jared does the same and it is just not as cute from a 4 year old who speaks quite well as it is from an almost 2 year old. They had a lot of fun in the snow but didn't last very long playing in it. It was just right.  I think it was even more fun as snow was falling why they were out there.

We had fun playing our new learning games and I made a cute little hot chocolates "shop" or sensory tub for them. (Idea HERE.) We also played a lot of find the mittens. I made these miniature paper mittens and we hide them all over the front room and then search for them. It is one of Jared's favorite games and we play it all the time with different seasonal items. 

Memory Mittens

Find the Snowflake

Hot Chocolate "Shop"

I also put together a fun Frosty the Snowman bath. Jared and Lydia made miniature snowmen, played with their snowflake glowsticks, and "painted" themselves like Frosty with their snow paint. which was their favorite part. Shaving cream is so much fun. 

It was extra fun to do these winter activities as it was snowing outside. I checked out over 20 library books (again I LOVE Public Libraries) about winter/snow.snowman etc. so we spent a nice warm day reading and playing. I have a great life. I really do. So far 2014 has been great!

Muffin Monday and coping mechanisms.

We have muffins for breakfast every Monday. (I do enjoy alliteration) About 6 months ago I decided I wanted to pick one breakfast item to have each day of the week. Such as: Pancakes each Sunday, Muffins every Mondays, Waffles on Wednesday (Friday and Saturday are free days to have whatever I can be flexible). I felt like we were eating the same two or three things and it was boring and then if I did want something that took more time to make we ate really late because it was unlikely I would get up earlier to make it. So I remembered that my super smart sister in law Cecily (they are all super smart) did this. She has a set menu for each day of the week.  I loved this idea and have loved doing it with my family which is not surprising since I LOVE having my dinners planned each week. The dilemma I ran into was that I was getting tired of the muffins we were having. Jared loves the Costco Pumpkin Streusel muffins so we have been eating them each week since October. I am a big fan of pumpkin flavors but we needed something else so I looked up tons of recipes online and found three to try and then I baked them all yesterday.

Lemon Raspberry - French Toast - Banana Chocolate chip.  

Mark likes the lemon raspberry the most and Jared, Lydia and I liked the banana ones. The french toast ones were good but I think a french toast muffin is forever ruined for me because Costco used to make them and they were Amazing! I so wish they would make them again. But these did turn out well. I also love making mini muffins they are so cute! 

We tired them all yesterday and liked them all. This was very exciting for a number of reasons. 

1. If they were not tasty that would be a lot of wasted food. 

2. I am really bad at picking recipes online. About 2 months ago I went to town looking up dinner recipes on Pinterest and out of about 10 recipes we liked 1 and would tolerate 1 other.  Not very good odds. 

3. It will be great to have more variety and I now have like 6 weeks worth of muffins ready to go.  

Since we had to find space in our freezer for this muffin collection I also organized our freezer yesterday. There are few things I find more satisfying and relaxing then organizing spaces and throwing stuff out. I love it. It makes me feel great. And that brings me to the second half of this blog title, coping mechanisms.

On Sunday our Bishop taught part of the lesson for third hour. He talked about towing capacities. He related it to believing/knowing that the Lord would not give us more then we could "tow" or handle. That the Lord knows us so well he knows our capabilities. He also mentioned the importance of having coping mechanisms in place. He said if you know what helps you cope then do those things. Go running, read a book, organize a closet. (He didn't mention that one) Don't just give up and stop doing everything. He said that it seems people either give up and do nothing, just drift along or just choose one thing to do and not do anything else such as cleaning door knobs and nothing else in the house. I really enjoyed this lesson. I think it is super important to know what helps you cope and get through tough times or even just a day.  It was just really nice to enjoy a lesson.  It was such a fresh (to me) lesson topic. December was kind of a weird month. I am over the teachers in RS and had to fill in for 2 teachers on short notice and then the President and I taught the other half of the lesson this past Sunday so I taught for 3 weeks in a row. I am not a real short notice kind of girl so that was hard but not too hard. I knew I could do it with some help.  I hope you all know your coping mechanisms and put them in place. 

And just for fun, here are Jared and Lydia doing two of their favorite things: 

 Blanket Burritos

Spinning in the office chair. Cute kids! 

Poor Jared came down with a nasty stomach bug yesterday.  About 4 hours after this picture was taken as a matter of fact. He was playing and happy and then we were reading books before bed and he asked to go upstairs after only 2 books. He said his tummy hurt so we grabbed a bowl on the way up.  I put him to bed and then came downstairs only to rush back upstairs when I heard him throwing up. He threw up at 7:40, 8:20 and 8:55. After the second time I stayed in his room and sang some (A LOT) of primary songs to him.  He was just so sad. I was very proud of him (and thankful) for using his bowl so well.  We still had yucky messes  and a good amount of laundry but he helped a lot. It could have been so much worse. It's truly fantastic when kids are old enough to know what to do. He seems tired and a little sensitive today and is currently taking a nap but is so much better than he was so hopefully it was just a quick thing.