Mid-Feb happenings.

My sister and I were just talking about how we hate to put pictures of ourselves on our blog, but here I am posting one anyway. I was outside while it was snowing which is kinda nice (and I like how my tongue is covering up my crooked teeth). This picture was taken the same day Isaac earned the February Student of the month:

(Can you see him at the front, getting his dog tags?)

He's super proud of himself, the little kindergarten cutie:

Steve, smiling while he's doing his taxes. (Not gonna happen next year.)

My Valentine present to Steve--homemade fortune cookies ( I stole the idea from Best Bites), but instead of romantic sayings on the slips of paper inside, I printed off Mad Gab sentences, which was a brilliant idea (also Best Bites') because the cookies got rock hard fast--not so yummy after that--but they were fun to open.

Here's one of Steve's presents to me. A book. I was sick in bed most of the week, so he gave it to me early, knowing I was booooooored out of my mind. It was sort of like a DaVinci Code for Jane Austen lovers. I recommend it to anyone who is capable of lowering their literary standards for some quick entertainment. Also it is squeaky clean.

While I was in bed, moaning and groaning (and sometimes reading), the kids did lots of this:

Fiiiiighting. Plus they made lots of smashed goldfish crum messes.

Okay, for those of you who like sensational news, Steve also discovered this odd strawberry molar in his mouth:

Alright, not in his mouth, but we did think it resembled a molar. So we took pictures. It looked more molar-like in real life.

Also, I think I'm going to try once again to grow out Noelle's bangs. I know they've been bugging all of you out there just as much as they've been bugging me, which is why I decided to let you in on the exciting news!

And finally, while I was hanging out in bed, hacking up a lung, I happened to read an Ensign article that talks about how we ought to "love to learn". Okay, this is such a touchy subject for me because I think it was about three years ago, I came to my senses and realized I hadn't ONCE exercised my brain in about a decade. And guess what happens when you go a decade without thinking at all? You get stupid. That's right. I said it. Stupid. This has bothered me for the last three years, and periodically I have set goals to reverse the intellectual damage, but guess what? I'm too darn tired to care anymore. That's what having four kids does to you.

But sometimes I feel as though having four kids is not an excuse. Afterall, I am (to my knowledge) the only adult female in my ward who doesn't have a degree. And many have advanced degrees. And all of them have kids. (So, see? No excuse.) The sad part is there are about...oh, um, I don't know...ten women in the ward who are just so intelligent that I can't even talk to them because I can't follow a word out of their mouths. Let me illustrate:

Smart woman (speaks to me and my brain hears this): "Something, something, current events, and how it's related to something to do with calculus, which is really hilarious because of this funny pun that is some sort of inside joke to all those who attended Harvard or something along those lines, and now I'm talking even faster, with more references to famous Eastern European philosophers..."

And then it's my turn to speak and I can't think straight so I spit out something incoherant. And I sound really stupid. And then I avoid that person for the rest of my life.

Okay, so then fast forward back to this week when I was reading that crazy, lunatic article about "loving to learn" and blah, blah, blah and I realized, DANG IT, that as tired as I may be, I really need to learn something. Because...as tired as I am in general, I am even more tired of being stupid.

So this is my goal. To become an expert at something. Just one thing. (Gotta be realistic.) This book:

Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors. I've been meaning to read this book for about a year now because, of all things, I have been trying to find a particular colonial New England ancestor for about three years with no luck. But every time I pick it up, I get about three pages into it and fall asleep. I finally got to page 20 after a few months and couldn't remember a darned thing on page one.

My goal is to really learn it. To become an expert on this book. Sure, it's not a degree. It's not even more than 200 pages, but I am going to become an expert on it (which means I am going to internalize it and figure out how to use it) and then after I do that I can move on to the next book.

You are wondering how I will ever become an expert when I can't stay awake long enough to read more than three pages? Well, I'll tell you. I must take copious notes and make charts while I read. Somehow the information gets stuck in my brain if I do it that way. So for that last two days I have spent an hour (each day) doing just that. I am now on page 7. But I have become an expert (relatively speaking, I mean, I wouldn't bet a million dollars on this or anything) on those first seven pages. At this rate, I will finish this book by the time Laura graduates from High School, but it is definitely better than nothing. Small baby steps, sure, but I calculate that by the time I reach my mid-eighties I will be an expert in colonial genealogical research, which excites me more than I can say.

Good for me!

(Also, winter is almost over. I can feel it in my bones. Yippee!)