A Week of Holidays

 This was a week of holidays!  Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Valentine's Day and President's Day all in one week!  Always before this year I made King Cakes (or bought one when the dough didn't rise) for the girls to take to school on Fat Tuesday.  This was kind of special to them because it seemed like an exotic holiday because no one in their classes knew about Fat Tuesday.  I guess it's not that different here.  The girls and I decided we would still make a King Cake and celebrate, so we invited a few friends over to have a Mardi Gras party with us.  They made their own masks, played pin the mask on the float-rider, and of course ate the King's Cake.  Lyla even found the "baby."  I told her that meant she had to make the cake next year and she just gave me a look.  The girls knew that I actually had burnt the first attempt at the cake this year and ended up spending most of Tuesday morning making another one, so I think to Lyla making the cake didn't seem like much fun.  It sure did taste good though!

Wednesday, the girls and I had planned to go to a mid-day Ash Wednesday service after we got done at church that morning.  I had called around to about eight different churches looking for one that had a service during the day because we have small group on Wednesday nights and didn't want to miss.  I found one, but I must say that my scatter-brained-ness got the best of me that day...again.  In all of my callings, I got the name of the wrong church in my head.  So we turned up at an empty church right on time for the service, which was a good twenty minute drive away from the one we were at.  Bummer.  We decided to think on what Lent is and what Ash Wednesday is meant to make one think about on our own.  So that prompted some nice conversation and thoughtfulness on the girls' and my part.  Celee had been worried about what she should give up for Lent, and I think our talks helped her understand that it is the intention behind whatever you do or don't do for Lent, not some legalistic accounting of a ritual sacrifice.  Proverbs 21:3 says "to do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."  He desires our attention, not some checklist of whether or not I ate chocolate for the forty days before Easter.  I will say though that I did give up chocolate one year for Lent, and it helped me greatly to focus my thoughts on God and to give God control over my desires.  This year though, that isn't where my heart needs refocusing, nor does Celee.  So we are focusing non-food-related offerings.
 Thursday we woke up to fresh snow and we decided to go play of course!  It was supposed to get up to fifty that day, so we knew it wouldn't last long!  So the girls sledded, and made small snowmen, and snow angels, and large balls of snow which got named, drug back to our building and hidden under a bush.  (where two of them are still visible four days later)

The weekend was a bit less exciting.  Gwyn had a sleepover with a friend, but came home sick Saturday morning.  We all went swimming Sunday afternoon after church and no rude people interrupted our fun.  Sunday night Lyla had her Girl Scout meeting.  Her troop is learning all about Poland for World Thinking Day and they got to learn a Polish dance and make a headdress for a folk costume.  Daisies are so stinkin' cute!

 I had inadvertently found out that admission to Mount Vernon is free on President's Day and Jason had the day off so Yippee!  We took off for Alexandria on Monday!  It was such a nice day!  It was a little cold (as you can tell from the big coats, gloves, hats, etc.) but we had a lot of fun there!  We did a self-guided Scout tour along with some of the the activities that they had for George Washington's birthday going on.  The girls had to answer questions from around the estate to figure out the words to complete a quote about Washington, "First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of His Countrymen."  We even go to see "The General" himself tell stories about his life for the crowd.  I knew that George Washington was an exceptional man, but today made it more poignant for me.  No person is perfect, but Washington was such an incredible leader, innovator, and all around honorable man.  The estate is amazing, even in Winter.  It was interesting to think of men in the Revolutionary War enduring bitter cold day after day, while we only stood it for a few hours while touring the grounds.  And we had on good shoes!   And today was a bright and sunny day at least.  The girls learned a lot, not just about Washington but colonial times themselves.  They watched a blacksmith, Celee rubbed coal on her face for some reason, they tread on the threshing floor of Washington's self-designed threshing building, saw how people made paint, spun cloth, washed clothes, and a lot more.  It is crazy to think of how many people it took to run an estate the size of Mount Vernon.  And what a beautiful place.  I had forgotten how gorgeous the view over the river is.  The girls kept saying how they want a house like that with a view like that. Yes, me too.  But I don't think I want the bill, or the manpower needed to own and run it.  I'll settle for my 3-5 acres one day.  :)