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!

Puppets, purchases, and papers

This is the season when all the wheels start spinning, faster, and Faster, and FASTER! Until I no longer have control.  On various days, I choose to give up. On those days, I find myself finding every excuse possible not to shower, exercise, or make progress on massive pending papers.

Yes, it is the end of a semester.  I hate deadlines.  How I have enjoyed learning and researching for 14 weeks, and then the last two it feels like sirens are going off constantly, forcing me to make cognizant sense out of all the knowledgeable stuff in my head.  Bleh.  It is not that I don't want to articulate my passionate feelings about how families shape identities and how family history writing can and should evolve in order to tell the smaller stories that shape a nation.  I really do want to articulate it all; can't we just have a long conversation instead?  Nope.  That would not be as well organized.  I get it.  Please pass the chocolate chips.

The research has been fascinating.  Thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ, we not only have the amazing free FamilyTree.org to work with, we have been given a membership to Ancestry.com.  We have been connecting with family members that we didn't even know we had in order to fill in some blanks in the family legacy.  Check out these gems:

This is the army registration card for Josh's great-grandfather, filled out in his own handwriting!  We had been trying to verify whether or not James fought in WW1.  We know he registered from this, and then....

Here is the application for military burial, which assumes that he did serve active duty.  There are still some mysteries in between, such as where and when, but we have the beginning and the end!  No, James did not die in the war, he died after a poker fight somewhere in Oregon (yet another story we are trying to clarify).

The personal connection to my research material (that is my research revolves around how family history work illuminates family trends, identity markers, and can change the way family identifies themselves) has made it so very worthwhile.  I have already started a couple spinoff projects.  It just feels like there is never enough ways to present the information as they extend into so many spheres.

As part of my physical goals this year, I am trying to be as aware of my body and its reactions to stress as possible.  I like stress, it motivates me on one hand.  On the other hand, it ties my muscles into searing knots that eventually separate from my spine and I collapse in an exhausted heap.  As one might imagine, end of semester is a constant tango between stress collapse and productivity.  In the meantime, I am trying to stay relaxed by adding more....enjoyable...distractions outside of academia.  So we have decided to buy a new home, rent our current home, and be committee chair on the annual school fundraiser.

Our current home cleans up nice. Thanks to the new category of 'shabby chic' all our crappy furniture is stylish.  With much gratitude, we already have renter lined up to move in just as we move out.

The new place will be fantastic.  We have been praying and looking for another house that would put us closer to the kids' school and give us a great yard in a good neighborhood.  God is gracious and does hear our prayers.  In our home search, I found this home listed on a Thursday night, I went with the kids on Saturday to see it, we put in the offer Saturday night, Sunday morning we had an accepted offer.

 We sign the first part of December and will move in the week of Christmas.  What a dream!  True to our form, Josh has not yet been inside this home much like our last two houses we have purchased without him having walked through.  I think it is a good luck charm.

To relax in the evening...

 making felt puppets for Viv's class, our contribution to fundraising along with my time spent planning the event.  Honestly, I am so grateful for a creative outlet right now that does not involve the creation or consumption of text.  We, yes Josh is helping me, the entire cast of animal characters for two Jan Brett books "The Mitten" and "The Hat."  more to come on that....

Travel here part 2

Later on in our travels we were pulled off the road by the very well posted diversion of Meramec Caverns.  I absolutely loved this place.  Or course, if I hadn't been an English/Theatre major in college I would have gone the geology route.  The Earth is fascinating.  Especially all the things it can do under the surface.  We took a guided tour through that took about an hour and the kiddos didn't even complain at all.  The tour was made all the more exciting for the old west robbers tales of Jesse James and his band.

The formation the kiddos are standing in front of is a grapevine table.  Such a formation is only found one other place in the world - Italy. And to think, if it weren't for all those fabulous billboards along the Interstate I would have completely missed such a wonder hidden deep in the Ozark mountains of Missouri.

After playing underground for a couple of hours I pushed on the driving through so we drove in very late to our home in IN that the Easter bunny might be able to deliver the goods.

The kids were just as excited that the Easter bunny found us as they were to run around all sorts of box obstacles in our new house that had such a funny layout.

Danny and the Penske truck (which did the real delivering)

I was so pleased that the girls were adament on having Easter bonnets and we sang the song several times together that day.  Wished I had had one also.

And this was my first impression of our home.  Boxes.  Our boxes in rooms.  Our boxes in very filthy rooms.  

I spent days scrubbing floors while doing minimal  unpacking (we still were in negotiations about the purchase of the home, which are also resolved now).  I was satisfied after using horrendous (and toxic) amounts of Ajax and Windex all-purpose cleaner on every surface our belongings touched that this house really was going to be fantastic.  And it is shining up quite nicely.  There will be more 'before and after' shots to come.