Some Happy Things

The other morning I tiptoed gently (quiet as a mouse) into my emotions--not into so much as around. Just ... quietly skirting their edges; afraid to acknowledge them; looking at them sideways through only the thinnest, lash-covered slits; treating them like a recent wound that might not bear prodding.

Which was ridiculous. Over cautious. There had been no trauma after all. No loss. No new trouble. Simply life. But, despite all of that, they had still somehow fully gotten the best of me the previous evening. More than the best of me. And so it seemed that now, eight hours later, and with my eyelids still swollen, the best course was to ... not trust them at all. "Give them an inch ... " I thought sagely (and well, you know the rest).

But, it wasn't too very long before I realized that would never do. There were a lot of things awfully worth feeling in that day (see the Daisy-making-gingerbread-cookies-with-the-kids pictures below for starters) and they wanted fully felt! 

Sigh. My joys and blessings seem to grow exponentially alongside my difficulties and stresses. And so, I present, an abundance of things from my camera that make the business of experiencing mortal emotions around here all pretty darn worthwhile:

The other night as Anders headed upstairs to take a shower he said, "Mom? Should I use soap for this shower?"

Which was interesting because I hadn't realized we'd been going along all this time with soap ... optional. 

Here the kid is (looking clean enough, I suppose) with his most recent book purchase (The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum. [How's that for a title?]) His grandma lent him The Adventures of Mr. Mocker awhile back. And since then he buys another Thornton Burgess book whenever he gets a few more dollars. 

And look at this little darling with our cat.

We gave Mette this hoppity horse several years ago. Oh she used it now and then all right. And perhaps Hans took an occasional bounce. But none have broken the wild stallion in like this Starling has. She saddles up (usually with her "cat-cat" and blanket securely on board) and bounces herself off on tours of the house or simply to get from here to there every single day. I never tire of it. It's just so darn funny and cute and ... bouncy. AND, when she isn't on old hoppity horse, do you know what she sometimes does? She ... GALLOPS! A true gallop -- ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum. How does she know how to gallop on her little toddler legs?

This little darling brings our entire family a tremendous deal of joy. And, not yet being at the stage to argue with siblings or to have any sort of mischief considered, by any of us, something where she ought to have known better, all she receives is perfect love and ceaseless adoration. Round the clock. From everyone. This is how everyone should be able to go through all of life. 

Hans and his sleep. If I give him an official nap, he absolutely cannot seem to fall asleep until 10 or 11 at night. (And that means a lot of mischief that he should know better than [ha] for several hours after putting him to bed.) But if I don't give him a nap ... there's a good chance he will fall asleep sitting at the counter (or on a hardwood floor even) late in the evening. And then ... he is right back to not being able to settle to bed until 10 or 11 at night. Some days the stars align and we manage a short enough nap to have him manage falling to sleep when we put him to bed at 8. Or we manage to keep him awake all day and get him easily to bed. But somehow, despite our best efforts (or, well, our mediumest efforts actually -- as most of my efforts are these days), his sleeping schedule seems primarily ... off. Still, it's pretty dear finding him fast asleep here and there around the house.

And here he is looking cozy in his bed … before all the episodes of getting into his brothers' Legos and coming out to hide behind the chair in our loft, etc.

And Thanksgiving! The girls and I made pies the day before. (Which has been a fun tradition to have just naturally grown itself right into the spot where my sisters and I used to make pies.) Mike did the turkey and Daisy helped him with his mom's crescent rolls. Goldie made the gravy and Daisy the stuffing. And I'm not sure who all helped with peeling potatoes and sweet potatoes, and with organizing the kids into making the gumdrop turkeys to put on each plate, but it was a perfect feast. And I felt so grateful to have a home so full that Covid restrictions didn't really restrict much of anything.

And a few of the Grateful Turkey Bags made for FHE the Monday before Thanksgiving. (You should be aware how much mess pretty much any happy thing you see on here creates with all these people! Cookies, feasts, lunch-bag turkeys. Even SLEEP [at least when it comes to leaving Hans alone in his room to go to bed at night!] So much behind the scenes to be cleaned up.)

Daisy had to head back to BYU to work on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Her sisters plead to come along -- even though she insisted they would be bored while she worked for several hours. But how could she refuse their company? She couldn't. Off the three of them went early the next morning.  Seeing the three of them doing so many things together reminds me so much of my years before marriage with my two sisters who were closest in age to me. Having built-in best friends was such a huge blessing growing up. And I can't believe I've provided the same opportunity for my kids. I don't know that anything makes me happier than seeing the three of them traipsing off on adventures (or just watching a show) together. Here are a few pictures Goldie snapped of Penny as they wandered about campus waiting for Daisy's shift to end.

 And speaking of Penny: here she is again. Hey, Pen.

Some little readers. 

A Christmas list from Anders.

And lastly, Jesse's science fair project. We've gone through the 6th grade science fair five times now. And it feels like ... surely we shouldn't have to do it five times again! (Of course I felt the same about potty training. And nobody swept in and gave me a pass on ever doing that again. So they probably won't with this either. Alas.)

Oh don't get me wrong. I love my kids experimenting. But I prefer the sort Mette has been doing in her kindergarten class. (They've been building houses out of straw and sticks, etc. and having a leaf blower with a wolf head on it try to blow them down. Hahah.) Or the type of experimenting Jesse is always up to already -- messing around with wires and batteries and circuit boards and the like ... without anyone asking us to present a lot of official stuff! Of course, yes, I do think it's valuable for my kids to learn it and go through the process of testing something so formally -- trying to remove variables and the like. And, even though it meant two very late nights (beyond the experiment itself) when Jesse and I created his graph and typed up all his data and glued everything up on a display board, we actually had a good time putting it together together.

And this morning the kids woke up to our front yard bushes and trees draped with candy-canes. I don't know who did it, but it was so unexpected that they nearly burst with excitement about it all.

Lots of good things!