I printed my first year of blogging (2005) into a book because I figured that it would be a good thing to do to have a physical copy of all the years of writing here. I read the whole thing and had a good laugh about how dumb I was, but also how kind of funny I was. Life was quite different 20 years ago than it is now and it's crazy to think how it's evolved. I was a sophomore in college then, single, living up the apartment life and having all sorts of adventures. Now, I work full-time between two jobs, spend all my extra time driving children around to their activities, attending church meetings (Can we do away with most of these please?), and trying to socialize and hike here and there too. I have FIVE kids who are all but grown up. Little 20 year old me would probably have never believed how full life is. I often ask Devin what goals he wants to work on and his answer is "Nothing, we have everything I have ever wanted." It's true. Life is not without its challenges...we have plenty of those. But we have a lot to be grateful for too.
Here's a bit of the last few weeks:
Basketball:
Hallie is on her high school's basketball team and it's been a really great experience for her. She decided one day she did want to tryout after all (soccer is her main sport) and she made it. She's learned and progressed A LOT this year. It is fun to watch her and impressively, she fouls much less than she used to! Jace is also playing basketball on a comp team, but they have been on winter break, so no pictures there.
Our ward had the opportunity to take our youth to the Salt Palace to participate in the Million Meals service project. Over the course of 3 days, a million meals were packaged for local food banks. It was AWESOME and we loved it so much. We sang and danced to the fun music and worked harder than the groups around us to package as many meals as we could. We are not competitive or anything, but my group (Hallie and Jace included) packaged far more than anyone in our ward or any groups around us. We packaged almost 800 packets of macaroni and cheese in our hour and a half. We had a blast.
Hiking:
Hiking remains a real reprieve and mental health break for me. I continue to try to go once a week and in addition to being good for my physical and mental health, I usually hike with friends and that makes it extra awesome. This week's hike was with Mel, Jamie, and my work friends Mistie, Brandi, and Cami. Work has been especially awful this week and really over the last month, so it was good for us all to get outside and take a breather, even though it was freeeeeeeezing. They may never want to come with me again!
The past few weeks, I had a work party (with color wheel charcuterie boards-- cutest idea from one of my friends, right?!), book club, of course hiking, and a play to support some of our young women with my fellow counselors. I picked well when I chose these counselors and secretary. They're a real riot and I really, really enjoy their company. Good thing we get to spend a lot of time together! Our girls did amazing at their play Hadestown-- something none of us had seen before, but now we can all say we are big fans!
