January and February Notes

 
January was all about trying to get back into the swing of things.  It was really hard!  I was just too tired from the hectic December to let myself jump back into a fast-paced routine.  One of my favorite new habits is to get up in the morning for scriptures with Dallin and the big boys and go lie on the couch on my side.  Soon Ruby's alarm would go off, and she'd come down all wrapped up in her blanket and cuddle down behind my legs in my "nest".   It was sooo cozy and nice to start the day with cuddles and we'd drift in and out of sleep while listening to the scriptures in Spanish and English.  Often the other kids would come for a cuddle or a story as we slowly started the morning.  I'm tempted to say "not super productive", but I know it is just a different kind of productive.  A lot of us had lingering sickness that was never really bad, but left us feeling tired and achy.  The girls had a lot of earaches, sore throats, and swollen glands. I took Brandon to a Speech and Debate tournament at LDS Business College.  He did really well.  I really like that school.  It has a nice feeling to it.
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we started using our weekly character qualities chart that we got from the Duggars' website to give us a theme for each family evening.  It has been great because it takes away the guesswork of "what are we doing for FHE?" as well as helping us dig a little deeper into the meaning and application of the virtues.  Our co-op hosted a family dance.  I was nervous about being mostly in charge of it.  It turned out really great!  We did a little math/science fair with our co-op  just before the dance started.  Brandon did a little demonstration on the "Dice of the Gods" which is a set of regular solids that fit inside one another.  It was neat to see the symbolism and see how it crossed many cultures and religions.  I thought it was amazing that when you have 2-dimensional objects, there are an almost infinite number of regular shapes (regular meaning all sides are equal), but when you add the third dimension, there are only 5 regular solids.  

It February we still kept things slow.  We focused on relationships instead of achievements.  We spent time with friends that helped us know them and learn and grow from them.  We've been involved with a Commonwealth this year.  It is a sort of co-op that offers classes for homeschooled youth.  Once a month they have a parent meeting.  We have had some neat discussions about learning and liberty and about preparing our children to deal with persecution and about focusing our families on the Savior.  It is so nice to feel supported and get ideas.  I've really enjoyed going to them with Dallin.  Dallin and the boys went to the Klondike derby this month.  They were happy to have snow.  They placed 2nd out of 50 troops, so not so bad!  We love the Porter Valentine Party every year!  Yahoo!  I love doing the folk and ballroom dances.  Thanks for putting up with a lot of Virginia Reel!  I am always excited when every age can enjoy an activity like that.  On the 21st was the Shakespeare Fair for Brandon's class.  I was pleasantly surprised to see what a great turnout we had and what some of the fun activities were.  We had dinner there and watched Brandon get "crowned King" the 2nd year in a row for reading/watching/ or listening to at least 17 unabridged Shakespeare plays.  Brandon's math/science class phased out so we decided to have him take the 2nd semester of Key of Liberty because his teacher wasn't able to finish out the year last year.  I sat in on the class a couple of times and was really impressed with the great stuff they were learning about the government and how much Heavenly Father loves liberty.  We also had a fun Valentine party with our co-op.  So far Sarajoy has used her box for 3 years and just adds a little to it each year.  Simon made a cute Alligator box and handed his train valentine box down to Sullivan.  Daisy updated the froggy that Ruby used last year.  Brandon did his trash can with the pop-up lid from last year and Ruby made a really cute giraffe. 
The last day of the month, we went on a group date with our friends from Spanish Fork to the BYU Museum of Art to see the sacred gifts exhibit.  It was so nice to be able to go slowly and read the information and really enjoy the art.  It was also great to catch up with our friends and have a nice dinner with them.