Manhattan

Before I ever came to New York, I thought the Manhattan LDS temple must look really out of place amongst all those skyscrapers. Then I came here. Our temple is not the only beautiful place of worship squashed up in the middle of skyscrapers. On the same block as the temple, there is a Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which was completed in 1904. It is so pretty. I love the old churches in this area.

Lego Shop

My kids have been playing something they call Lego Shop. When they first started, Beth wasn't playing with them. She has since joined, but I haven't taken any more pictures. The basic idea is they sell Legos to each other (for other Legos). I like the way Nathan set up his shop.

Ammon's somewhat messy shop:

Nathan's organized shop:

And Sarah's:

Always Winter and Never Not Winter

This has been a crazy winter for those in the eastern United States. Storm after storm. Thunder-snow! I didn't even know that was a thing. Freezing rain. Ice pellets. And so much snow. Did I mention the snow? I really wanted to show a couple more winter pictures, but I think I've been guilty of over-sharing on Facebook lately. So, I'll just put them here.

It snowed enough to knock our mailboxes off their base. Then the snowplows knocked the base off its...um, whatever. Chris made this handy shelf out of the snow as a temporary solution. We still need to get all the cards and letters people send to us, after all.

You know how they say "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"? Well, our postal carrier brought us our mail, along with this helpful diagram showing us how to clear our mailboxes..

Did you see how much snow we got? It's so heavy--very wet snow. And we live on a very busy road where people zoom by at 50 mph. We laughed at this diagram. It didn't seem realistic. Anyway, Chris did the best he could to make the postal carrier's job easier. It's not exactly like this diagram, however.


Nathan got a sweet icicle and wanted a photo. In the second one, he was saying, "I'm cold! Stop taking pictures!" or something like that.

This is just a picture out the front window. We were in Manhattan. It's crazy enough to drive in New York City, but with the snow, wow. That's about all I can say. Wow. This road was pretty clear. Elsewhere, delivery trucks stop in the middle of the lane (because the curbside parking is full) while they make their deliveries. Anyway...

I'm still fairly cheerful. This winter is going much better than last winter. We have more wintery weather, but less wintery emotions. It has been around 50 degrees the last three days. We have so much snow and thick ice that it hasn't melted that much. Some water will melt, but it doesn't evaporate it just sits there. At night, the freezing temperatures come again and every morning we find ourselves in a slick, icy death trap. This last picture is one I took today, after three very warm days. There's a lot of snow! I'm showing you this because I thought I knew winter. This kind of winter is new and crazy to me.

The last week or so, birds have woken me up in the mornings. I love the sound of birds in the mornings. Yesterday I watched about eight robins playing in our backyard. Spring is coming any day now...

I'm awake!

When we were teenagers and planning to come home late from work or play, my mom would tell us, "Make sure to wake me up when you get home because I can't sleep until I know you're safe." 

I know: to you, it doesn't make sense. But I understand perfectly. We obeyed this rule. Wake Mom up. Tell her what time it was (so she would know we came home on time). And enjoy the conversation as she asked us about our evening. 

You see, Mom made no sense when she was tired. Or half-asleep. And it was hilarious. I have no specific memories of these conversations, but I do remember that we would laugh about them the next day. We loved telling stories about waking Mom up to tell her we were home.

I am nothing like my mom. 

That's just a little joke.

Ammon has had a lot of trouble sleeping lately. We're working on it. Last night, he came in my room and said, "Mom, I can't sleep. Do you have any suggestions for me?"

I plainly remember telling him to read a book. He said, "What?" in a confused way. I explained to him that reading would help his mind relax, especially if he read something he had read before. He laughed and left. I wasn't sure what was so funny, so I just went back to sleep.

This morning, Ammon told me the conversation from his point of view.

Ammon: "I can't sleep. Do you have any suggestions for me?"

Mom (that's me): "You can read a book or renew your crutches."

Ammon: "What?"

Mom: "You know, when you're awake, you can dream about stuff like Halloween, and then you dream about it again. That's how you renew your crutches."

Ammon: "Okay." [laughs]

See, unlike my own mom, I make sense when I'm tired.

So much to do

Nathan is supposed to read a book called Wilbur and Orville Wright for his language arts. He has been resisting it and resisting it. I asked him to read it again yesterday and he refused (again). Then he sighed and said, "Mom, the real reason I don't want to read that book right now is because I'm already reading *six books. I'm reading Harry Potter, Zits, the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Book of Mormon, Percy Jackson, and, oh, that's only five. Wait! I started The Lord of the Rings the other day!"

Well, that makes good sense. That's a lot going on. So I added, "And, as a family, we're reading Narnia and the Bible." He said they don't count because he's not reading them on his own.

This is one of the great things about homeschooling my kids. I can see the reason he's not fulfilling his assignment isn't because he's lazy or forgetful, neglectful or unprepared. He's pretty busy with worthwhile things.

That being said, he still has to read the assigned book! Maybe I'll read it to him while he builds with Legos. (Also important in this house.)



*In case you are curious, Nathan reads Harry Potter in the evenings before he goes to sleep. He reads The Book of Mormon right after lunch. Nathan and I are reading Percy Jackson during our read-aloud time in school. Zits and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are light reading for when he's bored in the day. And he's only read about two pages of The Lord of the Rings, so I'm not really sure that counts on the list. :)