Hearts Full of Joy

still snowing

another snow day, school canceled. everyone was sent home from church in a rush yesterday, because the hills were becoming impassable. we have had so many snow days that they no longer need to be made up, we are into what they call "act of God" territory. we have only completed one or two full weeks of school since christmas vacation. these cozy days with everyone at home have become the new norm.

endless winter

we have had perpetual snow since december. it has melted twice, i believe, only to snow again the next day. we have had snow falling for 4 days at a time without stopping. not typical weather for these parts. in some ways it has been cozy and peaceful, but what has affected me the most is the complete lack of sunshine. the sun has only come out about 5 times since christmas. i'm very aware of this because i need the sun to take photos for my shop. so things pile up, awaiting photos, and then i scramble, hoping to get as many things photographed as i can before the cloud cover comes again. but i feel so energized whent eh sun does show itself that i fell as if i could accomplish anything! it's almost time to prune our fruit trees, and to be honest, i'm having difficulty believing that our trees, or anything else in our yard, could still be alive after this winter. quite dramatic feelings, but there it is.

wintering in the south of france

my dear friend mary and her family of 5 children are enjoying a winter in the south of france (can i mention how much i wish we were there too?) courtesy of her husband's sabbatical as a university professor. follow their adventures here - she is a delightful writer: mary mary commentary

just before mary left for france, she called me with a funny story....

as a background, mary and i met at church in japan 12 years ago and immediately felt that we already knew each other. we tried and tried to figure it out, and the closest we came was discovering that we had both taken japanese at BYU, but it didn't seem that we could have been in the same classes, because i started BYU two years before she did. we eventually gave up and joked that we must have taken japanese together in the pre-existence....

now back to mary's phone call.... as she sorted through her house in preparing to leave for france, she came across her old japanese texts and papers. she found my name and phone number written down - which she would not have recognized as my name if she was not my facebook friend and had seen my maiden name.... so we HAD met in japanese 101. she was 16 and still in high school, but able to take an evening class because her dad was a japanese professor at BYU. i was 17/18. so funny it took us 12 years to figure it out. but i think i'm a little sad that the mystery is gone. i liked the pre-existence theory :) interesting though that mary and i met at byu, then again in japan, and now live 3 hours apart in the mid-west.

icing

school was canceled and we were iced in without internet (gasp!) on wednesday. we have yet to complete a full week of school since christmas - snow days, stomach flu, four day holiday weekends, ice storms. i feel like my kids are school drop-outs. but we've enjoyed playing family games, especially two that we have recently discovered: ticket to ride and ligretto. i'm wanting to make the most of the time that we have left with lexi. and now we are heading into two months of musical rehearsals....so i'm glad we've had this relaxed time together, even though i'm still craving some sunlight.

 

 

notice the rows of icicles on the railing.

in a fog

i discovered during many rainy seasons in tokyo that i can handle about 3 days of overcast weather reasonably well, and then i start to go a little crazy/get extremely cranky. new discovery is that 4 days of fog may evoke even a stronger reaction from me. i am feeling an emotional/mental/physical foggy effect. i do like my sunlight, and am feeling the mid-january blahs. almost everyone in the family had stomach flu last week, which served to intensify that blah feeling. we are all doing much better now.....but no sunlight is in the forecast for at least the next week......

the exodus

the morning of february 4th was cold, very cold, about 12 degrees F, cold enough to postpone the re-enactment of the nauvoo exodus from 8:00 (when we showed up) to 9:30 in hopes that it would be a little warmer.
a little warmer......
that is a great idea....if only the early saints could have postponed their exodus..... it didn't feel right to me to be able to postpone ours.
in spite of our late start, it was a day we will remember. we began by enjoying hot chocolate and tasty treats the the family living center, then headed out into the elements. we had three small children (7 years, 4 years, & 20 months) bundled with layers and layers of long johns, jackets, and coats. and we were all cold. very cold. when it was all over, 1 1/2 hours later, we got into our car, equipped with heater, drove home in warmth, relaxed in our (warm) home, ate yummy (warm) food, and i even crawled into my cozy (warm) bed and fell asleep for 3 hours! (whew! that 1 1/2 hours in a cold wagon was exhausting!)

in contrast, our forebears left with children bundled against the cold, but no high tech coat or glove insulation, no cars with heaters, no yummy food or easy way of heating it up, no warm cozy beds, no way to escape the elements, no hope for warmth at all until spring/summer, and no hope for warm homes and cozy beds until they reached their destination and built them. something like 17 women gave birth on the banks of the mississippi that first night. the temperatures dropped to 30 below within the week. incredible. unbelievable. i can't even begin to imagine giving birth in that kind of cold, and trying to keep the baby warm. it makes me want to cry. and i did shed tears as i tried to keep gracie (who didn't want to keep her mittens on, but then cried & cried because her hands were so cold) warm, and i tried to imagine knowing that we wouldn't be warm again for months. it is not a wonder that so many died. it is rather a miracle that so many lived. i asked mia & noah (when they were complaining about the cold) how they would feel if they couldn't go home and get warm. mia said with her typical bluntness, "i would want to die." and i agreed. honestly. at the time, we were very near the memorial buit for those who died crossing the plains. it was a very poignant experience, and reminds me of this poignant experience, which i relived on a jog yesterday morning.

the temple looking down on horses & wagons waiting to depart

wagons ready to roll

re-enactors passing the seveties hall on parley street (the trail of tears/hope)

oxen watching the wagons pass, near the seventies hall
 
at the frozen mississippi

hyrum (a friend), mia, and gracie waiting to begin. they are wearing cards (you can see hyrum's) that say "remember, oh remember" and have names and information representing people who left nauvoo on the first day of the exodus.

 

this is what the ground looked like where there wasn't pavement....corn husks frozen into the mud. bleak & unfriendly.

temple in the snow

after taking tashi's no-brace birthday photos, we drove around on the flats (she did the driving...it's a challenge to get her required driving hours in at this time of year with icy roads)....and i asked her to pull over every time i saw a good vantage point for a photo, and snapped photos of the temple in the snow, then experimented with editing them.

from partridge street:

 

from knight street: the setting sunlight glinting off the eastern windows was irresistable

 

 

  

the lowering sun behind joseph & hyrum over the mississippi, from wells street:

from knight street, near bluff street: 

from bluff street:

 

 

which are your favorites?

sweet sixteen

natasha turned 16 on tuesday,
 and got her final braces off on wednesday. (this requred 5 visits in 2 weeks...i don't recommend her orthodondist). as soon as she got home form school on wednesday, i whisked her down to the mississippi and took photos of her sweet brace-less face. the river was frozen over and covered in snow. tashi has had a cold birthday month. school was cancelled twice for sub-zero temperatures.

tashi blesses our lives with her sweet temperment, kind heart, helpful spirit, loving nature, gentle patience, clever thoughts, witty observations, responsibility, and thoughtfulness. she is also a great & willing cook.

the mississippi, frozen and covered in snow. someone had walked out onto the river, leaving interesting tracks. it is about a mile wide at this point, at the end of parley street.

random updates & observations

we received the good news, on new year's day, that we were accepted into this summer's nauvoo pageant. my parents will be joining our family in the pageant too. we are excitedly anticipating!

brock's facebook status monday:
"Brock was obliged to help tackle/restrain a violent passenger on a plane over the Pacific, and felt United employees were very professional during the 6-hour ordeal."
yes, it was for real.

alexa announced yesterday that she was double cast as the lead role of "kim" in her high school's performance of "bye-bye birdie". this is of particular interest because she didn't really even audition for the musical. she has just joined the scholastic bowl team and doesn't have time for the musical. her choir teacher asked her to consider being a silly screaming fan girl, which would only need to be at rehearsal once a week or so, and she agreed to consider, did a few readings, and next thing you know....

natasha's comment on the topic when i asked for her thoughts last night:
"i think it will be difficult for all of us."... said simply & matter-of-factly.
i think tashi is right. lexi doesn't handle pressure or restraints on her time well, and tends to take that out on those she loves :)
we love her anyway!

noah's words:
...said in a sweet, plaintive voice yesterday morning at 5:30 as he came frantically rushing in to wake me up:
"my dreams are bad."

...said in a contemplative tone today as we drove to warsaw to pick tashi up at school, drove to keokuk to take her to the orthodontist (to begin the 5 step!!! process of removeing her braces), drove back to warsaw, and back to nauvoo, trying to make it in time for noah's preschool bus:
"when you are far, far, far away, you are somewhere else."

lexi's recent observation:
"the older i get, the more i realize that i am like marianne and tashi is like elinor (in sense & sensibility)."
amen to that!

last week i drove along the mississippi as the ice was breaking up, and there were huge bald eagles sitting on the river at each opening in the ice, watching for fish. today the river is frozen again, except at keokuk where it has deeps lochs and dams. and there were dozens and dozens of bald eagles and various hawks circling over the river there this morning, looking for something to eat. it is amazing & magnificent to see so many large birds of prey in such a small area.

this silk has arrived for me to begin work on reproducing a 1841 national flag presented to joseph smith at the laying of the cornerstone of the nauvoo temple for a michael bedard painting.
wish me luck!

mississippi

i walked down parley to the mississippi today (3 mile round trip) and it was a breathtaking sight. the river has melted and huge chunks of ice have been thrown up on the shore.
 

the waterfowl were ecstatic.

when i turned around to walk home, there was the temple on the hill.

not as beautiful in the winter without snow, but it unexpectedly gave me a thrill.

we've been here for almost 6 months, but the beauty and wonder of living here haven't worn off yet. i keep falling in love with nauvoo over and over again.