Life in a Northern Town: FAMILY LETTER 01.22.01

Dear Loved Ones,

The January doldrums continue, as I can hardly remember anything remarkable about this week. It’s been pleasant. Reminds me of a favorite Sundays song (When I’m Thinking About You), “When you’re coasting a long and nobody’s trying too hard, you can turn around and like where you are.” We like where we are.

We love that we got to have Grandpa and Grandma Melin over for Family Night on Monday—they even brought dinner! We started a new game called, “When I Was Your Age,” and it was Niles’ turn to ask Grandma about what life was like for her when she was six or seven. Next time we play, I’m going to record their answers because all I can remember a week later is that Grandma sure loved her tricycle and she lived in Roy, Montana. We also watched a snippet of President Monson’s funeral and discussed ways—big and small— we can go to bed every night feeling like we’ve done some good today. We also got to celebrate Heidi getting a part in the middle school production of “Wizard of Oz” with our community theater. They practice for 9 days then put on their show, all in 2 weeks! The show is this Saturday and we are excited! Tuesday was an exciting day because Uncle Drew turned 40 and we learned that Russell M. Nelson had been set apart as our prophet on Sunday January 14^th in a special broadcast. It was great to hear from the first presidency right away. Wednesday was a laundry and writing day for me and that night the kids had YW and Scouts. The girls learned to make bread—yum! Thursday I deep cleaned the downstairs, which I rarely do because it is so futile. It breaks my spirit to see what my kids do down there in their “den of iniquity,” with dirty dishes, fruit snack and cheese stick wrappers, dirty socks and tissues, et cetera, stuffed in couch cushions and shoved into corners, not to mention the big messes like blanket forts, toys, board games, legos, etc.—but it’s gotta be done once in a while. Clean family room and play room were short lived, of course, because James and Niles both had friends over after school and Ammon was trying to join in. The girls both had rehearsals and friend stuff after school, but there was no school Friday so Thursday was like a Friday night. Friday morning we all got up late and had breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen. Addie went on a run with Conor then he came over for brunch and “Chillin with Bob Ross.” I took the little boys to the park even though it was starting to snow. I had promised them a date and they begged for Happy Meals, so we got those and had a picnic in the playground towers because it was snowing even harder. They ran around like crazy for an hour, then abruptly decided they were too cold, so we got in the warm van and came home for cocoa and snuggles. I took Heidi to rehearsals and Addie to get some Valentines. We put on some music and made Valentines and dinner and had a nice quiet snowy evening at home. Our boxed set of Harry Potter movies finally arrived, so of course the weekend was a Harry Potter marathon. Saturday was the definition of “puttering around the house.” Did some chores here, some errands there, took a nap, made some food. The girls had a busy day, though. They had a YW brunch followed by a service project followed by ukulele lessons, and then Addie had a date. Rich had to run some stuff out to the ranch, so he took the boys to see the Grandparents. The rest of us, of course, watch Harry Potter. I was feeling crummy so I took a bath and went to bed early. I had a migraine and crazy leg in the early hours of Sunday, so I missed church, but my family went and said all the talks were awesome and the Young Women’s lesson was awesome (Divine Nature, having a mother heart). For home church I watched the most recent BYU devotional with Elder Curtis after I rested and took medicine. In his talk, Elder Curtis held up notes he took at a devotional with Neal A. Maxwell in 1971, before Maxwell was an apostle. I looked up that Maxwell’s 1971 talk and listened to it, as well. There is no transcript, just audio, so I took a bunch of notes. It was so great—so many of those one-line zingers. I felt better in the afternoon, so I baked some birthday cakes for friends and delivered them with Addie before we had a little supper of clam chowder and hit the hay. Without writing this letter. So now it’s Monday morning and my work is calling. I wish you all a wonderful week! Special wishes for a happy birthday to Grandma Lyn on Tuesday—we love you, Gram!

Love, Jamie and Rich and Family