Moran Family Fun

It's the end of November and that means this is the last of my (almost) daily posts. I started writing a post a day during November way back in 2011. It's one of the main reasons why I still even have this blog. I mean, I kind of feel like having a blog was a thing in 2010 but it's not now. But I do like having this space as a way to share our lives a little bit and get my feelings out when I need to. Even though sometimes writing on the blog feels like just another thing on my never-ending to do list I keep writing and will probably keep doing so, although not nearly as often as I've been doing this month.  One last post for November though and I'm going to keep it simple.  Anybody's else's camera roll filled with selfies taken at awkward angles and silly videos? I swear I hand my phone over for twenty minutes and I've got dozens of photos that I only hang onto because I think they might be useful for embarrassing them in the future. I guess I ...

Over the last little while I've made an effort to drop the "everything is fine" facade and answer honestly when people ask me how I'm doing. It's surprisingly difficult to do though; generally when people ask they don't really want to know and they expect to hear the standard response. Everyone always says they're fine, even when they're not. Honestly, it's easier that way. You don't have to explain why you're not okay. They don't feel awkward or burdened with whatever is bothering you. Maybe it's time to be honest with ourselves and honest with everyone else? I'm not saying everyone needs to hear about every single thing that makes me feel a little down, but I should feel comfortable sharing when I'm sad just as much as when I'm happy. Anyway, I'm trying, but I'm not always perfect. It's certainly easier when I feel like the person who's asking actually cares about the response.  When my friend ...

The last couple of months of the year feel like baking season. It's certainly a time when I stock up on ingredients for baking. We always have the basics for chocolate chip cookies on hand, but this time of year I try to make sure we have the ability to make all our favorite treats and try every single new recipe we come across. So we've got all the varieties of chocolate chips and other cookie mix-ins, whole and chopped nuts, plenty of sugar and flour, and assorted extracts and flavorings. Yesterday was our ward's Relief Society Christmas party and I had signed up to bring a dessert to share. I have a little bit of a potluck problem. I always want whatever I make to be the thing people just rave about. The dish that is sitting empty within ten minutes. The one thing that people are disappointed there wasn't more of. The dish that has everyone asking for the recipe. It's a total prideful fault of mine and it leads me to spend way too much time deciding what to ...

There's never a good time to have to pay for work to be done on your car. I dropped off our family car at the mechanic yesterday and sent Jared this text: Our wonderful little Kia Carens needs a new clutch. A couple of weeks ago we had our annual MOT inspection done, which is a required safety inspection here. We passed without a problem, but the mechanic mentioned that our clutch was starting to wear out and and would need to be replaced soon. And you kind of can't drive a standard transmission vehicle without a clutch so it was a repair that we couldn't put off for very long. Rather than wait for it to totally go and be stranded and unable to drive the car, we set up an appointment to get it fixed up.  The only real symptom our car was experiencing was difficulty shifting gears, especially into first and second gears. When the weather is cooler it could be almost impossible to get the stupid thing into first gear and it just felt sort of, well, crunchy, the r...

Today I started a five-week scripture study focused on the themes of the Advent season and the names of Christ. I'm following a study guide I found at thesmallseed.com and I'm so excited to dive in and focus more on the Savior this year during the Christmas season. One day into this and I've already learned something new - each of the four weeks of Advent has a theme! I love a good theme so I find that to be really cool. Each week leading up to Christmas, my study will be centered around one of those themes which are hope, peace, joy, and love. My hope is that following along with this study guide and the Light the World service activities (which also have a weekly theme this year!) will help me to focus on what really matters at Christmastime, bring joy to my life and to the lives of others, and will deepen my faith in and love for Jesus Christ. 

Every Sunday we try to hold a family council where we discuss family problems, work out finances, make plans for the upcoming week, pray for one another, and generally support each other. I say try because we're not perfect and it doesn't always happen but we really do try. Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke in General Conference a couple of years about this most basic of all church councils and we've since tried to be more diligent about making time for these important meetings.  It's not always easy but the promised blessings are definitely worth the work. We loosely follow the format on the Family Council cheat sheet on the blog post I linked above. Prayer is always the first step, then we talk about any problems we might be dealing with that we can help each other solve. Sometimes the problems are simple and easily solved, sometimes they require more effort and time. But it's so good to talk about our problems together and show our love through caring support. ...

We avoided stores yesterday but today we went out a did a little shopping. I wanted to go to the BX on Mildenhall, which is the base in the local area that is furthest away from our house.  It might sound strange that we wanted to go to the store that is furthest from us, but their BX has some things that ours doesn't, so I do occasionally have a reason to go there. Today I wanted to look for a few things to put in a Christmas package for Madison and Emily and almost all of the Christmas decorations and other items are at Mildenhall. So Jared and I headed over there this morning, had a breakfast date at Burger King, and then headed into the BX.  The first thing we saw when we walked in the store was a big display of televisions that were deeply discounted for their Black Friday weekend sales. We've been considering getting a new television for a while now but keep going back and forth about it. I'm fine with the size of the TV we currently have, but it has a weird glit...

It's the day after Thanksgiving and that means we can finally decorate for Christmas! Since moving here we all look forward to Christmas more than we ever have before because Christmas is the one time a year our entire family is together. We also really, really try not to do any shopping or go anywhere on the day after Thanksgiving. Knowing this, Samantha and Natalie got ready for the day by not getting ready for the day and wearing pajamas.  They were so cute in these fun Christmas PJ pants that I sewed for Abigail and Emily last year. I don't know if the pants shrunk quite a lot or if these two girls have grown quite a lot. Either way, look at their older sisters last year - same pants, different girls! Today was such a great day. We slept in (well, not Jared who had to work the entire stinking day at the last minute), we blasted Christmas music, we ate Thanksgiving leftovers, we watched movies, and we generally had fun being together. And at the end of the da...

Emily pointed out to me that we haven't had a Thanksgiving at home since 2015. In 2016 we were still living in a hotel so we went to the base's chow hall for our Thanksgiving meal before heading to York for the weekend. Last year Jared was deployed and the girls and I were invited to share Thanksgiving with our friends the Arteagas. For the first time in three years we spent turkey day at home and it was really nice!  My goal was to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen today so I chose a menu that was mostly hands-off - including turkey in the slow cooker which is a total Thanksgiving game changer. By lunchtime, there was really nothing left to actively do so we headed out for an afternoon of fun. One nice thing about living out of the country for American holidays is that we're off school and work but everything else goes on as usual. That means we can go out and everything is still open but the local nationals are still in school or at work.  Today ...

Today I spent the afternoon working as a substitute teacher in a fourth grade classroom. We worked on math, science, and social studies together and it was a nice afternoon. In the morning I was at the high school where I filled in for a special education paraprofessional, which I always enjoy because I get to work with smaller groups or even with students one on one and I'm never in charge of an entire classroom.  I like being in the schools and working as a substitute. This is something I did in Maryland a little, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much there as I do here.  Every day I'm doing something different, which is really fun and has helped me to see what kinds of jobs within education I would or would not enjoy. My kids and I always have the same days off of school and the same schedule on the days I am working so I can be there for them. Substituting is a totally flexible job; I'm kind of my own own boss and can work as much or as little as I want. For exa...

Everyone Jared works with is having a baby. Not really, but enough that they're doing a joint baby shower at work on Monday for the four families in Jared's section who have recently or will soon welcome a baby to their families. Jared asked me to "whip up some baby gifts" for him to bring to the shower. I've not done any real sewing for a while; it's mostly been mending things here and there which isn't nearly as enjoyable for me. I was looking forward to actually creating something again and to taking these plain pieces of fabric and turning them into something both functional and beautiful.  I kind of have a standard baby gift that I give to people when they're expecting. It's a fabric strap  to corral diapers and wipes is a bag and a coordinating changing pad .  If you've known me for the past ten years or so, chances are you've received this little baby gift. It's nothing fancy, but it really is useful plus I like to think tha...

At the Moran house, we talk a mean game about being a family that plays games. If we're being honest we probably enjoy watching movies and TV shows together just as much as we like playing games. But Sundays are our day for opening up the game closet and pulling out our favorites and one of our long-time favorite games is Catan Städte und Ritter . We're kind of game snobs - no Monopoly and other "basic" games in this house. It's all slightly obscure European games where you generally need two hours (and sometimes a knowledge of the German language) to decipher the directions and even longer to play. Yep, we're nerds.  We're always on the hunt for new fun games to play, and we've found some really great ones thanks to like-minded friends and helpful online reviews. But we always come back to this one because it's so much fun to play. Okay, maybe fun isn't the right word. This game has a well-deserved reputation for ruining friendships. ...

Our five intelligent, kind, talented, beautiful daughters all started back to school on the same day this year. The three younger girls live with us and are forced to smile for the camera whenever I feel like taking a picture and the first day of school is certainly a documented occasion around here. Our two oldest kids live half a world away and are just good girls who know I want first day of school pictures so they met in the shadow of Old Main and took some pictures just for me.  We've got such good kids you guys. They know what makes their parents happy and they are actually willing to do those things most of the time. I often wonder how we got so lucky. I mean, when we started this parenting thing we were the definition of young and stupid. I was barely twenty and Jared was almost twenty-three when Madison was born. We had no idea what we were doing but we've done our best and, somehow, it's worked pretty well so far. They're just amazing young women who work...

Our girls used to get piano lessons from their mother. But those lessons were never very regular at all. As a mom with a basic ability to play the piano, I feel some guilt for not passing this skill onto my children. I feel that learning to play an instrument, any instrument, is a good thing for everyone. And knowing how to play the piano even a little bit will give them another talent they can use to serve others. In the last few years, there have been almost no lessons at all for any of our sweet girls.  If one of them asks me to teach them a lesson and it's something we actually have time for in that moment  I'm happy to do it, but it's not something that is planned and scheduled so it rarely happens.  Feeling that this is a good or a bad thing varies widely from child to child. Of all our girls, Madison is the most dedicated and able pianist. Because I was younger and perhaps more optimistic in her piano lesson days, she got more lessons from me than anyone e...

This week for my religion class we read the entire book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon. Normally it would take me much longer than a week to read Jacob thanks to all seventy-seven verses of chapter five, the allegory of the olive tree. And normally, all I remember from Jacob is that very long chapter about vineyards, pruning, grafting, masters, and servants. But maybe I'm finally growing a little because this time a different chapter stood out and spoke to me; the very last chapter of Jacob, chapter seven . In this chapter, Jacob and the Nephites meet Sherem. The scriptures say that "there came a man among the people of Nephi" (Jacob 7:1) and that "he had a perfect knowledge of the language of the people" (Jacob 7:4). To me, this means that Sherem wasn't a Nephite, but he knew enough about the Nephites to easily communicate with them in their own language. Sherem used this knowledge to teach that there wouldn't be a Savior and because of his flattering...

It's Emily's birthday today - she's nineteen years old! It doesn't feel like nineteen years since this dimpled wonder joined our family. This is the first time Emily hasn't been home with us to celebrate the day of her birth and it's kind of strange. I mean, kids grow up and move out and that's always been the goal, but we sure miss our biggest girls and wish they lived a little closer.  We talked with Emily a couple of times today and it sounds like she's going to have a great day. Her friend Cole from her missionary preparation class stopped by before her first class with a bunch of candy and treats for her and a really nice card. Her roommates have some sort of plan for celebrating this evening all together at Madison's apartment. She's had so many friends and family members reach out to her on social media to wish her happy birthday. It's good to know she's been taken care of and made to feel special since we can't all be togethe...

Since we observed Remembrance Day yesterday, we spent today sleeping in (because we stayed up way too late last night playing games with friends), going to get our cuckoo clock repaired, and then playing more games with friends. It was a good start and finish to our day with a slightly frustrating middle.  We bought a cuckoo clock when we were in Germany at the end of September and for maybe half a week it worked perfectly. Everybody loved it and Jared, who has wanted one for decades, was especially happy to finally have a cuckoo clock. Sadly, after a few days it stopped working correctly. The door for the little zither man that pops out and plays music on the half and full hour became stuck in the open position, then the music stopped playing, after that the cuckoo bird wouldn't come out and cuckoo at each hour, and eventually the clock wouldn't keep the correct time. Jared tried to fix it by following some troubleshooting videos he found online, but it just wouldn'...

The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I is today and it's a huge deal here in England. I'd be interested to know how the American public is remembering this important event. I know Veteran's Day is always celebrated, but I don't see it being embraced by the people as a day to really remember veteran's the way it's done here. There are flags emblazoned with Lest We Forget flying, everyone is wearing a red poppy pin in memory of the soldiers who died fighting in France during that war, and even the smallest towns and villages have some sort of memorial set up to commemorate the end of the First World War. Here in Brandon, there is a waterfall of crocheted poppies spilling from the tower of the church and another display on the main street with "Brandon Remembers" spelled out in red poppies. In church today our Sacrament Meeting was dedicated to remembering Veterans and their service and sacrifices. Abigail and I sang the song "In Flan...

We visited Duxford Imperial War Museum today.  Duxford was first used as an airfield during the First World War and continued to be a Royal Air Force station until the 1960s. Today there are seven hangers housing an impressive collection of military equipment (mostly aircraft) dating back almost a century. Many of the airplanes are maintained in flying condition, which is pretty cool. We were a few miles away from the museum when we saw an old biplane flying overhead and once we arrived we saw several old planes, including a Spitfire , taking off and landing from the grassy runway at Duxford. For only £4850 each, or about $6300, we could have taken a 50-minute flight in one of these iconic World War II planes.  We decided to stick with the regular stuff in the museum instead of dropping thirty grand on airplane rides. And there was a lot to see! There were areas devoted to American planes, ground fighting in the first and second World Wars, what it takes to care for ...

Today's post will be short and sweet because I'm tired and it's almost midnight. According to Abigial, and I kind of agree with her, I'm a basic white mom. That means I'm just like all the other moms in the way I look and dress and the things I do and say. So when we were heading into the clinic on base this morning for our flu shots I had to take this very basic photo. Autumn leaves and the four of us standing in a circle for a picture of our shoes.  Yes, it's super basic but I don't care. These sweet girls and their sweet shoes make me happy. Autumn leaves make me happy. I love Target, and comfy pants (but leggings aren't pants in my book), and my Instant Pot, I wish I could do a good messy bun, I write a BLOG for goodness sakes, I think my letter board is cool, I use way too much dry shampoo, I can't help but take a selfie on days when I look good just to prove that I still do sometimes, and I eat treats in the car on the way home from the ...

In February, we purchased tickets for a performance of Hamilton: An American Musical. At the time neither of us really knew anything about the play beyond having a basic knowledge of Hamilton's part in American history.  We'd not listened to the music and we didn't have any idea what to expect but it's a hard-to-get ticket and we'd heard really good reviews so we went for it! And nine months later the day finally arrived. Jared took the day off work and we boarded the train to King's Cross.  Most of the time we drive to London and park at an Underground station on the outskirts of the city where we take the Tube into central London. This time we chose to drive to a nearby train station and caught the train from there to King's Cross. It was so nice to just sit and talk instead of dealing with traffic and parking. Even better, when we take the train it only takes a little more than an hour to get there. From King's Cross, it was just four stops on th...

Sorry for posting two days in a row about our sweet Abby, but today she wrapped up another successful cross county season with an end of the season team banquet. This team and sport have become a big part of Abigail's life each fall. Because our school population is so transient it's a slightly different group of kids every year, but they always feel like family by the end of the season. Abigail takes great pride in being a runner; every time she sees someone out running around our town or on base she'll yell, "I do that sport! I run cross country!" It's both cute and annoying. We love Abigail and we love her dedication to this sport.   Coach and Mrs. Stacy Coach Riess Abigail was blessed with coaches this year who really cared about her as a person and not just as a runner. In the early part of the season she was struggling and they supported her (really they supported our entire family) in making sure she got back on track and finished the season...

Yesterday was National Love Your Red Hair Day in the United States, so I'm only a day late to the party by writing about two amazing redheads that take up a lot of room in my heart - my amazing man Jared and our magnificent middle child Abigail. Of course, there's room in my heart for the other redheads in my life (@Madison, Samantha, and my Mom) but today we're going to talk about these two and how awesome they are together. Our of all our girls, Abigail is the most like Jared.  She's confident, she's funny, she likes to make people happy, she's a leader, she's competitive, and she's a great friend. I love seeing Abigail and Jared having fun together.  Last year Jared started a tradition of taking Emily to lunch every Tuesday during the school year. This year, he's continued the tradition by having lunch with Abigail each week. Due to Jared's work schedule and Abigail's student council obligations, they haven't been able to have l...