January Normal Life

January Stuff: Dad and the kids went skiing  -  School Started  -   Dad was on-call with work  -  we had the missionaries over for dinner and a lesson on the Plan of Salvation   -  we went to Mexico with the Johnsons  -  Mom volunteered at School in the Woods  -  Emily had Piano and voice  - Katie, Emily, Megan, Luke and Matt had Swing Dance  -  Dad spent 4 days with the National Guard in Denver  -  YW in Excellence at the Hales home: Emily played the piano, Katie sang with all the laurels and I gave a talk on Personal Progress  -  we visited the Family History Center so Dad could start scanning old photos  -  Emily went with the 4th years on the FREEZERIE  -  We went to Crested Butte for a ski trip with the Jacksons  -  I organized a fun Missionary Night for the youth with four speakers who talked about their missions: Ali Theurer Winter Quarters, Saralyn Campbell Brazil, Kent Stilson India, Cameron Perigo Germany.  We rotated classrooms.  It was awesome.  -  We celebrated Grandpa’s birthday by going to Olive Garden and sharing special memories of him.

Ski trip to Monarch – January 3rd

Dad on a ‘mission’ to organize his pictures, documents and his Dad’s memories.  And then over to the Family History Center to have Emily help him scan photos.  Emily and Katie volunteer at the FHC every Thursday evening.

Emily and all the 4th years enjoyed an overnighter ‘FREEZERIE’ with the Stake YW leaders for their 4th year hike. 

Matthew working on his talk for Primary. 

January 30th was Grandpa Johnson’s birthday.  Like last year, we went to Olive Garden to celebrate and remember him. 

On the right, one night the girls came into our room and sat on our bed.  They rated boys.  We laughed.  They fell off the bed.  It was fun.  Love these three.

On the 31st Luke’s School in the Woods homework was to watch the moon and record how it changed.  It was a ‘Super Blue Blood Moon’ and that’s something that hasn’t happened for 150 years.  Fun to sit bundled up on the front steps and be with Luke.  He was pretty excited about the eclipse and then the full moon turning reddish. “Mom, I kind of feel excited like I do on Christmas.”   Fun homework. I left the moon photographs to NASA – but we did catch a beautiful sunrise.

Intentionalism

Chris and I have been listening to a lot of The Minimalists – Podcasts this month.  We watched their documentary last January and spent a lot of time talking about how we could be more ‘minimalistic’.  The speakers are good to explain that Minimalism looks differently to all people… it’s the act of removing the access to leave what is most important.  It could be talking about clutter in a home – but they also talk about minimalism in reference to Heath, Relationships, Education, Technology, Debt… and really Chris and I have decided that a more applicable term is INTENTIONALISM.  It happens to be a word we already love and use a lot. 

Last January we had a family council with the kids and talked about how we could do better spending our money more intentionally.  Removing unneeded expenses.  The truth is, I think we’re pretty good at this already.   But we could always do better. Less things. More experiences.   I though it was beneficial to the have the kids there so they would be aware of the money spent on their behalf and might understand certain ‘budget cuts’ in order to use our money for more specific things.  We talked about how much we loved to travel and how expensive it was.  Katie really wanted to have a motto for our new intentionalism and as we talked she pulled one right from the conversation.  “I’d Rather go to Europe”  She wrote it on a piece of paper and added our other family goals as well…  “Communicate, Connect and Feel the Spirit” also taken from our heartfelt family discussion.  Katie added our impromptu motto paper to the fridge and there is sat for months.   Along the way we added new papers with additional mottos.  Anything I repeated several times became a motto: None of your shirts can go in the dryer’ and ‘The more you read the SMARTER you are’.  It became kind of a family joke – but in reality most of these we felt passionately about.

So here we are – another January later, spending our time listening to and discussing ‘Minimalism’ and how it relates to a variety of different subjects.  I love it.  Let’s clean out some cupboards, repurpose some items, use what we have, focus on relationships, put down our iPhones, exercise and eat healthy so that we feel good,  and be intentional in all things.  Here’s to a great year.

Crested Butte

Our first ‘annual’ trip to Crested Butte.  I can’t believe we’ve lived in Colorado for nearly 5 years and never been here.  The Grand Lodge was fun – and just a little reminescent of our fond memories at the Edelweiss in Germany – the mountain was great (say my skiers), the warm Belgium waffles were perfect, and the town and shops were pretty adorable.  Plus it was great to be there with our friends the Jacksons. 

We skipped school on Friday and left the house about 7:00am – rolling into 15 degree Crested Butte by 11:00.  We checked in and immediately got everyone outfitted to hit the slopes.  Their Monarch season ski passes include two days at Crested Butte – a HUGE benefit. 

Matt and Luke’s Second Ski Season

I headed to the base of the mountain to meet them bringing snacks.  Fun to see those boys zooming down the hill.  They are doing really well – or so I’m told.  After hanging out for a while I left them to ski and  Emily joined me back at the lodge.  We read, drank hot chocolate, watched The Office and then took a nap.  Just wonderful.

The ski lifts closed at 4:00 and everyone came back to the lodge with freezing fingers and toes.  We got in our swim suits and headed to the outside hot tub, which in 15 degree weather was a little frightening, but felt so good.  We stayed for awhile.  Then we got dressed and headed over to the Jacksons room for some potluck crockpot soups and games.

Saturday morning proved to be even colder.  When Chris and the kids were bundled and ready to ski it had warmed to 5 degrees. 

Warm Belgium waffles with chocolate… so good.

After waffles we got ready and headed ‘downtown’ and walked along Main Street.  Fun to peak into some different shops.  Very cool stuff.  Lots of “I love Crested Butte” Stuff.

Love this picture…

Brick Oven Pizzeria had really great pizza… and a great atmosphere for talking.  After dinner we walked back to the van and drove back to the Lodge.  Chris and the kids headed over to the hot tub in 2 degree weather (Brrrrr)  while I sat and read by the fireplace and then chatted with Megan.  We played games over in the Lodge restaurant until late and the boys  fell asleep on nearby benches.  It was such a fun mini-trip.   We packed up Sunday morning, attended a 10 o’clock Sacrament meeting in a little branch in Gunnison and then continued the rest of the way home.  : )