Envelope Art - Elder Stowell Edition

Since I made a goal to decorate one envelope each day in February, one of the hardest parts is deciding who to address it to each day. Sterling, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has become my default. Here are most of the envelopes I've addressed to him so far this month. I like some better than others. As I said the other day, done is better than perfect. Without that mentality I'd be paralyzed and never able to start, let alone finish, each envelope. 

For this group, I can't decide if I like the first or the second one best. On the first one, I love the lettering, the orientation, and the color scheme. The second one was fun to make as it illustrates the journey from our home to his, with a Texas stamp to complete the look. The other envelopes are relatively simple; they are more about the stamp and how it fits with the design. A couple of these ideas were inspired by designs I saw on Pinterest or The Postman's Knock, but most of them I came up with on my own.

I mailed one of these to Sterling today. The rest I've set aside and will mail one at a time over the next several weeks. 

I sure hope Sterling likes mail!! :)

A Worthy Cause

Do you want to make a world of difference with a small donation? I have just the charity for you. Educate the Kids is a charity out of Scotland that has built an orphanage and schools and changed the lives of thousands of children in a small village in Kenya, Africa. The charity was started by Maureen over 20 years ago. Maureen is the mother of my friend, Yvonne, from Scotland. Yvonne helps run the charity as well. These ladies are as good as they come. I have known them for almost 30 years and I can fully vouch for their integrity and goodness. 

Because Educate the Kids is run by volunteers, they don't withhold any money from donations for administrative fees. Every penny of your donation will go to help the kids. You can donate directly through their website or you can contribute specifically toward food parcels* through Just Giving. The food parcel program was set up when the village lost their main source of income - tourism - during the Covid pandemic. Educate the Kids has literally saved this little community by providing them food and hope. 

The school is finally open once again after the pandemic closed it for several months.

A little goes a long way! Please consider a donation. And tell your friends! 

*The food parcel program says it's for Christmas, but as of today (February 18, 2021), they are still collecting donations and providing the parcels to families in the village. 

These handsome boys live in the orphanage.

Envelope Art Preview

For the past few years, I've enjoyed making fun envelope designs incorporating fancy lettering and various stamps. Because February is traditionally my least favorite month (how can 28 days feel sooo long??), I challenged myself to decorate one envelope each day this month. I had fun with today's design so I wanted to share. It's not completely finished because I don't know who I'm going to send it to, so I'll have to add the name and address later. 

Like many of my projects, there are things I'd do differently if I had to do it over again, but done is better than perfect so here you go! I'll share a few more of my creations before the month is through.

Light Pillars

We've experienced a unique phenomenon twice in the past few days. Saturday night, Sadie and Soren were out running an errand and they noticed lights shooting straight up into the sky. Sadie thought it was a little weird, but figured that some street lights were aimed in the wrong direction or something like that. The next day I saw an article talking about light pillars that had been spotted in central Illinois. I showed the kids and Sadie realized that's what she had seen on Saturday. 

Then last night, Sadie was looking out the window and she saw them again! They were so cool (the photo below doesn't do them justice at all) and we soon found that they we could see them in every direction - north, south, east and west. Some were white or pinkish, others had a tint of green. All we know is we've never seen them before, but we'd love to see them again! (The article linked above gives more information about light pillars and has several more photos.)

Snow Day

So much for the delicate little snowflakes that fell on Saturday. Today it was a full on snowstorm. We woke up to a wind chill of at least -15º and a few inches of snow on the ground. 

If the public schools weren't already closed for President's day, they would have been closed due to terrible road conditions. Jeff left for work at his usual time, but only because he didn't see the text telling him that the university was closed as well. 

We're still under a winter storm warning until 6:00 a.m. tomorrow so I wasn't surprised when we were notified at 2:30 this afternoon that tomorrow will be a "remote learning day" for the kids. That means that their teachers will let them know by 9:00 tomorrow morning what their assignments are for the day and what is required of them to be marked present. It's not as fun as a "snow day," but at least it doesn't have to be made up at the end of the school year.

The crazy thing is that Sterling is having similar weather in San Antonio, Texas! They were grounded because of the snow today as well, but they also had to deal with rolling power outages. Just a week ago he was enjoying a "chilly 75 degrees." 

Here are a few pics as seen from inside my house. What I couldn't pick up on camera is the constant falling snow and the wind gusts blowing it all over the place. 

We live on a State Route heading out of town. The snow plows usually keep our road pretty clear. Not today!

Good thing there's no school tomorrow. I'm not sure the kids could get out of the garage!

Snowflakes

Yesterday it snowed off and on. It was such a light snow that you could hardly tell it was snowing at all, and the air was so cold and dry that the flakes fell individually instead of clumping together. It was so cold, like single digit cold, that when the beautiful little individual flakes landed on my deck they didn't melt. I was lucky enough to get a few pictures while they lasted. The largest of these snowflakes wasn't more than 5mm wide. I've seen beautiful snowflakes like these only 2 or 3 other times over the years and it just cheers me right up and makes the miserable cold weather not quite so miserable after all.

 

BYU Bound

Soren got the news last night... He's been accepted to BYU!! That was his first choice and we couldn't be happier for him. We're super excited to have another Cougar in the family. 

This picture is from fall 2019 when we attended a BYU football game in Toledo, OH.
It's no secret that we love our BYU!!

Who is in Your Back Room?

Some good food for thought...

Better Than Valentine's Day

Twenty-six years ago today, Jeff asked me to marry him. Saying yes was one of the best decisions I've ever made. We've now been married longer than we were single and I love the life we've shared. February 11 will always be my Valentine's Day. Here's hoping for at least 26 more. 

Photo taken November 2020 at Spencer and Grace's wedding

The Next Generation

You may have noticed from our Christmas card that Savannah is sporting a little baby bump. Yes, it's true! Jeff and I are going to be grandparents in May. While I don't feel old enough to be a grandma, my age says otherwise and I'm very excited to welcome this little guy into our family. Here's a sneak peak to get us through until he makes his debut in just three months. It's been way too long since I've snuggled a newborn. I can't wait!

Ultrasound has come a long way! Isn't he cute? :)