My Least Favorite Month

 January is not my favorite month of the year.   It's cold.  It's dark.  The holidays are over.  Spencer was diagnosed with leukemia in January, so there's a bit of PTSD I still deal with every year.  And, in general, I experience all sorts of restless feelings this time each year.  So I donate blood every January.  It's definitely become an annual tradition now and it gives me a sense of purpose/giving back in amongst all the angsty feelings.  

I also try to stay very busy.  That also helps.

All in one week in January,  I cleaned out the pantry, put away the Christmas stuff, hosted book group, donated blood, cleaned the house, made a menu, and started going ham on creating the Come Follow Me activity sheets for the upcoming year.  Staying busy is good for my mental state.  

I also finally got all the Christmas Eve pajama photos compiled into one collage, which made me super happy.   When you've got kids all over the country, these kinds of things can take a while!   

So I mentioned above that   I've started creating the Come, Follow Me activity sheets again for this upcoming year.  I discovered the use of AI for creating coloring sheets and it's been a fun resource for me. I'd been using CHATGPT for creating them and they would turn out like this.   Pretty good.   Sometimes with some weird stuff in it, because it's AI, but not terrible in my opinion.   

Then Spencer told me about a new AI platform that he'd heard was really good.  I decided to test it out and I put in the exact same prompt that I'd used on Chat to create the above coloring sheet of Abraham and Sarah from the bible.  This is what it came up with.... 

HAHAHA!  We may have laughed for a very long time about this.   I looked it up and apparently Claude is better for words than images and  I'd have to say that is a massive understatement.  Ha! 

January has also been quite the adventure for getting to know the new members of our BYU ward.   It's a little harder than we expected, because while it was only a fraction of the people than it was in September, it seems like the expectation is higher to learn the names more quickly.  I am still working hard to get there, but  I'm realizing that my brain still needs to meet people a few times before names/faces are really stuck in my brain well!  

And how did we finish my least favorite month off?   

WITH A TRIP TO RHODE ISLAND TO VISIT SOME OF  MY FAVORITE PEEPS!!!! 

Stay tuned for that blogpost coming soon....

Lara is a Children's Book Author? Nah, She's just Conscientious.

 Once upon a time, there was a lady trying to entertain her three young nephews without the use of screens—a task roughly equivalent to defusing a bomb with a spoon.

"Here are the Legos," she tried, gesturing hopefully at ten thousand tiny plastic barefoot stepping hazards. Nope.

She knew the "Let's read books!" trick would no longer work, since they'd graduated to independently reading graphic novels and chapter books—apparently her dramatic read-aloud voices had lost their magic somewhere around age seven.

Baking up something yummy in the kitchen didn't appeal to them either, since home-baked goodies taste different than store-bought ones and they prefer the unvariability of the store-bought ones. 

Playing a card game worked for a while, but then someone got grumpy that they didn't win, so that endeavor went down in flames faster than you can say "Go Fish."

Then, when one of them asked for paper, writing utensils, and a stapler so he could start writing his own comic book, she decided to join in on the fun.

Now, please keep in mind that Lara is not an artist, nor is she an author. In fact, the list of all the talents she does not have is approximately 40 gazillion items long, and one might say that she may be one of the least naturally talented people on earth. She's pretty sure that when God was handing out talents to everyone before they came to earth, His bag was running low on that fine day in April, and so Lara got funeral program maker, the gift of interpreting the language of 2-year-olds, and conscientiousness. It's a random assortment of skills to be sure—like getting dealt a 2, a 7, and a joker in poker—but she's done the best she can with it. And it was her conscientiousness that would not allow her to give in to their cries for screen time that day.

So, without further ado, here is the comic book that she created for the boys.  Be prepared to be slightly bemused and to continue thinking/knowing that Lara is a bit of a weirdo.   

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"The Adventures of the Three Brothers" by Aunt Lara 

Three boys went up and over a mountain.  

They went through the forest fighting off wild chickens along the way. 

Next they went on a long voyage across the ocean. 

They fought off sharks and narwhals along the way. 

Then they landed at the North Pole and built an igloo. 

They made friends with the reindeer and visiting penguins. ( She couldn't let them believe that penguins actually lived at the North Pole, so she had to put in the disclaimer that they were visiting.) 

And together they fought off the space invaders trying to kidnap Santa. 

Dedicated to Manuel, Isaiah, and Jesus.  The end.  

 

 

Yes, yes.  I know it's amazing...

 

...ly lame.   Especially compared to Sonic the Hedgehog... 

But it impressed them for approximately 4.2 seconds after which they started asking all about the snowball gun on the last page.  

What do you think?   Should Lara start writing and illustrating children's books in her spare time?   

Never mind, you don't need to answer that. 

Back to conscientious funeral program making she goes, while trying to get as many facetimes as possible with Ollie ...


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Kristina's Crew Comes to Utah!

Shortly after Christmas, Emma went back to Rhode Island and my sister arrived with her entourage in tow—four of her kids, including Manuel, Isaiah, and Jesus who bring a bit of mayhem with them wherever they go. And right behind her came one of her friends, who brought her teenage triplets, increasing the number of people in our home by 200%.    Within an hour, my house had transformed from a peaceful post-holiday sanctuary into something resembling a combination of a Dave & Buster's and a convenience store after a tornado. Actually it wasn't that bad.  It really was loud...and messy...and a bit chaotic, but I have a good bond with all of Kristina's kids and genuinely enjoy having them around!   

LESSONS IN FOOD: 
  I raised five kids and know a lot about feeding them, however I can never seem to get it quite right with the boys.   I had stocked up on a bunch of their favorite foods before arriving, but I keep learning the hard way with them that there's a lot more to it than just picking the right kind of food for them.   Last time they were here I learned that chicken nuggets cooked in the air fryer were inedible and that soggy microwaved ones were the only way to go.  This time I learned  that different brands of mac & cheese can vary in taste and apparently I picked the wrong one.  I haven't eaten mac & cheese in approximately 40 years or so,  so I was unaware of these nuances, but apparently it's a thing.    Also, much to their happiness, I did manage to remember to get some of their favorite snack in the whole universe before they arrived--Blue Heat Takis.  However they thought I was quite mean for portioning them out into serving sizes for them, as they wanted the whole bag at once!  Ah, well!  I'll try again next time!  

 

THE SNOW THAT WASN'T 
Kristina and her family (and their friends) live in California and came to Utah very excited to see some snow.   Unfortunately for her and the record breaking low snowpack in the mountains this year, snow has been hard to come by this winter.  It's been unusually warm (something I appreciate) and very dry with only a couple little skiffs of snow here and there.  The boys were very disappointed by this and so Kristina went driving to higher altitudes in search of some.  She found the jackpot up at Suncrest and the boys happily played in it!   Sadly the triplets had never been to Utah or seen snow and it was all melted by the time they arrived.  They were quite disappointed.  

A TRIP TO LUMINARIA
One of my favorite parts about people coming to visit us, is that it gets us out of the house to see more of what Utah has to offer.  We went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point a  couple years ago and loved it, so Kristina and company coming to town was a perfect excuse to go again!  It was as amazing as we'd remembered and I think everyone enjoyed it!  

A TRIP TO ANTELOPE ISLAND

Another trek we took was to Antelope Island.   To my knowledge, I'd never been there before and I was completely enchanted by this wild and beautiful oasis so close to civilization.   

We saw this great horned owl...

and these beauties, an American kestrel and a starling...

Heather drove and my Mom also  came along for the adventure...

as did Adam and Isaiah.   Kristina and her crew came up an hour or two after us.  

We also saw bison (real ones) and this incredible bird, which was probably our highlight of the whole trip:  

It's a burrowing owl and they're pretty hard to spot, unless you know where to look.  My sister, Heather, has gotten quite into bird watching and bird photography lately and she had the inside scoop.  I totally want to go back  in the spring and see if we can find him again.  

VISITING OUR WARD
My niece, Madeline, and the triplets hope to come to BYU in the next year or two, so they all came to our YSA ward on Sunday to see what it was like.  They weren't very excited that we meet at 9am and had a half-hour drive to get there, but they made it with smiles on their faces.   I actually have no idea what they thought, but it was an excellent fast and testimony meeting and we were happy to share our wonderful ward with them for a week! 

Kristina was happy to see Alicia there too!  Alicia was Kristina's friend first and her husband is now serving as Glen's 1st counselor, so we are all friends now!   

HAPPY DENALI
Denali is 100% a diva.   She loves being the center of attention and there's nothing like more people being in the house to give it to her.  Happily, the boys adore her and she gets lots and lots of attention when they're around.  I daresay she goes into a bit of withdrawal when they leave...

 A FEW MORE RANDOM PICS
I'll finish off with a few more random pics from their stay here.  There's also a few more in this post about the Buttercup Neighborhood game.  

Madeline, Kristina, and me...

Jesus has grown up A LOT over the last several months, which meant a bit more sass, a lot more stubbornness, and a whole lot of silliness. He just got baptized this past weekend and I was super sad that I couldn't be there to join him.  

My sister, Kristina, is probably the only true extrovert of the family and she seriously has the best friends!    I've become friends with a few of her friends since moving here and we went to this gathering one night knowing no one but Kristina's crew, but came out with more friends!  We've even hung out with one of the couples again since then.  

I love when K's family comes to town and somehow even miss the noise and the mess when they leave.  

Happy February to you!