Relief

Is it a good sign or a bad sign that I cried when I saw my Mom and Dad coming down to the baggage claim at the airport? I think they arrived at just the right time! Kate and Jane are thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa close at hand, almost as thrilled as I am. Josh doesn’t get to vote because he is never around anyway, but I am sure he is thrilled as well.

Grandpa Larry was only with us one day and then he headed to Boston to participate in a medical course. Kate made a paper chain for him so he could count down the days until he can come back to Philly to play with us. I didn’t think Jane would even notice that he was leaving. Why do I keep underestimating these kiddos? As we were driving up to the airport to drop Grandpa Larry off Jane said, “I want to get on the airplane with Grandpa because I love him!” Then when I gently told her that just Grandpa was going but he would be back soon, she broke into tears.

Kate won’t let Grandma Shelly out of her sight. She wants Grandma to squeeze between the car seats when we drive anywhere so she will be as close as possible. She wants to hold Grandma’s hand and sit by Grandma at dinner. She wants to read to or play games with Grandma every second of everyday. Last night my mom kindly sent me and Josh out on a date. Kate was just fine with us walking out the door as long as Grandma was staying!

Kate has a new “amazing game” It is her version of Cinderella. Jane is Cinderella. Kate is the Wicked Step Sister. Whenever the Wicked Step Sister has some work to do, i.e. clearing dishes or picking up stickers, she tells Cinderella what to do and Cinderella meekly does the work. I’m not sure how she sold Jane on this version of the game, but she plays her part well.

Now in case you think Kate is putting all her work on her sister, I have to include one more tale. Our dishwasher broke this week, so I started spending a good chunk of every day washing dishes. Then Kate decided to help me. Much to my surprise, she truly became a HUGE help! She loved scrubbing the dishes and seeing them get soapy. She was so careful and thorough. It was amazing! She saved me so much time and made the chore fun. She would scrub and I would rinse and dry and we would chat and sing Christmas carols as we worked.

We are excited to have Grandma Shelly with us this week. We have sewing projects to do, food to cook, a few sites to see, and a lot of time to enjoy having Grandma around. Things are looking up in Philly!

Rite of Passage

Rite of passage: I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner!

Never mind that I called my sister, Cheryl, my brother, Alan, my Mom and even my Dad at least fifteen times in the process. The turkey was moist, the rolls were warm, the sweet potatoes were perfectly roasted, the green beans were scrumptious, the gravy was smooth, the mashed potatoes were fluffy, the cranberry sauce was tangy, and the pumpkin tunnel cake was beautiful. All in all, I’d say we did pretty well. We even finished everything with a few minutes to spare. Of course, there were the moments of stress like when we realized we cooked the turkey upside down and turned it over to see a very anemic looking bird just as our first guests arrived. Josh quickly carved the bird while I stalled the guests in the living room and no one was worse for the ware. I honestly tried to get out of doing Thanksgiving this year. I thought we could take a little road trip as a family and forget the twelve hours of cooking. I could tell, however, that Josh really wanted it to happen... so it did.

Josh starts finals this week. Unfortunately, that meant that he had to spend large chunks of the weekend studying, but we managed to pull him away to watch Kate at gymnastics, help decorate for Christmas, and go to the theater to see Tangled. The girls were so happy to have him home. I came down one day from taking a nap (Hallelujah!) to see Josh studying at the table flanked on either side by his girls. Kate was doing workbook and Jane was playing with toys. They just wanted to be as close as possible to Dad.

Oh, yes, and I suppose I ought to mention that I turned 32 this week. We had a nice quiet day. I just cleaned the house and played with my girls, but it was a great day. That is why I love birthdays, because no matter what you are doing, you have a great reason to be happy. I made a yummy dinner and Josh made it home in time to eat with us. Kate gave me markers. Jane gave me dental floss. My mom and dad gave me sewing supplies, and Josh gave me a biography of George Washington. It can’t get much better than that. Now here we go for year number thirty-three. ☺

One Day More

I hope you have all noticed how restrained I have been this year about reminding you that my birthday is approaching. The time for that is past, however. There is only ONE day left until my birthday! I hope you all enjoy the best day of the year.

I was trying to downplay my birthday this year because I didn’t think we would do much to celebrate. I thought about making myself a german chocolate cake and leaving it at that. Instead, I have been completely spoiled already. My friends threw a surprise party for me on Friday night. I got a package in the mail from my Mom. Narda gave me a bag of trail mix that I am already half way through. Kate brought me flowers and raspberries yesterday. The ladies I work with in Young Women brought me gifts today. Cheryl called to apologize that my gift wouldn’t arrive in time. I don’t know where everyone got the idea that my birthday is so important to me. It has been a great weekend and the actual day hasn’t even arrived yet! Thanks, everyone.

The weather here has really turned chilly. The feety pajamas are out, the winter clothes box made its way out of the dungeon, and almond milk is the preferred treat before bed. My girls, however, are still insisting on wearing short sleeves and skirts every day. (According to Jane you can not be a princess unless you are wearing short sleeves and a skirt.) I thought I would solve the weather appropriate clothing problem this week by storing away all the summer clothes and leaving only the warm clothes in the girls’ dresser. The next morning after I had dressed and fed the girls and was cleaning up the kitchen, Kate and Jane came running downstairs wearing...their swimming suits! They wore them every day this week for the majority of the day.

Kate had her first taste of flying this week. Our ward adventure group was meeting at the zoo one day so we headed out to meet them there. Our car was in the shop again and we had a friend over, so I put Jane and Cole in our chariot and Kate agreed to ride her skuut. It was a very blustery day. In fact when I checked the weather that morning it had a severe weather warning for gust of winds up to 40 mph, which of course I gave no heed. We turned a corner, the wind blasted us and I noticed that the chariot started picking up speed. Then I looked over at Kate. The wind caught her and the skuut took off! She was going faster and faster and faster. The cute thing did an amazing job of steering across the crosswalk but then she ran full speed into a flower box and went right over her handle bars! She came up with a mouth full of dirt, but at least it was a soft landing. I tried to sell it to her as her first successful flight, but inside I was shaking and crying. After that I had her draft behind the chariot and we made it to the zoo without further incident. Josh picked us up and drove us home.

Jane is threatening to give up her nap, which is a very sad development for me. I was ushering her to bed one afternoon this week and she said, “No. I don’t want to take a nap. My bed is taking a nap.”

Kate and Josh were looking at the picture of the General Authorities in the Ensign. She wanted to know who Elder Holland was because she read the cross-stitch sign we have up in our room. Josh was showing her the Quorum of the Twelve and explaining that they were the Apostles. Kate excitedly said, “Where’s Peter?”

Jane loves being “little,” probably because Kate is always telling her she is little. You know how kids like to be told they are big? Not Jane! She insists on being little. She will say, “Mom, you are big and Kate is big and Dad is big, but I am little.” Well, along with that she also loves little things and she is now into hiding little things. Every time I put on my shoes I find a bouncy ball or a ring or a plastic animal hiding there. There are beads in the dish cupboard, little books in the bed, doll house furniture in the dresser. Every time I find a little treasure tucked away I just have to smile and think of my Little Jane Jane.

I was taught something this week as I was reading scriptures to my girls. I was reading King Benjamin’s sermon where he is teaching the people about the Savior. In that mind boggling dynamic of eternity v mortality, the Savior knows what decisions we will make and what path we will follow in this life. That means that He knows who will accept and apply the Atonement in his/her life and who will not. And even still, he chose to take upon himself the sins of ALL men, even the sins of those HE KNEW would reject Him. He knew when He was suffering that some would not accept the gift of Atonement, and He knew who they were. He knew when He was suffering for their sins that they would not accept the opportunity He was giving them to overcome those sins. But He suffered for them, each one individually, anyway. He didn’t save himself the pain of suffering for the sins of those He knew would reject him. He suffered for ALL men and took upon himself ALL sin and gave EVERYONE the same chance to return to live with God. That is LOVE! He knew the gift would be rejected but He gave the gift anyway. Oh, the JUSTICE, the MERCY, the LOVE of our Savior!

I guess I had never thought about the Atonement in just that way before. I sat there and just let the Spirit soak in for a minute. Kate looked up at me and said, “Mom, why are you just sitting there? Keep reading.” To which I replied, “because this is incredible, Little one.” Maybe working with the Young Men and Young Women in our ward made this especially poignant. Every week I wonder whether it is worth the effort to serve these kids that seem like they couldn’t care less whether the gospel is part of their lives or not. I guess if the Savior thought it was worth suffering for their sins, a few hours of providing rides and preparing lessons for kids that don’t show up won’t hurt me. Whether or not they get anything out of it, the opportunity to be blessed by the gospel is always there for them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Safety and Peas

We kept ourselves very busy this week so that we wouldn’t have time to think about how long it had been since we saw Joshua. We went to the dinosaur museum with the Wharton Kids’ Club, we had lunch with the Asian crowd at Jinhee’s house, we went to Longwood Gardens with our friends the Mortensons, we did our preschool with Makenna and Asialene, we rode along the Schuylkill River path several times enjoying the beautiful weather, and, of course, we went to gymnastics. Finally, when no one else would to play with us, we went to Wharton and made Josh join us for lunch.

Now, lest you think Josh was completely neglecting us, I have to at least give him credit for working in a record number of trips to the car dealership admits his crazy Wharton schedule this week. Our car has been in and out of the shop so many times I have lost track. Every time, Josh patiently drives the car to the shop, walks from the shop to school, negotiates with the mechanics over the phone between classes and then walks back to the shop after class to pick up the car. We will ALL be glad when this process is over and we will be able to go to the grocery store and stop getting our daily ticket for not having current emissions tags.

Today was our primary program, the first primary program in which I have had a child participate. That must be a rite of passage of some sort. Kate did great. She spoke clearly and slowly so everyone could understand her speaking parts and she sang a solo! Several of the children were asked to sing a verse of Follow the Prophet. When I read Kate’s verse I just rolled my eyes:

Abraham the prophet prayed to have a son,

So the Lord sent Isaac as the chosen one,

Isaac begat Jacob, known as Israel

Israel’s sons were twelve tribes, so the Bible tells.

Begat? Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob? The twelve tribes of Israel? Honestly, my daughter is 4! Well, never underestimate your 4-year-old. We had a Family Home Evening lesson on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Israel, which seemed to give her some context for what she was singing, and then we practiced the song every morning at scriptures. Kate and Jane both have that verse down by heart now and Kate stood up there with confidence and sang.

Primary is amazing. What a blessing to learn pure and simple doctrine and, as an added bonus, learn valuable life skills at such a young age. Our primary is quite a sight, obviously not very big since Kate had two speaking parts and a solo in the program. There are children of every race and ethnicity, some new to the gospel, some surrounded by it. Several of the kids, especially Kate, were staring off blankly into space for good chunks of time, but the moment they started singing I Know That My Savior Loves Me the Spirit flooded the room. Thank you to all those serving our children in the Primary!

We had a great Philly moment this week. After we met Josh at Wharton for lunch we left him the car to be taken in yet again to the shop and the girls and I took the bike home. We hooked up the chariot, I rolled up my pants, and we were off. I have pulled the chariot on bike paths. I have pulled it up mountains and through fields of snow. I have pushed it along suburban streets. But I have never pulled it through city traffic. We were “safely” in the bike lane, of course, but when a bus came barreling past just a few inches away I know a few more of my hairs turned white. It was actually quite fun. This city is so alive and so beautiful with the river running through it. I knew we were having a great big city experience, but I was also very happy to pull up to our row home and unload my girls.

We made up for lost time with Josh this weekend and packed yesterday full of fun. Josh and the girls made german pancakes for breakfast. We went to a Penn v Harvard football game. It was a lot like going back to a High School football game, much more about socializing than watching football. (We went with several of the LDSSA families.)Penn won, of course! Down with Harvard scum. ☺ The stadium was incredible. Like all things in Philadelphia, it was the FIRST stadium. My favorite part, however, was the battle of wits during half time. The marching bands were playing and each school had prepared a witty slam of the other school--Ivy League humor. After the game we took our girls to our friends’ house and went out to dinner!

Between adventures this week the girls have had plenty of play time at home. I love to watch them play together whether it is riding their stick horses, practicing gymnastics, playing paper dolls, reading to each other, or coloring side by side. Kate invents what she refers to as her “amazing games” and they pretend to be Indians or cowgirls. Kate will disappear downstairs and set up different props, i.e. mixing bowls, dress ups, stickers, etc., in strategic places. Then she will come upstairs and say, “Hey, Jane, do you want to come play one of my amazing games?” and they will run off together hand in hand. If Jane is asleep then it is, “Hey, Mom, do you want to come play one of my amazing games?”

Jane was dressed in her full princess outfit one day this week: fluffy skirt, fairy wings, pink everything, glittery crown. She had crocs on her feet but came up to me with her sparkly shoes in her hand and said, “Mom, I am a princess. Can you put these on me? Crocs are too mountainy!”

With all the preparation for the primary program we have been doing a lot of singing around this house lately. The girls are always singing something. If it isn’t a primary song it is an Indian song from Pocahontas or the “boy songs” from Mulan. We were singing Keep the Commandments at scripture time one morning. Jane was doing her best to follow along and then all of the sudden her eyes lit up as we sang “safety and peace” and she exclaimed, “We have peas! Right up there!” [pointing to the freezer]. So, if anyone is looking for peas, we have got them on hand. Peace, that may be harder to come by, but we know where to start. ☺

Taking it Easy

Ahh, it’s November! My favorite month of the year.

We have had a pretty low key week around here, mostly recovering from the Halloween hangover. I think midterms scared Josh back into the reality of student life at Wharton. He is back to the intense schedule I grimly remember from last year and our fridge is full of left overs from dinners he didn’t make it home to eat.

The girls and I went to Bartrum’s Garden for a Little Explorers program on Wednesday. They walked around the garden gathering seeds and leaves. Kate followed right behind the teacher so she wouldn’t miss anything. Jane preferred the rocks to everything else, so her bag was at least 2/3 full of gravel. After the nature walk we gathered inside a barn and the kids painted their treasures with paint and then used them as stamps to make pictures. My girls loved it. They were still in the barn stamping away after all the other kids had lost interest and called it a day. I guess when it comes to messy projects they are all in!

Other than that we mostly stuck to our regular schedule: cleaning day, preschool, young women, gymnastics. Fun but not incredibly notable. We walked to the park one day and the girls had a grand time playing together. While they were playing Jane looked at Kate and while shaking her head said, “Kate, you are silly.. [pause]...but I love you anyway!”

We had family pictures taken yesterday, our first since our wedding! It was pretty nippy outside but the girls were troopers. Josh bought them hot chocolate as we were setting up so they would sip some hot chocolate, smile for a few minutes, and then be ready for another sip of hot chocolate. After 45 minutes they were frozen to the bone and we had to call it quits. Hopefully they turn out well. If you get a Christmas card from us, they were a success. If not, don’t ask. ☺

Sanity Returning

We still have a pumpkin to carve, so I’ll have to write quickly today.

Another busy week has passed. Josh survived all of his projects and papers and presentations and exams. I guess all of that boils down to the fact that we have survived half of the semester! That’s good news for all of us.

I checked something off my list of things to do in Philadelphia this week that I have been dreaming about for a year. Inside the conservatory at Longwood Gardens there is a secluded little spot where I have always wanted to sit and read. Every time I walk past that spot I envision myself sitting there for hours on end reading while surrounded by beautiful flowers, heavenly smells, and the sound of a running water. Funny enough that idyllic scene doesn’t have much resemblance with my life at present. This week, however, I had a stroke of genius! I realized that if we took Little House on the Prairie with us on our next Longwood adventure that I could read to the girls in my dream spot! Sometimes your dreams just need a little adjustment before they can come true. We had a lovely trip to Longwood Gardens this week enjoying the Autumn leaves, the crisp air, the harvest displays and reading time in the conservatory! We were enjoying ourselves so much they had to come ask us to leave because the garden was closing.

This was a busy week for the Wharton Kids Club. Thursday was the Fall Bake Sale and Friday was the Halloween Party. We participated in everything, but it was so nice not to be in charge. I was on the WKC Board last year and was in charge of the Halloween Party. We have passed the board responsibilities on to the First Years now, which meant that I could trick-or-treat with my kids, talk to whomever I wanted, leave before everything was cleaned up, and enjoy myself while I was there.

The girls were so excited to trick-or-treat at Daddy’s school--the much heard about, rarely seen mystery place where Dad spends his time. Kate has the trick-or-treating routine down to a science now. Most of the kids trick-or-treating at the school were young or shy and didn’t say much. Kate walked right in to the offices and in a nice clear (but polite) voice said, “Trick-or-Treat.” She even drew applause in the administrative office. Kate was a meerkat and Jane was a giraffe. If that sounds familiar it’s because that is what they were last year. When I asked Kate what she wanted to be this year she said a meerkat. I thought that was the best idea I’d heard all season. We recycled the costumes and the girls and the parents were as happy as could be.

Kate and Jane are very into legos right now. The Philly fairy delivered a set of duplo legos as a welcome back to Philly gift this Fall and they have been a big hit. Kate is really good at looking at pictures and making things. Jane is more into tall, skinny towers of single legos stacked on top of each other. After completing a group of several towers Jane turned to me excitedly and said, “Look, Mom, I builded Philadelphia!”

One morning as Kate and I were eating breakfast she told me she had dreamt about Sleeping Beauty. “Oh, that’s great,” I said and then she told me all about her beautiful princess dream. I then told Kate that I had dreamt about George Washington and Alexander Hamilton all night. She looked at me with her eyebrows knit in a sympathetic expression and said, “I’m sorry. That’s so boring.”

I did two things this week that I have never done before: (1) I transferred buses, and (2) I attended a rally in Washington, DC!

Number 1 (not terribly exciting, but a big deal for me): This week was the height of the Halloween traffic terror so the girls and I took the bus to Wharton for the Halloween party. We had to transfer lines, which I have never done before. I had to ask how to transfer. The bus driver looked at me like I was the dumbest white girl she had ever seen, but we made it! We kept our parking spot on Meredith. And now I won’t be afraid to transfer buses next time.

Number 2 (pretty exciting, indeed): Yesterday the Woodford clan piled into the car and headed to Washington, DC to attend The Rally to Restore Sanity! Next time we attend a rally, which will probably be never, we will know that we should leave REALLY early. Traffic was horrific and even the metro was backed up, but we eventually arrived on the Mall. We felt a little better about being late when Jon Stewart, describing how the normal, good, hard-working average people of this country work together to make life happen, said, “Most Americans don’t live their lives as solely Republicans or Democrats, but as people who are just a little bit late for something they have to do.” The National Mall was packed. There were people up in trees and on top of police cars and, my favorite, on top of port-a-potties trying to see and hear. We stuck to the edge of the crowd with our double stroller, but it was fun to be there and read signs. Here are some photos of the crowd, of us once the crowd had cleared a bit, and some of our favorite signs. I’m sure you can find anything you want to know about the rally on the internet.

Autumn in the Air

There is celebration and sadness in Philly this week. We are sad because our Phillies lost (Baseball, Mom. We were one game away from the World Series). We had joined all our neighbors at the end of our street watching the game projected up on the wall of the Perleman building, such a fun Philly experience, but when our last man struck out, the party was instantly over. The projector was unplugged, there were no pleasantries, everyone just picked up his or her own chair and headed straight home. Poor Philadelphia. On the other hand, we are celebrating the fact that Josh did not fail his finance midterm! When it came down to an all nighter the girls and I started praying really hard. Josh called after the exam me to tell me that it was actually a fun test, he did not have time to finish, but he did NOT fail. Funny that the girl who was never satisfied with less than 110% was thrilled at that report--all we have to do is graduate. ☺

Fall is in full swing in the East. The temperatures have dropped. We even pulled out our hats, scarves, and gloves. The leaves are beautiful and as you walk or drive down the street they swirl around you. For our Autumn activity this weekend we met some friends at the Chadd’s Ford Giant Pumpkin Carve, a community event where they carve giant pumpkins with chain saws. It was fun to be out in the crisp air with straw under your feet and the smell of carmel apples surrounding you. The pumpkins were fun. Jane thought they were spooky and walked around with her hand covering her mouth the whole evening.

Josh was invited to a reception for BCG this week. He had a one-on-one chat with the CEO and another with the head partner of the Dallas office about the project he worked on over the summer. He came home so excited about BCG! I thought he was going to pack his bags and head South that very minute. What a blessing it is to have a job lined up, especially a job he is so excited about.

The highlight of the week for Kate was that her Dad came to watch her gymnastics class. You know how excited Kate is about gymnastic anyway, but to have her Dad there to watch her was an unparalleled moment of bliss. She ran extra hard, jumped extra high, and smiled extra big. She was so excited to tell everyone that her “Dada” came to watch her today.

We also had a fun family outing to the car wash this week. One thing about Philly is you can’t just pull your car into the garage to vacuum it out. We hadn’t gotten around to removing the bug shield since we drove across the country so it was indeed a family effort. The girls played in the car, counting and protecting our treasure (coins for the the car wash) and “straightening things up,” while Josh and I took turns scrubbing bugs. The girls would knock on the window and ask us to wash their windows again and again. They were big fans of the pink soap. The cutest thing ever was when Josh would spray their windows. They would squeal and giggle and run to the opposite side of the car. I remember loving trips to the car wash. I guess that is just one of the delights of childhood.

On Monday of this week I took a bus down to Old City and went to a lecture by Ron Chernow about George Washington. I have been reading His Excellency, George Washington by Joseph Ellis, so when I saw this lecture was happening at the National Constitution Center I decided I had to go. I roped a few of my friends into joining me and we had a delightful night on the town. It was so fun to be intellectually stimulated again. I have been trying to brush up on American History while we are living in its midst and this was a great capstone experience. I was in my element. There was a funny moment, however, when I looked around and noticed the average age of those in attendance was not 31. Why is it that my favorite events are not necessarily targeted toward my age group? Oh well, I guess I’m a geek. It was fun to be out with some of my dear friends. We even splurged and went out for appetizers afterward at a fun restaurant in Center City and then took a cab home--we are truly city girls now! ☺

I am really enjoying listening to the conference talks again. (It was the NPR membership drive this week so it was a very convenient time to have something else to listen to.) I find it amazing how the talks address things specific to your life, and I know everyone feels that way. I felt like President Uchtdorf, Elder Oaks, and President Eyring were chatting with me about thoughts I had been having and things I had been struggling with but hadn’t expressed to anyone but God. Funny how that works. Although not every moment or every aspect of being a member of this church is a party, it is nice to be reminded by the Spirit of why we do what we do and believe what we believe. I have redoubled my efforts to stick to the “little things,” trust in God, and keep walking along the path that will bring me and my family closer to Him. The Church is True!