It's over

 As I typed, "It's over" in the blog title, my mind flashed back to the end of my mission. I was so miserable to be going home. I cried and cried as we flew over the mountains into Salt Lake City. I ended up going home about a month earlier than I was expecting, and 2 months before I was hoping. :) It was just the way the timing worked out with the number of incoming missionaries. But I wanted to stay in Manila forever, and even though I knew 18 months was all I got, it wasn't easy when that time came. I felt like my heart was being cut in two, half of it staying in Manila. And somehow I was supposed to go home and act normal. 

This time in the branch has been so much like a mission for our family. Our wonderful, extra long mission where we got to learn a language and be part of another culture, all without packing a single suitcase. We hoped it would last forever, we might have even prepared speeches in our heads to give the stake president about why he should keep us assigned to the branch...but in the end, it was moot. 

So, here I am in my living room. There's a ceiling-high row of boxes behind me, a room full of boxes below me, and a mattress on the floor above me. We're moving this week. And I feel just like I did flying home from Manila. My heart has been cut in half. How do other people do this? 

Our sweet friends Meredith and Julia put together a farewell party for us tomorrow. Marriner and I are both pretty sure it's going to be one of the hardest things we've ever done. But also, it feels so special to know that we've done enough good in the world that people want to throw us a goodbye party! :) We're really touched that someone would take time out of their busy lives to plan that for us! Last Sunday, having some extra free time, we practiced some family songs we could "carol" to our friends one last time. 

On that note, Marriner was released last week. Actually, I was released as seminary teacher, too. It caught me off-guard when they started stake business and my name came out first. :) I followed Marriner's advice to keep my testimony short - the new people were the real stars of the show. I couldn't help but contrast my first testimony and last testimony. Both were hard! The first time, because I couldn't express what was in my heart. And the last time, because I couldn't express what was in my heart. For two totally different reasons! There's just no way to share the things one feels at the end of such a journey.

Kylie bore a sweet and hilarious testimony as the wife of the new branch president. She shared a lot of stories about us, actually, and concluded with, "I feel like Harry Potter when Dumbledore dies and leaves him all alone to figure it out himself." I laughed at being likened to Dumbledore - first time that's ever happened! Fortunately, the interpreter missed some of that, and the stake president doesn't know I'm secretly an old man. :) All the testimonies were so beautiful, and I feel like the branch is in the hands of good, mature, knowledgeable and humble men of God. It was definitely a day to remember! One of my favorite parts was in the 5th Sunday lesson, while I was teaching, Marriner came in late. I greeted him, "Welcome, BROTHER Merrill!"

Tomorrow we go to church with no responsibilities at all! Neither of us is teaching or leading anything!

Today, some friends came over and helped break down beds and such. It's amazing how much less stressful moving is with friends to help. Again, just so amazed that people think we're worth giving up their time for! Because they're not doing it because we need it - they're just doing it because they love us. As I was typing this, I was grateful for Kylie, who took down our computers and packed them - and by the end, the internet still works! :) 

Oh - I should mention, we're not ACTUALLY done with everything in the branch - we can't leave until after church next week. Lige has to give his mission farewell talk. :) After that, we'll drive north. For good.

A little real-life parable

 Here's our true story from going to church yesterday....

Martha has not been taking the move well, and she has pretty much turned into a ball of anxiety who hides from everything. Well, going to church, something happened that made her mad (as always, nobody can remember what it was any more.) She was mad before we got in the car, but she got in...then decided she wasn't going to go to church. She tried to climb out of the car while we were driving, she was so mad! We parked about 2 blocks away from the church, and I pulled her out of the car and walked her down the street while calmly and friendly-like encouraging her to calm down - sort of a mix of good cop and bad cop at the same time, ha ha. :) My goal was to get her in the church building, and then we could go sit on the couch together or whatever until she calmed down, but at least I could take the sacrament. 

But as we were walking, a woman coming from the church building passed us, and without missing a beat, said to Martha in the most friendly voice, "Oh, are you going to church? I'm just coming from church. I have this box of candies (milk duds) that I don't need any more - it looks like there's just enough for you and your siblings. Would you like to take them to church with you and share them?" Martha looked at her new friend in surprise, looked at Mom with hope, Mom offered a truce, and we all went to church happily with a little box of leftover milk duds. 

I thought of how Christ-like this sister was - literally. As the mom, I wasn't in a position to be able to offer mercy. Martha required some justice for her actions, and if I offered her candy or something to get her to go to church, that would definitely have been a bribe, and have sent the absolutely wrong message. But this stranger was able to mediate by offering something she had - which made both mother and daughter happy! It was a beautiful moment, and I wonder if this sweet sister, who just a couple of hours earlier had promised to take upon herself the name of Christ, had any idea just how Christ-like she had been that day. 

Rochester, NY

I feel like things are starting to wrap up - and not just because Marriner has been serving for more than 5 years! We have forced the issue, it turns out - Marriner took a new job. No, he did not do that to get out of figuring out what will happen to our family after he’s released! It was actually quite a surprise to our family. I will explain. No, there is no time, I will sum up. :)

Back in the fall, Marriner mentioned one night that he was starting to feel like he should consider a job change. There wasn’t any reason, there wasn’t any problem at work or any discontent with our circumstances. Just a feeling that he should move. He spent some time exploring some various options, he applied for a job at NSF that he didn’t get, and the whole thing felt a bit like trying to find a light switch in a dark room. But in November, he ran into an old contact who worked at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and mentioned his interest in looking at other jobs. That was, it turns out, where the light switch was. It still took a long time to find it, though! Marriner talked to the Dean of NTID, and he wanted to bring Marriner out for an interview. Unfortunately, finals and winter break came, which meant a month of nothing. We went up to interview in January. Then we waited for a really, really long time.  I remember one evening back in March, when one of the kids asked if we had any news. I said we didn’t, and it would probably be better for his mental health if he stopped asking so much. Thus came the quote I’ve been wishing to share on Facebook ever since: “I don’t want mental health, I want answers!” We finally got an offer in April, but some negotiation was needed to make it something we could accept. That took another really, really long time. The final, accepted offer came this week. Now that we can finally tell people about it, we’re exhausted emotionally from all the waiting, uncertainty and suspense, and none of us really wants to talk about it any more! Ha!

The job is very exciting, though! He’s going to be a professor (associate professor, at that!) of Mechanical Engineering. He’ll be teaching in ASL! I will explain a bit about NTID. They are a federally funded college that is housed at Rochester Institute of Technology (which, interestingly, is a private university. Weird.) If a deaf student wants to major in a technical field, they can go to their local university and have an interpreter for their classes. Or they can go to NTID, where all the professors and staff know ASL. Gallaudet is the sister (rival??) institution for students going into humanities/social/business fields. NTID is technically a college of RIT. Currently, NTID offers associates degrees within the college. If you want a 4 year degree, you would spend the last 2 years of your degree “cross registered”, taking your classes at RIT. You’d have an interpreter in class, and NTID professors nearby to provide support. One thing you can see from this system is that advanced degrees in STEM are challenging for deaf people. Right now, none of the other faculty in the ME department at NTID have PhD’s. So they are pretty excited to have Marriner coming. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get a graduate program going and mentor some PhD students (which the current faculty can’t do). And it sounds like at least some of his teaching load will be mentoring and tutoring cross-registered students. Doesn’t that sound like an awesome job?!? At least, it is for Marriner, who has wanted to work more with students for years.

So, Marriner is making a jump from Federal Defense research to deaf education. Which will probably still involve defense research…hopefully… :) Christine, meanwhile, is making a jump from Seminary teacher to…the unknown. Sometimes, the idea of leaving the stressful and annoying things of life behind sounds pleasant. Sometimes I forget how awful packing your whole house up and driving it somewhere new is. But leaving my seminary job is what brings me tears. I loved teaching. I loved my class. I wanted to give them the consistency and full effort that more affluent areas get, but has been a struggle for our ward. I feel like I’m abandoning them. Interestingly, the only person I know in Rochester is the seminary teacher there. She’s amazing, and also not moving. :) Anyway, that’s the hard part of this move for me. I’m sure the Lord has great things in store, but I don’t know what they are yet. All I can see right now is the things I’m leaving. I hope my seminary kids know how much they’ve really meant to me this year. 

So, what does this all mean? I guess it means we get to stay involved with the Deaf community. That’s exciting! They don’t have an ASL branch in Rochester, they have a deaf group in a hearing ward. What is it going to be like to be in a hearing ward, but trying to keep up our ASL? Well, easy for Marriner, maybe trickier for the rest of us! I’m sure both the deaf and the hearing culture will be a little different there, and we’ll have to adjust to that. And what about Lige, who is working on his mission papers? Will he go with us, or will he stay here and keep his job until it’s time to go? There’s a lot up in the air. But one thing that’s not up in the air is what happens to us after Marriner is released. :) 

The stress this whole process has caused on our family was....sorta a lot. Well, it turns out that Lillian found a positive outlet for her stress, and she wrote a song that tells the whole story. And it was so good, we decided to sing it. So here is Lillian's creation, "We don't talk about New York" . We were sad that Lige had to work the night we wanted to record it, but we had so much fun singing this version, and nobody messed up too bad....so we kept it. :)

I’ll share a funny story from Marriner’s interview, that I’ve been saving up for 4 months. :) They had him teach a mock lecture, and invited a bunch of students to evaluate him. As they went to the lecture, they explained that they had an interpreter there. Marriner was surprised, he’d been doing fine without one so far. They explained, “Well…sometimes students are sort of hard to understand, they don’t sign as clearly….” When Marriner walked in and scanned the room, he actually knew most of the students there already. Either they’d interviewed to intern with him, or he’d interviewed them in the WRP program (a government program that helps people with disabilities get federal jobs. Marriner has done mentoring interviews with deaf students for the program for several years now.) One of the students was a girl he was trying to recruit to NRL at that moment! She gave him some raised eyebrows and a little grin. :) They all started chatting and greeting one another, and after about 15 minutes, the interpreter said, “So, I guess you don’t need me?” and was dismissed. Anyway, he got a job, so I guess they were impressed. 🙂

One of the most exciting things in this process was back in March, when we started seeing news reports of a total solar eclipse taking place next April. We looked at the path, and you would not believe it, the eclipse travels RIGHT. OVER. ROCHESTER. Like, we're smack in the middle of the totality path. We watched the last big solar eclipse in Douglas, WY, at Marriner's sister's house. We happened to be coming home from a trip to Utah, and decided to stop there and spend a couple of days to see it. It was SO COOL! Such a blast. I really never thought I'd get to do that ever again - and now, it's going to pass right over my house!! I don't know exactly what this house will be like, but anyone who wants to come out, we can figure out accommodations. :) Hopefully without resorting to tents in the yard in April!

Here's the map, courtesy of NASA:

Updates

 Summer is almost here. Change is in the air. Lige's last day of school is Friday, he's working on his mission papers. We're talking about whether he should stay in the branch for summer or transfer to the YSA ward. Ellis got her drivers licence. Sam is starting to think about getting the Aaronic Priesthood in 7 months, and how he's going to need to understand ASL at a new level when he gets there. Martha realized the other day that she's not bad at understanding ASL, and has been paying a lot more attention than she used to. I mean, you know, at an 8 year old level still. :) 

I'm looking forward to the end of seminary. I love it, and I love my class, and we're having a great time....and I sorta have a lot going on right now, and a couple of months to focus on some other things sounds lovely. Having two real callings is more of a balancing act than I thought it would be. Primary doesn't take a lot of organizing and coordinating - just show up and teach your class, or plan your activity. Relief Society is the opposite. Help people with ministering, figure out what to do with the Temple/Family History committee, involve other people in planning activities, help with self-reliance needs, teach lessons, conduct classes...it's not like it's even so much more to do, it's just more to keep on top of, more mental energy to not forget something. So, I'll be glad to take a little break from seminary and have some time to focus on RS, and getting myself in a groove there...hopefully!

We had a beautiful baptism on Sunday, a woman named Kimberly who just brought a beautiful spirit to the whole day. After the baptism, I was part of a funny conversation that I wanted to write somewhere, because it will make me laugh for a long time. :) Michael was talking to someone, and I happened to look over and see him sign, "Excuse me, I need to grab President Merrill really quick, I need his help to change my life." I took a second to think if I'd misunderstood, but I was pretty sure I'd seen it right....finally, I jumped in, "Did you say change your life?" Michael nodded yes, very casually...then the lightbulb turned on - the sign for life and address are the same. He needed to change in address in the church system, he'd recently moved. Ahhh! It all makes sense now!

(Though, of course, if you want to change your life, talking to your branch president is a great idea.)

(And Marriner was able to tell him how to get his address changed, too. A man of so many skills.)

Hotel pickup duties

 I got a call yesterday from our Stake Primary president. I wanted to blurt out as I answered the phone, "I got released last week, I'm not in Primary any more!" But I didn't, I waited until I heard what happy event brought her to pick up her phone and dial my number. She was in Utah, and she'd just found out that a member of the Primary general board was visiting our Stake conference this weekend, and she needed someone to pick her up from the hotel and take her to conference. I live close to her hotel and was glad to do that. But I did have to confess before she left that I wasn't serving in Primary any more. She was sad, but she still let me pick up our visitor. :)

Getting to the hotel on time was a bit of an adventure. We have a missionary in our branch, Elder Murrillo. He lives in Gaithersburg, a little over an hour drive from us. He needed a missionary haircut - his hair was getting bushy. So he took the bus down to our house (2 1/2 hours, all together) so I could give him a haircut. When he got here, I realized with shock that the hair clippers were in the car - the one Marriner had taken to the stake center for bishop training meeting. There wasn't anything else to do but drive over to the church and get them, which I did slightly more quickly than usual, or than the speed limit typically indicates. When I got back, we had 20 minutes before we needed to leave. I'd told everyone to eat dinner while I was gone, but the kids had gotten in a fight, so they hadn't eaten yet. So I started chopping hair fast, knowing that Elder Murrillo and I could eat dinner in the car if needed. Well, let me tell you, this Elder wins the "Elder with the most hairs on his head" award - probably in the whole church. The clippers jammed if I tried to run them over his head. I had to cut so slowly at first! Once we got the initial mop trim, it went more quickly. But not a fast job by any means. We got the haircut done, then bless the Saturday traffic, we didn't have to leave as early as I thought and had 5 minutes to grab some food. Elder M grabbed some rice, I made a peanut butter and nutella sandwich (easier to eat while driving), and we were off to pick up Sister Snow. As we took off, I realized that it might be against some sort of mission rule for an elder to be driving alone with a sister, but if it was, he didn't know it, and there was nothing we could do about it now. :) We got to the hotel right on time, and it was dark, so Sister Snow didn't see the bread crumbs all over our freshly vacuumed car, ha ha. :)

After conference, Elder M. caught a ride home with some members going north, and I took Sister Snow back to the hotel. We had a great time talking. It's funny how someone you don't know can be your instant friend when you have the gospel in common. What we knew about each other was that we both love the Lord, and we both have a lot of experiences feeling His love and presence in our lives. And once you start telling those sorts of stories, you can go on forever. And it's like Thanksgiving dinner - delicious and satisfying, and you don't stop until long after you probably should have. (Except that with testimony, it's not gluttony to keep going!) We pulled up to her hotel and just kept talking and telling stories - we'd both had a long and busy week, and it was just nice to sit and talk for a bit. I went home past my bedtime, but feeling so close to my Father, and so full of His love. It was lovely. I'm so grateful for the chance I had to make a new friend - the sort who fills your soul with the fire of testimony.

In the course of our conversation, I said one thing that I believe deeply with my soul, and I want to share with all of you. "If there's one thing I wish I could tell everyone in the church, it's that when you give your whole heart to serving the Lord, He takes care of your children." Sister Snow replied with the reverent voice of conviction, "And your grandchildren." What an exciting thing it is to serve a God who will bless my family through the generations for the meager service I render. 

Time flies

 It's been 5 years, guys. Five whole years have gone. Two of them were crazy covid years. Two of them were crazy learning ASL years. This last year has been pretty mellow. :) 

I looked back in my journal. President Sakai came to our house on Sept 28th. Marriner were sustained in branch conference on October 22. Branch conference has come and gone, Marriner's 5th time as the speaker. 

A few months ago, the idea of 5 years arriving had our house in an anxious mess. Rumors were circulating, especially around the hearing ward, who kept letting us know any time we ran into them how excited they were to have us coming back soon. And don't get me wrong - we love them, and we want to hang out with them. But...

I remember some years ago, someone pointed out that for every family formed through adoption, another family had to be broken up. That seemed like a sort of negative way to portray the situation, but it resonates with me right now. Our family moved. No matter what happens next, something is going to be broken. Either our ties with the hearing ward or our ties with our branch. 

Not kidding, I have a new calling.

 Well, it's been a long time. I just spent 5+ years in the same calling (essentially), and I loved it so much. And I was finally getting good at what I did. I know, I've said that every year for every calling. It turns out that there's always more to learn and more ways to grow. But really, that last day of Primary - we had everyone really engaged, and they were such angels, and I thought of all the times they were bouncing off the walls...we've come so far. But now they get to learn from someone else!

I was supposed to be called 2 weeks ago, but something happened to postpone the branch business. This week was a BAD week for it. First off, we had to leave RIGHT after church to get Lillian to her orchestra concert. We don't love Sunday orchestra performances, but we feel like uplifting community events that don't take our mind off the Savior are sometimes important in an area where not everyone feels the same as us about keeping the Sabbath day holy. So as long as they don't interrupt church, we participate. ANYWAY, we had to leave right after church, no pausing to chat, no quick I-have-a-questions in the hall. The other reason it wasn't ideal was because I actually left Ellis home when we went to church. :) She was being quiet up in her room, and we just left without her. When we got to church, I found the text and 3 missed phone calls. But I couldn't go home and get her, I sorta needed to be on time for church that day. :) So in some ways, the whole thing was a little chaotic, and I needed a couple of days to settle down and start to think about what I'm going to do now!

I was called as Relief Society (RS) 2nd counselor. Interestingly, I didn't know if I was 1st or 2nd counselor until 2 days after I was sustained. I don't think Marriner knew, either. :) But I did know that I'm over Temple and Family History work, which makes me happy, because I like family history. And I've put in some work to get a basic level of competency. So I hope I have something to share. 

Later Sunday night, we had our first presidency meeting, and we started handing out assignments. I admit that about halfway through the meeting, I started to feel a little panic. I'm teaching seminary. I'm in a RS presidency. I wasn't replaced in Primary yet - so I'm sure some opportunities to sub there will come up. As the assignments mounted (and some of them not my favorite things to do) I began to feel a little in over my head! But then, a moment of sweet reassurance from the Spirit came to remind me that a.) seminary isn't my "calling", it's my "job" so it's not fair to count that, and b.) I can go forward in faith, and the Lord will help me. So I caught my breath, reminded myself to be faithful not fearful, and stuck up my hand for the next assignment. :) 

For 5 years, I've sort of stayed out of the world of deaf adults. My husband knows everyone and talks to everyone, but I just keep to myself and talk to the kids in Primary. I've loved being in Primary, but one recognized trade-off is that my ASL hasn't developed as much as it would have if I talked to adults more. And now, I suddenly get the chance to talk to adults, but yikes, I have to talk to adults! Despite all the last 5 years, I feel like an outsider or a new move-in all over again. It's going to take some faith to get going in this calling, instead of hiding under the covers and hoping someone will plan my activities for me!!

New friends

 We walked into church this week, and a visiting family was sitting on the row right behind where we usually sit. After an initial sigh of relief that they hadn't claimed OUR pew, and made us sit somewhere different for the day (you know you're all the same....) I noticed that they had kids pretty similar in age to ours. We sat down and said hi, where you from, etc. They were from Florida, the whole family was deaf. Their 9-yr old boy and my 9-yr old boy locked eyes, and I swear, before they even said anything, they were instant best friends. Sam has gotten so much more confident signing, and he's turned into a fast fingerspeller. This means that he can express himself about as fast as his mind goes, as long as the person he's talking too is good enough at ASL and English to understand his signing and his wonky grammar. :) Well, Sam's buddy could hack it, and the two of them gabbed for 10 minutes before church started. Part of me thought I should tell him to stop talking and get ready for the sacrament. But I saw so many people smiling at them, I think their instant brotherhood made people happy. It made for a fun day at church! We're so blessed. Remember back when the kids thought moving to the branch was a sacrifice? (And there were some sacrifices...) Now we're on the end where we mainly see the blessings. Like the kids making friends with people they would never have been able to meet before. 

Some thoughts about teaching scripture lessons to CODAs in Primary. I've been sitting in some of the little kids' Primary classes lately as the required second adult. Their teacher is a pro. I've been observing her, so I can learn from the best. Something I've noticed that is different from hearing Primary - it takes soooo loooonnng just to name all the people, because the kids aren't really great spellers  yet. Many of the Old Testament characters don't have name signs, but fingerspelling Mordecai over and over again is the WORST. So they spend the start of class making up name signs for everyone. 

Another observation: sharing is the worst, too. The kids don't understand each other! They don't have the attention span or the interest to pay attention to what any of the other kids are saying, anyway. So if you ask the kids to share what they learned this week....all the other kids check out while one kid chats with the teacher. Fortunately, this gets better as they get older. But at the end of class, when they get to color, a lot of the kids will share spontaneously, and then they can have a good chat with the teacher.  Just another one of the ways that things need to be adapted for ASL situations. 

Stuff

 Hey, friends, it seems like it's been a long time since I wrote. That's because I haven't been able to think of anything interesting to share with you! Of course, there are lots of interesting things going on, but sometimes they don't write so well on paper. 

For example....I've been thinking for a long time about how to expound on the interesting sounds ASL makes. I was sitting in the living room when I heard the sound of "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I knew that Marriner's meeting on zoom was over, despite him being in a different room just because I heard the knuckle pop of the sign "with" then the clap of "amen." Sure enough, Marriner came up the stairs a few minutes later. I've thought about how to describe the tummy slap of "please" and the hand slap of "bless" that Jane makes when she prays. Most people rub their chest for "please", but Jane's in a hurry, and little kids don't have much of a chest to aim for, so they hit their tummies instead. :) It sounds like thumping a watermelon. The language has become auditorily fascinating to me! But these things probably work better in video format than on a blog....

We had some visitors this weekend - some long-lost friends who were brave enough to look us up when they came in town for the temple open house. It makes me so happy when people do that! I'm so glad they reached out! Of course, they know no sign language, but we're not going to send them to the hearing ward and not see them all day. When friends come to visit, they come to church with us. We took their 11 and 12 year old kids to Primary since YW was just reorganizing their class presidency - boring.... I thought Primary was pretty fab, definitely showing off for our visitors. But after Primary, our 11 year old visitor gave me his frank assessment. "Primary isn't so fun in ASL. When people are talking, if your mind starts to wander, you'll hear something and it will make you interested again. It's really hard to pay attention without any talking." I was very impressed at his analysis - this is, indeed, about what I'd thought of it. It's just harder to pay attention! The poor little kids really struggle with it. I wish I knew a way to make it better without excluding the deaf teachers, but I don't. I mean, going to church is hard, but in general it's the same hard no matter where you go. But all our kids know that their church is HARDER than everyone else's. Sigh. 

One last comment....we've been in the branch 4 1/2 years. Lots of people have started to notice this. I have a simultaneous desire to not talk about it because I don't want to get anxious, and a need to talk about all the worries I have about the future. Getting released eventually is not going to be easy. But even though I keep talking about it, I really don't want to talk about it yet. So if you're one of my 3 readers (ok, that's a made-up number...) do me a favor and don't bring it up. We don't know what's going to happen, or when it's going to happen, and that's everything I'd tell you anyway. :)

 Sigh. This week has been a crying week. I just get overwhelmed with the news from Ukraine, and there's nothing to do but cry about it sometimes. We knew things would get worse, so it's like watching a slow train wreck to hear news from friends. 

Yesterday, I finished Singing Time, cleaned up, and went to the end of Relief Society. The lesson was about increasing our compassion for others, and the teacher used the kindness of the people in Poland as an example. The pictures of refugee camps opened the water spigots in my eyes, and I just sat there and cried. And, of course, felt a little awkward about it. Then I felt the comforting thought that everyone around me was deaf, and didn't hear me sniffling - that was a small comfort! But then I laughed as my small comfort turned against me - the RS president turned around and asked me to say the closing prayer. :) I'm sure she wouldn't have asked me if she'd heard my sniffling!

Keep praying for Ukraine, friends!

Slava Ukraini

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I just want to acknowledge the special place Ukraine has in our hearts. It was there that Marriner learned sign language. It was there God began preparing our family, before our family existed. It was there Marriner (sorta) served as Branch President for the first time.

(It wasn't very long...or very official...but we still enjoy joking about it.)

Marriner's mission companion, Elder Leonhardt (because your mission companions are always Elder and Sister) contacted Marriner this week. He's been called to coordinate refugee assistance for members of the church fleeing Ukraine, and asked Marriner to help spread his contact information to anyone he was in contact with who had fled. At first, Marriner thought he didn't know anyone, his contacts were few and staying put. But he realized that very few people would know any of the deaf members - the branch was dissolved shortly after Marriner left. So he took some vacation time one day, pulled out his pictures, tried to remember names and looked people up on FB and Linked-In. Elder Leonhardt messaged him the next day thanking him - he'd had several people contact him and say Elder Merrill had contacted them. It was a sweet experience to feel the influence of the Spirit as Marriner tried to remember names and faces from over 20 years ago! And it was hilarious to see him trying to remember Russian Sign Language! And it was such a relief to be able to do SOMETHING to help. 

Slava Ukraini. We love you!

Articles of Faith

 So Sam's Primary class is working on memorizing the Articles of Faith, which are 13 succinct statements of our basic doctrines. They're great for kids to memorize - just the right length and difficulty to be challenging but not overwhelming. I was sitting in Sam's class this week, and he said the closing prayer. "Please bless us to memorize the....(and he couldn't remember how to sign "Articles of Faith. So he fingerspelled the whole darn thing.)" After the prayer, his teacher showed him how to sign it, which is to hold your hand up like you're giving high-5, then make an "A" on the top of your palm, then an F on the bottom. Sam copied it to make sure he'd gotten it right, except he did it backwards, doing an F on top and the A on the bottom.

I started to say, "No, that would be the Farticles...." and I got really quiet and just didn't finish that sentence...

How do you sign "granola bars"?

 We had a funny story the other day as we were signing at dinner. Jane is 4, and is getting better at keeping secrets. But she's still learning....

At dinner, Jane, Dad and I were talking about what we did that day, which was getting ready for Lillian's birthday. Lillian wasn't paying attention, she was talking to someone else. As Jane told us about wrapping Jane's present, I jokingly tested her secret-keeping skills and signed, "What did you get Lillian for her birthday." Jane looked really confused, thought for a minute, then put down her hands and blurts out loud, "How do you sign granola bars?" Lillian is startled and looks at us. Dad and I try to tell Jane to shut up without acting like there was anything significant about granola bars at all. Lillian wisely puts on an "I didn't hear anything" face....and, we now know, don't tell Jane anything you really need to keep quiet yet. :)

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Last night was a stake youth activity. Brother Lagos was one of the youth leaders, and Marriner was interpreting for him. There was one part when the kids needed to come up to the leader, obtain some information through questioning, and move on in the scavenger hunt. Marriner and Brother Lagos were chatting when Lige's group came up. I've previously mentioned how it's getting tougher to sign behind our kids' backs - Lige apparently saw the answer to the clue before they got within earshot of the leaders, told his group what the answer was, and they moved on. Totally cheating! ;) And, we have to be even more careful about what we say, it seems!

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We're getting ready for our Primary program next week in Sacrament meeting. Our last song, the grand finale, is "I know that my Redeemer Lives" with violin and piano accompaniment (instead of pre-recorded church songs). I'm really excited for this song, even though I didn't manage to get live piano and violin. I'd hoped Lige and Lillian would do the music, but Lige is so swamped by school work this year, he didn't have time to learn it, so I took over. I thought of playing the piano pre-recorded and having the violin live, but you know, that just didn't seem like the right way to do it - a little karaoke-like. So Lill and I will record the accompaniment tonight, and I'll just play it from my phone like all the other songs. 

We learned this song during the beginning of our re-opening, when we didn't have all the kids back. I had the two kids in senior primary do a little project of interpreting their own verse and doing it as a solo. So the whole primary sings verses 1 and 4, and Sam and Liliaka each have a solo for verse 2 and 3. It's really cute, but the logistics are complex because we had to find a way for them to stand where everyone in the chapel can see them for their part. During a normal song, we have everyone standing along the front of the rostrum, and everyone in the audience can see *some* or even *most* of the kids. But the pulpit is always gonna block the view of some people. So why, you ask, don't use use the pulpit? Cuz the kids are too short! (cough, ok, just Sam...Liliaka's totally tall enough...) Even Lillian has to stand on the kid stool when she speaks in church. But Sam, you can only see his head, and the microphone sorta obstructs that. So we had to be creative....we got the step stool for the water fountain and stacked that on top of the built-in step stool. Now we can see Sam just fine! Grand musical number saved! Sam just has to make sure to NOT fall off!! :) Anyway, I'm excited, I think it's going to be pretty great. 

No more secrets. :(

 It's been awhile since we've had a good ASL-related story, but finally one popped up yesterday.

We planned a super fun Family History day the other day - we try to spend 1 day a month at the temple, but with the pandemic, the temple was shut down, so we started doing family history days instead. Our temple is closed this month for maintenance, so we planned another family history day. We'd originally planned the day to go to the beach, but we all had colds, so we canceled that. It caused great disappointment among the younger kids. But I tried to make things fun by planning an "ocean" themed family history day, where we took a picnic to a little beach on the Potomac river and learned about various ancestors who had emigrated to the US. 

Of course, I didn't tell the kids about this, but the kids were starting to think something was up as we told people (for no reason at all) that they'd probably want to get their shoes on. I turned to Marriner and signed to him to go pack the picnic while I made sure everyone had water bottles. 

Now, 4 years ago, Marriner and I could sign anything we wanted in complete secrecy. It didn't matter that my kids knew how to sign - if our hands went up, their eyes went down, almost by reflex. Because if they actually paid attention, their parents might ask them a question or something else hard, and avoidance was the primary coping method. This sounds like hyperbole, but I promise we have evidence - Marriner and I talked freely about the new baby coming to our family (Jane - 2017) for a month before someone finally noticed. We had to be ridiculously blatant, almost ostentatious, to get them to catch it. 

Well, a new generation has arisen with either better language skills or better people skills. When I signed to Marriner, "Go pack the picnic," Sam (who was just passing through the room, and I had no thought he would pay attention) suddenly perked up and ran off yelling, "GUYS! WE'RE GOING ON A PICNIC!" Which means he even read picnic fingerspelled. 

My parents always switched to French when they needed to discuss something in secret, and Marriner and I have enjoyed some of that same privilege up until this point. But no more. If we need to discuss, we must go to a different room! Our kids are getting too observant.

My kids making music

 Martha and Jane did this for us the other day. They're stinkin' cute. I remember back when Lige, Ellis and Lillian were little, and I would take videos of them singing and playing the piano/recorder/violin/bucket drums. Now I'm taking videos of my younger kids doing the same thing, but Jane is doing it in ASL. Bonus points if you can figure out what song it is (without sound!)

Ok, I'll tell you what song it is below...

It's "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." If you figured that out, you must teach preschool in a deaf school, or be the mother of lots of young kids, and I am very impressed!

Singing time yoga

 In my continued search for singing time activities that we can do without using hands, I found another hilarious and fun one: Singing Time Yoga!

We learned the song "Help me, Dear Father" to go with the theme of forgiveness. The ASL video of the song falls under the category of "Unfortunately recorded in the '80's." But I was impressed that none of the kids even mentioned it. To me, anyway. Maybe they mentioned it to their parents later on when they were complained to their parents about how ridiculous Sister Merrill is lately :) 

We drew pieces of paper from a jar with different yoga poses on them. We did poses you can do with just your feet: staff pose, lotus pose, eagle pose, tree pose, warrior pose....The kids weren't very good at it, but it kept their attention. By far the best part was the two dads who taught senior primary. The sisters who taught junior primary were wiser and just enjoyed watching. :) 

I did not think about the fact that I was going to get to do yoga twice in a row - by the end of singing time, I was hot and sweaty! Couldn't decide if that was a little too rambunctious for the Sabbath, or if I should go home and cheer for exercising. :) 

I am truly enjoying our new explorations in using technology and activity to learn songs. I'm a little worried I'll run out of ideas, and have a rebellion from the kids. But I think we'll make it. After all, we only have 6 months until my current 11-yr olds graduate, and then I don't have any 11 year olds next year at all. (I'm sure all of my readers have heard me lament about how a kid can be my friend from when they're 3 all the way to 10, and then suddenly when they're 11, they are just way. too. cool. for me. It's tough. But then they leave, and they're suddenly my friend again.)

Girls camp

 This week was girls camp for Ellis and Lillian, and they invited the moms to join in. I'm gonna copy pretty generously from a letter I wrote to my family about it, but add in some extra commentary. :)

Hello! The highlight of this week was probably girls camp. It was fabulous. Since we had a mother-daughter camp this year, you even get to hear about it! We went up to Patapsco Valley State park, a little north of us. Lovely area, though the cicadas were less gone there than they are at home. But it's ok, they were certainly not abundant or noxious. Though present enough to inspire a musical masterpiece by Ellis, Lillian and Lizzie. More about that later....

We were thrilled to be able to camp in-person, without masks. Everyone had to sleep in tents with only family members, but that didn't cramp our style much. Thursday, we played disc golf, then did the most relaxing service project ever pulling wavy leaf basketgrass (https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/plants_wildlife/invasives/inv_wavyleafbasketgrass.aspx) around a hole at the disc golf course. It's really easy to pull up, so we just sat and pulled and chatted. Did I mention the weather was amazing, too?

(Pulling weeds really hit at the toughest part of sign language, for me. It seems intuitive to me that when you're hanging out with deaf people, you don't talk. It's just not polite. But what about when you're doing something with your hands, like pulling weeds? Do you just work in silence? Do you give up and talk to anyone else that's hearing? Do you half work and half sign? It's always been SUPER awkward for me, to the point that I sorta want to avoid going to craft activities. I don't, but I have to fight myself to go. So, as we worked, I just did a little bit of both. Sometimes I'd talk, if there were just hearing people around. Sometimes, I'd work in silence. Sometimes I'd interrupt the work to make a comment. I noticed the deaf people were very content to just work and not socialize a lot. It was a good example for me. On the way back to camp, one of the moms asked us to remind our kids that they need to sign. So I just asked what the rule is for when you're working with your hands. She said she was fine with talking if you can't use your hands, but turn your hands back on when you're done. She's also fine with talking and signing at the same time, if you want to do that. I was grateful for her thoughts, it helped me a lot throughout the week. For example in the morning when there were just two hearing people up, and talking seemed easier than signing. But I remembered to go ahead and use my hands as well. Then when a deaf person popped out of her tent, she could join us very naturally, and I didn't feel embarrassed or rude.)

 In the evening, we had a fireside with two sisters in the branch who have helped translate the scriptures. Minnie-Mae, who signed the entire Book of Mormon by herself in the 80's and 90's, and Heather, who just did the D&C and PofGP. I thought they were going to tell about spiritual experiences they'd had while translating, but no, they actually taught the girls about how to translate. It was cool. We talked about the difference between interpretation, in which you can do things like simplify symbols and analogies, and translation, in which you need to retain each concept strictly. We practiced on some verses from Isaiah. It was tough - the verse used the word "them" - who exactly is "them"? My partner and I read the scripture very differently - a lot of discussion was necessary to understand the verse enough to even start translating it. Then you have to make specific word choices - for moth, should we use the generic sign for butterfly/moth, or should we spell it out? Ah, so hard! But so fun. I admit, I hold the performance of a good translator up with the work of a master painist or a star soccer player. Just amazing and beautiful to watch. I was impressed to see the girls just eating the activity up, too. You could tell - they WANT to learn ASL better. They want to understand church and be able to communicate with their parents. I felt a little vision for the incredible goodness of these girls open up as I watched them.

Friday, we did the coolest activity ever, which I will share here, so that all the rest of you working with the YW can put it in your idea bucket. :) For our hike, they brought an extra large water bottle, which represented a burden. (Our theme was "bear one another's burdens".) One person started with the burden, and when they got tired of carrying it, we stopped and they shared a real burden they had. Then someone else (or sometimes everyone else) would share a way they could help bear that burden, they'd take the water bottle, and we'd walk some more. It ended up being an absolutely lovely experience. We learned so much about each other, and felt so much connection - for example, the girl whose brother tells her she's faking it when she has anxiety was very encouraged when the YW president told about an anxiety attack she'd had once that kept her from going to camp - but also led to a friend getting baptized! After it went around the girls (there are only 4 of them...) the moms and leaders took turns. At one point, one of the girls said, "You moms should start a support group together." We all said, "That's what the church is. That's why we're here.' I think it was an eye opening moment. 

In the afternoon, we had an optional activity to visit an elderly branch member who lived close by (40 minute drive...us and our strange ideas of "close"...) My girls had promised to go visit when they set up the activity, and Lizzie's mom made her go, so off we went. The visit was pretty dull for the girls, as they didn't do much talking, just sat around awkwardly. Ruth Ann, our elderly friend, wanted to talk to the adults, not the kids. I felt a little bad for them. I wondered for a bit if the trip was worth it for them. But on the way home, things got interesting. The moms sat in the front and chatted as much as possible without crashing - maybe I should have made Heather drive. The girls, meanwhile, sat in the back and, not needing to sign any more, started singing camp songs. Then they started composing camp songs, and then interpreting them so they could perform them at the camp talent show that night. I will share the lyrics, which go to the tune of "Sippin' Cider."

Cicadas are the ugliest thing
The world has ever ever seen (repeat)
They're in your hair, they're in your ear
I do not like them over here! (repeat)
The moral of this story is
If you see them, then squash them flat!

After that, we had a great evening with talent show and testimony meeting, then did a zip line and giant swing the next day (I mean giant - I still feel queasy from it 2 days later!) We didn't make it home in time for the NHD awards ceremony, so we grabbed some celebratory tacos and pulled into a library parking lot to watch the show from Laurel. Alas, the girls didn't win, but it was still a great experience. How many people can say they've attended a national awards ceremony in their smelly post-camp attire, sitting in a parking lot eating tacos? It was as 2021 as it gets :)

One more observation: on Thursday, some of the stake Young Women presidency came to visit. One of them happens to be an ASL interpreter, yay. The other doesn't know any ASL. We were doing the service project, then some crafts, so not a formal activity where you'd have someone interpret. I wasn't sure how she was going to chat with us appropriately. But it just worked out. At one point, we had me, a deaf mom, our branch YW president and the stake YW president all in a group chatting. The 3 of us who knew sign language were voicing as we signed. When the stake YW president talked, the deaf mom used her mad lip reading skills. I'm not very good at sim-comming (signing and talking at the same time) but I felt like the spirit helped us all understand one another, and everyone overlooked grammar, and it worked. Huge credit to the deaf person for being willing to let the conversation be a little loosy-goosy language wise, and to the hearing person for overcoming any fear of joining a conversation in a language she didn't speak. I'm always so grateful for the stake leaders who don't avoid us because they don't know how to talk to us.

Well, nap time is over, so writing time is done. Write some more later!

You sing, Mom, and I'll interpret.

 Today, we get a cute Jane story!!

I've been experimenting a lot with teaching singing in ASL. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've been using technology more. I've found that if the TV does the signing, I can do some of the other things a singing leader can do, like be silly, compliment people who are doing a good job, move closer to people who are losing focus, etc. I like it. I wish there were more/better videos of songs in ASL for me to use. A lot of the songs were filmed in the '80's. Which isn't bad, but oh, the hair and clothes....it just looks so old! Also, ASL has changed a lot since then, so some songs I have to discard because of outdated signs. And some songs I discard because I just can't even with the '80's look. It's tough finding songs that apply to the lesson, etc. every week, but so far, I think it's been good to use - not all the time, but regularly.

The other thing I've been experimenting with (by government mandate) is only using hands, no voice. This one has been more universally successful. And I can tell, because the kids are remembering the songs better. Cute story as illustration:

A couple nights ago, I was putting Jane to bed. I usually sing "You are my sunshine" before bed, but I thought I'd try to reinforce one of the songs we've learned lately in Primary, and started singing "We'll bring the world His truth." Jane approved - she jumped out of bed and exclaimed, "Start over again, Mom. You sing, and I'll interpret." Well, I didn't even know she knew the word interpret! :) But she stood there and interpreted the song with all her heart, then jumped back in bed. Of course, a four-year old interpretation is high on cuteness and low on understandability...but that's ok!

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Speaking of interpretation, Sam was praying the other day and Martha was interpreting for Uncle Joseph. It seems that Uncle Joseph's vocabulary is getting pretty good, though, as far as the things we tend to pray for. He might not really need that interpretation any more. (Or we need to get better at saying different things during our prayers??) Sam was praying, "Thank you for s-" and then he stopped, and remembered that Dad told him to SHOW things if you don't know the sign, instead of spelling them out. He did something with two hands making O's, and moving them in front of each other. No clue what he was talking about. Nor did Martha. After the prayer, Marriner inquired tactfully about what he was trying to say, as it was clear that none of the other kids had gotten it either. Uncle Joseph piped up, "I think it was the solar eclipse." And he was right! This guy has talent, too bad we can't get him in our branch.

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I have a fear of being asked to interpret. I've never done it, and I'm very worried that I'll be awful, and the person I'm interpreting for will have a horrible experience. I want to be ready for when someone has nobody better to turn to, but how do you practice interpreting without actually interpreting? 

Well, I found a way that worked for me. I was out walking the other day, and downloaded a podcast to listen to. For some reason, I just started signing the podcast. It was great, because I realized that I can keep up with people talking at a formal speed (which is slower than conversation, but still, a great start.) I don't think my grammar is always very good, but I think it would be understandable to someone who was good at English. I'm still afraid of interpreting....but in a less pathetic way... :)

National History Day

 We'd like to congratulate Ellis and Lillian, who got first place in the state of Maryland for Maryland History Day. They won the group documentary category for Middle School. It was a huge accomplishment, and we're so excited for them to go on to National History Day! Of course, National History Day (NHD) is typically held in exotic College Park, Maryland...a whopping 20 miles from our house. :) But it's even better this year, the entire event is virtual. So none of the excitement of travelling to a national competition. But they do win a cool t-shirt!

This project started out as an idea over the summer that Ellis and Lillian could work together on their project. They did a great job over the summer of brainstorming ideas and mediums (you can choose to make a website, display board, documentary, performance or research paper). They struggled a bit more with actually deciding and getting started on the project. So, as always happens, their plan to get a head start on the project melted away, and 2 weeks before the project was due, Mom was nagging, "don't you think you ought to get going??" It was quite the scene of drama and tears. Mom and Dad were insisting that it would take more than a day or two to make the video, and they needed to be panicking NOW! Ellis and Lillian were so mad at each other, they could hardly be in the same room with one another, and were pretty sure they didn't care if they flunked, as long as they didn't have to work on this project any more! Mom was 100% certain that she was never allowing any of her children to work together on a group project ever again. It was pretty miserable. The kids finally turned in their project, and declared that they were D.O.N.E. Even if they won and went to the county competition, they were NOT going to do ANY improvements. Final Answer. Well, Lillian wasn't quite so final, but since Ellis was, she went along.

Here's the video they submitted to the school competition:

Well, of course, they did win. Because their topic is fascinating and their video is really interesting, too. :) And they sat on that for a week. And after a bit, Ellis thought maybe they could make a few *small* edits to their movie. And, eventually, the re-wrote the whole script, re-filmed all the ASL, re-recorded the vocals, re-captioned, and uploaded. Ha!

Here's the second version of their video. In some ways, I didn't like it as much. It was more rushed. (Confession: the new video was too long, so they just bumped the speed up a little.) And they didn't look so grave about the destruction of the language - they smiled! Gasp! Ok, fine, just Lillian smiled. But they did add open captioning, which I thought was a great improvement, and some personal interviews, which were a great strength to their argument. And their finger spelling is a lot more smooth. So that's awesome. The video below is pre-open captioning, so you'll still have to turn on the CC. I couldn't get Ellis to send me the final version. She was afraid I'd post it all over the internet. What a silly thing to be afraid of.... 😆😉

By the time they'd reached the State competition, I think we all knew they'd made something special, and had a decent chance of getting some sort of award. So it was tough when they announced that the awards ceremony would be on a Sunday. We left the decision to Ellis and Lillian, and they both decided that they'd rather observe the Sabbath that participate in the MHD activities for the day. They told their teacher they wouldn't be watching, and if anything interesting happened, let them know. At 2:00, we were all very aware of what time it was. I was on the computer writing a letter to our family when a notification popped up, and my breath caught for a second. And I thought about ignoring it. But it was impossible to ignore, because the subject line was "YOU GOT FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I ran and showed it to Ellis and Lill. Ellis started jumping up and down and cheering, and Lillian just looked confused, because she thought I was showing her something in the letter that I was writing, and couldn't figure out what was so exciting in there. :) We laughed at Lillian, then showed her the email from Mr. Puracken, then we ALL jumped up and down and cheered and screamed, and made Sam run outside covering his ears. 

This time, there wasn't any discussion about if they would improve their video - they'd already thought of things they wanted to revise. So even though the judging feedback had almost nothing to suggest, they went ahead and re-wrote the script, re-recorded the ASL, re-recorded the voice-over, re-captioned, and re-compiled. Everything was beautiful, but then 3 days before the deadline, the computer ate the video and the caption file. ACK! They pulled a recent draft from YouTube and re-edited it, but they lost some of their flexibility, so for example, in some spots the captions cover up the ASL, and they can't change that. They did, however, fix the spelling error Mom caught after they'd submitted (they were allowed to re-submit.) So here's their almost-final version (except for the spelling error.) Again, some things I thought were better in the previous version, but I think this is a pretty good submission, and they can be proud of it. They did great research, and their signing is very clear. Good job, girls!! Thanks to all our friends who helped them.

Uncle Joseph arrives!

 Hello, everyone! I'm feeling much more cheerful than the last time I wrote, ha ha. We recorded "Love is Spoken Here" for stake conference. It was simple, the little kids made a musical friend that will last their whole lives, and it's a perfectly fine musical offering. Yay! Things worked out!! The only thing that makes me a little sad still is that we have this song in ASL - and all the hearing people will love it. But it's not really as great of an offering for the actual ASL users - they've already seen these kids sign this song. I wish we could have presented something new for them. But we couldn't, and the kids are worth watching again, so it's ok.

We used a video of the kids from last mother's day. I was shocked at how much the kids have changed in the last year. They're all so big and mature now! It's been wonderful seeing them again at church.

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A big and exciting thing has happened in our house - Marriner's little brother made a PROFESSIONAL ULTIMATE TEAM in DC and is living with us for the summer. Because "professional" means they pay you, not that they pay you WELL. :) So Uncle Joseph is here living the dream, and we're really enjoying getting to know a brother who is 16 years younger than us - he's closer in age to Lige than to us! He was 5 when we got married. 

Uncle Joseph does not know ASL, alas. As we've thought about how to balance the need to keep learning and practicing ASL with the need to not be rude to our guest, we've decided to go ahead and keep praying in sign language. For food prayers, we just trust he can figure out what we're saying. For family prayers, we assign one of the younger kids to interpret. The reason for this is that the little kids really know more than they'll admit, and maybe if we get them trying to say what they see out loud, they'll get better? They usually miss about half of what is in the prayer, usually because they'll just get behind. Or miss one sign, and their brain is hung-up on that word, and then miss the rest of the sentence. I sympathize, because I'm not a very good interpreter, and do the same thing. 

Joseph, alas, doesn't get to go to church with us. But we're lucky - the YSA ward shares a building with us, and meets right after us. So Joseph can ride up to church with us, wait 2 hours, to to church, and ride home with Marriner when he finishes his meetings. Yay! His bishop caught Marriner last week after church and said, "Thanks for sending us your brother for the summer! There's....quite an age difference between you...." :)

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We started in-person church last week! It was a little stressful leading up to it. But was really fun once it started. We have the kids spread out across the entire room - I feel bed for the Capitol Hill ward, it will be a long time before they will be able to fit their Primary in our little Primary room. But we could fit! For singing time, we learned a Mother's day song all in one week. (We'll Bring the World His Truth. Because it talks about moms. And we learned it last year, so it would be fast to learn. Teehee... )

On Mother's day, we got up to sing, and I realized I'd forgotten my tablet or phone to play the music on! Ack, moment of panic! Brother Wardle perceived the problem and hopped up to use his phone. Then we remembered that the cord was making loud sporadic popping noises, and it wasn't a good idea to use the phone anyway. Of course, the fact that I have several children who play the piano didn't occur to me, either. Who knows if there was a songbook anywhere nearby, anyway. So anyway, we decided to go ahead and sign a capella. In other words, just sign the song without music. It was a really interesting experience - and I'm wondering if that isn't a better way to do songs in sacrament meeting. The kids did a really great job, and all the focus was on the signs, no distractions. 

I was really focused on leading the song well and making eye contact with the Sunbeams to keep them with me. But after church, everyone came up to me and said, "Wow, Sam! He signed with so much emotion! It was so great!" I'd totally missed it. But yeah, Sam was amazing.  He's really grown up SO MUCH this last year!

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We had a fun singing time last week, but my kids came home and said they missed singing out-loud. We're not allowed to sing yet, so we played the songs on the tablet and signed along. I thought a lot about why it would be more fun for a kid to sing than sign. My teenagers love expressively signing, but the kids not so much. I thought, maybe the fun of singing is that you can hear yourself making something pretty, and so you like it. So I'm going to try using some technology to improve feedback to the kids. I tried getting the TV from the library and playing the song on the computer, to make it more visual. Alas, the remote for the TV was missing. But I found it after singing time. I'm excited to explore different ways to teach singing more visually. But it's definitely harder to coordinate with all the different tech stuff. Harder to put a lesson together. We'll see how it goes. As with everything this year - is technology the answer?