28 February 2026

 

23 February 2026

More snow today. School was canceled for today, and the base was closed so I was off work as well.  It was heavy, wet snow, that clung to the trees and houses and outlined everything in white.  So beautiful.

We went to the store in the afternoon, and the kids climbed on the piles of snow in the parking lot, still hanging around from the big snow we got a month ago.  After that big snow, it was below freezing for two weeks afterwards, and nothing melted.  I never thought I would be so happy to see forty degrees as I was when the cold finally broke.  Maybe it will finally all melt.

 

21 February 2026

 Grandma came down to visit us today!  She got to hang out with Nut Brown and D and Rosebud for awhile, and then she took us to dinner at a hot pot restaurant, which was really fun!  I didn't get any pictures of the dinner, but here is a photo of Rosebud with the balloon animal that one of the waiters made for her.  (He really liked her.)  

The men had already left because they were getting ready to go to a dance - D's first youth dance!  Nut Brown and Mr. Brown had worked hard to prepare D for the dance.  We practiced asking girls to dance (Nut Brown coached us) and then Nut Brown took him through the entire dance - how to talk to the girl, how to answer questions, what to do if she asks too many questions, how to end the dance.  Nut Brown is such a wonderful older brother.

D did not like the dance, but he stayed the entire time, and that was more than I had hoped for.  Maybe they will grow on him.

20 February 2026

 D has started wearing a hat to school every day.  Not a ball cap, but one of our fancy hats - we have a fedora, a top hat, and a black hat with a wide brim.  He picks one of them every day and he looks so good in them!  I love that one of his spontaneous ideas is working out well for him.  I drive him to school every day, and I really enjoy being with him in the car for ten minutes every morning.

17 February 2026

 President's Day, I'm off work and the kids are off school, and Rosebud asked if I would take her to Target to spend a gift card she got for her birthday.  We walked the store and assessed items and costs and she chose carefully to stay within the budget of the gift card and get the items that she wanted the most.  It was a good learning experience for her, and it was really fun to spend time together.

I also brought a gift card from Starbucks that I was given for Christmas, and we had a treat together afterwards! Which we ate in the car because I had to dash (after 90 minutes at the store) to help a friend clean her basement.

16 February 2026

Last year, the Susquehanna Ward had an adults-only Valentine's dance, and invited our ward.  Mr. Brown and I decided that we should host one this year and invite them, to see if we could make it into a tradition.  Then January came around, and we decided that we didn't have time.  But we went ahead anyways.  After finishing up Rosebud's party, this was the next big project.

He invited a couple of people from our ward to help throw it.  We held a planning meeting and then just went with it!  Mr. Brown said it would be so cool to have silhouettes on the wall with speech bubbles saying corny pickup lines, so we met up with good friends and spent a couple hours making them.

 I made little table decorations (I bought these silhouettes on Etsy) with silhouettes and pickup lines too. We asked friends to hang lights in the gym, and the rest of our team took care of the food and table decorations.  Spencer and I obsessed over the playlist, but we did finally get it together and found someone to DJ for us.  

It turned out so beautifully!  Unfortunately, I ran out of steam and the speech bubbles didn't make it up on to the walls.  But the silhouettes looked great!

We had a lot of fun.  In between dancing sets, we also taught and enjoyed some social dancing - the Virginia reel, and one other.  Which was also really fun.  What an evening!

I took the day off on Friday to prepare (dance was on Saturday) and Mr. Brown and I went shopping together!  I found this sweet purple suit to wear to the dance.  I felt very dapper and dressed up.  Plus it matched Mr. Brown's bowtie, so we were an excellent couple. <3

14 February 2026

Morning valentines! a box of Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bars tied to the end of a string that goes all over the house.  Nut Brown had to leave early for work, so I made his string really short - it went straight from his bed to his bin.  When he got up, he was not happy- he said to Mr. Brown, I can either find my treat or I can eat before I leave for work.  Mr. Brown said, you might try it- I think it might not be as complex as usual for you.  He found it in about ten seconds, and Mr. Brown said that he felt loved and understood, so that's a bonus for Valentine's Day.

Dinner was at Burger King because of set up for the dance that took all afternoon.  (Yes, we're throwing a dance!  More to follow about it!) I sure love these kids.
 

3 February 2026

Hedgehog Day!  Turns out that we didn't have any chocolate sprinkles in the basement, so we had rainbow hedgehog donut holes this year!  We also experimented with things that weren't chocolate icing to hold the sprinkles on, and decided that jam worked and chocolate syrup doesn't.

I love having little traditions outside of the usual holidays!

(please note in the background the wheat grinder that D set up and decided to have a couple of weeks of grinding wheat because why not.  We used his output in baking.)

 

2 February 2026

 Kids back at school today after a week off because of the snow storm last Sunday.  We got eight inches of precipitation, and the last of it turned the top two inches of snow into ice.  It hasn't gotten close to freezing for the last week either, so basically all of it is still here. So the kids were at home all week.  Neither one of them asked for an opportunity for playdates, and I think they both found it very restful not to have to go to school.  Rosebud spent a lot of time playing the piano and learned to play a couple hymns (As Sisters In Zion and Nearer My God To Thee).  She also got her ukelele out and messed around on it.  Without the pressure of school, it was easy to see how interested she is in music.

1 February 2026