Poor Mary. She was up a lot last night coughing, and she was a tired mess today. We have a new potty training rule: She only gets to wear pants if she goes potty, and if she wets her diapers/pull-ups/undies, the pants go bye-bye. She LOVES wearing pants. Below is tantrum #2 (of many) of the day:
Abe here. I live for Sundays. I’m also happy that now church is at 9am instead of 1pm. Although it is very hard to get everyone out the door (we are always late) we have so much day left to relax and be a family after church.
Church went super well. While I was teaching Sunday school, Mary gave a scripture in primary.
Also, for relief society, Lily gave her first ever relief society lesson. Everyone loved it and someone said that her lesson had more participation than they had ever had before in relief society. And here’s the real kicker: Lily enjoyed teaching! Lily was so sure that she would be so terrified standing up in front of everyone that it would be a miserable experience, but she actually enjoyed it. It was fun to hear her report about her debut as a relief society teacher. I wish I could attend the lessons!
I should also mention that Mary’s tights were falling down all day. We threw them away when we got home. You can see way we made that decision from the picture below 🙂
At home, we had lunch and then Mary actually took a nap at the right time (1pm!). While Lily, Mary, and Ammon napped, I played dolls with Lydia. Basically, it was her cat’s birthday (the cat’s name is Casper, – female) and all her friends had to get dressed and come to the party and give Casper presents. It was very fun 🙂
After some playing with Lydia, I got tired and join Lily for a nap. Lily got up before me and took care of the kids and made dinner while I finished my nap.
Dinner was an amazing souffle, apple-pear-spinach salad and leftover blueberry waffles. Everything was great, but the souffle was particularly outstanding.
After dinner we had some lounge time, tidied the house and talked with Lily’s mom. I love Sundays!!!
We were up almost all night on and off with the sick girls and hungry baby, so at 5 am I gave up trying to sleep and just went swimming instead. I offered the world my best today, but I still couldn’t figure out how to cook dinner AND attend to my kids. I’m hoping I figure that out soon, for our budget’s sake.
Here are the pictures I took today:
Yesterday at the chiropractor’s I read a book about green smoothies. I made one this morning, and I have to credit it with the energy I had for the rest of the day. The Qualtrics award ceremony was today so Abe didn’t come home until after 8pm. That meant I was in the presence of one or more of my children for twelve straight hours. I made it happily through. Thanks, smoothie! But when Abe got home I sent him and the girls out of my presence so I could binge on ice cream. Oh, well.
I took the kids to the library for the second time since Ammon was born. That’s pretty sad, but at least we made it there today!
And then I took some cute pictures of Ammon before getting him ready for bed.
After pumping this morning I emerged to discover the girls had made a trail of toys to every room in the house. The trail continued in the basement, but I only got a picture of the upstairs.
I didn’t have a ton of goals today, and since Mary AND Lydia are sick I kept the girls home from ballet. But I did get a lot of work done on my Relief Society lesson and I read to the kids. I haven’t done that in a while. I also went to the chiropractor because I’m having trouble moving again.
Mary loves her cough medicine and asks for it every time she coughs. I read a book by the Green Smoothie Girl while I was waiting for the chiropractor (he was an hour behind) and came away convinced my family needs to be drinking green smoothies. We’ll start tomorrow. Hopefully that influx of vitamins and fiber will help us not be so sick all the time.
Tonight we got to eat Chelsea’s food again. We love going to her house for dinner, and tonight we learned that Derek made her a food blog for Christmas! I was so excited to learn this. Every time we eat at Chelsea’s I go home and want to make whatever she made. It always tastes so good that I always, always want whatever recipe she used.
One of the things that I make a lot that we first ate at Chelsea’s is eggplant involtini. Abe took a picture yesterday because I made a bunch for the missionaries and some friends.
Then we came home and cleaned the house while Superhero Mary and her pet dinosaur saved me from an assortment of tragic fates.
Also, we FINALLY got Lydia’s nebulizer and medication tonight. She has been sick since early November. We have taken her to the doctor three times and have tried no less than five times to get the nebulizer for her, and until tonight we have been stymied. The pharmacist had compassion on us and gave us someone else’s nebulizer instead of making us come back a sixth time.
Today I took Mary to the eye doctor and he said she needs to have surgery. She will have that on the 20th. We’re not too worried about the surgery because it is simple and the doctor does it all the time…but still, I do hope and pray it turns out well for her.
Then I took some pictures this morning:
This week we found out some devastating news. I can’t blog about it, but our family’s world has been upside down ever since. Church today was very helpful, and I left feeling like there is hope, purpose, and God’s hand in everything.
I have occasionally taken pictures during the week of things I am thankful for.
We did a lot of resting today. Abe has to go back to work tomorrow for the first time in two weeks, and I personally am mourning this sad fact.
I also got called to be a Relief Society teacher today. I also completely forgot that I had signed up to feed the missionaries tonight. Oops.
I have a new mantra to help me with anxiety: “Forgive. Move forward in faith. Hold my head up high knowing I am redeemed in Christ.” Repeating that over and over in my head is helping me.
Lastly, I don’t know if my Grandma will read this blog. She’s in hospice again. I am praying for her, my mom, and all of my relatives who are near her tonight.
Happy New Year! ‘Tis the time for resolutions, and one of mine is to get back to blogging regularly.
The best thing that happened today was our brunch with the Vandegriffs, but I didn’t take pictures. We enjoyed visiting with them so much! It was the highlight of our day.
Later in the day we all snuggled and watched Wall-E together. Abe had never seen it and I had forgotten it. Watching it all together was cozy and sweet.
Here are some pictures from the past couple days I haven’t been posting.
