The Rest of Winter

 JANUARY

January brought the flu (influenza) to our home.  It's hard to remember exactly, but I think all but David got it.  First was Ezra and Clara, then as they were recovering I got it.  I remember lying on the couch with a ton of blankets on top of me and still shaking terribly with chills.  Clara tried laying across me to help me stop shaking!  

They slept ALL THE TIME!  Day and night.  Completely wiped out with the fever.

When Ezra and Clara were feeling a bit better (but Clara was still home recovering from flu and exhaustion) we did this baking soda+colored vinegar science activity.

One January day we had unseasonably warm weather but it also rained and rained and rained.  Afterwards we had a pretty good creek in our yard!  The kids OF COURSE couldn't wait to go out and play in it!

At the start of the year we also began a new Come Follow Me curriculum, this year studying the Book of Mormon.  We had a really fun time acting out the story of the Tree of Life (Lehi's Vision) found in 1 Nephi.  (Eli was being a sour puss and that's why he wasn't in the video, choosing not to participate.)

The blue blanket was the "mists of darkness" and the pictures/stuffies represented the "large and spacious building." 😂

This was a lesson we did on the five parts of a testimony.  I enjoy using resources online to help teach the Gospel to my family in creative ways.

Another big change in January was my calling change!  I was released as the Primary Secretary in December, after serving 3 years.  I was so happy in that calling.  I love the children and I love the women I served with.  That change was hard, feeling like I was leaving a piece of my heart in Primary still.  Ezra was to start Sunbeams in the new year and I was sad I wouldn't be in Primary with him, too.  So instead of Primary I was called to serve as the Young Women Adviser for the younger girls.  This is my first time as an adviser and I have enjoyed it.  We have about 12 girls in our group, ages 11-13.  I teach one Sunday and one of the girls teaches the other Sunday.  I really loved teaching them, and it has been fun to get to know them better at activities.  Sadly it has been a hard calling during the pandemic.  We have had a few lessons and activities on zoom, and finally started meeting together in person for activities twice/month in September, but now in November we have been switched to all virtual again.  I think the girls are fantastic and it is really inspiring learning from them!

In the beginning of March our younger group of young women visited a nursing home for our weeknight activity.  This was SUCH a special night!  The girls dived right in, talking to the residents, playing games with them, painting their nails, and reading stories to them. I brought our record player and played some old-timey songs.  I was super impressed with the girls.  I know it can feel awkward and uncomfortable to talk to the elderly, and they really tried their best.  I had brought a stack of children's books that I thought would be enjoyed by the residents.  One of the girls, Chloe, read some children's books to a lady while I worked on filing her nails.  The lady could hear but was not able to speak much anymore.  But it was evident in her lit up smile and eyes and her "ooos" and "ahhhs" that she was in HEAVEN.  She ate up the attention that Chloe gave her.  You could see how much it soothed her soul.  I loved every second of being there and felt the Spirit so strongly.  The woman's nails were terribly long, not having been clipped in ages.  The workers wouldn't let us clip them, only file them, so I tried my best to work on them and not make them so sharp and uneven.  Before we left we sang a few songs to them.  That brought the only man into the room.  At the start of the evening when we were inviting residents to follow us into the game room I spoke to this man.  When he heard what we were doing he said, "If you sing I'll come listen."  We sang "Once There Was a Snowman," "Popcorn Popping" and finished with "I Am a Child of God."  We all hugged the residents as we left and were invited to come back again!  We were all beaming and I could tell how much the night meant to everyone--girls, leaders, and the elderly.  We couldn't wait to make plans to return!  Sadly lockdown from Covid came one week later.  I sure look forward to the day we can finally visit again!

Also in January Eli started karate!  He had been wanting to start for quite some time.  Luckily we have a karate location less than 2 minutes from our house!  For this place you pay a monthly fee and then can go as often as you want.  So I was taking him to class 3-4 times/week for January, February, and the first part of March (before Covid).  We're hoping to start up again soon (fingers crossed!)

FEBRUARY

The kids were ecstatic to start swim lessons in February!  Everyone was excited for Ezra to have his first lessons!  (Such a nice break for me, instead of walking the halls and keeping him away from trying to sneak into the pool room!)  I was planning on signing them up for a second session but then COVID hit so that plan was foiled.  But at least they got the one month in!

All 3 kids tried their best, working hard at improving on their skills.  Ezra did super for his first time!  

Video of Eli swimming backstroke--

Video of kids practicing cannonballs--

Video of Clara swimming on back--

The kids always love decorating for new holidays!  This was a funny one of Ezra getting the house ready for Valentine's Day!

On Valentine's Day we met my parents at the children's museum. This was a really fun visit!  We loved checking out the Mo Willems exhibit.

Eli liked finding a Star Wars ship in a display case near the Space exhibit.  For the first time we went into the planetarium and watched a little show on Star Trek.  The kids thought it was so cool!

We hardly go to this exhibit either, Treasures of the Ancient Earth.  There weren't too many kids so ours got to actually play with the mining area and collect rocks in the bins and throw them down the chute again.  Funny how much they love that!

Love catching sweet moments like this.  

Ezra being a deep-sea diving explorer!

The kids and I enjoyed this simple Valentine's science experiment:

Eli was pretty happy at a chance to get to chop the Alka seltzer tablets!

When watching the video with the kids we all got a good chuckle at Clara's cute dancing throughout.

My mom spoiled us to a beautifully decorated Valentine's dinner complete with these yummy kabobs!

I somehow forgot to take a picture, but I made my traditional hearts for everyone in the family that I posted on the walls for each of them.  I also made several batches of my favorite cream cheese cherry heart pastries to enjoy and share with others!

One of Ezra's very favorite things is listening to records.  We have a real record player by FisherPrice and a big stack of records of children's songs and stories.  Ezra and Clara have spent hours and hours listening to/singing along with/acting out the songs and stories.  One of the records is the Beach Boys and Ezra quickly became a huge fan.  The record is a collection of songs, and one song is part of "Help Me, Rhonda."  Somehow on the fuzzy record Ezra thought they were singing "Happy Bottoms." So HE always sang "Happy bottoms, hap-hap-y bottoms!  Happy bottoms, hap-hap-y bottoms!" I can't remember when this started, but I forgot to write on the Christmas post about it.  When all of the Metheny family was together he talked a lot about Happy Bottoms.  The cousins played it on the Alexa, and even though it of course didn't sound ANYTHING like "happy bottoms" on there they ALL sang "happy bottoms, hap-hap-y bottoms" along with it. 😂 It definitely became the theme of the week!  One evening I came upon Ezra dancing along to his favorite Happy Bottoms band.  

I can always count on David to spend his evenings creating the BEST kid memories with his plethora of tricks and performances that keep the kids bursting in laughs and constant giggles.  

Ezra loved Joy School. So so much.  It was awful to not get to finish out the last few months of Joy School when Covid came.  It made us both so happy!  He loved having his friends all come to his house and going to theirs.  I loved hosting as teacher and also getting some free time!  I got to teach TWICE in February, a very fun class on dental health and another on bears and hibernation.  He asks me regularly, "When do I get to go back to school??" 😢

We got to babysit some kids from church.  One of the kids was a baby, which to Clara and Ezra is the BEST THING EVER!  Seriously, both of those two are super-duper baby-obsessed.  The baby would not go down for a nap (he finally fell asleep in my arms), so that is why he has the grumpy look on his face.  They LOVED having him here!