1	Truth as told by Mason Buttle, The	Leslie Connor	Even better the second time.  Now hunting down others by this author.
2	Luster: a novel	Raven Leilani	A disappointing best book from NPR.  Not a single character that I rooted for.  Good writing, unlikeable story that made me feel “icky”.
3	Baptism for the Dead	Libbie Hawker	A reread of a Mormon wife losing her faith, and the comfort of heaven.
4	My Antonia	Willa Cather	An early classic about the backbone of America– immigrants and farmers. Glad I read it.
5	How God Became King	N.T. Wright	“Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilot”… Jesus’s life is more than a comma. Cross and Kingdom in the gospels.
6	Four Hundred Souls: A community history of African America, 1619-2019	Ibram X. Kendi (editor)	Listening to borrowed audio was probably the worst format.  Need to own hard copy and revisit.
7	The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After	Julia Quinn	The 2nd Epilogues of the infamous Bridgerton romances.
8	Captive Kingdom, The	Jennifer A. Nielsen	I’ve gotten tired of this character’s schtick on this 4th book but I’ll read the 5 anyway.
9	Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey	Ozge Samanci	YA GN– a walk in Turkish shoes while coming to age as a “failure” and figuring it out.  Excellent 1.5 hr read.
10	All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook	Leslie Connor	Oh, I am LOVING this author!  More, more, more please.
11	Home for Dogs and Goddesses, A	Leslie Connor	Rounding out themes of family by this author.
12	Finding Langston	Lesa Cline-Ransome	The Great Immigration, a newly motherless boy from the South in Chicago.
13	Midnight Library, The	Matt Haig	Tickled my literary bone and my thinking brain.

Our Sweetheart Baby is now a Fun Teen!

It’s the first weekend of mid-winter break, the second day of great snow, and Piper’s birthday: a trifecta that made it a wonderful day for all.

Piper made her own cake with and put to good use the cake decorating kit she got for Christmas. We may have been so busy playing in the snow that we never got around to writing the reasons we love Piper, but we all agree that she makes us laugh with her adorable faces and poses, and she takes really good care of us, fattening us up quite well!

Wes brilliantly got a gift for Timmy, which Piper adored enough to make up for Timmy’s disdain.

After dinner, Dwayne and Piper, instead of meeting us outside for dark o’clock sledding, were caught watching Harry Potter movies. Fine, it was her birthday, I suppose!

Happy Birthday, Piper! You are loved and adored beyond measure.

Long before our Sweetheart Baby was born, Dwayne and I have celebrated Valentine’s Day on the 13th. At first, it was because it was convenient when we lived an hour away from each other, then it was a pragmatic way of being romantic.

This year, the pandemic changed our plans more than the massive snowfall. We had already ordered a special dinner from a local “boutique” restaurant and Dwayne’s car braved the roads to pick it up. The kids and I set up our table and prepared dinner for them to eat downstairs with a movie, which is our favorite type of date night.

I enjoy life with this man so much!

Kyla chose to demonstrate the elements of a cell through cake decorating. I was really impressed with the result!

Piper took Wes’s Devil’-Food-and-Oreo-Ice-Cream Cake, scraped off the inferior frosting and (Mine)crafted the cake as an exploding Creeper. She was also the one to make him an Among Us card. This inspired Reason #1.

Reasons His Family Loves 11-Year-Old Wes:

1. He plays video games with Piper and gives her interesting craft project inspiration.
2. He’s funny.
3. He’s Papa’s Halo buddy.
4. He plays foosball like a Tasmanian Devil.
5. He took Daddy’s snuggle genes and combined with Mama’s, and then doubled it.
6. It is so fun to watch Wes and Piper sled together.
7. Wes and Piper have a funny baby-voice interaction.  “It’s me!”
8. He thinks he wants his own almond mocha and can only drink 2 ounces of it.
9. I love him in spite of him eating—and enjoying!!—MY 100% dark chocolate.
10. He loves it when I read aloud.
11. He adorably loves tummy rubs.
12. He is wonderfully enthusiastic about board games and has a great attitude win or lose.  He always says “GG”, for good game.
13. We love his enthusiasm for being playful, like wrestling matches.
14. His enthusiasm for camping in the RV is contagious.
15. Mama loves Wes’s supernatural ability to balance on anything, especially Frederick and anything with wheels.
16. He was a wonderful hamster parent.
17. Wes was kind and interactive toward Ruby, and showed how he can be a really nice “big kid”.
18. I love that he is so likeable among his peers.  He can be with Abigail, Collin, Sumarth, Lily, etc.
19. He showed lots of maturity when he found out he probably had to get braces and on his own, he started practicing brushing his teeth 3 times a day.
20. I love his choice in friends!
21. He is a master fort builder.
22. He is a trooper about physical pain.
23. Even when he dislikes doing something, he will do it with minimal complaint, like going to tutoring. This compliment does not include Mama’s Forced Marches of Misery.
24. He embodies “it is better to give that receive”.  He is generous and thoughtful, getting gifts to his loved ones beyond expectation.

What is Wes looking forward to this year?

I want Covid to end. I want to get to round 200 in Bloon TD 6. Kill the enderdragon in no cheat survival.  Go back to CA in the RV. 

And Piper pipes: He will be sleeping by himself every night! (Kyla and Wes have to wean themselves off each other by September this year. They are sad just thinking of it.)

My outlook calendar is not just a metaphor for my brain; it IS my brain. When I add events for the kids, like an appt or a meeting, I “invite” them and have it added to their calendar, which auto-sends an email and a reminder. I just made an appt for a new orthodontist for Wes, and almost immediately got back his thoughtful reply and feedback:

I no

Sorry, kid. My brain has already spoken.

But sledding does it faster.

We went to Leavenworth for our January Snow fix, but really just got ice disguised as snow. I don’t have a good shot of Kyla sledding, as it doesn’t seem nice to take a picture of a girl lying on the ground who would be sobbing from pain if she were able to breathe. Yeah, conditions were brutal, but that didn’t stop the youngers who were having a great time together.

Fortunately, the Sunday afternoon snow was a little more on the slush side, making for decent XCountry skiing, at least for us beginners. Piper the Contrarian decided it was easier to move without poles. Sherpa Mama then ended up carrying two sets of poles. Good thing I have a theory that making the conditions tough make me better faster. Sunday evening, when we returned the skis, I kept mine and went again Monday morning (perfect ice, lousy snow–again, I think I got better by being so awful at it) and then Monday afternoon at Ski Hill (much more advanced course, better snow, still lapped by every other skier I saw). Like I told Dwayne, I skied for miles and miles on my feet…and only a little ways on my face.

After sledding, I took the kids either, depending upon your family role, 1) on a beautiful walk through one of my favorite run-on parks, or 2) out for their favorite gelato that they had to walk to.

We had really come to Leavenworth this holiday weekend because our Eastern Washington friends were going to be there, and so we got some lovely time with them in one of our favorite places, iced snow notwithstanding. Love our friends…and this town!

Since we finally have Yeti home, it was so much easier to decide to take her out for another spin. This adventure was a short 24-hour trip up to Birch Bay, bringing along one of the kids I didn’t give birth to, but wish I had. Birch Bay was one of those places I have never been….YETI!, as we now say in our family.

We were close to the beach and wooded trails, and we even explored some of it by daylight while the lasagna cooked back in the trailer. (I won’t bring up how far we explored by moonlight, as certain kids think it is Not Alright to have to do Forced Marches of Misery in the dark.) Two movies and a few bowls of popcorn later, we reminded ourselves we were camping and went to bed. I really love this Yeti life!

The big part is done, though I’m sure it will take many more months to get ‘er complete. But it’s really nice to have the newly named Yeti (“We haven’t adventured there… YETI!”) home in the driveway.