Richins

We play with cousins in the wintertime.  We look at the cool creations people make with snow. We wrestle and tickle each other and try to give raspberries to their back or belly.  We climb as high as we can on the playground equipment and request a picture be taken and others to watch.  We help comfort each other and feel better after falling down. And try to smile for a distracting selfie, but are more successful at looking like we are feeling each other’s pain or joy.  We play games with our cousins and have fun at our grandparents.  We paint presents for our friends We buy Valentine’s for our “boyfriend”  at the dollar store, with the encouragement of our older siblings We draw pictures on Mom’s phone during the first in person church we have all made it too this year.  We give said boyfriend his Valentine and get a hug and a package of M&M’s from him. And we are very grateful he is such a good sport and good kid.  We take pictures of Canad...

This week in my religion class we were learning about the law of Moses. While I learned a bunch about it. I also learned a lot about God’s Grace. It is amazing. We read this article. It’s long but good. I felt like we were blessed with a lot of grace this week. It was such a relief. Hopefully I gave people some Grace too.   The good things of this week-  Helpful teachers that are concerned for my daughters success and willing to put in extra time. Good parents and in-laws.  The ability to learn new skills and work on making them better.  Exercise and a body that works in pretty much all the ways I have asked it too, despite showing that I am not as young as I once was.  A helpful husband.  Kids that are working hard and so good.  Marian being with Evelyn more so I could get some quilts done quickly.  Good reports from teachers about my oldest two girls.  Teachers working so hard and adapting to help their students through this interestin...

What is there to write about this week? I am not quite sure. I had a whole post written on my computer and I thought published. Then I went in on my phone to add more pictures and it made it all disappear. :(  I’ll see if I can remember what I wrote. First I’ll explain the pictures. This is the gate that Glen made. He was testing it. He is changing the hinges and then painting it. He’s great!  Theater 3 just finished their makeup unit. The last thing they do is gore/wound makeup. They always come down to the office to get help for their “injuries” from the secretaries or office staff with the least experience.  Above is Lilly and her friend Avery.   It was pretty convincing.  Goob turned 3 years old. He’s been a great addition to our clan.  Lucy’s volleyball team won gold in their first tournament of the year. Only one parent could go to the tournament to stream it and they chose Facebook to stream it on so we didn’t see it. Lucy said she had a great s...

 The title of this post is lyrics from a song from one of my favorite plays. Have you heard it?  We have been doing things a little differently since the start of the year. Our efforts are starting to compound for good but we just aren’t quite where we want to be yet. It feels like we are on the verge of sunrise- a bit dark, really chilly and on the verge of being beautiful.  There was so much normal and hard this week it almost over shadowed the good that was present. That is what we want to remember. We are exercising more individually and as a family. It’s good. We mostly do the beginner CrossFit workouts from their website but sometimes throw other stuff in because what they have is just dumb or won’t work for the whole family.  Arla, Evelyn’s nurse said her lungs sound better this week than last but her blood pressure is low (82/34).  Last week she had crackling in her lungs. Evelyn is getting more depressed about being here with us. We are trying to enjoy...