Did Groundhog Day Start the Winter All Over Again?

Seriously. I think we've gotten more snow in the month of February than we have the entire winter thus far! Especially in the last week. We got about 4+ inches at the beginning of the week, then a little bit more almost every day after that. And then Friday night into Saturday we got another 4 inches by the time it was all done.

Gwen . . . traipsing out into the snowy abyss

Abby . . . whacking snowy branches with a painted branch of her own

I keep telling everyone that complains about the snow: "Every drop of snow that we get now is a drop we get to play in during the summertime!" But sometimes I have to remind my own self about the importance of getting enough snow pack now and to be grateful for it. :)

This week has been a mixture of projects, play, decorating for St. Patrick's Day, and getting everything lined up for our England Ancestor Night.

Monday: President's Day. A bonus day for Scott to be home instead of at school. He happily jumped in to work a little more on our tiny walk-in closet organization.

He built a shelf higher than the previous one so that we could move the hanging rod up higher as well. We made sure to test out how high I could reach up to hang up my clothes, since I am pretty short . . . All is well. :)

And he built that vertical shelf on the left as the framework for some cubby shelves. I am so excited to have cubbies in our closet!! I plan to make good use of them!!

Abby also wanted to get out the old and special dolls that Grandma Zoe made so long ago. I got the treasure chest down from the office closet and she happily unwrapped each one and laid them out next to her.

Some of the dolls had a sad face sewn on, and she felt the need to comfort each one of them.

Then she made up a story and I video recorded her as she told the story. It's in 3 parts.

Part 1: (2 min, 10 sec)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2wzmPvN9wahkUghQ7

Part 2: (1 min, 30 sec)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9uWiR6qtT48ot8WT6

Part 3: (2 min, 21 sec)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UQ84sU2ELM2MQqJq7

I also made a tasty chicken soup for dinner that night. I added 3/4 of a head of cabbage, per Jacob's suggestion. It made it so thick and full of texture - I loved it! The soup had: Rotisserie chicken, sliced carrots, celery, onions, garlic, seasonings, broth, and evaporated milk to thicken it.

Tuesday: After a heavy snow day, my young women's class came over that evening to do "Just Dance" for a form of exercise. Afterwards, we ate healthy snacks upstairs. It was super fun!!

First: I had to clean the room and clear a good space for everyone to get up and move around.

Second: Scott and I had to try things out and get some exercise for ourselves, ha ha

Finally: The girls had a blast!

Allie even offered to help Gwen do a song by helping her do all the moves. How thoughtful!

Wednesday: Scott received his Meritorious Service Medal in the mail from his service with the Saudi Arabian military for a year. It is a very special award, and it's the highest award he's ever received. :) I love that guy and I'm so proud of him!!

Thursday: In between decorating for St. Patrick's Day, Abby had some fun "tracing" my face and adding silly features to it. We used a thick plastic sleeve protector page and some dry erase markers. She had me hold it up to my face while she drew on the opposite side.

Then we switched and I drew a silly face for Abby. :)

I also helped the girls make "Leprechaun Lookers" out of empty toilet paper rolls. (I saw it on Pinterest) Now, they can keep an eye out for those mischievous leprechauns leading up to St. Patrick's Day!!

Amber hid this cute leprechaun around the house and the girls had fun hunting for him . . .

Later that night, unfortunately, I cut my finger pretty good. I was putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher, including my favorite big knife. As I was sliding it into its sheath for storage in the drawer, it missed the sheath and filleted my thumb pretty deep. Yikes!

It bled for a reeeeealllly long time. Finally it stopped and I could assess what to do next. We ended up putting super glue on it and it feels much better now. It will take a while to heal, but at least it's protected in the meantime. I'm just glad I didn't need stitches!!

Friday: Early in the morning, Kylie and I video chatted about some random stuff for a bit, ha ha. We talked about potential plans for 2021 and how to make everything fit. After we hung up, I did some research for some flights and best prices for them and then we followed up on everything later that morning.

I really admired her beautiful hair that day. She is so pretty!! :)

In the afternoon, Scott and I drove down to Pocatello to renew my military ID card. It had expired last September, but due to COVID restrictions I couldn't renew it back then. They said everyone had an extension on the expiration date through June 2021. Well, I am happy to report that mine is all taken care of now! (Two thumbs up)

After my ID card appointment was finished, we drove less than 2 miles from the National Guard Armory to see the progress on the Pocatello Temple. It is HUGE!!

When I shared this photo with our kids, Jacob commented by saying it reminded him of the Payson, Utah temple down there. It will be so beautiful once it's completed!! And the neighborhood is really nice up there on the hill, too.

Amber helped with our England preparations later that evening by designing a red telephone booth out of a cardboard box. Both girls helped her paint it a cheery bright red, and then Amber added some finishing touches.

Saturday: Abby kicked off the day with a cute dance recital where we actually got to go and watch her in person! She could have up to 5 guests in attendance, so Scott and I went, along with Amber and Gwen. The recital was in her dance studio at Eagle Rock Dance.

Getting ready to enter the "stage" area . . . Abby is holding her instructor's hand.

Abby - front and center

Here are both of her performances - the same two dances that she did recently at her other recital. But this time we got to film her up close, which was wonderful!

Dance #1: (1 min, 27 sec)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QUn3qxd4hBtW9SgA9

Dance #2: (1 min, 26 sec) (*She's on the far left - they still haven't gotten her yellow tutu yet)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/osZKD9sGgpFPat5J8

Afterwards, Amber presented Abby with a lovely bouquet of mini pink roses. Such a precious moment for mommy and daughter!

As for the rest of the day, it was all about England! From British pop music to British food, we had it all!

I don't know if they have snow like this in England, but we sure do! It was quite a blizzard Saturday afternoon.

Check out our backyard (15 seconds)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vsFn2RJdSsPm1rt99

Our menu consisted of:

Bangers and Mash (sausage dogs and mashed potatoes w/onion gravy)

Recipe here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216071/true-bangers-and-mash-with-onion-gravy/

I bought a high quality sausage dog that was already pre-cooked, so all I had to do was heat it up.

Goat Cheese wrapped in Parma Ham (prosciutto) - with Red Onion Marmalade

Recipe here: http://www.amodernrose.com/goats-cheese-wrapped-in-parma-ham/

Red Onion Marmalade: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222719/red-onion-marmalade/

Roasted Sweet Potato, Beet, and Avocado Salad (something that Charmaine & I had in England back in 2018 and it was so yummy!)

Recipe here: https://ally-jane.com/2015/06/26/this-is-a-salad-for-grownups-with-roasted-beets-sweet-potatoes-and-avocado/

And for Dessert: Knickerbocker Glory (a glorified ice cream sundae, layered with shortbread cookies, strawberry jam, fresh berries, and vanilla ice cream, topped with a chocolate stick cookie)

Recipe here: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/knickerbocker-glory-99

It's supposed to be served up in a very tall glass so you can enjoy all the layers, but knowing that our tummies would be full from the dinner, I chose to serve the dessert in smaller glasses, much to our relief.

The bangers and mash were good. Very filling, but good. Not as amazing as our Italian Dinner or the Germany Dinner, but it was good.

The goat cheese in Parma ham with the red onion marmalade was delicious! I would definitely do that again.

The red onions went from this:

To this:

For the salad, I would definitely do that again, too! The sweet potatoes were cut up pretty small for roasting, but the beets were just roasted whole. After the beets cooled enough, I could peel them and then I chopped them up into matchstick shapes.

Here's my plate:

From the left: Gwen, Amber, Abby, Phil, Coy, and Scott

Our cute red telephone booth was on a side table with some interesting stories and photos from our British family history.

After our bellies were stuffed, we told stories about our ancestors. I shared quite a bit about our Tilden ancestors, on my Grandma Doris' line (her Jones heritage). They were clothiers and worked with sheep, all the way through the wool process to making it into broadcloth and other fabric for clothes. They are documented in Kent, England as clothiers clear back into the 1300's.

Nathaniel Tilden was our immigrant ancestor, who came to Scituate, Massachusetts in 1635 with his wife, Lydia Huckstep, and their 7 children. He was born in 1583, so that would make him 52 years old upon his arrival on U.S. soil. He had recently served as Mayor of Tenterden, and was not only a clothier and a wealthy businessman, but was a respected leader. He was an important financier of the New World adventures after they arrived in America. He was even chosen as the first Ruling Elder in Scituate. Sadly, he only lived 6 more years, and passed away in 1641 at just 58 years old.

Learning about the Tildens when Charmaine and I visited Massachusetts several years ago was coincidentally the catalyst for us planning a trip to England. So there's that. :)

I found an interesting tidbit yesterday as I was preparing my spotlight. When Charmaine and I were visiting the Tenterden Museum in Tenterden, Kent, England back in 2018, I took this photo, but never realized the significance of the information until yesterday.

This section was part of an entire room's worth of tapestry and needlework in large display cases, showing a timeline of Tenterden from medieval times up through the 1900's.

But the words here really struck me:

Transcribed:

"Tenterden's Industries: Edward III invited Flemish weavers to settle in Kent and teach their craft. Tenterden became a centre for the industry. The panel shows combing and carding wool, spinning, weaving and dyeing. Dye works existed in the town until the nineteenth century. The manufacture of charcoal was also important."

So who were the Flemish? And when did Edward III reign?

The Flemish are from Belgium!! And Edward III ruled in the 1300's!! So it got me thinking, what if our Tildens and other family lines came to England (Kent) from Belgium to share their craft??? How cool is that!!! Some day I would like to try to find proof of this idea . . .

Also, a fun fact from the Tenterden Museum was this fascinating piece of history regarding our relative, Samuel Jones Tilden, my 4th cousin 7x removed. Basically, we share the same 10th great grandfather, Nathaniel Tilden. Nathaniel was his 3rd great grandfather.

Here is the story: (pictures were taken in the museum in 2018)

Verrrry interesting, especially in light of our recent election, wouldn't you say? :)

Anyhoo, we took a short break after my spotlight because Abby wanted to perform for us in the living room. She put on a favorite song and danced her little heart out for us.

She also did her best to sing the Christmas song, Were You There on that Christmas Night, but soon deferred to her mother to sing it instead. It was all very impromptu. She basically announced that I would be playing the piano right as she needed to begin, ha ha. Thank goodness I was familiar with the song already, even though I hadn't played it since December!! :)

Once Abby had finished sharing her talents, Scott's mom, Coy, shared some family stories about her grandmother and great grandmother who came from England and crossed the plains with the Saints in the 1800s. She catered it to Abby because their relationship was the same. Abby to Coy = great grandmother. Coy to Eliza Ann Lamborn = great grandmother.

It was so cute to see Abby listening and learning from her great grandma. (insert a GIANT heart here)