In sickness

 This little boy left us and it’s been too quiet. My perfect life would be to live within 30 minutes of all my kids. I want to be part of the day to day. After having the Johnson’s in November, Chris and Sierra in December and Hannah and Ez in for New Years we are going through withdrawals. Plus I’ve been sick. I started feeling poorly on Wednesday. Thursday was worse and I took a Covid test that was (-). Thursday night I felt horrible, I’ve been feverish and sweaty and coughing and headachey. I took today off of work and only left the bed to go test again. Still (-). So I have just a regular run of the mill flu or something.  Or a false negative. Hopefully I will be better tomorrow.

Goals

“I’m sure many of you are setting aside time today to write down your resolutions for the coming year. May I make a few suggestions?

First, resolve to strengthen your spiritual foundation. This may involve setting a specific time and place to study the scriptures, praying more often, making temple worship a bigger priority, and letting God prevail in all aspects of your life.

Second, resolve to be kind to others. When the Savior Jesus Christ visited the Americas, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, one of the first things He taught was the need to eliminate contention in our lives. So, please be compassionate, be understanding, be slow to judge, and be quick to forgive.

Third, resolve to be resolute. The Lord loves effort. The Lord loves consistency. The Lord loves steadfastness. While we surely will come up short from time to time, our persistent efforts to hear Him and follow the inspiration He gives us will help us to “wax strong in the Spirit” (Mosiah 18:26).

May God bless you, my dear friends, and may this be a wonderful year of purpose and possibilities for all of us.

President Nelson”

I wasn’t going to make any New Years resolutions but then the prophet suggested these. When he suggests I follow. At least that is my sincerest intention. 

Today was the first day the kids were back in school. My first assignment for them was to write a paragraph setting some goals for themselves. I suggested they think of these four areas of life and come up with what they want to work toward: physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. (Sound familiar?) the gospel works it’s way into my lessons very easily. 

Then we started our new story for the week “the Jacket”. 

All of my lunch friends are out with Covid:( We have four in our group that meet for lunch (in the “teacher’s  lounge”, a classroom with a microwave in it) each day. We talk and eat. Other teachers also come but not every day. Sometimes we have 8-9, sometimes just the 4 of us. Anyway. They all are out. CraZy. 

We also have a lot of cases in our ward. 

Heigh Ho

We took this the last day of school before break. Today is the first day back. Besides the pajamas we look the same. Well, Louise is stuck in England and Reika is home sick but basically. It was a student free day, which was really nice. It was nice to get the room clean and organized, to get some lesson plans done, to have a quiet day. 

Ezra and Hannah flew home and it went much better than their flight here. I was really happy, not as happy as Hannah I am sure but still really happy. I thought about them all day and hoped and prayed it was going smoothly. 

When I got home we did a lot of tidying. There is lots to clean after two weeks of family visiting and playing playing playing. 

Jenna is 36 weeks now. Baby girl could be coming any time. I hope she comes the 14th. Random? Not really. I have that following Monday off so I would only have to take four vacation days to go help. Babies come when they like though so I am prepared for whatever. 

I talked with Colleen and with Julie today. It’s fun to catch up with friends. Both chats were uplifting to my heart. 

I also got to talk to this guy for a bit. It was a good Monday.

 

last day

Today is the last day of vacation. It's been a really good one.  I am dreading going back a little bit; but it's good.  It'll be good to be productive.

We went to church this morning.  Ezra went to nursery and Hannah and I both went with them.  There were only three little boys there and they mainly just played.  

After church we went to a nearby park to play.  They had a very nice playground and we enjoyed watching the brave one climb and slide and swing.

 After dinner we had chocolate cupcakes.  I think Ez liked it!  I am really happy we got to spend this week with him.  Hopefully he will have a nice flight home and all will be well.

Pool in the morning, Disney beach in the afternoon

This morning we went to Ann’s house to swim. Ezra was so cute and loved it!

The missionaries and Camille also came over ( all of us uninvited fyi ) and then it was a party. Jim grilled burgers for everyone and we had a fun little visit.
 

After Ezra’s nap we went to see the the gingerbread carousel at the Beach Club Resort. It was really cool and the resort was so pretty.

We played on the sand, walked around the boardwalk and had a great, festive, vacation-feeling time. 

NYE

We took Ez to Gatorland. He loved the gators! 

This boy loves a good splash pad!

 They had a big gingerbread scene set up. It was funny. My favorite was the gingerbread outhouse!

In the evening we met Tom and Diana and Keke at the playground. We were supposed to get together with them tomorrow but Jess is sick and Aunt Diana wanted to meet Ezra so we spent a little time playing together. Makayla was so sweet to Ezra.

I chaperoned the dance tonight for the youth. Always a good time.

Also some good news: Sierra had surgery on her thumb yesterday and is doing great with her recovery. She’ll start PT next week and hopefully will get movement back in that thumb!

Wild Thing

Hannah and I took Ezra to the mall. She needed to get Sawyer’s watch fixed at Fossil. We had fun looking at all the shops. 

Ezzie loves to run around. He loves to run everywhere! He’s such a cute boy and so full of laughter and enthusiasm and curiosity.

We went to a dessert bar. We got the special and Ez ate most of it! 

After his nap we dressed him up like Max, from “Where the Wild Things Are” and took a walk to the park. He is rambunctious and dives head first into all fun things!

 

I love my smiley guy!