Can I just say first of all that tonight is so very different from last night. It is hard to believe that just yesterday our house was filled to bursting with chaotic noise and smells and tonight it is dreamily quiet and dark. And can today really just be January 2nd? The days have seemed longer than usual lately, and I'm not entirely sure why. The light part of the day is quite short. The nights are long. But all evening I have guessed that it is about two hours later than it really is. It was a crazy and exhausting weekend. And the two weeks, plus two days Christmas break was wonderful, and also crazy and exhausting. We spent so much of it sick and up late having (and worrying about) fevers and vomiting. But it was truly a wonderful time. And the boys and I were, as I anticipated last night, not at all ready to head back to reality today.
Fortunately for us, reality was very, very snowy. It was 15 degrees when we brushed the foot of snow off the van this morning and buckled in for the ride to school. It was 8:01 am, and after picking up Grace and getting gas we headed towards the school at 8:16 am. By the time we made it to Washington, after several slips an slides and a few tire-spinning, heart-stopping turns, it was 8:47am. Shortly after getting to Washington which was unplowed, because all the normal people in the world are celebrating New Year's today, unmarked and icy, I made an very adult, parental decision. We would have our own snow day. I called Ryan and Ally and I brought the crew home. The children were not disappointed. They began playing Minecraft with aplomb! They were happy to be home again with their Yorgason cousins, and Grace. Just happy to be home.
By afternoon, the other adult parent, made an even more adult parental decision to take the crew to school for the rest of the day. The roads were clearer, and everyone could tolerate half a day of school. It was a good warm up day, gearing up for a wonderful rest of the school-year. The boys had a good day. Peter stayed for his reading group and really likes Mrs. Christian. It was Mrs. Jex's birthday and William made her a forest owl, since she is a wise teacher. James didn't have to go back since he is in morning kindergarten, but he did go with Ryan to pick up a few new aquariums and a beautiful sand castle decoration for the frog tank. He still remembers the address of the lady from KSL who sold it all to them for $10-- "We got it from 115" he explained to me when I got back with the school-goers.
The Yorgson's left-- packed all their belongings into their Odyssey and began their trek up North, where it is 30 degrees below zero! People are not meant to live in such cold! We will miss them, and now we know we can have house guests (and feed 17 people some really delicious roast-- still salivating about that roast!).
We enjoyed a warm and relaxed evening in the quiet of our recently emptied home. We ate soup and chili and bread. We finished off some Christmas desserts. The boys played with legos. I answered some texts and emails and got my living room back to beautiful. I spent one last hour by the Christmas tree wrapped in our new soft throw with my mug of hot cocoa. Tomorrow we will take it down and we will try again for a full day of school.
Later we had a family home evening about burying our swords (and light sabers and sais) like the people of Ammon, by giving up old habits or repenting of old sins. 2016 is gone, let our bad habits die with it---the year is dying let it die (such a sad hymn). And we talked about aiming for the bullseye of the gospel. We can't shoot our arrows and then draw the bullseye around where it landed. We can't decide to just focus on our favorite piece of the gospel. Christ has shown us the target and the bullseye when he told us about the two great commandments. I read this amazing article by President Uchdorf about all of this and I absolutely love it! I find it so helpful in thinking about the gospel and teaching it to my kids. Especially since both the burying of swords and the shooting of arrows involve weapons. The boys acted the parts of the Lamanites and Nephites and I really think they understood it all.
And the two great commandments can be summed up so conveniently and beautifully in the word JOY. To find joy and "hit the bullseye of the gospel" we must love Jesus and God, love Others, and love Yourself. James incidentally can read the word JOY like a pro, and he said "Look! See the J on Jesus is also the J for JOY!" He gets it. I loved his excitement and love watching these kiddos understand things that I didn't until I was 21 or so and on my mission. I truly want the world for these Keyes guys, and I want to give them opportunities and insights and lessons that will help them enjoy family forever, become their best selves, and help them be happy each day. Because those are the resolutions...
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