Dress up Time

Last month the kids had a lot of "theme" or "spirit" days at school. They had fun.

Joseph's 50s Day (to celebrate the 50th day of school):

 Aubrey's Spirit Week:  50s day

 

 Crazy Hair Day

And Bailey, looking very spirited, on her way to a high school football game (she has come to really enjoy the football games.  It doesn't hurt that they are great social opportunities, and that our football team is really good and took 2nd at the State championship!)

 
And, finally, this isn't technically "dressing up," but it is very spirited.  When we had a day off in November we invited friends to come over for a Just Dance party.  Here are Aubrey and her friend Katelyn.

Leaf squishing

(I just noticed that I never finished this post from November. So, here it is, a little out of order.)

In our neck of the woods you can't really jump into a pile of crunchy leaves, because leaves here are more . . . squishy.  It seems like every fall we get a week or two of heavy rainfall, and then the leaves all come down. We have two big trees in the front which drop a lot of leaves to cover the neighborhood.  This year Joseph was my most helpful leaf raker.  He wanted to rake every day, no matter how cold or wet it was outside. One day he tried to jump into the piles.  It wasn't as fun as I remember leaf pile jumping being because the leaves were so wet that he didn't want to land fully in the pile.


Joseph also thought that using the leaf blower was super duper fun. Bailey was also very happy to help with yard work/leaf cleanup. Probably partly because she is a big fan of fall and winter. She cheers when it starts turning colder and wetter.  (I'm sure Aubrey would have also been a good leaf raker, but it seemed like she was never home when it was light enough to do yard work. She doesn't get home from school until almost 5 p.m., when it is completely dark.)

Menial chores like raking leaves are much more fun when I can do them with my kids.

Holiday happenings at the Porters

Cookie decorating.

.

 With oodles of sprinkles.

 We thought we would give some away, but instead we gobbled them right up.

Tree decorating.

This year we're doing a fake tree because of our holiday plans. Dan was less than happy to piece together our ailing "pre-lit" tree on which only about a quarter of the lights light up. We worked with it and it looks lovely. (But I'm guessing we'll spring for a new one the next time we need an artificial tree!)

 

Christmas book reading.  Our favorite tradition.  We have so many fantastic Christmas books. It's fun to revisit them every year.

 Christmas carols - played by our three resident piano players (Bailey, Aubrey, and Joseph).

And our brand new tradition:  Elf on a Shelf.  A little elf named Jackson (Joseph chose the name) came to live with us this holiday season. All day long he watches to see if we are being naughty or nice. During the night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa. When he returns to our house before morning, he picks a different spot in the house to sit during the day. 

Jackson the Elf came with a cute storybook which explained the whole elf watching/reporting to Santa situation, including the fact that the children can't touch the elf, or he might not be able to return to Santa to share all the good things they have been doing.

 After reading the storybook, Joseph named our elf and filled out the official naming form in the back of the book. Then he hunted through the house for the elf.

 And found him on a shelf in the family room.

 Now, this would all be just perfect if Joseph's mother could remember to help Jackson move to a different location in the house each morning.  The day after Jackson the Elf arrived at our house Joseph woke up and raced downstairs to see if he had moved.  He hadn't. Oops.  It took some serious creative storytelling to explain why this was the case (Well, he just arrived, and he enjoyed our house so much that he didn't want to leave, but I'm sure he'll leave tonight . . . .)  We've had a couple of near-misses since then, including a morning when Joseph swears he saw me moving Jackson to a new spot.  That would certainly be impossible, right?

Last night Jackson the Elf was wild and crazy, playing video games all night.

And that is what we have been doing during the exciting weeks leading up to Christmas.

Learning to Like Exercise

I never thought I would say these words . . . . . I kind of like exercising. 

Over the years I've dabbled in exercise - taking a class here and there and half-heartedly trying out yoga or pilates or step aerobics or whatever was the latest craze.  But I never stuck with anything other than walking fairly regularly.  After doctors told me as a teenager that continuing to run would continue cause pain in my messed-up knees, I discovered that I really like to walk - and I walk pretty fast. (Just ask Dan, who doesn't enjoy "going for a walk" with me because my idea of walking is speed walking down the street while he would rather stroll.)

For many years my mantra was "my life is my exercise."  Yes, pathetic, I know. I just figured that all the running up and down steps and holding babies on my hip and carrying loads of laundry all over the house took the place of regular exercise. And who had time to exercise anyway. Thanks to Springer genetics, exercise wasn't a necessity for weight control issues, and I didn't have any health concerns propelling me to work out.

So, here I am, a year past the big 4*0 birthday.  Somewhere around 39 my metabolism which had served me well started to s-l-o-w down. I started to notice that if I ate a pound or two of fudge then I gained at least a pound or two. Bummer.  So, I started whining to Dan about how I was going to have to exercise, but I didn't want to. He didn't have a lot of sympathy because he actually really likes to exercise.

Around this same time I realized two more things.  First, all my kids are now in school. So I am not trying to cram every errand and housekeeping chore into the few hours that my youngest was at preschool. Now I have some longer stretches of time during the day. There's still lots to do each day, but there is time to carve out for exercise.

Also, I discovered that what Dan has told me for years is actually true.  Exercise makes me feel better mentally. I feel more energetic. I handle anxiety better. The endorphins flooding my brain feel good. I get more done on days that I exercise.

So, this is what is working for me right now. My favorite exercise is my Zumba dance class at our local gym. I go to Zumba twice a week - it's the most fun way I have ever found to get in shape.  My inner dance diva really gets into doing the moves. I just have one rule.  I never, ever look at myself in the mirrors which are on every wall of the room. I truly don't want to know what I look like. I can guess that it isn't all that impressive, because whenever I show my girls the dances at home they double over in mortification and disgust.

The other three days of the work/school week I either attend other classes at the gym (step aerobics or cross training or yoga) or Dan and I work out at home. Last week we started doing the workouts on the P90X DVDs in the mornings - after getting Bailey off to early morning Seminary and before everybody else gets up.  Man, those are hard workouts!  I hate them.  And I love them. It feels good to push my body and see if I can do the crazy moves they are doing on the screen. And it's fun to do the workout DVDs with Dan. In case you are wondering, he totally smokes me on anything involving upper body strength (pushups are not my friend), but I'm much better at yoga.

So, there it is. In my middle age I have found that I like exercising.

Giving Thanks

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day. We wish we had been able to be with family, but the next best thing is spending the day with friends.  We ate dinner at the Erickson's home, and the food and company were wonderful. 

We ate all the standard fare, plus some special dishes Ericksons prepared (I'm still thinking about the Cranberry Orange relish and the stuffing) and some that we made. Bailey had picked out some new recipes for us to try (mostly from the fantastic Our Best Bites cookbook, and some from the cooking blog melskitchencafe.com), and they all turned out yummy.

This is the Pumpkin White Chocolate Cheesecake with Pecan Gingersnap Crust. I thought it was really good, and I'm not a fan of cheesecake. Probably because cheesecake isn't my favorite, I have never actually made a cheesecake from scratch using a springform pan.  This was a new adventure. And it was fun!

We used an oven-safe skillet filled with hot water to bake the cheesecake in a "water bath."  Bailey and Aubrey helped make the cheesecake and much of the Thanksgiving food.

As we cooked over two days we made such a mess in the kitchen. We cleaned it up constantly, just in time to make another mess. Well, I should say that Dan did the cleaning. My job was to be the creative mastermind and chef.  True creative cooking is a little messy, but it's a small price to pay.

Of the new recipes we tried, I also really liked the Rosemary Garlic potatoes (using fresh rosemary) and the Roasted Red Pepper (with pepper jack cheese) appetizer.  And everything else.  It was all just so good. We had turkey and ham. Joseph tried the ham and decided that he really liked it! He asked for ham three more times over the next few days.  That's exciting around here.

Bailey, Aubrey, Emma, and Bruce with our five desserts. Oh yes, we had many options for dessert.  The best option of all was to eat a slice of each.

 

 

After dinner we watched the new "Pirates" movie and played some games.  And then it was time for Just Dance. Oh yeah - we danced ourselves silly.

 

 

 And guess who was the winner every time he played?  That's right, Mr. Daniel Porter.  Here's proof . . . .

 

 We all knew he had it in him, didn't we?

Before dinner we all took turns sharing what we are grateful for.  Here is a sampling:

We are grateful for . . . .

The gospel of Jesus Christ
Our families
Good schools
Missionaries around the world (especially Brandon)
Good food to eat
Friends

It was wonderful to take time to reflect on blessings and rejoice in abundance!