There are few things as pathetic as sleeping next to a barf bowl-  yet Elsie makes it look perfectly cute.  Somehow the very first week back from Utah she got the same stomach flu she had on Christmas.  The miserable cycle of fevers, taking medicine, throwing -up medicine, and piles of vomity laundry continues. 

This past weekend we went to the Smithsonian museum and she was as cute and curious as always.  We've been there so many times, I feel like even my 5 year old could give tours. Some things just don't get old.

 Before Elsie had recovered from her stomach flu Liam caught it. Here he is with his super sad, sick and fevery face. And here Elsie is mimicking Liam's sad face and walking around with plastic containers on her feet.

This picture reminds me just how sweet my children are. In these pictures Liam is sharing a bowl of fruit with his sister. He made it by himself, unsupervised, cut with lots of love and a dull butter knife, then brought to share. I had been sick that day and this gesture was his way of helping.  My children bring endless light to my life.

enjoying winter

This winter break Liam has spent hours outside collecting large snowballs, making sledding hills, shoveling snow, and giving warm water to dead looking plants. I tend to be a grump when it comes to winter- I don't like cold, I don't participate in winter sports, and I basically start counting down 'til spring on the first day of frost.  But it absolutely melts my heart to see the kids sled with their grandparents, eat and collect icicles, and turn into half -frozen, happy, snow kids. 
I   I stole the big, nice pictures from my mother-in-law, Leisa.

The extra birthday

Elsie got her extra birthday she asked Santa for. We played games where she got to jump off the couch, we sang, she blew out candles, ate pink sprinkled cake, opened a few remaining Christmas presents and got lots of birthday hugs. Everyone wore princess birthday hats (even Liam who realized he was getting tricked.)

Christmas

Christmas was perfect. I received a huge dose of gratitude- for family  that support and love us even though we live far away, for thoughtful gifts, for prayer, for my kids and husband that bring meaning into my life, and for blessings upon blessings, upon blessings.

This Christmas break has been a re-set of sorts.  It has been relaxing, satisfying, and a chance to recharge, and reconnect. The past months have been discouraging,  a little lonely, stressful, and a drag.  After 5 nauseous months of pregnancy the week of Christmas came around and the nausea magically disappeared.  I finally feel like myself! (plus a baby bump)  I feel recharged for the New Year, inspired, and ready for good things to come.

Watching kids opening presents was a thrill. 

 

The Girl Who Wanted a Birthday for Christmas

If you ask Else what she wants for Christmas she'll tell you Santa is bringing her 'a pink cake.' But for Christmas Elsie actually wants an extra birthday. She wants to wake up and have it magically be her birthday. (But she still wants to be remain 2.) A simple enough Christmas wish right?

 So naturally Santa ordered a toy cake on amazon.  But as the details emerged she figured out she doesn't just want a toy cake, she wants a real, fluffy, pink frosted chocolate cake, a party with pink balloons and games and prizes. . . It could be a really interesting Christmas.

 Elsie also caught the plague-like flu.  Burning fever, vomiting, can't sleep at night, chills, and everything miserable. Let's hope we don't have to postpone the party 'til May (when she has her actual birthday.) Pray for the Birthday Girl.

Liam has been sick. I mean really, 104 degree fever, can't swallow medicine because his throat is too swollen, sick.  There is nothing sadder than a sick kid. Especially a sick kindergartner that's usually the life of the party and got put into a trance by the flu.  We all (minus Liam) took a family field trip to the doctors office to get flu shots in hope that maybe all this fever-y, sad, sad, sickness will get beat out buy Liam and simply go away.

The week I wore pants to church

This week when I went to church I put on my Sunday best, took the sacrament, taught Sunday school out of the scriptures, felt the spririt, met with the bishop for tithing settlement- all while wearing pants.


Now there is no sign at the door of Mormon churches saying "Ladies: Absolutely no pants!" and there is no written 'skirts only' rule. It is absolutely inferred though.  In nearly 30 years of attending worship services weekly I have no memory of any one in my family, my husbands family, or even my friends EVER wearing pants to church. It's a way to distinguish outsiders and it's just one of those things- if you're a Mormon woman and you want to be taken seriously, you'll wear a dress. So I'll return to dress wearing next week.  

My reasons for wearing pants actually had almost nothing to do with pants. This past week a group of LDS women decided to wear pants to church and I joined in.  The word spread via blogs, word of mouth, and facebook. (I heard about the event from a friend.) The idea was to challenge social convention while encouraging more open discussion about gender roles, something I think we need.  Mormons have a reverence for womanhood but we limit women's roles in the church, socially and structurally, to exclusively mothers and stewards of other women and children. In my opinion this needs updating. I think there is more decision making, preaching, teaching, potential yet to be tapped (without making radical changes.) 
I didn't view my pantsing  as a 'social demonstration,' more an act of solidarity and an opportunity to engage in respectful conversation with the very the few people (actually just one person that read about it on the internet) that noticed. 

In my D.C. area ward you'd have to do a lot more than show up in nice trousers to make waves. We have men with long hair, working moms, immigrants that wear traditional African and Hindi costume, a man that hyphenated his name when he got married.  It's a place where the gospel looks different when worn by different people.  I was one of 4 people in my ward to reverently participate in 'pants day.' It was entirely unremarkable, but I don't think it was pointless.

I think LDS church members tend to think that the Mormon Church is totally insulated from the influence of any type of social movement because we have a top-down leadership.  But our ability to evolve is part of the beauty of the Mormon church. The history of the church has numerous examples of policy, and even doctrine, that morphed due to social movements. Polygamy was abolished when Utah was under fire and wanted statehood, blacks got the priesthood after the civil right movement, it was during the push for the Equal Rights Amendment that unmarried women (non-missionaries) were permitted to enter the temple for the first time.  Birth control used to be explicitly forbidden by LDS church leadership, now it's a personal choice. In the past 10 years our policies on gays and the nature of homosexuality has morphed. 

 I don't think any of these things have been coincidence, I just think socially we're often a little late to the game.  The day will come when womanhood in the LDS church looks a little different, where ladies are allowed to pray in general conference, conduct meetings, and be more integrated.
 In the meantime I can wait and once every 30 years, wear pants. 

(A silly song about Mormon 'pants day')