Some Things

It's 6:30 on a Friday night. (Though it feels closer to midnight with the recent time change.) Mike isn't home yet. (I texted him two hours ago informing him that it turns out I can only survive until 4:00 pm before missing him too much to go on. But apparently my wanting him here ... won't pay the bills.) 

But dinner's cleaned up, the boys have fed the goats (so Mike won't have to do it in the dark when he gets back), and the kids are all in pajamas and watching a Friday-night movie. ...

Annnnnd ... I got distracted (did my husband arrive home? is that what distracted me? I can't recall, but happy thought if it was) and now it's Monday, and I don't know what I'd intended to write about when I began this on Friday.

Still. Surely there's something to tell? Some ... things?

Let's see.

Abe just participated (and placed!) in his first jiu-jitsu tournament as a blue belt.

He also sent us these lovely photos:

(Poor Hansie. That was his face after a fall at a friend's birthday party. The party was at a tumbling place where the entire building was covered in spongy, bouncy things. ... The entire building except for the one spot where Hans managed to fall directly onto his face. But Daisy venmoed money for him to buy ice cream and Abe turned him into Rocky so there was a silver lining I suppose.)

Daisy came home this weekend for Penny's play (more pictures of that later) and lucked upon the week of the kids' primary program as well. She made us an amazing apple crumble, and, in turn, we made her steak.

Goldie is coming home in 3.5 months! I really haven't been thinking at all of her as a nearing-the-end-of-her-mission missionary! It's wild to me when things that existed for so long only in the idea stage move not only into reality but onwards toward memory!

A tiny snippet from her:

"You never know what to expect in the day of a missionary. For example: being sent away with the fanfare of bubble guns, a preacher promising to pray we find good husbands (telling us to call him when we do), and using all our ikea skills to build someone a crib with dogs and 2 year olds climbing all over it. Missionary life is full of surprises and I love it."

We had our first snowfall a week and a half ago. (And another one today.) 

The fog/snow combo made it completely white out there.

I got out of bed to help a few of the kids who were struggling to get appropriate snow gear and then went out in my bathrobe to take a few photos. (And then I nearly sent Mike to meet his maker with the shock of bitter cold I brought back into our bed with me.)

With the snow, the kids started thinking Christmas thoughts. Starling requested red and green elastics for her hair and when I only had pink and yellow to offer, she, feeling disappointed to not have her elastics match some sort of holiday, asked hopefully, "Are pink and yellow the color of ... family reunions?"

Yes. Of course they are.

And I don't know if this falls under the category of "things to tell", but here is a photo from a drive out to the elementary in Mendon one morning. I think Mendon is the most charming little town ever.

And now for a picture of Penny as her high school theater historian and the rest of her Unsinkable Molly Brown pictures. (They won't let us take photos during the play, so this year Penny cleverly volunteered me to take pictures during one of the rehearsals. There are 300 other photos where these came from. Haha.)

And that will end this post. (How one must lie down to read when wearing a turtleneck. [Because who can bear it against their neck?])