Night skiing on leap day

Tonight Melinda, Miles and I went night skiing at Brighton. They went without me twice in February because my back was bothering me. I was jealous, but tonight was a great ski night so I don't feel so bad. It wasn't very cold and the snow was still quite nice. The sky was clear and we could see the constellation Orion in the sky as we went up on the lift.

It was especially fun tonight because we were all skiing right together. Miles are getting to be quite the speedy little skier. He kept right up with us, and even passed me a few times. Melinda was pretty fearless tonight, too. She seems to have really enjoyed skiing this year.


I forgot my poles, but I didn't miss them. Last year I didn't ski without them most of the year, out of solidarity with Miles, since poles mostly just get in the way for kids. I forgot how fun it is to just turn by shifting your weight around.

We never seem to bring the camera when we go skiing, but here's a picture of Melinda and Miles during a snowy night in February 2006.

Chinese food - cub scout style

On Saturday Lisette had her piano recital. She memorized a piece called Malaguena and gave a great performance. Her friends Joy and Camille also performed, so after they were done they ran around and had some fun. I think the boys had more patience listening to all of the students play knowing their would be cookies afterwards.

Afterwards we went to the cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet. It was themed to the Chinese new year. The had really great decorations, but the "chinese food" was the best part, it was really funny! It was if they took the old standard "potato bar" and switched rice for potatoes.

So after you dished out your rice, this is the choice of toppings:

• Cream of chicken soup
• Cheese
• Celery
• Green onions (those were hardly touched)
• Green peas
• Corn
• Chow mein noodles

It kind of reminds me when an army buddy took his mother-in-law who was visiting from Mexico to Taco Bell. She said, "Wow, this is really interesting, what kind of food is this."

"Mexican," he replied.

Rebloom

Last winter we bought an amaryllis bulb as part of Ian's life science curriculum. It grew tall and bloomed right away. We've kept it on the kitchen window sill since then and watered it now and then.

I wasn't completely sure how to correctly care for amaryllis bulbs so we were very happily surprised when a little green shoot started popping out of the dry bulb a month ago, and quite pleased to see such a lovely bloom this month.

Having flowers in winter seems so hopeful. We have a little bit of iris reticulata and crocus foliage poking out of the ground right now, too. It feels like spring is around the corner and we've just about made it through winter.

Hmm... I better get my seeds started and a few more ski runs in before it's too late!

Harlem Gospel Choir and Jelly Bellies

Friday morning the kids and I went to Kingsbury Hall and saw the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir. This was a daytime performance for schools, some senior citizen groups, and home schoolers. We've been to these concert series before, but this one was definitely unique. They demanded participation! It was really fun; they had us on our feet, clapping, waving our arms, and singing!

I think this exercise was a little more extroverted than we are generally used to (especially Ian.) They started out by having everyone standing and clapping, and then they invited the audience to get up on the stage and dance. I think the kids weren't expecting to have to actually participate.

I thought the music was great, and it was refreshing to hear religious expression in a public / secular setting. I made me think about if as a nation we could all share our different faiths with our neighbors in a spirit of understanding, how healing that would be. Not to get too ecumenical, but I think that learning to appreciate the richness of other people's faith helps us to better live our own faith.

It's enlightening to see a portrait of how other people worship. I think that gospel music is a very moving way of praising the Lord. It's very foreign from my religious (Mormon) background, but I find it very inspiring.

It was fun to see all the school kids dance around, wave their arms, clap their hands, and get all into it. Their was one group of high school kids who were singing and dancing, and they even synchronized all their moves! It was refreshing, since usually when I see that age group of high school kids, they seem so non-committal about everything.

Afterwards it was raining and we ducked into the University Pharmacy and got some Jelly Bellies. We made up a game where we had to grab 2 without looking and eat them together whatever they were. We had some interesting combinations: bubblegum-licorice, lemon-caramel apple, root beer-dr. pepper, tangerine-cinnamon, and popcorn-pear.

Patience

Tonight was our ward temple night. The Salt Lake Temple has sessions on the hour, and we were going to go to the 7:00 session. I was there with ten minutes to spare, but it turns out that another ward and two other stakes decided the third Thursday of the month was a good time, too. So there were about 20-30 of us who had to wait until 8:00.

I think maybe the Lord wanted me to learn more patience this week, so I patiently waited for an hour reading the book of Luke. Besides learning patience, these are some things I enjoy about temple worship:

1. A time for meditation
2. A time to open my heart in prayer
   
3. A reminder to see the forest for the trees
   
4. A respite from a hectic, chaotic, materialistic world
5. It helps turn my heart to my fathers
   
6. It helps me to be more humble and teachable
   
7. It gives me strength and courage
   
8. It helps me feel closer to God