The Kids Right Now

Nicky

Nicky pays the price for photobombing Zoe's 

picture at Midway Mania

• Just turned 13
• Is the most polite basketball player of all time (including giving the ball back to the other team after stealing and saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. Here you go!)
• Is the same height as me (5'7") and checks everyday to see if he's passed me up (be patient, boy. It will happen)
• Has an obsession with what he calls "groovy music" and is always playing
• "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind, and Fire
• "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5
• "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar
• Loves playing "Just Dance" and will play for hours if allowed (and I allow since it's physical activity)
• Doesn't seem to share a lot of interests with his peers, which is fine, but I worry about him not having friends or feeling like he's part of a community
• Continues to think he is our financial adviser and is constantly making commentary about how much things cost and whether we should be spending money (it drives us crazy)
• Is learning some of our more intricate board games and catching on pretty well. He even gives us a legit competition 
• Seems to be enjoying studying the Book of Mormon as a family this year. He and I have had some great discussions
• Has done very well to independently handle his school responsibilities 
• Draws very clever comics (I got him a blank comic book for Christmas, and it's so fun to see what he comes up with)

Daisy

Daisy has reached the "can't take a serious photo" 

phase of growing up

• Is 10 years old
• Sings all the time (sometimes this is how I find her in public bathrooms)
• Got to go skiing for school (a perk of being a 4th grader)
• Worries a lot and asks tons of questions
• Wants to take over my church calling (I always have to remind her that I am the music leader and she is not)
• Is a really good student. Her teachers have always said she stays on task and is kind to everyone (complete opposite of how she is at home)
• Thrives when she's in charge
• Is always gushing about how "cute" things are, especially animals

Zoe

Zoe living her best life 

• Is 7 years old
• Gets to go to primary activities now and absolutely loves it
• Is back in speech therapy and enjoys the one-on-one attention
• Is obsessed with penguins
• Won't say prayers or read scriptures with us but writes "I love Jesus" everywhere
• Has been behind in her reading skills but made some great progress this past week as something finally clicked!
• Set a goal (for primary) to read 100 books and is on 22
• Loves strawberries and Nutella
• Really enjoys first grade and gets very excited about things she gets to do at school
• Needs a lot of orthodontia (which I keep putting off because she is still traumatized from her tonsils. Ain't no one going near that mouth without a fight) (we are going with the most conservative care plan possible for her circumstances, but it will still be intense)
• Lets me do her hair sometimes but usually undoes it as soon as she gets to school
• Asks all the time if she can take ice skating lessons

A portion of Zoe's penguin collection

Eva

Oh yes, she's sassy!

• Is 4 years old
• Asks everyday if it's her birthday (it's going to be a long three months)
• Asks all day long if she can watch YouTube (the bane of modern-day parenting)
• Gets away with so much because she is the youngest (I truly believed I would never treat my kids differently based on their birth order. Ha!)
• Never eats her dinner (or any other food we prepare for her)
• Drinks way too much milk
• Is very cranky after school
• Has really long hair

Let's Talk About Depression While I'm Not Feeling Depressed

Hi, my name is Brittany, and I have depression.

(I didn't really want to start this post with that line, but I couldn't think of anything better).

I've mentioned depression here on my blog, but I've never written a detailed post about my experiences with depression. There's no reason to think my story is special, but I'm going to write it anyway. I know I’m in good company.

Right now, I'm feeling really good. I feel like myself. That could change tomorrow. But I am currently taking anti-depressants, and for the most part, my depression is well-controlled with a down day every now and then.

I recently had a change of mindset regarding anti-depressants. I understand the rhetoric of depression being an illness and therefore, needing treatment ("You wouldn't let diabetes go untreated" and that whole bit), but one thing I've always expected is that I'll eventually be free from needing treatment. I've always looked at treatment as a temporary necessity. I've been trying to get away from it because deep down, I still have that subconscious belief that there is shame in having depression - that it's my fault, and that if I have symptoms, there is clearly something I'm doing wrong. I know that's not true, but it's still in the back recesses of my mind somewhere. I've only recently acknowledged that maybe, as with diabetes, I will need treatment for the rest of my life, and that might be okay. 

Me coming to terms with the truth

My first brush with depression was after Nicky was born. And I mean immediately after. Holding my baby in the hospital, something felt off. Until now, I have only confided this in close friends, so here I am writing it for the first time: I wanted to get rid of my baby.

A few days after Nicky was born, a mother in our area took a newborn baby to a church and left him there. This brought up a lot of discussion in the media about the Safe Haven law. It was all over the news for days as I tried to keep myself together. I was jealous of that mother. The one who could leave her baby and walk away. I knew I couldn't do the same because my family would hate me. But that's what I wanted to do.  

I knew a little about post-partum depression, but I had a hard time accepting that that was what was I was experiencing. It wasn't talked about as openly as it is now. My thoughts were so dark and wrong, and I fully attributed them to myself. It was my fault. Two weeks post-partum, I confided in my doctor. I didn't tell him the specifics of what I felt. I only told him I didn't feel "right." He prescribed anti-depressants for six months. They seemed to do their job, so I didn't go back in to renew my prescription.

I was so ashamed and embarrassed about having PPD. I didn't want to seem weak or broken, and above all that, we'd had a few years of infertility (including tests and treatments), so it felt so wrong to be depressed after we finally got our baby. 

Fortunately, I didn't have PPD with any of my other babies. I just had normal baby blues that cleared up in timely manner. I was always paranoid with every birth, though, and I was always ready to call my doctor after the two week mark if I didn't feel immensely better. 

After my initial experience with PPD, I found myself needing anti-depressants occasionally in the summer and whenever I had a three-year-old. Essentially, I've been in a pattern of going off and on medication for thirteen years. I never took medication during my pregnancies, but I can't say with full confidence that I didn't need it. 

So let me continue this tale from where I am now - at age 36 as a stay-at-home mother of four whose depression is controlled with a daily pill.

Last August I weaned off my anti-depressants again. Like I said, I've always worked under the assumption that I need to figure out how to free myself from medication, so this was yet another test to see how I would do without it. For the first several weeks, I was alright. I thought I'd really arrived. But then the symptoms started creeping in. 

When depression sees me thriving

For me, depression usually manifests itself in the form of:

• Feeling angry and irritated
• Feeling incapable and overwhelmed
• Simple tasks like having to buy a gallon of milk feel impossible
• Fatigue
• Not wanting to be around anyone
• Not being able to feel the Spirit
• Not being able to pray
• Different than choosing not to pray. I cannot pray.
• Feeling worthless
• Not being able to see anything good in myself
• Feelings of doom, hopelessness, or fear

I've been very fortunate to not have suicidal thoughts during any of my bouts of depression, but this time, I was walking very near the edge. I was having some of the strongest feelings of worthlessness I had ever experienced, and I felt like they were gateway feelings to suicidal ideation. If they'd been allowed to continue, I may have ended up in a darker place than I've ever been. 

In hindsight, it's very clear that I was having depressive symptoms, and that I needed to get help,* but while I was in the thick of it, it was hard to see. It's always that way for me, and I think it goes back to the belief that I am supposed to free myself from treatment.

I so wanted to be medication-free. I tried to pray about what to do, but it was more like thinking about praying about what to do because, as you can see from the list above, prayer doesn't go well when I'm depressed. I was shocked when I received an unexpected, very clear and specific answer to go back on my anti-depressants! With that answer also came the additional guidance to stay on my medication. This answer came while listening to a talk about the Book of Mormon, of all things. 

Portrayal of my shock

That was right before Thanksgiving, and that brings me to where I am now, and my new mindset of "staying" on medication rather than always trying to free myself from it. 

Now before this starts to sound like I live a life of sadness and gloom (too late, maybe?) I have to say that, although I've had issues with depression, I still have a great life, and I'd like to think I'm actually a very happy person. 

You may recall that when I was finishing my degree a few years ago, I had to do a practicum where I wrote and taught a workshop on happiness. One of my best take-aways from my studies was the definition that I now use for happiness. This comes from a Dutch sociologist named Ruut Veenhoven (1984):

Happiness is "the overall appreciation for life as a whole." 

Veenhoven additionally defined happiness as, "the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of his or her life as a whole favorably" (as cited by Bekhet and Zauszniewski, 2008). 

Stanley approves this message

Because these definitions of happiness are now ingrained in me, I think and speak about happiness a little differently than most people. I hear people debate whether "happiness" and "joy" are the same thing, and really, it just depends on your definition of the words. I use them interchangeably. 

When I read the scripture in the Book of Mormon that says, "Adam fall that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy," (2 Nephi 2:25) I think of it as saying "men are, that they might have an overall appreciation for life as a whole." In other words, one of the very purposes of our existence is to appreciate what we endure and what we learn in mortality. Likewise, when Nephi says "we lived after the manner of happiness" (2 Nephi 5:27). I believe Nephi was judging the overall quality of his life as favorable. 

Ultimately, by these definitions, happiness is a form of gratitude, and gratitude is medicine!

Elder Robert Hales said, "In some quiet way, the expression and feelings of gratitude have a wonderful cleansing or healing nature... Gratitude brings a peace that helps us overcome the pain of adversity and failure" (1992). 

Medicine! But not to take the place of literal medicine. Just to help it in its effectiveness. So I take my medicine, and I take my "medicine," and now that my depression is once again managed, I'm going to keep moving forward and LEAVE IT ALONE unless something changes, and I need to revisit my method of treatment. I'm not going to try and sneak away from anti-depressants anymore. 

Actual footage of me trying to hide from

anti-depressants in the past

*I remember listening to a podcast a few years ago with a therapist who said something like, "Some of my depressed patients are the most mentally healthy people I know." He was referring to their ability to recognize when they need help, which is a very healthy skill. 

Things the Kids Say - Episode 8

Since these posts are becoming more and more frequent (which makes sense considering I have four children who are all capable of speaking at this phase of life), I decided I better start numbering them. I don't know how many posts I've done about things my kids say, and I don't feel like doing the work of finding out, so I'm going with 8.

Welcome to episode 8 of "Things the Kids Say."

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"There's no such thing as brains."

-Eva

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Shawn Mendes: Everything is possible... (song from Descendants 3)

Zoe: Everything is possible? Mom! EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE! I can have a pet penguin!

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Several minutes after discussing Elvis dying on the toilet...

Eva: Is that guy still on the toilet?

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"Minutes are so slow these days."

-Daisy

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Me: Who is this? (shows picture of Joseph Smith)

Eva: The Greatest Showman

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"Did Adam Levine ever go through puberty?"

-Nicky

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Eva: Alexa, play "Dominic the Donkey."

Zoe (in Alexa voice): I'm sorry, I don't know that song.

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"Football is bad for your brain."

-Zoe

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"Is that Nephi?"

-Eva

No, honey, it's Boone from Lost

Rats and Boars and So Much More

My last post was written from the church gym while protecting my laptop from flying basketballs and tucking my feet way under my chair so my girls wouldn't run my toes over with their scooters.

Motion blur is a way of life

There was no school that day, and I needed to A) do some work in the primary room and B) get my kids out of the house to a place where they could burn off some energy.

None of this has any significance other than to say, wow! Time flies! That was two weeks ago!

Here we are at the end of January already!

I've lost my New Year's momentum, as is expected by January 23rd. The good thing is, I didn't set any goals for this year, so losing my momentum isn't going to amount to any degree of failure. What I've really lost in the past few weeks is the air of excitement that I feel when the year changes, and it's okay for that to go away, but I do miss the burst of energy that accompanies it. 

I toyed around with the idea of making some resolutions for Chinese New Year instead of New Year this year (how many times can I say 'year' in one sentence?) It's a good idea, really, since New Year's Day is my birthday. I shouldn't have to make big life changes on my birthday. Especially changes that have anything to do with health. What am I supposed to do? Forgo all my free birthday meals? I don't think so! But Chinese New Year gives me a little bit of time to party hard for my birthday (i.e. eat all my free food) and still make resolutions. 

My decision: I have none. I'm just as likely to give up on my resolutions for Chinese New Year. But I like setting goals. I have two days to decide. 

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Side note: This is the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac, which reminds me of one of the complications of being a New Year's baby. 

I was born in 1984, and a lot of my friends and classmates were born in 1983. It shouldn't matter, but as a child, this caused some division. For example, at church, we were put in classes by the year we were born, which meant some of my friends were in a different class than I was. It also affected when we could take driver's ed in school. 

Likewise, whenever we did Chinese New Year activities at school (which, I swear, was a regular thing), I was isolated as a rat while my friends were boars (I had friends born in 1984, so I don't know why it was such a big deal, but all I saw was separation from the boars. They might as well have worn matching t-shirts and hollered a special boar chant while I cowered in my sad, little rat corner! Oh, to be a a boar!)

Well, little did I know... all the Chinese zodiac placemats had led me astray. I found out in my twenties that, because I was born before Chinese New Year in 1984, I actually was a boar. 

I spent the first two decades of my life believing I was a rat. 

Maybe I'll go to therapy someday to address this. Hopefully it will be an exciting, new opportunity for my therapist, since it's probably not very common for someone to come in to work out their issues with being assigned to the wrong Chinese zodiac sign for over twenty years. 

-----

Anyway, the past two weeks have been busy. Mostly with good things. I've taken on some new volunteer tasks at my kids' school. We've had some family events, like my sister-in-law's birthday party for which I was asked to bring a veggie creation. I made a "keto-friendly birthday cake:"

My SIL loves the beach - hence the palm trees

We've spent a lot of time at the temple. I went 2.5 times last week - twice for endowment sessions and .5 times driving from temple to temple trying to find somewhere to get Nicky in for baptisms in under three hours. The shortest wait was at Oquirrh Mountain which was 90 minutes, but the temple is so small that there was nowhere to wait other than standing against the wall by the recommend desk. Bountiful, Draper, and Jordan River all had up to three hour wait times. It's a good problem to have - too many people doing temple work! But we ended up going home because it was late at night.

In addition to that, I joined a book club and went to our first meeting (other than my book exchange that I've done for the past twelve years, I've never done a book club, so this is new for me). And, for the first time in almost two years, I went and spoke at a Relief Society event. The last time I spoke was in April of 2018, and while I was preparing for that event, I felt a prompting from the Spirit that told me I needed to take a break for a while. I felt really good about it, too. I love speaking. Really. But I knew I needed to set it aside for some time. So this week, I spoke for the first time since then. They asked me to come to their ward and speak on the Book of Mormon and the Come Follow Me curriculum. It went well, especially considering how out of practice I am. I planned this presentation with a lot of discussion (to align with the goals of Come Follow Me), and the women were so great to respond. 

I've had sick kids off and on. Last week Eva had a fever with no other symptoms. She slept for an entire day! Dare I say it? It was wonderful! Then Zoe got a barking cough. It really only lasted a day and a half so it wasn't too bad, but I did keep her home from school - bringing her to a total of 17 absences this school year! Oi! (she missed three weeks for her tonsils and subsequent hemorrhaging, and then we went to Disneyland. I've never racked up absences like this, and of course it's my kid that's the most behind academically). 

In October, my in-laws took us to Hale Theatre see the Addam's Family, and we had to be evacuated 15 minutes into the show because a cast member in the other play (Phantom - which is different than Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. Just throwing that out there because I only learned recently that there is a different Phantom musical that was written at the same time) bumped the sprinkler head with a piece of the set and set off the alarms and flooded the basement of the theater. Hale Theatre gave us all ticket vouchers and concessions coupons to come back and see another show. Last week we went to see Seussical. It was such a fun show, but it also stressed me out because there were aerialists in the play, and I spent the whole time envisioning myself as an aerialist, which repeatedly ended in me plummeting to my imaginary death. 

Aerialists, you have my respect.

Now off I go to do the next right thing** (which is pretending to eat the Play-Doh meal Eva has been lovingly preparing for me for the past half hour). 

*Except for in sacrament meeting, but I've never been assigned a topic I love. 

**The Frozen II soundtrack has slowly wormed its way into my life. Darn you, catchy Disney tunes! You did it again!

All Louie, All the Time

When I was growing up, my dad lived in an area where we didn't get a lot of radio stations clearly, so whenever we found a working radio station, we got really excited! I had a pretty groovy pink double cassette player as a kid. My step-sister, Anna, and I liked to stick it in the heater vent in our room in hopes that we could produce radio music for our entire household (in hindsight, I can see a lot of evidence that we were very annoying children - don't worry, I'm receiving plenty of revenge at the hands of my own posterity).

One day we were scanning AM radio and we came across the song "Louie, Louie" coming through with amazing clarity. We were totally digging it. We danced. We sang. We turned it up and stuck the radio in the heater vent. Then immediately after the song ended, it started over again! And then again!

We thought it was hilarious! Some AM radio station DJ must have gone to the bathroom and left "Louie, Louie" on repeat, much to our excitement!

But then it came on again. And we thought, "This is getting a little weird."

And then came the station promo, which announced, "You are listening to the Louie Station! All Louie, all the time!"

All Louie! All the time!

You guys, I can't make this stuff up. Sometime in the 90's, there was an AM radio station that came in clearly on the border of Magna, Utah that only played "Louie, Louie."

The next day, Anna and I turned the radio on, and there was no Louie. It was gone! We tried several times over the following weeks to find the Louie Station, but it was never to be heard again.

For most of my life, I've wondered about the Louie Station. The only thing I've ever been able to find that may possibly explain it is this article from the Chicago Tribune wherein a radio station in Peoria, Illinois played "Louie, Louie" for six days straight. However, that article says they rotated between 25 versions of the song. Anna and I only heard one version - the original by the Kingsmen.

Is it plausible that we somehow got a station from Illinois on our AM radio? Perhaps by day 6, they gave up on playing a variety of "Louie, Louies" and just stuck with the original. I don't think we'll ever know.

Writing Through the Snowstorm

It's currently snowing.

I just want to curl up on my couch with a big blanket and read or watch a show or take a nap... or blog. So here I am, in the best spot on my living room sofa (minus the blanket - can someone get that for me, please?). Eva is watching Bambi, and I'm going to do a writing prompt.

-----------------------------------

1. List ten things that make you really happy

1. Reading a book that I can't stop thinking/talking about
2. Seeing my kids be good people
3. When other people like the food I make
4. When singing time goes really well in primary
5. A clean house
6. A clean van
7. Big cups of ice water from Maverick
8. When I successfully use my talents
9. Dogs with their heads hanging out of car windows
10. Having energy

2. What is something someone told you about yourself that you never forgot?

After speaking at a Relief Society event, someone told me I made them all feel like they were my friends. That was a very nice compliment, and not something I had ever thought about before.

3. What are your top three pet peeves?

I don't know what my "top three" pet peeves are, but here are three things that really bother me:

1. People who do not observe proper line etiquette
2. Repetitive tapping sounds
3. Produce that goes bad the day after I buy it

4. Who inspires you?

That is a really good question, and I don't have a specific person to mention, but I am inspired by women who make others feel good about themselves. Women who are genuinely happy for other's successes in life and who build others up. I am also inspired by women who don't speak negatively about their bodies or food. I've tried to adopt this practice.

5. List five places you want to visit

1. Mount Rushmore
2. Washington DC
3. Nauvoo
4. The Redwoods
5. Disneyworld

There are a lot of places on this earth I would love to see, but I'm not super interested in international travel. 

6. What are five ways to win your heart?

I'm looking at this from a "friendship" perspective.

1. Laugh at my jokes (genuinely, of course)
2. Remember details about me
3. Truly listen to me
4. Take me up on my recommendations for books, movies, purchases, etc
5. Be your true self when you're around me 

7. Share something you struggle with

I don't know how to be close to people. Anyone I am close to, it's because they made it happen. Not me.  

8. Post some words of wisdom that speak to you

"People are hard to hate close up. Move in. "

-Brene Brown

(One of my current struggles is not being able to see past all the ugly in the world).

9. Think of any word. Search it in Google images and post the 11th photo.

I went with the word "temperance" (the virtue of moderation rather than abstinence from alcohol). A while ago, I wrote the word temperance on a list of things I feel I should study in more depth. That's what made me think of it. 

10. What are five great blessings in your life?

1. Being able to stay home with my kids
2. My home
3. A healthy mind 
4. Good friends
5. An amazing husband

Our Top Ten Board Games of 2019

For the past 12 years, we've had regular game nights with our friends, Chad and Carlie. We started this tradition when our first children (born 8 days apart) were babies. Now we each have four children - same ages, opposite genders - and we are still going strong. 

We try to have Game Night at least once a month, but we are always open for more (and devastated when we have to miss a month). We begin at 4:00 on Saturdays. We alternate between houses, and we always have dinner! 

Two years ago we started keeping a Game Night Ledger because disputes arose over how frequently Scotty wins (45% of the time). 

The other night, Scotty and I referred to the Ledger to see what our top ten board games were in 2019, based on number of times played. There were a lot of ties, but here are the games we played the most in 2019:

#10: Qwirkle, Hacienda, Agricola, Risk, & Princes of Florence

(See what I mean by 'a lot of ties?')

Qwirkle is a pretty simple tile-building game (a little like dominoes with a twist of Uno in that you can either match the color or the shape). This is a game we reserve for the end of the night when we still feel like playing, but our brains are fried and we don't know how long our children will last. 

In Hacienda you use your resources to acquire land and animals. As you control more space on the board, and take your animals to market, you accumulate more money or points. 

(And if you're wondering, yes! There are pigs, so you can take your little piggies to market!)

Risk is an old classic, and we love it, but there are a lot of holes in the rules that we end up researching on forums. Scotty and Chad have different versions of Risk, so it varies depending on whose house we are playing at. We have done world domination, but we usually opt for mission Risk so we can get more games in. Scotty's version is single-mission, while in Chad's version, we have four missions. It's the four-mission version that raises the most questions.

Agricola is a fun and stressful tableau-building game where you are a farmer, and you have all sorts of things to accomplish - plant your crops, raise your animals, build your house, and heck! On top of all that, you have to feed your family. I'm stressed just thinking about it! And yet, I love this game so much!

We have played with the Farmers of the Moor expansion, but we prefer the original game.  In the expansion, you have to have fuel to heat your home, and we can barely feed our families, let alone keep them warm and cozy!

Princes of Florence is another tableau-building game (that's a game where each player has components that they build their board with in front of them, and what you have in front of you usually manipulates the game by controlling what actions you can take or how many points you acquire - does your brain hurt right now? Yeah, so does mine). In this game, you are artists trying to complete your work to get points. 

#9: Karma

Karma is a card game wherein there is a single loser declared. According to the Ledger, I am that loser more often than not. So I vote that we never play Karma again!

(Just kidding)

(Kind of)

#8: Bohnanza

Bohnanza is a bit of a tableau-building/card game combination. In this game, you grow fields of beans and harvest them for points. You can trade beans with other players, which begs the question - do you scratch my back, and I scratch yours? Or should we try to sabotage each other by being stingy and keeping our resources from one another?

Side note: I recently tried a round of Bohnanza with the "What Would Jesus Do" approach. I lost. 

#7, 6, 5: Dead Man's Draw, Coup, & Ticket to Ride: Europe

Dead Man's Draw is a pirate-themed card game with a bit of gambling involved. On your turn, you flip over cards. You can take risks and continue to flip cards, or you can play it safe and quit while you're ahead. Each card dictates what actions you must take next, and if you flip over doubles, you get nothing!

Coup is a role-playing card game where each player has two roles. If you catch a player lying, you knock out one of their roles. But if you think they're lying, and they're not, oops! It's your character that dies!

Ticket to Ride has been a hit for quite some time. We have played several versions of it, but Europe is our favorite. In this game, you build railroad systems to get to certain destinations. You also anger your friends by blocking their routes (not that we know from experience - ahem).

#4: Cover Your Assets

Cover Your Assets is a card game where you try to hang on to your assets before someone else steals them. This is a good one to play with kids because it's pretty easy to learn and simple enough for them to understand. 

#3, 2: Splendor & Love Letter

Splendor is an engine-building game where you acquire jewels. As your personal stash of jewels grows, the cost of buying more jewels decreases. As with many games of this variety, you have to decide between various strategies, and there is no one strategy that's guaranteed every time. You have to adapt to how the game goes. 

Love Letter is really easy to learn. It's a quick card game where you use process of elimination to try and figure out who holds the Princess card. This is another game we play at the end of game night when our brains are fried. 

#1: 7 Wonders

This has been our favorite board game for the past three years. In fact, 7 Wonders was also our most-played game of 2018! It's a tableau-building game where everyone has their own board in front of them and the board determines how the game is manipulated. This game is unique in that everyone takes their actions at once (i.e. you don't take turns). 

We have the "Leaders" expansion and the "Wonder Pack" expansion. I enjoy the Leaders, but I don't really care for the wonder boards that came in the Wonder Pack (though laughing at Manneken Pis every time it's chosen for play will never get old). 

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We've already had our first Game Night of 2020 with a second one scheduled (that's two for January! We are off to a great start!) We're hoping to try out my birthday board game:

This game has great reviews and was hard to get my hands on! The scarcity made me want it even more! And I don't even like birds!

Also, it was designed by a woman, which is pretty cool.

Welcome 2020

Well, hello to you six days into this new decade!

I didn't even think about the new year in terms of being a new decade until New Year's Eve when people started posting all sorts of decade-related things on Facebook. That made me go, "Huh. I guess it is a new decade!" Then I wondered if I had anything to say about the past decade, and it turned out, I didn't. Which is kind of sad because I would normally love doing some sort of blog post to close out a ten-year phase of my life. But it just wasn't there!

New Year is one of my favorite holidays.

I truly enjoy Christmas, and decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things ever, but by the time Christmas rolls around, I am ready to move on and put everything away so I can ringIn the new year. This Christmas I put everything away on Christmas Day except for my tree, and the only reason I didn't get the tree put away was because I didn't want to carry it out to the shed in the dark in the snow. Instead, I batted my eyes at Scotty on the 26th and got him to do it for me. After work, of course. Because... reality.

By the way - tangent here - in 2018, I hot-glued and wired all of my tree decor to my tree so I wouldn't have to decorate it ever again. Best thing I've ever done! There was just one, little mishap with the glue:

But no big deal. Now we just carry the whole thing out to our shed and store it fully assembled. I was elated when it was time to put up my tree, and I was able to just haul it in the house and plug it in. Mind you, I had to rearrange my living room about eight different ways to make it work with the big sectional sofa we inherited over the summer.

(Scours Google photos for photo of couch)

Here's another tangent - my sister-in-law gave us the sectional, and it's actually too big for our house, so we had to leave a piece of it off. We took the extra section to Scotty's mom's house so she could have more seating in her basement. We got it stuck in her sliding glass door.

(Scours Google photos for picture of couch stuck in door)

We ended up taking the feet off and finagling the cushion a bit and eventually got it through. It's only coming back out of that house after it meets a chainsaw.

So where was I?

Oh yes, rearranging the living room to fit the tree. Our usual corner wasn't a possibility with the "new" couch. I ended up putting it in the bay window, but the tree is 7' and the ceiling over the bay window is shorter than that, so I literally just shoved it there. The top of the tree was all smooshed, but whatever. It added character.

But let's rewind to when I brought the tree in the house. I went out to the shed and got the tree, and then when I went to carry it through the garage and into the house, the garage door had blown shut. I had to set the tree down so I could open the door. The chickens were out, and they had been pooping on the patio, so when I set the tree down, it got poop on it. I carried the tree into the house, and then I had to clean the poop off the tree stand. While I was in my kitchen, cleaning poop off my tree, it occurred to me that this is not a normal problem to have. 

So back to my initial conversation... I enjoy decorating for Christmas, but I enjoy undecorating for Christmas even more and am very antsy to get it over with. I don't like Christmas to last a minute past the 25th because I'm excited to move on. So on comes New Year, and it gives me energy! I'm always excited to close the chapter on the past year and begin again. 

It also helps that it's my birthday!

(New Year's baby in the house!)

(My apologies to my parents for not getting them a tax break in 1983).

(Missed it by mere hours).

While we're discussing my birthday, let me tell you some exciting things about the day I came to this earth.

My mom went into labor on New Year's Eve. I was born at 2:29 a.m. on New Year's Day 1984. While my mom was in the hospital, her doctor came and told her that her sister-in-law had just arrived and was in labor. So later that day, my cousin Jess was born. 

Pretty cool, right?

(He came early just to steal my thunder).

All that is to say, "Happy New Year!"

I'm going resolution-free this year, but I'm excited about having a fresh start!