Another February in the Books

I'm always so relieved when February is over.  We did it!  We survived even though we had an extra day thrown at us!  Good job, team!  And even though it won't be green around here for another month or so, it's warmed up enough to trick the odd cherry blossom tree into blooming early.  There are a few daffodils with more getting ready, and the hyacinth I planted by the garage is opening up.  Today I could open my bedroom windows while I fold laundry (and there's no pollen yet).  It's enough for me.

Meanwhile, here are some other things we've been up to...

In Young Womens, we had a "progressive painting party," meaning we put up paper all over the walls and let the girls paint on them, and then every five minutes they'd rotate to the next paper and add to what was already there.  They had a lot of fun and made some pretty goofy artwork.

For Christmas Kendra gave me this picture of Taylor Swift's house in Rhode Island, Holiday House.  She wrote the song "The Last of the Great American Dynasty" about it and it's a great song with one of my favorite lines, "She had a marvelous time ruining everything."  Is it weird that I sort of want that on my tombstone?  Except not really.  I hope I'm not actually that person.  (I might be that person.)  It took me forever, but I finally found the perfect frame for it and hung it in our powder room on the main floor.  And I LOVE it there!  (These pictures are not doing the colors justice.  The wall is the same minty green color as our kitchen, but the lighting is making it look sickly.  Trust me, the real version looks way better!)

Normally I hate stuff that the school makes me go to, but a couple weeks ago they announced that the 3rd graders would be folk dancing for us.  A gym full of dancing 9-year-olds?  YES, PLEASE!  We even got to get up and learn some of their dances!  This is my kind of activity.  It was great.  Wonderful job, music teachers!

Lining up to do the Virginia reel

Do-si-do-ing with Mara like a couple champs!

They had a stake Relief Society activity a couple Saturdays ago.  It's exactly the sort of thing I would rather stay in bed and skip, but I had to be up taking Kendra to indoor drumline anyway, and I feel a deep need to be supportive of Christine (who I worked with a couple callings ago but who is STILL the stake RS president!!!).  So off I went!  I ended up carpooling with friends, so that made the ride to Waynesboro much more enjoyable.  Then they had yummy food and I opted to take the yoga class, which was fantastic.  My version of doing yoga is usually just a 20-minute video on YouTube, so doing a full hour session was really great.  Although I wished I hadn't put myself at the front of everyone-- I much prefer hiding my extremely tight and inflexible hamstrings!

This photo stretched things weird so our instructor looks like she's got 10-foot long arms!  😂
I'm front and center on my purple mat that I bought back in Manassas when Jen de Reus would do yoga classes at the church, before Vangie took over and turned it into a workout class!  Wow, that was a long time ago!  (It also explains why my mat is suddenly falling apart.  It's lasted a long time, actually!)

After yoga, I sat studying up on my Shakespeare until Craig could come and pick me up, and then we drove to Staunton to see the Blackfriars Playhouse's presentation of Julius Caesar, which was excellent.  I also have tickets for Kendra and I to see their production of Pride and Prejudice in May and now I'm even more excited for that!  But-- I don't understand how these actors can put on three different plays (they're also doing A Midsummer Night's Dream) all at the same time!  How do they keep all their lines straight???

When we left the theater it was snowing (!!!) and all I had was a sweater!  Fortunately we were just grabbing a quick (cheap) meal at the fanciest Cook-Out I've ever seen and then heading to Coldstone in Charlottesville, where it was just cold and rainy.  And then we returned home to our youngest kids who were being babysat by Tom and Donna.  Kendra was at her first drumline competition and Bentley had been working all day.  

And then this last Saturday we finally got to eat at the Melting Pot to celebrate Kendra and Camille's birthdays!  It was delicious, of course, and we had the best time!  Thank you for such a fun evening, Tom and Donna!

Craig and I were looking at our planners last night trying to make sure we knew everything that was going on and my goodness, but March is going to be busy!  A lot of fun, for sure, but insane.  So if you don't hear from me for a few weeks, consider yourself warned!

Delightful

The other day, I noticed this folded piece of paper propped up in the window of the living room:

Obviously, you can't put top secret notes out in plain sight like that and expect me NOT to read them.  Inside it said:

This has now become my favorite thing ever.  I especially love how it explains "how it works" with the misspelled, but still slightly snotty, "You ride bikes. (Simple)".

I'm dying.