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.)