Lily is starting to do better, but we decided it would be best for me to stay one more day to help her get fully on her feet before I go back into the full swing of work again. I was a bit tired from yesterday (this parenting stuff is exhausting!) and I was late taking Lydia to school, but otherwise the day got off to a good start.
After dropping off Lydia, I went to Trader Joe’s for cereal and then came home and blitz-cleaned the house with Lily before the cleaners came. Here is a picture I snapped while cleaning of a wall in the girl’s room that keeps getting cuter and cuter.
After that, I took Clarissa to Lydia’s school to teach art to the students. I had every intention of preparing, but I used my spare moments to coordinate family get-to-gethers, and work on condo repairs (and get a burrito), and when I arrived at the school with no time to spare, I realized I was winging it again. It went well enough and Clarissa was perfect. I really enjoy those students and it was so fun to see Lydia in her classroom. On the way home, Lydia practiced advertising various things. She’s been having fun advertising various things. My favorite thing was when she tried to advertise or sell me TVs that do commercials every 5 minutes instead of every ten minutes to help build character. We agreed that only Calvin’s dad would buy one (from Calvin and Hobb’s) since he likes to talk about how hard things build character. Here is Lydia selling a huge minivan.
After getting home, I passed out and napped. Then I had a solid 45 minutes to work on work, and then did some blogging.
When commotion resumed in the house, I put my laptop away and got back into dad mode. That involved (my favorite part) playing with the kids. I re-fell in love with our home today. And one of the reasons why is because of the circular loop track on the main floor of our house that makes for great games of chase.
Here are three videos Lily took of me and the kids playing, “Nobody leaves the couch”. I win when I get all three kids on the couch at the exact same time. It’s really hard. I often don’t win. My best bet is to get Lydia and Ammon on the couch at the same time and then just trick Clarissa into coming to the couch while I pin down Lydia and Ammon.
Video 1. In this first video, you will notice Ammon sliding down the stairs to come join the fun. You only catch part of it, but I hope to capture him doing his butt slide down the whole staircase sometime. It’s adorable!
I also helped Mary with her piano practice (she’s getting so good at Allegro), folded a basket of laundry (I’m so deficient in this area, Lily always does the folding and putting away) and made dinner. The salmon came out great!
After dinner, I was so tired, I just relaxed on the bench at our dinner table. This is yet another reason why I love our new home. This bench at our dinner table has pillows. I can literally over-eat, and then without even moving my place, I can gently melt into a horizontal position on pillows to digest my food. I love it 🙂
Below are some pictures of us passing the evening.
Ammon:
Lydia with a scowl as she plows through her goal of reading 5 hours per day. She has been so grumpy, but darn-it if that girl isn’t committed to her goal! She has over one third of her class’s average just in her reading minutes. She really wants to win and go to pizza pie cafe with the principal!
Here is Lily also working on her goals. In this picture she is studying German. She’s discouraged because she’s still towards the beginning of her journey when the mountain just seems too high to climb, but I know she can do it!
After being with family, I went outside to decompress by shooting some hoops. My shooting was awful, but I still loved being outside. While shooting I got to see the sky lit up beautifully with a sunset. To have such an amazing view on my basketball court is yet another reason why I love this home.
After coming inside, I got the kids all ready for bed. By this point, I was dying from exhaustion and barely moving from the burpees I did earlier in the day. When I gathered everyone for scriptures, I felt bone tired, ready to collapse. Then Mary came over to me and gave me this note. It completely melted me and I held her tightly and told her reading that note was the happiest part of my whole day. And I had a great day. Little moments like that make me really feel like God is there.
After scriptures I passed out on the couch for 15 minutes. I know it sounds like I rest a lot, and I do!!! Maybe other people don’t feel they need to take breaks the way I do, but man this parenting stuff is exhausting! I always get deeper respect for Lily and her daily ins and outs whenever she goes down and I step in. Now I’m blogging with my sweetheart. Just being with her is my favorite thing in the world, and now it’s rivaling Mary’s note for my favorite part of the day 🙂
