Month: December 2020

Lydia, cherished.

Lydia has the most amazing teacher, and for one of her project she has to learn the banjo, which her teacher supplied:

This girl plays the harp, she crochets, she sews, she reads like crazy, she organizes giant family programs, adores–and is starting to speak!–the German language, has transcribed an entire Shakespeare play into her own words, has great taste in music, is an adventurous and grateful eater, follows the news religiously, regularly remarks upon the beauty of nature, plays the most imaginative games with her siblings, has memorized countless poems, bakes delicious cakes and cookies, is the most honest person I have ever met, is a kind and endlessly giving friend, and asks the most amazing, intelligent questions. She also has been off-the-chart introspective from the time she acquired the ability to speak (I can still hear her little toddler voice plaintively explaining she was “fwas-tuh-wated” or “jealous”), and she is so, so kind to her siblings and friends. She is also more responsible than me and sometimes even outdoes Abe in her desire to follow every rule available. And now, thanks to her amazing fourth grade teacher, she plays the banjo, too! Somebody give this child an A+ at life, because I spend most of my parenting time pointing out areas for improvement. When I take the time to think about her as a whole child, I really have no idea what she actually needs to improve. She is knocking it out of the park on the life front. Also, the family blog is her favorite thing to read, so when you read this, Lydia, know that you are seen, you are admired, and you are so, so loved.
Clarissa pooped on the potty for the first time ever today! Of course, it helped that she had diarrhea so she had frequent opportunities to figure this out…but she did!! We were all so excited!!
Mary reading to Ammon. This was a very content moment for all.

Moving on to the Community of Christ, Comfort food and Puzzling.

Today was the most wonderful day. The Bishop asked to talk with me this morning, and when I called him, I learned I was being invited to be a Second Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency. I let him know I would probably be declining since I plan to move fully into the Community of Christ, but I let him know how much I love the ward, and how grateful I was to be considered for the calling. We have a follow-up next week. Over the past week, I’ve been letting friends and family know of my intentions to move to the Community of Christ church. I haven’t really been announcing anything, just kindof mentioning it as it comes up. So far, everyone in my circles has been so so supportive and loving, even if I sense that my decisions might be hurtful or confusing. I’ve felt so loved, and have been so in awe at the support from the people around me in affirming the path I feel I want to walk right now with my family. My dad and Suzanne especially were loving and affirming and that meant the world to me.

Then we went to the Community of Christ online children’s session, then I chatted with my AXB friends (who also generously affirmed my decisions around faith right now), and I stayed on longer to chat more with Anthony (we talked about parent stress) which was really nice. Then we did the adult session with the Community of Christ, which Lily joined me for. It is so fun to participate in the Community of Christ church with Lily. We both really love the messages, and we both felt spiritually uplifted.

After that, I fed the kids lunch and did some cleaning, and then we all went on a walk to give out Christmas neighbor gifts. After that, we dropped off some chocolate chip cookies Lily made for Georgia. While I took the kids to Georgia’s, Lily finished up dinner preparations and set the table. It was so wonderful to come home to such a comforting and heart-warming meal and table setting. Lily made meatloaf, corn soup, Brussels sprouts, squash, and wassail. It was all so delicious!

The squash was delicious. Aren’t those colors fun?!

After dinner, I played Uno with the older girls and worked on a giant puzzle my dad and Suzanne gave to us. It was such a nice day!

Working on the house, California cancelled

We had intended to drive to California today to start our two week stint in Palm Springs first and then Stallion Springs. Lily has been a visionary and super motivated about getting the house clean and organized and she did a ton of incredible work during the week, but since I was so focused on work (and feeling tired when I wasn’t), we decided to push our departure date one day and just work on the house together for a full day.

It was so fun! I love playing house with Lily. Lily already had gotten the entire house organized so the big focus today was for Lily to wrap and organize all the Christmas presents and for me to organize and clean the garage. Lily also helped me with the garage both today and by clearing so much stuff off the sorting table earlier in the week.

While we were cleaning, we got a notification that California went into strict lock-down orders for Carona Virus. Our Wyndam reservations were cancelled and refunded, and we were told that there was a no-traveling restriction in or out of California. Well, so much for those plans! I was sad because I was in the mood for sun-shine even though I wasn’t taking any days off and would be working most all of the trip. Lily was actually relieved. The more she thought about the trip after booking it, the more she felt stressed about how to pull of Lydia and Mary’s school curriculum, music practice etc, and manage everyone during a pandemic with less space while I was tied up working the whole time. It probably worked out for the best. Covid just complicates everything! Obviously this is an inconvenience. Others are seriously suffering from it right now. I’m also glad we are not going given how things are spiking, and we don’t want to contribute to the spread.

Lily and I were still working at night time, and I called the girls into the garage to answer questions about authorship and timing of different art pieces I was wanting to save. Before I knew it, the girls, with their creativity, had launched into pretend fencing using gardening gloves, tomato box poles, and bicycle helmets strapped to the front of their faces. I was so amused!

Gingerbread People, work stress and love.

Today Lily made Gingerbread people with the children. The cookies were so delicious and adorable!

Also, I had a very hard and stressful day at work. Things are going well at work, but we are so busy that I just feel like I’m breaking down a little bit. To cheer me up, Lily, Lydia and Mary brought me a plant they brought at Trader Joe’s and one of my favorite candies, black licorice. It was so so so sweet of them. I’m in love with my family.