Month: January 2022

Today I spent almost the whole day resting in bed. I still don’t have my voice back and I was completely exhausted. I feel like when I review the blog at random, fifty percent of the time I click on a day when it reads, “I spent the whole day in bed because I was sick and tired.” Maybe that’s a sign I should lay off the sugar or be more consistent about vitamins or something.

At any rate I did rouse myself to tidy, fold laundry, and do some chores at various points in the day, and I finished reading The Anatomy of Peace and the novel, Less. At the end of the day I sat down Mary and Lydia and tried for the umpteenth time to teach them how to crochet. I haven’t crocheted myself in years so I was also re-teaching myself, and in the process might have let fly a few too many swear words in the heat of it all. (At any given moment Lydia was impatiently charging ahead with her–incorrect–technique and demanding to know what to do next, Mary was struggling with step one, and I was trying to re-watch the tutorial to see where we all went wrong.)

Abe’s day included of a two-hour long zoom call with his AXB group of friends. They had their annual secret Santa gift exchange and monthly chat, which sounded very fun. There was a lot of laughter and Abe seemed to be in a better mood after that. He has felt very tired and worn down, and the fact that I have laryngitis just adds to all he has to do. But he has been very kind and giving in spite of his fatigue and it was nice to hear him having so much fun with his friends.

His call came at the same time as morning church, but he zoomed in to the local afternoon meeting. Some people in the CoC still attend their LDS wards because they have a spouse or kids still going there, and I guess one of our local CoC people had a pretty rough day at her ward that she wanted to process with the group. I have had a lot of positive experiences in LDS chapels lately (listening to my post-Mormon friend Courtney sing in her home ward, and then accompanying Courtney for the funeral service of her father-in-law were both very positive experiences), but listening to Abe relate what the lesson was in the LDS church today was frankly upsetting. I felt grateful to have my whole family safely out.

Mary made Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies today. I did not help a bit, and they tasted amazing. We ate all of the pretty ones but Abe got a picture with the last batch of the, er, less pretty–but oh-so-tasty!!–ones below.

I think Abe and I are going to take an easy walk around the block with Basil after the kids go down and either watch TV or read books until 10:30pm hits.

I woke up in a particularly grouchy mood today, but I did my best not to let it show. I think it’s a combo of the aftermath of pushing too hard with all my New Year’s Enthusiasm, still being a bit sick, not sleeping well lately, and not yet having come down from my end-of-year work stress (and still hurting a bit from some of the end of year disappointments I had).

Lily’s sickness progressed to be full-on viral laryngitis, so not only did she not feel well, but she lost her voice all day. In the morning she went to the urgent care and got some medicine to help. Our friend Matt who is a medical professional also prescribed something he thought would help.

While Lily was out, I hustled working on the house to get ready for our company. Lily did great working getting the house into a good spot during the week, so I was able to do a bunch of finishing touching to get things really looking nice, and Lily helped when she got back too.

Then Christian came over and Lily visited with him for an hour. He’s Daniel and Amanda’s son, and he’s going to teach Lily some knitting tricks.

Then we all went up Provo Canyon for some sledding. We were first to arrive and I pet Basil and sang songs about him in the car:

Getting up in the mountains with friends and sledding completely changed my mood. We found an awesome sledding run, and built a great track that was a good blend of exciting, but not too dangerous. We certainly had some whipe-outs, but fortunately, nobody got hurt. My favorite part is we were able to dig the track really long, and some riders actually made it all the way down to the fort, making the track very very long. I had such a good time and in my excitement, I told Lily it was one of the happiest days of my life. I just felt like such a kid again. I hope we do it every year with our “Les Amis” group (that is our WeChat group name, and I rather like it). Lydia, Mary and Ammon each went down a few times and then played around the fort, with Clarissa. Lily kept an I on them while I worked on building out the track, helping the sledders, and going down quite a few times myself. She was such a heroine to do that when she was not feeling well. People loved the track, and there were many runs down it by both kids and grown-ups. Here are a bunch of pictures and videos!

Afterwards, we grabbed some Thai food, and Chris, Jen, Gigi, and Kaylin joined us at our house. We visited over dinner, and then then we ate a King’s cake that Jen and Chris brought. We shared their King’s cake tradition with them of having the youngest children sit under the table and announce who gets what slice, and then eat the cake and see who gets the little toy. The person who finds it gets to where the crown and be the queen or king. Here is a video of Jen explaining the tradition, a video of Gigi finding it, and some more pictures of the evening. We had such a wonderful time with them! Both playing the game and just conversing with them was so enjoyable.

Today I took Ammon and Clarissa to school and then went to the office. I had a couple of meetings and then went to the Dodo restaurant in Sugarhouse and met my new boss Kim, who I like a lot. I then drove back and finished up work, including user-testing for a new content management platforms we are evaluating.

While I worked, Lily went on a walk/jog, did yoga, played at the funeral for our friend Matt’s father, baked bread and tidied.

On the way home, I stopped by to see Georgia. She was not feeling great. Lately she has had an issue where the air from breathing makes her throat feel very cold and it hurts. I was so sorry to see her going through that. Still, she unfailingly has a great attitude and was delightful to visit with. She also sent me home with goodies, like pumpkin bread from Kneaders, and gingerbread men for the kids. They loved eating them after finishing their dinners!

After I spent a brief stint at home, Lily and I went and had dinner with Daniel and Amanda Olsen. We doordashed Bombay house to their house and just spent time with them in Daniel Olsen’s basement piano studio. The food was delicious, but the conversation was the best part. We talked all about everyone’s different life experiences, and we just really enjoyed being with them. We then played Code Names, which was so fun. While playing games, Daniel and Amanda broke out the most impressive stash of sweets I have ever seen. It was really fun to do that right after reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, because they had fantastical and fancy sweets just like you would expect from the book. They had freeze-dried skittles, freeze-dried ice-cream bars, freeze-dried taffy, pepper-chocolate, fancy peanut-brittle chocolate, caramel chocolate, chocolate truffles, many more types of very fancy gourmet chocolate and more. We took a couple of pictures.

It was so fun to spend time with them and we hope to do it again soon! Lily also said hello to their son Christian. He’s very sweet and principled, and he’s an incredible knitter and Lily is hoping he will teach her some of what he knows. At home Lily helped get Clarissa and the girls down. I felt so exhausted and just started working on my puzzle, grateful for Lily’s efforts to get our children to bed. I then watched Troy, which is now so sad, I think I will not finish the series. Hector just was killed by Achilles.

Lily and I have both been exhausted because of how hard we have been pushing it.

I worked from home and Lily took Lydia and Mary to school and Ammon and Clarissa to ballet, and then dropped Ammon off at school. She then left Clarissa home with me while she went to give Basil a bath.

After Lily got Basil all clean and nice-looking, he kept wanting to go outside to dig and get dirty at home. We had to keep him on a leash for the rest of the day just to keep him from getting himself dirty.

After work, I watched the kids while Lily did some returns and errands, and took Lydia to and from dance. The big update from dance is one boy dragged another boy over to Lydia announcing he had a crush on her, and if I understood the story right Lydia stood there as if nothing was said, very cute. Lydia is also practicing cartwheels and the splits and she is getting quite good at both of them. I assume Lily took this picture while out and about.

At home I got so fed up with Basil trying to go outside over and over and over again that I finally crated him until Lily got home. After feeding the kids, I helped Mary with math a little bit and then Ammon did a solid hour of homework with me and Mary practiced the piano. Then I finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Clarissa, Lydia and Mary. I felt bad separating Ammon this time, but it’s too crazy trying to read with him and Clarissa in the same room, and I was trying to wind Clarissa down for bed by reading to her. We absolutely loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and concluded that Willy Wonka in the book is fun, child-like, and is constantly laughing, joking and enjoying life, while the ones in the movies are too serious and disturbed (I think I’ve mentioned this). It was so fun to read with the kids! After putting the kids down, I finished setting up my fish finder and watched Troy, Fall of a City and Seinfeld. I think Lily read or took a bath.

Lily and I have been exceptionally active recently, and today it caught up to both of us as you will see throughout the blog.

I did my Dogout workout with Basil this morning, and then came home and made oatmeal with a topping bar for the kids. I’ve been daydreaming about it and they loved it. My dad used to make oatmeal in the morning for me and my brothers with toppings like apples and cinnamon, or molasses and raisins, and I loved having that same pallet of toppings with our oatmeal this morning.

Lily helped get Ammon and Clarissa ready for school and then drove them, and I dropped off Mary at school and then took Lydia with me to visit Georgia and then go to her therapy appointment with Vhari. The visit with Georgia was brief, but wonderful. She is so sweet, and she felt well during our visit so we had a really nice time talking to each other. Lydia asked Georgia about her New Year’s resolutions, and Georgia said she wants to be more like Jesus and more focused on the needs of those around her. I told her she was already very good at that, and Lydia reported she wants to learn to do a cartwheel and the splits, and become a better dancer. I got a haircut during Lydia’s therapy appointment. After the appointment, Lydia said she didn’t really connect well with Vhari today and that she didn’t feel like she had much to talk about. I suggested she go today because I’ve observed that she has been processing a lot as she has been maturing, and handling social situations at school, and trying to figure out her identity and place. I guess my suggestion wasn’t super productive, but the upside is it seems Lydia doesn’t feel she has any problems right now she thinks she needs to sort with a therapist.

I then went to work, and while I worked, Lily was tackling cleaning the house. Both of us were exhausted as we tried to take care of our respective tasks. At 4:00, I had a float which was amazing as always and it was also the first time I ever fell asleep during a float. At home, we had a delicious souffle, waffle and grapefruit dinner that Lily prepared. Then Lily worked on music with Ammon and Clarissa and left at 6:30 to do hot yoga. I cleaned up after dinner (was not bad because Lily really covered her tracks while cooking) while listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and then I watched Ammon dance to some songs from Disneys Princess and the Frog which was delightful. I got a couple of recordings below.

After that, I passed out on the couch while Ammon and Clarissa took pictures and videos with my phone. Example below:

I then put Ammon and Clarissa and to bed and watched Seinfeld and Troy, Fall of a City for two hours. When Lily came home she took a long bath and now she is reading.

We are both starting to feel more normal again after taking it a little easier today.

Today I ran Basil in the morning (Dogout workout) and then started an early work day with a 7:30 meeting. I mixed in reading a few Christmas cards into my work day, and this is one I really loved that my brother Jeremiah drew.

From what I know about Lily’s day, while I was working Lily took the girls to and from school, did grocery shopping, did a lot of exercise, helped Ammon practice his reading, and did Ammon’s piano practice with him.

After work, I came upstairs to find Lily making risotto. It is a long process and she still did it even though she was very tired. It turned out incredibly. I made a salad to compliment and we had the most delicious dinner. I often find risotto’s too rich, but this one was made with squash, and that helped it feel much more nourishing and wholesome. The kids did a good job eating tonight overall (motivated by chocolate if they finished), and we had a fun time talking as a family over dinner (and I had a fun time doing a happy dance when kids finished their meals). I also announced that kids out of their rooms after 10PM would have consequences (as we are trying to get back on schedule).

After dinner, we went up to the home/fort Ammon constructed and I read Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We watched both movies last week and we have been really enjoying reading through the book together. Roald Dahl is such an entertaining writer! The main thing we are noticing in the book is that Willy Wonka is much more peppy, energized, playful and happy in the book than he appears in either of the movies.

I took these pictures when I tucked the girls in. Lily gave them each a small massage while I wrapped up reading and then I gave each of the girls a smash hug. They beg for it regularly, and it’s just as it sounds. I hug them in their beds with the intention of trying to completely crush them, even grabbing the mattress under them for maximum smashing. The love it.

I woke up at 5:40 this morning to play basketball. After arriving at the gym and finding no one was there, I went home and did a stationary bike-ride. I then did a run to the dump to get rid of a lot of boxes and things that accumulated during Christmas time. At home Lily and I made breakfast for the kids (avocado toast and waffles). I took Lydia and Mary to school which was really fun.

Back at home, I worked with Ammon for over an hour to finish his book 4 writing book. That was the book he missed doing in class while he was in North Carolina and Greece. It is so nice to finally be done with it, and he worked really hard to get us there.

While I was doing that, Lily was practicing an arrangement to accompany our friend Courtney at the funeral of Courtney’s father-in-law. Courtney came over to sing while Lily played, and they sounded amazing!

I then rested with Lily, and then our marathons began. Lily did a bunch of shopping and made a killer lentil soup, and packed the food for our outing and got Ammon and Clarissa all dressed. On my end, I got the fishing poles ready, packed the car with cooking gear, chairs etc, printed my fishing license and other fishing info and then studied the lesson to teach Mary’s art class just in time to race off and teach it.

I LOVED teaching Mary’s art class. First of all, it’s very cute to me how shy Mary is. When I said “hi” to her in class, she gave me a very quiet and small wave. I had a great time teaching the class. It felt very natural, and I loved cracking jokes, while still guiding the class through content. It was fun for me and I really felt in my element. We were learning to draw faces, and I also loved learning the content myself because I love art, but have had very little training myself. I had a great co-teacher, Allison Bender and the kids were so adorable and well-behaved. They really tried to get their faces to turn out. Some were better than others, but most all gave it a solid effort, which is all you can hope for learning something the first time through. Here is Mary’s self-portrait that she drew. I love it!

Right after teaching Mary’s art-class, I drove Lydia (who talked to me the whole way about a boy she now sits next to who gets on her nerves, but maybe isn’t so bad) and Mary to Utah Lake to meet Lily, Ammon, Clarissa and Amy, Emerson, Isabel, Indy, and Hawthorne. We were there to ice-fish. The ice was on the thin side (still about four inches) so Lily and Amy took the kids to a very shallow area to play on the ice while I went to a dock and drilled holes, set up the fishing area, and set up our new camping table (thanks Lily), the stove and the food station and got the soup and water heating.

Everyone joined me just as the soup was warm and the poles were ready. Lily was in heaven serving her home-made soup and bread, cookies and hot-cocoa on a doc over a frozen lake. I also had a really great time, but felt disappointed that we didn’t catch anything. I especially wanted Amy’s kids to have the experience of catching a fish. There were other people there that did incredibly well. I chased one of them down to get advice and learned he was using wax worms and a type of jig head I’d never used before. He was so nice and he gave us his wax worms, and we tried fishing another fifteen minutes, but still had no luck. All in all, it was awesome to spend time with Amy and her family, the weather was great, the lake was beautiful, and perhaps best of all was the incredible warm soup we got to fill our bellies with in the cold evening. The experience was wonderful.

Still, I came home with defeat on my mind. Lydia wanted to keep talking to me at home (because she continued talking to me on the way home about her crushes, which she mostly has to keep life interesting, and asked if I had crushes in school etc), and even though it was so fun talking to her in the car, I told her I was on a mission and needed to focus. I spend the next hour assembling our fish-finder. I made progress, but still need some more time to fully figure it out. I hope having a device that literally tells me exactly where fish are will help us next time. If it doesn’t, I jokingly told Lily tonight on our walk that I might literally lose all of my self-esteem.

I should also mention our kids are staying up way too late these days and Lily did an incredible amount of cleaning, dish-washing, and tidying and now is doing yoga.

Here are pics from the day!

Lydia is incredibly festive, and is very insistent about properly celebrating holidays. As a result, Lily and I were up at midnight, and I did our annual banging of the pots and pans on our porch to ring in the New Year. Even though I cherish my sleep, I do love that tradition, and I’m grateful for Lydia’s persistence in helping us make a memory. Here is a video:

Lily and I got up around 9AM today. I ran Basil hard with my Dogout workout (run to park, 4 times around the softball diamonds and 30 pullups and then run home), and Lily did the stationary bike. Then I worked with Ammon on school work and got ready for the day while Lily started on lunch. She made the most incredible mushroom Polenta and beet & feta salad and I roasted chicken-sausage. We set the table nicely, and it was so fun to have a nice family meal on New Years’ day. We went around the table talking about our favorite day from the previous year. The kids all mentioned Basil, and Lydia also said Disney World. Lily’s favorite memory was Chicago with the older girls, and my favorite memory was backpacking with the kids. Then we talked about goals for the New Year. Lily wants to be alive and healthy in one year. Mary wants to travel outside of North America. Lydia wants to get better at dancing, and Ammon and Clarissa had silly answers. My aspirations are in yesterday’s blog.

After lunch, we all watched the 1990’s movie Sabrina, with Harrison Ford in it. We want to watch a lot of movies set in France in preparation for our Paris trip in the Summer. Lily watched that movie a lot growing up and loves it, and I enjoyed it a lot also.

Afterwards, I worked hard getting all the Christmas decorations put away and organized, and I also organized the garage. Lily worked even harder working with the kids on their instruments, getting them back into the swing of things after having a break from serious supervised practice. Then I played with Ammon, Clarissa, Lydia and Basil. Ammon built a castle/fort out of the couches and blankets and such. We pretended he was a bad-guy, Clarissa was the Queen, I was a wizard, and Lydia was in charge of Basil who had to lick someone’s face if they were dead to bring them back to life. We pretended to fight Ammon, the bad guy, for a solid twenty minutes before we wrapped things up and put kids to bed. When the older girls went to bed, Lily read to them the Shakespeare play As You Like It in preparation for them all seeing it with Amy and her children in February.

Lily and I then cleaned another hour or so, and then wound down (I watched Seinfeld while she continued cleaning and then she read Big Magic).

Today was super productive…almost too productive, meaning I know I will be very tired tomorrow. I have my sights on a lazy Sunday tomorrow. Happy New Year!