Lydia has been falling asleep every night in her harp bag under the piano. I play her the nocturnes that I listened to while I gave birth to her. It feels so sweet and tender.
Also, Lydia learned a whole new piece today! She learned “Honeybee” on the harp. I have a video here.
Because it was a half day for Lydia, we home schooled in the morning. I let Ammon sleep and Mary play during the afternoon. I played the piano and made chicken pot pie in pumpkins and a plum tart.
Abe is loving his new role in Qualtrics. He feels so happy at work. That makes us all so happy!
Also, Ammon took a lot of steps tonight. We clapped and cheered. He was so proud of himself. He tried to repeat the feat and clapped for himself. He is the cutest.
Mary was my helper.
Lydia loves performing. Here she is before her performance for us.Mary astounded us all by eating a ton for dinner. She gobbled down cucumbers, pumpkin, chicken pot pie, plum tart and piñata candy. We usually have to beg her to eat. This was amazing.Lydia, as always, is our terrific eater. She ate all of the flesh of that pumpkin lid and kept exclaiming with delight.
I found my phone this morning. It has been lost for several days. I have been taking pictures with Abe’s phone, but since I had mine today, I used mine.
After dropping off Lydia at school, I took Ammon and Mary to the store and library. Then we raced home so I could feed Ammon, change and take Mary to yoga. My mom stayed home with Ammon so that I could go to my favorite class.
In the evening we had Morgan, Jessi, and Henry over for dinner. We ate an hour later than planned because I am sooooooo slow cooking. We had stroganoff and apple pie.
Pictures:
Mary picked flowers for me this afternoon. She is so sweet.
It is a joy and a privilege to have days like today where I could spend every waking moment in the presence of my children. We’re going on thirteen hours with no clear bedtime in sight, and it’s been kids-kids-kid-kid-kids all day long. I think I have been alone maybe a total of ten minutes. At times like this, I could really use a break from privilege.
The day started with an early morning trip to the gym. I have a standing appointment with one of my visiting teachees, but she wasn’t able to make it today. After a very tired workout, I came home, got ready, and woke the girls up so that Lydia could go to her harp lesson. (I woke Mary up so that I could put her on the potty. She wets the bed 75% of the time, but it only happens after she wakes up. If I can get her on the potty before she wakes up, we’re good.)
After our harp lesson, we came home and I fed everyone. Then it was off to Let’s Play Music for Mary. I came home and did some schooling with Lydia before heading back to pick up Mary. Then we did more schooling until lunch. I made Lydia listen to The Story of the World while I prepared lunch, and when I got back to her, she was listening to Egyptian methodology. She explained to me that Osiris was the second person to be resurrected after Jesus. That would have been a great opportunity to clarify the difference between mythology and doctrine, but I was so absorbed in cleaning the room that I might have affirmed her conclusion. Oops.
While the girls ate lunch, I sped read through some of the curriculum I got so I could be more prepared for our next schooling session.
Then I baked a plum cake and made some plum jam. I think I overcooked the jam.
At that point, I discovered Mary had wet the couch after falling asleep in front of a sight words video. I cleaned her up, changed everyone for ballet, and cleaned the kitchen.
Then I dropped the girls off at ballet and took Ammon on errands with me. We continued errands after ballet, and then when we came home I rushed to feed Ammon dinner, put all of the groceries away, and get dinner prepared for everyone else.
At which point, it was time to clean it all up. So I helped get the kids ready for bed and then ran downstairs to clean everything up again. Abe helped.
I am really excited for bed.
The kids built a nest of leaves and pretended to be birds. Lydia was the mama bird and was very solicitous of the needs of her chicks. She was so solicitous that she preferred to have an accident rather than leave her chicks.
Abe took the day off today. We have been zombies for weeks now, so it was good for him to finally get some rest. Although I don’t know how much rest he got because he helped a lot with chores and childcare.
Because he was home, I was able to take Lydia to the discovery space station at her school this morning. While she was there I got to log two hours of volunteer time for the school. (I have to have forty hours this year. It seems like an impossible number to reach, but little drops here and there make it feel possible.)
The resource library is incredible. They have any and every type of curriculum there, and if you want something they don’t have, they order it for you. I came home with, no joke, probably $700 worth of material–for free!!! It’s amazing.
The Marshalls were so great and invited us over to dinner. Since we’ve been zombies recently, the timing could not have been more appreciated. We vegetated on their couch and ate their delicious food–and Ammon decided to take some serious steps while we were there!
Today Abe and I were exhausted out of our minds. Thankfully, Ammon took a three hour nap. During that time the girls played beautifully. We were so grateful for the chance to rest.
After dinner we went on a walk. There is a house in our neighborhood that puts out a skeleton family every day. They skeletons change their daily activities. In the last week they’ve gone fishing, played battleship, and taken selfies. Today they had a missionary discussion because it was Sunday.
Elder Bones and Elder Groans taught their platinum investigator the gospel. 🙂
Abe worked a miracle in our garage today. Ever since we started prepping, the garage has become a chaotic mess. After today, we not only have our back-up water supply in place, but my mom can actually fit her car in the garage too!
We all watched the new Jungle Book today because Abe hadn’t seen it. I went to the library and checked out the book, too. We started reading it to the girls tonight. They love it.
We were hyper social today (by my socially-shy standards). I told Abe a couple months ago that we needed a halt to social activity because I was getting overwhelmed, but we have been easing back into social-ness for a couple weeks now.
This morning we had a lovely play date with the Grants. It was so fun to see my former mission companion, Julie, and all of her kids. Our kids are all about the same age, so they played beautifully together.
After they left, I bought the new Jungle Book for the girls. I didn’t intend to watch it with them but got drawn in by the gorgeous shots of the jungle. I ended up watching the whole thing.
This evening Abe and I went on a date with Lucas and Kim. We love them. First we went to a sushi restaurant and then we ended by watching Poldark together. I suspect I have ruined the series for myself by reading the books. While everyone else enjoyed being in the throes of agonizing suspense, I watched with a sense of perfect emotional detachment because I knew how it would play out. Next time I find a really great series, I will make sure not to ruin it by reading the books.
An action shot as we tried to pose all of the kids.With Julie. We were companions TWICE on the mission!
We love the book, I Spy Plum Pie. Every time we read it, I want to eat plum pie. I’ve never had one before! For years I have made plum torte during September, but it’s not the same as a pie.
Today I rectified that situation. The only photos from today reflect that act. In the second picture you can sort of see the steam rising out of the pie slits. In all honesty, I prefer to eat the plum torte…but for dramatic effect and smell, the pie wins.
I got to spend some time with Ammon, Mary and Teddy after we dropped Lydia after school. It was such a sweet, peaceful way to start the day. I kind of wish I could have kept Teddy, except for the fact that Ammon got jealous and weepy when I spent too much time cuddling Teddy. (Also, I am sure Maria would prefer to keep her adorable child!)
We all watched The Jungle Book after dinner. Lydia has been singing “The Bare Necessities” for a month, so we thought it was time. What a fun movie. Also, Lydia’s teacher told me today that he loves Lydia. I was in a rush and couldn’t stop to chat, but that feedback made me very happy.
I took a million pictures of the kids this morning. I should have edited more out, but each picture captures slightly different expressions on each of the kids. I couldn’t choose, and since I don’t have to, I didn’t.
Oh! I almost forgot. I have two videos. This one is of Ammon and Teddy playing together. This one is of Mary making Ammon laugh. (It’s from a couple days ago, but I forgot to post it.)
Mary and Ammon helped me out on my Costco run before picking up Lydia from school.
Lydia made this marshmallow bridge in school today.
Yesterday my friend, Maria, arrived. She and her adorable son Teddy arrived from Chicago. We had so much fun talking with her that we stayed up too late and I was too tired to blog.
But I did take some pictures of her son, Teddy. Teddy is the sweetest, calmest little baby. We thought babies couldn’t get any more laid back than Ammon, but Teddy makes Ammon look hyperactive. We couldn’t get enough of him.
