In the name of procrastination

As it is late-ish on a Saturday night and I have already watched a dumb movie this afternoon - my brain says there is no way that I can do any significant writing for end of term papers - I feel compelled to feel productive.  Posting feels productive.  As it is the last remaining vestige of journaling that I actively maintain (I somewhat compile my communications in a bit of an archive just in case someday I am famous and anyone cares), it is time to lay down some mortar that might stick together the past months.  As it is, I have no evidence online that the Button family continued to exist beyond the year 2014.  We are alive.  The apocalypse did not hit Indiana (although there are rumors that our proximity to Adam-on-diaman may give us some advance warning) and force us into oblivion.  Herein lies the proof:

We packed up and moved into our new house on  December 23rd.  It was the fastest  unpack I have ever done because we needed to have a 'home' atmosphere for Christmas.

In this photo it is very apparent that the elements of tradition that was forcing me to roll sushi on New Years was not personally what I wanted to be doing.  But the kids love it.  With the speed of the move, I am super impressed that I was able to keep up with any tradition.  But with the kids, they are old enough now to keep the guilt trip coming: that is the essence of tradition and as we edit our past when older, each one of those consistent years together will paint a picture of family bliss and fun despite Mom being cranky in 2015.

Josh and I made it to 33.  I don't remember what I got for Josh for his birthday and I only remember going to get some hair coloring done on my birthday...wow that doesn't speak well for early thirties!

Through January and February we had plenty 'snow day' cancellation from school which had nothing to do with snow but with a bit of chilled weather.  We loved having the ambiance of a fire to do some homework by on some of the chill days. I do have amazing kids.  Most of the time we are getting along and enjoy the same activities. 

Snow day core strengthening activities.  Viv is the only one of us with a strong core.  Danny is too ticklish to stay long in an airplane and Faith is floppy.  

So impressive - the kids wrote a play about cats and created costumes.  Day well spent.

January 14th, 2015 my baby turned 8.  Wahoo! I am no longer accountable for her sins!  Really, now we are all just accountable for the emotionality of burgeoning independence.

I couldn't have imagined how beautiful this day would be.  Faith chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She has such a mature soul and perceptive intellect that the choice was deeply felt by us all and I felt something more pure than proud, perhaps it is joy.

While Grammie and Grampie were in town for the baptism we went out for the first  roller-skating  experience.  The kids were pretty amazing.  Maybe I am a mean mom, but I wouldn't let them use the walkers on wheels as a crutch for learning.  In my opinion, they learned faster than if they had a walker, but I have no proof that there is any correlation.  Mostly it was their determination. 

Disco baby!

March we took a trip over to Columbus Ohio to visit the Ohio State University.  The trip was a combo of PhD program interviewing, temple visit, and most important for the kids - OSU vs Boise State gymnastics meet!  We reconnected with a cousin of mine who joined us at the meet.  It was really cool to see the women gymnasts do some amazing stuff so close up.  We tell Viv were are investing in her college tuition by paying for gymnastic lessons now - no pressure.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the eggs for color, not that the kids minded. And we have a giant yard to hide them in, we just had to make sure we had an accurate count.  

With Auntie Jill living with us she makes sure we schedule plenty of outings to experience life beyond our home.  We watched the IPFW mens baseball up to the 6th inning and decided we are more excited for the Tin Caps season to open than we thought.

The excursion to the game was worth it for Danny who found a ball in the grass and when he tried to return in to the team, they said he could keep it.  Free game.  Free ball.

I've been working hard as a student his past semester and have had some academic honors bestowed upon me.  Fancy.  I presented a couple of my papers at conferences and symposiums and it accumulated in a scholarship award from the department.  I am grateful to have the recognition not to inflate the ego, but rather to be able to celebrate what I am doing as a contribution.  It is nice to know your work is appreciated. 

Whereas I used this blog in one of my research projects on journal writing, which will probably become a theme as I continue to work with family history writing projects, I hope to keep everyone posted. That is, anyone who is still interested in the ancient form of blogging (came out in 2005 and after a decade in the digital world it is basically dino bones).  I teach blogging to my beginning composition students of one the original internet writing genres and LOVE it!

Not to be forgotten - October and November

Fast recap of what transpired in the family through October and November:As a family, and yes, that very much includes the cats, we watched the General Conference Broadcast at home.  I suppose it is not true to say the full family because Josh could not join us on Saturday as he is always working.  But, Sunday he did.  We kicked up our feet and enjoyed snuggling and working quietly while listening.  The kids are becoming wonderful note takers and probably go more out of the talks than I did (I was a bit snoozy).

Viv turned 7 on October 16th.  We often wonder if her biological age is about a decade behind her attitude.  She absolutely loves fashion and was pleased to receive more frills and sparkles to put together (and yes, she just puts together her favorite without regard to matching which is surprising considering her over-conscious regard for social acceptance).  She certainly is a force to be reckoned with, and is learning how to reckon with herself.  She is a proficient reader and can do anything she sets her mind to, it is the setting the mind part that is still in progress.

 Josh and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary on October 27th.  Having Josh by my side for all these many years is my favorite constant.  I couldn't ask for a more devoted and progressive man.  He got me this lovely hat and a praying mantis broach. Josh was a bit worried about the animalistic connection of how the female mantis bites the head off her mate after they copulate.  I figure that (1) my mouth is not that big and (2) it would have to be some experience for me to loose that kind of self-control.  All in all, Josh doesn't have to worry about me literally biting his head off, and I think that over the years I have become a better wife and 'bite-his-head-off' a little less figuratively.

Everyone in our house is currently obsessed with Harry Potter, so it was a sure bet for Halloween to go the Hogwarts road to costuming.  An etsy friend supplied the scarves and I broke down and bought a new sewing machine to finish out the cloaks (it should not take hours to sew a basic polyester straight stitch and that is when I knew that Grandma's machine and I were going to have to part ways).  With his blonde hair, Danny was Draco Malfoy, Faith naturally was Hermione Granger, and Viv was Nymphadora Tonks.  I resurrected my annual witches cloak and went as Minerva McGonagall circa Tom Riddle's era and Josh was Professor Snape for trick-or-treating.  The kids are still running around the house with their wands practicing various spells and hexes.  Luckily they are Muggle born and their magical skills are not so strong even if Faith is determined she will see her letter from Hogwarts (or the American Wizarding school equivalent) when she turns 11 years old.  

 We are currently finishing out book 4 in the series.  I made the cloaks extra long so they could be used again next year, when it is likely we are just finishing out book 7.

 I was not actually with the family on Halloween - first time ever - so Josh took the kids trick or treating.  I was attending an academic conference at MSU.  I am nearing the end of my Master's degree and scoping out schools for doctoral work.  I traveled with a couple of professors for the first ever Cultural Rhetorics Conference.  The conference was groundbreaking and the sushi place we ate at was amazing!

 Halloween crept up on us rather fast.  We were in the throws of school and buying a new home (we closed on our home two days before Thanksgiving).  I decided that I was tired of inviting guests over having had some ingracious ones in the past, but I was not tired of making the food.  I love cooking a big meal, bummer we don't have many people to share it with.  Ah well, I was emotional drained and the weather change was tickling the fibromyalgia.  We got a turkey roaster many  years ago and it makes AMAZINGLY MOIST bird.  Totally worth the left overs.  We brined it this year, which I loved, the rest thought it a bit too salty in pockets.  

Grandma Ruby's rolls and rainbow Jello are traditional must.

Jill helped out with the side dishes.  The spread was amazing!  The leftovers lingered well into December, which was wonderful since my pension for cooking was waning.    The remedy for not wanting to cook in December, however was the German Aubendbrot tradition.  We fit in three fabulous, company filled Sunday feasts preceding Christmas and filled the fridge with wonderful leftovers.  We invited my good friends from a family history writing course on the 7th, the Gregory and Coudron family on the 14th, and finished strong with the Routsong family on the 21st.  

 Although we do look forward to the food, the tradition of singing carols of the Season and reading from the scriptural accounts of Jesus' birth are what really hold the Holidays together for me. I am so grateful for good parents who established patterns that have helped me, and now my family (and a couple of regular annual guests) look forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior.  Traditions absolutely help me maintain some of the joy of the season for our family despite my own personal health.  It is good to just do what you have always done and be blessed by it every year.  It has also made all my kids wonderful singers who know the words to great anthems of the Messiah's coming!

2013? It was awesome

I don't know how I got away with neglecting our family's version of keeping track of what we have done (and sometimes just what I am thinking), but here it is, into a new year and I have neglected some of the finest finishes on 2013.  I will, of course blame it on the end of semester stresses and the flu, which caught us all off guard.  Yet, without dwelling too much on the missed opportunity of the past, here are some of the awesome photo-captured remaining moments of 2013:

A fantastically organized and generous classmate of the kids invited us all over to do a  gingerbread creation entry into the annual gingerbread festival.  Not only was it mega fun to see the kids playing together outside of school and working somewhat on the creation, it motivated us to go to the Gingerbread Festival downtown this year.  I understand it is a fundraiser so I will forgive the entrance fee to see candy piled in one giant room.  Pretty impressive, and the kids won 3rd place in their category for their interpretation of the historical impact of Interstates bypassing Fort Wayne rather than going straight through.

Since the children have recess in a lovely forest with amazing fall colors, like little squirrels they started to bring home their natural spoils.  We determined to put them to good use in one flourish of craftiness (which comes bi-annually for me).  The kids prepared gratitude trees for their classrooms made from the pieces of their very own woods.  It is amazing what some scrap wood and metallic spray paint can do.  I was most excited about the effect of focusing on what we are grateful for had on myself as well as the kids.  It was a good year to remember we are blessed.

Thanksgiving was a much slighter crowd than I prefer, which did not stop me from creating the regular smorgasbord of foods.  Thanksgiving is one of those days in the year when I enjoy making a lot of laborious foods to share with others.  The kids were my favorite companions through all the preparations and their enthusiasm and anticipation made the holiday so much sweeter than my sour attitude may have turned it.  And, low and behold, this year was a fantastic pie year!  Many thanks go to my amazing friend Naomi who has master the art of pie crusts and shared her recipe with me.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving started off our Christmas season with Advent.  I can't say enough how cool it is to have kids in this stage that makes everything magical again.  The kids were enthralled with setting a formal table and all the preparations.  Our dinner guests were hit-and-miss again this year (a very disappointing aspect of sharing a tradition with a modern society), but as Josh says, we have better company with our kids sometimes than if we were to invite others to join us.  Four Sundays of our favorite foods and we are fine either way!

Christmas Eve my darling husband ushered the kids through as many traditions as possible as I lay slave to a porcelain god. The stomach flu which the girls has overcome the week before waited for Christmas Eve to hit Danny and I.  Danny was a better patient than I and pulled out of the pukes within 6 hours.  My aging body was relentless in holding on to some severe inflammation for a few days but hey, I am learning to love and respect my body and its crazy anti-immune disease.  I particularly love this picture because it is a replay of a Christmas picture nearly 3 years old.  Oh they are still just as cute.

Josh's birthday came like clockwork the day after Christmas.  The kids were no less excited about gift opening, even if it were all for Daddy.  We open first thing in the morning so birthdays are like Christmas.  As any old-fogie would, Josh's gifts were practical work clothes and a challenge for a Spartan race in the spring. ;) we won't succumb to age gracefully.

On New Year's Eve, at 8:30pm, when everyone was asleep but myself, I opened up my early birthday present to myself and cuddled up with a kitten to usher in the New Year. As we say, the New Year will come whether  you are awake or not, so we may as well sleep!  I was cozy, and still wearing the pajamas on the 2nd as my birthday rolled around (I changed out of them for the day of New Years but got back in for the sleeping, oh so cozy).  

We had thought the last of our holiday vacation days had come by the end of today, but hooray for snow!  The 'severe weather' storm of the winter hit today, which reminded me of many a day sitting at the cabin in my childhood, lightly falling snow most of the day accumulating nicely up to 12 inches.  Church was cancelled.  Pretty much everything in Fort Wayne is cancelled for the next two days.  I suppose their snow plows are extra clunky? Knowing it was a wet snow the kids and Josh went out to smash as much of it together as possible in cute forms.  Supposedly it will be very cold the next few days after today.  Who cares, we still have more vacation together tomorrow!

The Best Gifts of Christmas 2012

Tis' the season for the holiday looting recap.  In reviewing 'the best' of this year I am awestruck, in all sincerity, of the simplicity of joys that were not packaged.

Those who know me best know that I LOVE to give gifts.  It comes quite close in hand with I love shopping.  Although I don't feel myself to be much of a materialistic person, I do like come stuff (shoes and clothes) in more abundance than others (gadgets and gizmos).  I got closer than ever this year to my touted 3 gifts per person.  Luckily I have been maintaining my education in self-sufficient simplicity and thus was more apt to feel that less really is more.  And it has been!  It also helps that I was a bit more selfishly Scroogish because I am saving up for a big trip for my to NYC in two weeks.  However the means by which I accomplished it this year, I am so grateful!

The kids got their Christmas Eve jammies: ain't they cute.
Beyond that they are supposed to get 3 gifts: one experience, one something homemade and one special toy from Santa.  I always throw in a matching Sunday ensemble for the whole family.  This year was a magical year of belief in Santa.  Danny's eye's popped out of his head when he found legos in his stocking and Faith sat back in amazement when she saw that there was the perfect dolly for her to do its hair from Santa.

Viv was happy to be getting gifts and receiving input on gracious receiving also.  By her last gift she said thank you and some happy words without even being prompted.  She is getting used to the slower pace of group gift opening and experiencing the happiness of shared joys instead of giant looting.

I finally finished the kids' matching quilts, started nearly 2 years ago, thanks to a brain wave of making the girls quilts into duvet covers and thus not having to quilt them.  I was totally gratified when Faith woke up two days later and recounted to me that she had had a bad dream in the night and instead of getting out of bed to come be comforted by me, she just wrapped her quilt around her tighter and felt my love wrapping her up warmly and wasn't scared anymore.

The experience gift this year was to be piano lessons for all, but we ended up giving them all sleeping bags and they are more excited about the upcoming experience of camping a lot this summer. I am too! It is exciting to think of this family phase of life when we are going to make memories that they actually remember without me having to tell them!  Plus it put us one step closer to having our emergency preparedness prepared.

Our family gift was the cats, which has given us all more enjoyment for our dollar.  They are the toy the kids can't get enough time playing with.

Josh and I spent our gift budget on Advent dinners, a tradition that we prefer to share with others.  It helps us get into the true meaning of Christmas better than anything else and well worth the money spent on some fabulous cheese, meats, and company.

Josh as always, just wanted money in the bank for Christmas.  It is always super hard for me not to express my love to him in my love language (gifts), but to just speak in his language (physical touch and words of affirmation).  My gift to him this year was honoring his wish and really not getting him anything.  He got to read through 'his book' which is a journal I try to keep daily of the wonderful things he does for me.  I started it when we got married, forgot/lost it for 6 years and picked back up this year to help focus on the positive things about our marriage.

My gift is forthcoming as a combined birthday and Christmas gift.  What I enjoyed most about this Christmas, which was a true gift for me, was the amount of happiness and energy I felt.  After 3 years of depression and chronic fatigue it was amazing to finally feel myself again.  Josh and I spent Christmas day playing with the kids as much as they wanted to (kids all had influenza) and still made valance curtains for the kitchen windows.  I thought, gee I could do more tomorrow!  For the first time in a long time I am making To-Do lists and feeling as though I can tackle them.  It has been a learning adventure to figure out my own body and how to maximize on my own energy potential: combination of better sleep and understanding how to get it, taking the proper vitamins daily, listening to the input my body is giving me and respecting that, and less exercise.  Life is so positive and upbeat and we are all enjoying it.

Second best gift of this Christmas season: snow the day after Christmas!  I am in wintery heaven.

I found out from a good friend of mine that the 'waiting on the stairs' and yearly picture thereof may be somewhat of a regional tradition. I hadn't considered that other families did the same thing, but then, I suppose I had never considered that they wouldn't.

Danny popped up a couple times through the night, although it was not the Santa jitters, he just has a habit of interrupting my soundest sleeps. Although, I did find who was the anxious one this year when I took Danny back up to the loft to sleep among the lines of sleeping bags - Noah. At 4am it was already apparent that anything was going to keep him up and staring at that glaring red clock. Oh the many years I did the same in that very same year. He was also policing to make sure others were not sneaking out. Once I got Danny settled back down (about an hour later) I stumbled down to sleep an hour or two more with my husband. Low and behold, Danny was down again at 6am, but much less bleary eyed. "Momma, there are LOTS of presents out there!" I tried to get him to crawl into bed with us to go back to sleep until the designated 7am hour but he would have nothing of it. I was shocked with how articulate he was being even though his body was still moving at the very slow morning pace. "No. (as if I didn't hear him) Momma, there are really lots of presents out there, you have to get up and come and see."

Although slightly irritated, I knew the battle was lost as soon as Danny said 'get up.' So I accompanied him back upstairs and corralled the other early risers at the top of the stairs. Rowan said the second most memorable thing of that morning. Despite being groggy from sleep, his eyes lit up suddenly with a memory/idea, "I think I saw Rudolph's nose, only it looked like a truck's tail lights." The best is that he talks out of the side of his mouth like some country bumpkin trucker and it all just fit together in the perfect red-neck morning frame.

This shield was the coveted gift of the year. Danny has been talking non-stop about Captain America. He was a bit disappointed once we got it out of the box and he knocked on it a couple of times - "But this is just plastic." I assured him that it was really 'vibratim' just like Captain America's and he would be more than able to fend off all the bad guys.
Grammie and Grampie sent these beautiful Ukrainian headdresses for the girls. In the pile of very thoughtful gifts from them were some of my favorites; the perfect dinner bell - it is loud but also has the sweet sound of the jingle bell from Polar Express (furthermore the dinner bell is a kick-back to the cow bell that Mom used to call us from summer play out doors on the back porch and all the neighborhood knew that Hancock kids had to go in for dinner. Brooke took that bell and I was jealous) and a gorgeous hand painted blown out egg. Oh it is pretty!
Josh got spoiled by Santa yet again this year. Little does he know the notes that I am taking year round to get him the perfect gift. He got power block weights so he can build his burly muscles and not look like a whimp in his scrubs at work. I like the fringe benefits of course. ;) He also got his birthday gift early of an iPhone since he needed internet access at the cabin to arrange new job interviews.


All dressed up in their Christmas Sunday clothes. It was nice that the birthday celebration of Christ was on Christmas, but to be honest, I didn't like having to go to Church on Christmas. eeek. It kinda threw the kids out of the state of awe and wonder of new gifts. I hate rushing on any holiday. Although I love my Savior, I like celebrating His birthday on seperate day and then rejoicing in it on Sunday.
Watch out Danny, this is only the first of many girls wanting to get their lips on those oh so kissable cheeks, I steal more than my fair share as a Mamma. I am glad it is just his sisters at this point though.
My girls are gorgeous!