We're Going to be Grandparents Again!!

Yes, the Exciting News that I can finally share is that Jake and Hannah are going to have a BABY!!! Hannah is due on April 5th. Of course the next birthday in the family is going to be in April!! :) That's the month when everyone has their birthday!!

We have known secretly since Labor Day weekend, but they wanted to keep it private for a while. They also just found out that they are having a BOY!!!! During the first ultrasound, he was a little shy and would not reveal himself, ha ha. Thankfully they had another ultrasound the following day and there he was, in all his tiny little glory. 

I snuck in these cute little photos during a recent video chat. I had asked if Hannah was starting to show a little more now. Jacob turned the phone so I could see her in the background. Yep! She is starting to show a little bit, ha ha. She is so cute!!

Hannah has been doing great! She is such a trooper. I don't think she has thrown up at all, even though there were times of some mild nausea. She is still going to school and working part time, and is happily moving right along in life. We are so excited to have another baby coming into the family! And a BOY!! :)  Right now there isn't a Harmon great-grandson to carry on the Harmon name. But not for long! We can't wait to meet him in just a few months!!

In Other News . . .

Monday: I took some time to tidy up around the house in anticipation of changing up the holiday decorations. When it was time to take care of Abby and Gwen while Amber had a PT appointment, the weather was surprisingly navigable outside. So I took the girls on a walk. 

Abby rode her scooter, while Gwen rode her tricycle on the sloth setting over to the church parking lot just around the corner. Once there, they let loose and wanted to run up and down the tiny hills surrounding the property.

At one point, I heard Gwen burst out singing, "The Hills are alive! With the Sound of Music!" It was so funny and so cute, that I captured a little video. Gwen faded off because she didn't know the words, so Abby picked up the slack and took care of the rest. They absolutely love that movie!! They ask Alexa or Google to play the Sound of Music soundtrack every single day of the week.

Click here to watch the girls singing:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Vk92fVFj1JjSooYY9

Later that afternoon I had my monthly massage. And to top it all off, this was on my bed by the time I was getting ready to go to sleep. How precious is that. (From Abby)

And as for bathroom construction, Scott added the hardy backer board on the floor in preparation for tiling it. 

Tuesday: The day started out a little cautiously because I had gone to bed Monday night with a pretty bad earache. It's so weird - I haven't had any ear infections since I was maybe in junior high, but this year I started off with an ear infection as I drove from Idaho Falls down to Texas in January. And then it was throbbing again quite painfully Monday evening. 

I looked in my essential oil handbook to see if there was something I could just do from home to fix the problem. I did a combination of two oils that were recommended: Immupower and Tea Tree oils. The handbook said to place a drop of oil in my hand, then use a cotton ball to sort of mop it up. So I did that with both essential oils, and then placed the cotton ball in my outer ear area. 

I was able to sleep pretty well through the night, thankfully. After my shower Tuesday morning, I decided to take the cotton ball out for a while and see how it felt. Within a few minutes of taking it out, the throbbing returned and it just ached! So I did round 2 with a new cotton ball and plugged up my ear. Within a few minutes, the throbbing stopped. I never felt another ache the rest of the day!! And by Wednesday morning, when I took the cotton ball out, I didn't have any more troubles. Amazing!! I didn't need to go to the doctor, and it felt much better. 

Abby had her weekly dance class Tuesday morning. She looks forward to it every week!

After they left, I invited Gwen to get her jacket on and come out to the garage with me so we could get the Christmas decorations down. While I went to get my shoes on, she decided to "hide" in the laundry room. I came in and saw her like this. As I burst out laughing, I pulled out my camera to capture the moment. :)

Here is the precarious process that I used to get the Christmas decorations down: 

First, note where the boxes are up on that high shelf. 

Then, note the tall ladder on the far left, under the hanging bicycles.

I had to get that ladder over there and set it up when there were only a few inches of wiggle room to squeeze around the box that's holding our new bathroom vanity.

My process was this: 

Climb up the ladder. Get a box down. Set it on top of the vanity. Get a 2nd box down and stack it on top of the first one.

Then climb down the ladder, shimmy through the small opening under the ladder and next to the vanity box. Carry each box over to the laundry room door entrance. Then squeeze back through and up the ladder to repeat.

I was able to get most of our Christmas boxes down and inside the house. There were just one or two boxes that I didn't feel comfortable to get down.

Then Gwen and I came inside to start figuring out where to put stuff. She found the Christmas books and stuffed animals and was happy to sit and enjoy for a while.

When Abby got home, she was excited to jump in and be a part of everything too.

I made a pork roast dinner in the afternoon to feed to the missionaries, and when Scott got home we delivered it to their apartment. 

Scott worked a bit more on the bathroom that night, attaching the rest of the hardy backer board to the half wall. 

Then, just for fun, he laid out some of the floor tiles so we could see what it would eventually look like.

Back to the decorations: The Christmas tree is only partially decorated, even at this writing (on Sunday), but we have begun. This coming week I will add a little bit more around the house. 

This is what I wrote on Instagram about why we decorated early:

mamaharmon13

Here are my thoughts about setting up Christmas before Thanksgiving. Some people think that to decorate before Thanksgiving means we are jumping past the gratitude and humble hearts and that we just want to fast forward to shopping and materialism. I disagree.

Aside from eating way too much food 😂, for me Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, recognizing my blessings of family, home, and all good things. Christmas, to me, is a feeling. It is a feeling of love, kindness, charity, service, selflessness, and good will toward all.

Thanksgiving brings a thankful heart and mind. Christmas brings an opportunity to take those feelings of gratitude and turn them into action. To do something for others. To care more about others because we first see the blessings in our own life and now we want to share.

Christmas brings Light. The Light of Jesus Christ. After all, it is He whom we celebrate. The world can use all the Light possible right now, so I say Light it all up!

I enjoy the tender feelings that I feel during these two wonderful holidays. I think they compliment each other very well. Not the color schemes so much, but everything else. 👍🎄🎃

Wednesday: During the day, I tried to find a way to keep a little bit of control over all the Christmas stuff. I forgot how crazy things can get with having little ones around! The last time the girls came up from Texas in December, I had already decorated and gotten all the preparations taken care of BEFORE they arrived! But this time, I've got my own messes all over the place, as I'm trying to figure out where to put everything, at the same time that the girls are excitedly rummaging through all the bins, finding all sorts of magical discoveries to run off and play with. 

In the afternoon, Amber was trying to do a music theory lesson with Abby, but Gwen was being a little disruptive. So I scooped her up and took her into my room to play with the coins in our money jar. First we sorted out all the coins, as I taught her which ones were quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. Then, we made some artsy designs on the floor. Soon after I took this photo, Gwen was all done. When she started scooping up the coins and tossing them in the air and flinging them around the room, I said OKAY, ha ha. We're done. 

Wednesday evening, the young women had an activity called Cupcake Wars. It was traditionally set up to where 3 groups of girls could choose their ingredients, then go to 3 separate houses to make & decorate the cupcakes, then re-assemble and have the bishopric act as judges.

But because of coronavirus, we had to re-think the whole event. This time, the girls just decorated their cupcakes with the incorporated ingredients that they chose, and then we did a video call between the 3 houses. It was basically a show and tell version of Cupcake Wars.

But it was still super fun! Here, one of the girls wanted to try a new technique. She took 2 Oreo cookies and rubbed them together to create a chocolate crumb/powder to distribute on the top of her cupcake.

Amber and Abby joined in with us too. Amber helped the girls make the buttercream frosting, while I supervised the rest. Abby was happy to decorate a cupcake too!

Our video chat with the other houses . . .

And the finished cupcakes here at our house.

Thursday: I was able to visit with Kylie for a bit. They are on a very strict lockdown over in Italy again. They cannot travel outside their municipality, which they think is only within the Aviano area. I'm not sure the exact area of their specific municipality, but she gave me a couple of examples: 

• Their favorite restaurant is only 5 minutes away, but because it's in a different municipality, they cannot go there to eat.
• Her best friend over there lives about 10 minutes away, but she lives in a different municipality, so she cannot go see her friend. If she were to try to go anyway, and if she were to be caught or pulled over, she would have to pay a $2000 fine!! Yikes!!
• Update: Their province is Pordenone, up in NE Italy, and I just found a reference to the province of Pordenone having 50 municipalities within its borders. They call it a comune. Or, multiple comunes are called comuni. 

Kylie and I talked about Christmas ideas and their plans for the holidays. 

I love Benson and Kylie SO MUCH!! I want to go over there and spend time with them so badly! I have to continue to be patient in making my plans, though. And it's very hard to be patient sometimes.

We also got a lovely visit from Scott's mom, Coy, on Thursday. She stopped by to show us what she made for her daughter, Sharon, for Christmas. I'm not sure if Sharon reads this blog or not, so I'd better not post the pictures that I took. I'll save them for another time.

Friday: We watched the beautiful and inspiring message from our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. He came online at 11:00 a.m. MST and told us that having Gratitude is scientifically proven to promote healing. 

He said:

"As a man of science and as a man of faith, the current worldwide pandemic has been of great concern to me. As a man of science, I appreciate the critical need to prevent the spread of infection. I also honor the devoted service of health care professionals and grieve for the many whose lives have been upended by COVID-19. 

"As a man of faith, however, I view the current pandemic as only one of many ills that plague our world, including hate, civil unrest, racism, violence, dishonesty, and lack of civility. Skilled scientists and researchers are laboring diligently to develop and distribute a vaccine against the coronavirus. But there is no medication or operation that can fix the many spiritual woes and maladies that we face. 

"There is, however, a remedy—one that may seem surprising—because it flies in the face of our natural intuitions. Nevertheless, its effects have been validated by scientists as well as men and women of faith.

"I am referring to the healing power of gratitude."

He invited us to do the following:

"As a doctor, I know the value of good therapy. So, dear friends, may I prescribe two activities to help us experience the healing power of gratitude. 

"First, I invite you—just for the next seven days—to turn social media into your own personal gratitude journal. Post every day about what you are grateful for, whom you are grateful for, and why you are grateful. At the end of seven days, see if you feel happier and more at peace. Use the hashtag #GiveThanks. Working together, we can flood social media with a wave of gratitude that reaches the four corners of the earth. Perhaps this will fulfill, in part, the promise God gave to Father Abraham, that through his descendants “all families of the earth [shall] be blessed.” 

"Second, let us unite in thanking God through daily prayer. Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray by first expressing gratitude to God and then petitioning Him for the things we need. Prayer brings forth miracles."

And then he PRAYED for us all! I can't think of any other time in my lifetime that I have heard the Prophet pray. He speaks often and we can read his words often. But to have him actually PRAY for us was a very special experience. 

If you haven't seen the 15 minute message that he gave on November 20th, please click here to watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlcILxGmVrI&ab_channel=TheChurchofJesusChristofLatter-daySaints

As I have begun to participate in his invitation to post on social media the things that I am grateful for - every day for 7 days, I have seen the entire spirit of Instagram and Facebook change. I don't usually post very often, and I don't usually get on Facebook very often either. But checking those 2 sites every day since President Nelson's invitation to #GiveThanks, I see a shift. Instead of people posting negativity and frustrations, people are now posting things that are meaningful and inspiring. 

If the millions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can each make the effort to post positive messages of deep gratitude from the depths of their hearts, we can change the world!! We can reverse this downward spiral of depression, woe and self-pity, anxiety, anger, frustration, and impatience!! What a wonderful thing that could be!! I truly hope it works. I feel it working in my heart as well. :)

Also on Friday, Scott and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to look for ideas for our bathroom shower. We are trying to find flooring to match the off-white and grey marble tiles that will be on the walls. 

These are a couple of ideas we are tossing around for both the flooring and the mosaic design that will be in the middle of the shower walls.

Amber, with her amazing art perspective, suggested that these colors are all too closely related and that we need to find something different to add dimension. So for now, we are waiting until the floor tile gets finished, the walls get painted, and the wainscoting is up. Then we will decide, based on what it looks like at that point. 

Amber also channeled her inner construction worker vibe and she cut over 40 slices from a tree branch for some Christmas crafting, each about 4 inches in diameter. 

And before Scott took me out to dinner Friday night, Gwen and Abby organized a little performance from the Sound of Music in the living room. 

Click here to watch:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zFtzgdJ2S5LKbKS36

Saturday: SCANDINAVIAN ANCESTOR DAY!!! We started out the day by making Icelandic Pancakes. They are basically crepes, but they turned out so light and fluffy and spongy that we were quite enamored! There are more eggs in this recipe than what the usual crepe batter requires. 

Here is the recipe:

https://adamantkitchen.com/icelandic-pancakes-ponnukokur/

I had 2 pans cooking up the batter at the same time. That helped timewise. :)

If Gwen and Abby could eat crepes 3x/day into infinity, I bet they would be ecstatic!! They love to put either powdered sugar inside, or Nutella. I put scrambled eggs and bacon into mine.

Later that morning, I began working on the dessert: Happy Marriage Cake (also from Iceland). It was super yummy!! It has a rhubarb-jammy sort of spread on top of a lovely oat/flour/butter/cardamom crust. 

Just as they went in the oven . . .

All done. Nice and golden brown. :)

Here is the recipe:

http://www.thesugarhit.com/2015/01/icelandic-happy-marriage-cake.html

I took a little video of our kitchen at one point, so I could share it on Instagram. It shows us listening to Traditional Scandinavian music on Pandora, Amber cooking up the potato latkes for the smoked salmon appetizers, the Happy Marriage cakes fresh out of the oven, and some of the artistic tributes that Abby and Gwen helped us make.

Click here to watch:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zDJvT3dhnNiP6D4X7

When it came time to chop up the vegetables for the Fish Soup, it required TWO entire onions! I gave up at 1 3/4 and said that's enough!! Meanwhile, Scott was assigned to slice all the root vegetables for a special salad, using the mandolin slicer. He was right across from my onion-chopping station, and the noxious gasses were getting to his eyeballs. This was his solution.

Here, I'm adding 1.5 lbs of freshly cut up Cod into the fish soup. 

I finished up the soup by adding in the creams, while Amber worked on the Swedish Meatballs.

Amber also had the girls help her make a garland out of Scandinavian country flags. See if you can identify which flags belong to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland.

Abby helped get the table set all pretty. 

Below, you'll see the Smoked Salmon Latkes in front of my goblet of water. The Fish Soup has some lovely chive oil drizzled on top. And off to the left is the Shaved Winter Salad, made up of raw beets, radishes and rainbow carrots, with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic glaze, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

The Swedish Meatballs are traditionally served with Lingonberry Sauce/Jam. It is very similar to a cranberry sauce and is perfectly paired with the meat and gravy. It was delicious!! We got our Lingonberry Sauce at World Market in Boise when I was there a couple weeks ago. 

Here are the recipes we used:

Swedish Meatballs

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/swedish-meatballs/

Smoked Salmon Latkes

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/smoked-salmon-latkes-with-scandinavian-horseradish-cream/

Fiskekrogen's Fish Soup

https://www.saveur.com/fiskekrogens-fish-soup/

Shaved Winter Vegetable Salad

https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/shaved-winter-vegetable-salad/

We also shared some family history from Scott's Harmon line. His great-grandmother, Sophia Jones married Frank Milton Harmon. 

Here is Sophia Jones. 

Her mother, Christina Jacobsen, was born in Bergen, Norway, while her father, Moses Jones was born in Wales. 

Here is a little blurb about the life of Moses Jones.

And another family photo of Moses and Christina and their family.

I ALSO had a ton of fun researching fun facts on the internet about Scandinavia and each country. I compiled this research guide along with a fun little quiz. You are welcome to take the quiz if you want to!

Scandinavian Fun Facts

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RfGxMXr8YHxvsjitBCWHuXSALl5okflXy7C7JqOwc4M/edit?usp=sharing

Scandinavian Quiz - it will tell you the correct answers after you submit yours first.

**Keep in mind that traditionally, there are only 3 countries in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway & Denmark). But sometimes Iceland and/or Finland are incorporated in. For this quiz, the answers will only be Sweden, Norway or Denmark.

https://www.flexiquiz.com/SC/N/6c5335db-6ea8-43f0-88cc-cb0c56d3fe14  

FYI:  I also have some Norway in my DNA - a whopping 2% to be exact. My daughter, Amber, has 3% Norway in her DNA. So that's pretty cool.

After this super fun & delicious dinner, I helped Scott by being his humble assistant as he grouted our bathroom floor tile. As he got all sweaty from spreading the grout and then sponging the sandy mess up, my job was to rinse the one sponge as fast as I could and hand him the other one that was ready to go. Then do it again. And again. And again.

This is as far as we got last night. 

First, let me point out Scott's tile-cutting skillzzz. Notice the tiny little curved cut he made to hug the toilet flange. He didn't even break the piece of tile in the process! Woot woot!

Almost done laying down the tiles . . .

Getting his sweaty workout pushing that grout all into the seams late last night.

Then it was time to mop and sponge it all off the surface.

While we got all the grit and sandy grout sponged up and removed last night, there is still a little filmy substance still lingering on the surface. We used an old t-shirt to buff some of the tiles, and it seemed to be working. 

But since we got to take a nice time-out on the Sabbath day today, tomorrow we will work on that again some more. 

Tomorrow, I will also paint the walls. And probably on Tuesday, Scott will begin putting up the wainscoting. Hooray!!

Today, for our family Zoom chat, we were missing our Italian children, Benson and Kylie. Benson's new work schedule has him getting up at 4:00 a.m. so he tends to go to bed crazy early. With church this morning, we weren't able to catch them at a good time today. We sure miss them! XOXOXO

In this screenshot: Amber was teaching us a knitting technique that is common in Scandinavia, called Fair Isle knitting. And Jacob was driving himself and Hannah home from Salt Lake City back to Provo. They had just had a big family lunch with her Dad and other family members before they had to leave to drive back to Washington after her grandma's funeral on Friday. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! Stay safe, eat lots of food, and be happy!!