Photos, Sewing, Busy, Gloomy

I finished the photos! That giant box shrank down to half the size once I got rid of the bad pictures and organized everything really well. Everything is dated except for about 20 pictures, and I shared the album with the family on Google Photos.

My next project has been working on sewing a few quilts out of scraps from Grandma Lee. I spent Friday cutting squares, then Saturday making a few small blankets. I'll be able to make 2 patchwork quilts, twin size, and 1 more small blanket for a total of 6 blankets/quilts. I had just enough squares to plan out the 2 patchwork quilts with only 2 left over.

Saturday, I attended a murder mystery party that was Italian-themed. It was delicious and fun. I still have a pile of books to read from Christmas, but I'm working on them.

It's been a pretty busy week with the orthodontist, a parent-teacher conference, activities for Katie and YM for the boys, and now the science fair. I took everyone with me and dropped the boys off at the Conference Center this morning, then took the littles to school. I'll go back this afternoon with Samantha to see the projects and the awards ceremony.

Once I'm done with the sewing, I'm going to organize my recipes and catch up on the blog. It's been a while. I also ordered a little laminator so I can have nicer recipe cards. The card protectors have proven to be flimsy over the years. On the subject of cooking, my KitchenAid mixer currently isn't working. I replaced the motor brushes, but that wasn't it. There's a short in it somewhere, so I'm going to take it apart on Saturday and see if I can fix it. I give myself a 50/50 chance.

I had a couple of gloomy days this week. It's been cloudy for a week now, and the past 3 playdates have been cancelled due to illness (though not ours, so I'm grateful for that). I also had a bad morning yesterday and send a kid to school crying (though that really wasn't my fault.) The sun came out and she returned home happy, so everything is good again. I also finished Stormlight 4. I can't wait for the 5th one to come out this year!

Samantha wants to go to school full day during the 3rd trimester, and that was always my plan, but it's sneaking up pretty fast. I've got my work cut out for me, though. There are more photos to come, miscellaneous ones from another box, and then digital ones from SD cards. I have no idea how much time those will take up, but I won't get them till March when James makes a short trip to Rexburg for a comedy show with his sister. I am really glad I took on the project. I had never before seen any pictures of James for a good chunk of his life. I feel like I know his family better, too.

Photos, Party, Winter

It was another busy week with lots of picture organizing and scanning. I'm currently done with everything from 1980 and on. There aren't a lot of pictures left, just some random ones from my in-laws' childhoods and then a small pile that I couldn't sort before, but now I can make educated guesses on where they belong. I also spent some time on my family's photos doing a little cleaning up on the dates and putting them together into one big album. Phew. It's been an awesome project, but I'll also be glad when I'm done and can share it with everyone.

Samantha went to Navy's birthday party on Saturday, and I stayed with her since she was a bit nervous. She had a great time, and I got to hold the babies. It was also great to visit with Makenzie since it had been a while, like 2 months, thanks to sickness and holidays. We haven't had a lot of play dates recently, which is a bummer, but I've also been able to work really hard on these photos.

The past week has been wintering hardcore. We've had a few inches of snow, lots of clouds, subzero temps, and even some wind. It's been so much better than last winter, but I'll still be ready when it's over.

James and I played a couple rounds of the new game he got for Christmas, Robinson Crusoe. It's pretty fun so far, even though setup is intense and it takes a while. I love cooperative games because they feel more like real life to me. Maybe that's silly, but I don't care.

Pictures

Not too much stands out from this week except for working on the Heads' pictures. I started on them last Friday, I think, and spent about 7 hours organizing them into years. We set up a table in the living room for me to work and have the scanner next to the computer. Usually it's in my room to keep it from the kids. For each year, I look at the backs of the photos and see if I can sort them into months. It helps that many of them are in envelopes. For the loose ones with no ID, I've used context clues or had James help me figure them out. I've had to make a few adjustments along the way, but so far I've scanned from 2004 back to 1995. I should be able to scan them all by the end of next week, I'm thinking. They are all going into an album on Google Photos, which I'll then share with the family. I love that Google Photos makes it so easy to change the dates and identify faces. I hope it never goes away!

We finally got some snow, just a couple inches. Too bad it's not good snowman snow. It's only our second real storm this season, but I'm not going to complain after last year. :)

Christmas Break, New Year

We had a smooth drive to Rexburg in the Yukon with a short stop to see Samantha Foote and give her some elk meat. That evening, Samantha (Head) had a little bit of a fever, but she was fine when she woke up on Christmas Eve.

We had the longest Christmas Eve ever. We went to church, which had a really nice program. At 2ish, a bunch of relatives came over (47 total!) to do the Nativity in the barn. It felt very authentic to sit on bales of straw and have a few loose goats running around. It was great to see the family as well, even though it was cold. We had a couple of hours with not as many people, then some came back for Christmas Eve dinner, clam chowder, plus snowballs for dessert. Once the kids finally went to bed, I set out all the presents, feeling grateful that I didn't have any more wrapping to do.

Christmas morning wasn't too bad. I think the kids really liked their presents. I'm glad I had them make Amazon wish lists. The younger 3 kids went ice skating in the afternoon while James and I (mostly I) cooked dinner: prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans. All turned out excellent.

I can't remember specific days on the rest of the week. We went to Green Canyon, celebrated Jacob's birthday with pizza and cheesecake, went to the temple and lunch with the family, and played lots of board games. I aimed for 1 a day. I'm not competitive like some of the others in the family. I much prefer fun, party games or cooperative games, so I have my limits. I did a lot of reading in Stormlight 3, and if I hadn't been so busy since we got back, I would've finished by now. A couple of kids threw up, Joseph got a swollen finger from a hangnail infection, and he broke a couple of brackets on his braces. All are better and fixed now, though, except for a lingering cough in the younger kids.

We had an uneventful drive home on Saturday, the 30th. Panda Express was a huge hit, only 4 bucks more than McDonald's, tastier, and everyone loved it. That put me in a good mood. I regretted not doing any laundry while we were gone, but I've caught up on that.

We had a relaxing NYE just reading and hanging out till 11:30, when I got really tired and went to bed. Only Joseph and Kenny stayed up. Everyone was a bit cranky on Monday, but we got Christmas taken down and put away. During school, I finished the rest of the decluttering and caught up on some family history stuff that I'd been putting off. I even made a photo book for our entire 2023, which took me 3 hours and I won't buy until Shutterfly does unlimited pages. I love the quality of their products, but the regular prices are outrageous.

I have a presidency meeting today. I think I'm all caught up on new things for the new year. The next Sunday will be a bit chaotic with getting everyone to their new classes, but it'll be good. I feel a lot better about it than I did a year ago, but it's not nothing. This calling has been incredibly stressful, even when it's not.

I have the scanner in the living room. Next project up: Head family photos! I honestly have no idea how long it's going to take me to sort and scan them, but I'm excited.