Happy Easter!

March has been a wonderful spiritual month for our family, and our gospel study efforts have been aided by amazing on-line church resources.  At the end of February, Ezra and I made a goal to read from the Book of Mormon every day in March--and we have!  We were inspired in our effort by a story from the March Friend called Scripture Power.

We have been following the monthly Book of Mormon reading schedules and supplementing with our own additional reading.  What a blessing to study King Benjamin's and Abinadi's prophesies of Jesus Christ in anticipation of Easter!

Ezra and Maren loved the Hallelujah Easter video, and were so excited that the words from Isaiah were included in Abinadi's message (see Mosiah 14).  We watched it together at least 20 times.  After listening to Handel's Messiah, and especially the Hallelujah chorus throughout the month, Maren began to sing bits and pieces during routine daily activities.   Maren watched a full hour, fully-engaged of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra live stream of Handel's Messiah on Friday night.  I imagine she would have stayed for the entire thing, but it ran into her bedtime. 

We also tried many of the Easter activities and lessons recommended in this article 7 Family-Friendly Ideas for a Christ-Centered Easter.  On Good Friday we had a candlelight dinner and read select passages from 3 Nephi 8-10, describing the darkness and destruction, and the hope that came as Christ spoke to the people from heaven.  We ate in complete darkness, and then, as we read 3 Nephi 9:18 ("I am the light and the life of the world"), we lit a candle.  Ezra and Maren loved our special dinner.  

Dallin played in an amazing local production of Rob Gardner's Lamb of God, and I got to attend too.  The music is so deeply moving, and many of the songs have been re-playing through my head for weeks.  Go here (Lamb of God) for a lovely sense of the music, and several short song excerpts.

Our Sunday morning sacrament meeting was filled with music that testified of Christ.  Dallin played two beautiful pieces on violin and sang in the ward choir.  The Easter program definitely touched my heart. 

My little sunbeams were amazing too!  We had our best lesson yet.  All seven of my sunbeams were hanging on every words as we talked about how sweet Jesus had to die, but then rose again.  We made tombs out of salt dough, and re-enacted Jesus' burial, the closing of the tomb (with a small rock), and his glorious resurrection.  Happy Easter!

My cute sunbeam class

      

Spring?

Spring is wonky here. 

Here is a short history of our March weather:

• The first weekend in March we had intense 46 mph winds that blew over our southern neighbor's fence and significantly tilted ours.  
• By the second weekend in March, temperatures were in the 70s.  We noted wasps, flies, and lady bugs flying, and spent many glorious hours in our shorts at the park.  Many of the perennials in my garden were waking up from their winter sleep, and the earliest of the crab-apple trees had leafed out.  Saturday March 12 we hauled in 2 yards of compost to amend our garden beds.  The garden was dry as dust, but the weather was glorious.  
• March 14 we had 49 mph winds again, which dropped the temperatures by 18 degrees in a 24-hour period.  And by the weekend we had nearly seven inches of snow.  I was ecstatic; the garden got a free watering!
• March 19 the daily high was 37 degrees.  March 20 the daily high was 57 degrees.  March 21 the daily high was 72 degrees.  March 22 the daily high was 71 degrees.  Today, March 23, the daily high was 35 degrees, and we got 20" of snow with blizzard-like winds.  Yesterday we were in bare feet in the back yard.  Today (tall man) Dallin was up to his knees in snow.  Wonky, yes?   But actually not too unexpected.

Here's a visual of our "spring" weather.

Here is our lovely little 7" snowfall

Snowy, but sunny & pleasant--out for a neighborhood walk

Here is our surprise 20" blizzard

Ezra, half buried in 20" of snow, and loving it!

 Dallin, our snow shovel hero, rescued at least three stuck cars, shook the snow out of the neighbors heavily-laden trees, and shoveled our driveway, making a very impressive embankment.  Thank you Dallin, we love you!

What's New

We usually don't have much to report over here.  The "And what's new at your house?" question is often a little difficult to answer.  There is certainly newness--every day is a new adventure--but not always of the sharing kind.  In the last month, though, we have a few noteworthy happenings to document:

• Maren is potty-trained!  And, I should quickly add, I had almost nothing to do with her near instantaneous success!  She was done with diapers, ready to be a big girl in another official way, and essentially handled it all herself.  I shouldn't be too surprised about that either--that is the way my little miss does most things.  I offered the panties, a lot of moral support by way of sticker chart, chocolate chips, and much cheering, and that was all she needed.  She had about four accidents total, and by the end of day five was telling me every time she needed to go to the bathroom.  We are now about one month into it, and she is very confident, and still very motivated all on her own.
• My mom came for 10 days for "no-particular-reason-but-she-does-wonders-anyway" trip.  She did several wonderful little make-my-house-pretty projects that I had nothing to do with, except to be amazed by her many talents.  We found fabric, and she made these pillows and cushion for my living room.  Then we bought flowers, and she made a lovely arrangement over the piano.  And, we talked, and talked, and talked, and talked, which is even more lovely than house projects. 
  
    
• I checked off another bucket list item last month, "Play my clarinet in public."  There are four ladies in our current ward who play the clarinet (including me), so I thought it might be fun to do something with one or some or all of them in our annual late February talent show.  I got brave and initiated the idea, found the music, and then made an official commitment to play.  My embouchure is sad after all the years of non-playing, but after practicing as a group every Wednesday night for six weeks, I had enough endurance to play our two pieces.  I was definitely the weak link in our group; the other two ladies in our trio have played more consistently than me in stake music events.  But, I did alright.  We made it through, and I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of group playing.  Huzzah for making a goal, and accomplishing it.
• Currently, we have a resident artist in our ward. She supports her family with the art she makes, and has her work in galleries all over the west, and is starting to be accepted at galleries on the East Coast as well.  She is a fabulous, dynamic, exuberant, deeply compassionate person, and I feel so grateful to be her friend. On Thursday nights when she isn't traveling, she hosts a pastel class with several other art-loving ladies in our area.  We get together and talk, laugh, and make art.  It has been the highlight of my winter, and has given me that much needed creative outlet without children.  We have been following Jackie Simmonds Pastel Workbook: A Complete Course in 10 Lessons.  I must note, that we simply use her step-by-step instructions to recreate what she has already created, so is not original art, but still very instructive and enjoyable.  Here is one of my drawings: 

•  And finally, Ezra swallowed a quarter on Friday.  Why?  I haven't the foggiest.  We never have money out and available, but when Ezra and Maren starting fighting over who got to go in the favorite swing first, I resolved it by flipping a quarter.  Ezra picked the eagle side, Maren was heads.  Later that day, Ezra and Maren helped me wash dishes, got soaked, and had to go change.  In less than two minutes after they went upstairs, Ezra came downstairs sobbing hysterically because he had swallowed the "eagle money" accidentally.  We called the pediatrician, and when Ezra was complaining of his "swallow ball" hurting when he was asked to eat some bread, the nurse advised us to go to urgent care and double check its location.  Wonder of wonders, our children's hospital has a north campus that is an easy 10 minutes north of us.  We were bumped up to the top of the list and were seen very quickly.  Ezra was so, so scared, wouldn't look anyone in the eye, and teared up if anyone asked him questions.  Maren chimed right in several times, and told the whole story!  Eventually, we went to radiology and had two x-rays taken.  The nurses and radiologists were as good as gold, and by the time we got to the x-ray room, Ezra was giggling.  This head profile picture came up first, showing that the quarter was not lodged in his throat, which could have meant immediate emergency surgery (whew!)  When the second picture came up, I had to chuckle--yep, quarter in tummy--we are here for a reason!  The whole afternoon was unexpected, but so, so positive.  I have never seen such a lovely, energetic, sweet group of doctors and nurses.  Ezra is not brave in unfamiliar situations, but they set him at ease, and helped him feel relaxed.  A quarter in a stomach is not ideal, but not problematic; in most cases it passes on its own without any complications.  As we exited, Ezra and Maren were both gifted blue Gatorade, goldfish crackers, and stickers.  They were tickled, and the quarter was all but forgotten.