Saturday was a bit of a rocky day at first, but I did have one of the nicest morning prayers I’d had in a while. Ammon has been acting insanely difficult. Perhaps it is due to all of the neglect because of my intense focus at work to get promoted and Lily’s intense focus on the move and getting the house set up. He whines, all the time, about everything it seems. When we tell him to stop whining, he says (in a whiny voice), “I’m a bad boy” so then we have to deal with both trying to get him to stop whining and helping to have some sort of positive self concept about himself. “Ammon, you are not a bad boy, you are a wonderful boy that needs to stop whining….” etc. He’s also been getting into a lot of trouble. He had an epic meltdown at Trader Joes, he has not been listening to instructions, and it has just been really really hard.
Lily an I were both tired, and not only got upset with the kids, but even got a little upset with each other. I think we were all tired and cranky from all the exertion we’d recently had. Lily and I made up very quickly and I got to spend a lot of time with the kids, which meant a lot to me because I’d been wanting to give them more attention.
I had the kids Saturday from about noon to 4:00. We got a lot done! I did a run to the dump to get rid of tons of trash from our garage, cleaned the rugs of lentil soup at the car wash, vacuumed the car, went to Trader Joes (where Ammon completely tantrumed) and went to Harmon’s for fondue ingredients.
So, it was a bit of a long day (though still meaningful and productive) to that point, but then everything changed when I got home. First, I moved the downstairs couch all around and vacuumed it and under it (under the couch was crazy! We found so much stuff, including a sandal from the previous house owners).
So the couch cleaning was actually super satisfying, but the main thing that was so happy was my brother Jere came over and we did a 1,000 piece Harry Potter puzzle together.
It wasn’t just that we did a puzzle together. We had Harry Potter playing in the background, number 5 (that the puzzle scene was from) and number 6 afterwords. Lydia was also helping with the puzzle and its so fun hanging out with her. We also had the most amazing fondue of my life. The cheese was unbelievably good. With the cheese we had pickles, jalapeno stuffed pickled onions, sourdough bread, apples, grapes, and bbq smoked turkey. I had been trying to focus on eating healthy (which may have also played into my grumpiness earlier in the day), but I cast off all restraint with this fondue. It was honestly one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve ever had, and it was so fun to enjoy it with everyone. I also used canned heat for the first time, and that was a great discovery although I was a bit worried about the leftover can and lid spontaneously combusting in the trash I threw it in.
Puzzling was so fun. Lily later reported she was giving me lovey signals, like touching my arm, or playing footsie, and she said I didn’t notice or reciprocate and that made her sad. I feel bad, but the truth is, I must have been so engrossed in the puzzle. I was super committed and kindof obsessed. Lily wanted to turn in, but I was addicted and announced I’d finish all thousand pieces even if I had to do it alone. Well, Jere and Lily hung with me until it was done. Conversation was great, and the puzzling was just so fun, and we finished around 2:40 AM. Man what a good time. And Lily, I will try to be more aware of your sweet gestures next time!!! Also, I learned for future reference, that to get the number of pieces right for a puzzling evening, it is wise to only have about 200 pieces for every adult helping.
