A Slice of Our Life

I was flipping through Wilson's journal yesterday (I think I'm allowed to do that for a few more years) and one of his entries made me smile. He had written what his 'typical' day was. "Wake up. Eat breakfast." etc etc. Then his after school was, "Have a snack. Hudson comes over. Play Wii or Legos." etc etc. It reminded me again that journals/blogs are for the recording of our lives, which may seem mundane at the time, but ultimately build a picture of what our life was during these years.

There is a store in Utah County called 4 Chairs. It is so very cool. My sister is a particularly devoted patron. (ess?) I thought of it this week when exactly half our kitchen table chairs bit the dust. The legs are falling out of the holes where they once snugly fit. Do kitchen chairs have a shelf-life?? If so, I guess we have reached ours. So we can ram the legs back in and stare at the chair with a stern look for a few moments before sitting down again, but as soon as we put our weight on the seat we get a jarring surprise as it semi-collapses again. Zane experienced the full effect as one of the legs came completely out and the chair because a three-legged stool while he was sitting on it. I walked into the room where he had the thing upside down and in pieces, and he looked at me and said, somberly, "And then there were four."

Who can guess what this is: bang step treble hop back, bang step treble hop back Jump 2-3-4-5-6-7 treble hop back 2-3 step cut and bang, jump 2-3-4-5-6-7 treble hop back 2-3 step cut and bang...If you answered The Irish Dance Steps for Cotton-Eyed Joe you would be correct. Eliza has been practicing her little tail off to learn these steps before St. Patrick's Day. Here is Irish Dance Idaho performing it at our school last year.

Zane and I went with our good friends last weekend to see True Grit. Holy cow, that was a cool movie. I love that the Coen Brothers put their stamp on it without going over the top. Grandma was the best babysitter that night but I might have to drag her to see it too.

I have been following the news story this week about the professor who is having a round of Tom Sawyer published without the N word in it. I thought that was a little drastic, but was more sympathetic after I heard the professor say that he just wants people to be able to enjoy it and not feel ultra-uncomfortable reading the single most offensive word in our language over 200 times. My sympathy increased this week when, in preschool, the letter of the week was N. Think about what it is like to sit with a group of little kids for five or ten minutes, like I do every week when introducing the new letter, and say things like, "Who can think of an 'N word'? What kinds of 'N words' can you think of?" I was terribly uneasy by the end of it and started broadening the spectrum by saying things like, "Let's think of food that starts with this letter (signing N)"

My kids are home sick today. Is it wrong that my second thought (coming only a nano-second after my first which was, of course, to assess the extent of their illness and decide whether or not to keep them home) caused me to experience great joy at the thought of not having to pack lunches??

My sister and her husband packed up their teenagers last month and spent half of their Christmas break in Mexico. Sounds glamorous, but I don't think it was. It was life-changing, however, and you can read her experiences here. It's worth a few minutes.

Speaking of heading south, last year I swore up and down that we would leave this great state of ours for Spring Break and drive until we felt warmth and sunshine. I am holding fast to that promise and looking forward to getting out of these gloomy, cold days. Care to join us, Sarah and Layden??