Month: January 2015

This day was packed. I worked out this morning and then Abe played basketball. While he was at basketball, I menu planned and wrote a shopping list. Then it was time for lunch, after which Mary napped and I tutored Lydia for an hour. Afterward, Lydia and I  spent almost two hours shopping while Abe stayed home and cleaned the ENTIRE house–thank-you, Darling!! Then we came home, blitz-cooked dinner, and drove to the Marshalls’ to babysit. (We’re doing a stake conference babysitting swap.)

Abe is currently passed out on the bed. We kind of want to watch Mary Poppins because we saw Saving Mr. Banks last night, but we’re both so tired it might not happen. At any rate, we do have some pictures from the day.

Before I post those, though, a prayer solicitation. I need to do an internship this quarter, and Abe turned to me tonight and asked if I wanted to intern at Communal. I laughed in his face because Communal is only the hottest restaurant in Utah Valley right now, and I assumed this was another classic instance where Abe overestimated my abilities. But he then proceeded to tell me that, through work, he has a connection with the owner of Communal, and it looks like a real possibility that I could get an internship there. My jaw dropped when he explained that to me. So right now I am just praying that I get in. Mom and Grandma, could you please pray that I get this internship? I really, really, really, reallyreally want it. (That felt greedy to write, but at least it’s a forthright statement.) Thank-you!

Here are today’s pictures:

Today was a really nice, slow day. I did a lot of cleaning, and Abe got home from work early so we went to the pool with the kiddos.

Here are the pictures:

I had lunch today with my favorite Young Women’s leader (or youth leader period, for that matter) of all time. Camey Hadlock is just an amazing person, and I enjoyed every minute with her. The time just flew.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to execute the lunch menu I had in my head, but I did get around to making a Dorie Greenspan recipe: Torteau de Chevre. It’s basically a cross between a cheesecake and a souffle wrapped in the best sweet tart dough I’ve ever had. I grated some lemon zest into the recipe for added zing, and I just loved it. I wish I could cut and paste Dorie’s essay from her cookbook in here just because she wrote about this cake so delightfully, but I’ll just have to content myself with my own little picture.

I have a feeling the middle was supposed to rise more, but the texture and taste was beauty.

Then I napped. By the time I finally got the girls bathed, it was 5 pm. Feeling guilty, I took the girls to Barnes and Noble to pick out books. Yesterday I bribed Lydia to let me clean out her ears with the promise of a new book, so we made good on that promise today.

Abe had to go to a work dinner tonight, so I took the girls to Smashburger for dinner and milkshakes.

We got home at the same time as Abe, and then we all vegged on the couch watching Winnie the Pooh until the girls’ bedtime.

I need to get a start on my new book club’s book: The Professor and the Madman. It’s about how a man locked up in an criminal asylum for the insane provided most of the definitions we find in the Oxford English Dictionary. So exciting!

Shout out to Mom and Abe, both of whom prayed for me tonight.Thank-you both. I felt God helping me through class today, and I am sure your prayers helped. When I pulled up to school, I had no idea how I was going to make it through. I had a massive headache, and tonight was the first night the restaurant was actually open for service. I felt like I was going to be sick.

Turns out I LOVE service nights! We get out early, and since we’ve prepped most of the food before, it’s actually much less stressful than I anticipated. Also, the food is really good. Here’s what we made:

Sorry this post is (as usual? as usual, probably.) all about me. Abe is doing great at work, the girls are healthy and happy, and everything else is hunky dory.

Oh! We finally got rid of Francie yesterday. At the table later that night Lydia burst out screaming, “But Francie and Bazi go together! Our neighbor Tom told us that!” She calmed down after Abe reassured her that Francie is in a better place, although she occasionally comments about how Bazi must miss Francie.

Okay, to bed to sleep off my headache. Hears to a pain-free tomorrow!

I am in the middle of staving off a mild panic attack, so this will be short.

We had a really wonderful dinner with a fascinating, kind, lovely family tonight. They have eight kids  (all 100% bilingual in different languages), have lived all over the world, and are terrific conversationalists.  In fact, they were so good at making us feel comfortable that I am panicking because I think I shared too much. If I didn’t have social anxiety, maybe I wouldn’t worry, but since I do, I am feeling pretty vulnerable and anxiety ridden right now.

Abe is about to give me a blessing because on top of that, school starts tomorrow and I am practically sick with worry.

To force myself out of my own worry for a moment: Abe is a gospel doctrine teacher now, and today he taught such a beautiful lesson about the annunciation to Mary and also the annunciation to Zacharias. He  helped me think about belief as a virtue, to believe God is the same throughout the ages, and to believe that miracles can happen today. That was the extremely distilled takeaway from a discussion rich with faith-promoting possibility.

On that note, here are today’s pictures:

Nothing really happened today, which is why this is a perfect place to record an anecdote from earlier this week. I can’t believe I forgot to write this down!

Mary had pooped in her undies, and I was undressing her very carefully in the bathroom. As I started to carefully remove the underwear, I muttered, “This is sooooo scary!”

Lydia was watching the whole procedure with great interest, and when she heard me say that, she responded, “But Mom, don’t worry! God is always behind you.”

I was so thrilled by her encouragement! It gave me the perspective and happiness needed to proceed with the unpleasant procedure  in more buoyant spirit. She then proceeded to tell me she would pray for me. She went to the next room, knelt down, and said a rather lengthy prayer for every member of our family. I was and am so proud of her, and I am very thankful for that sweet girl’s faith and example.

On another wavelength entirely, it feels like we are always at IKEA on weekends. The only picture I have from today comes from there.

I was determined to get some of our Saturday stuff done today so that we could have more free time tomorrow. Therefore, I rushed the girls through breakfast, piled everyone in the car and raced to the library to catch it at opening hour. We speedily selected some books in order to race back home and read for an hour. Then: Lunch time, preschool carpool, and cleaning.

When Lydia came back home, we did an hour of tutoring. Mom, thanks so much for the infusion of new materials! Lydia LOVES them, and we had so much fun with them today. Actually, I took this picture after wiping away all the tears on Lydia’s face because when she learned that this was our last work page, she cried.

Then we went out to dinner with Tom, Suzanne, David and Olivia. David flies back east tomorrow, so we all had dinner at Cafe Trang.

I want to get in as much of my book as possible before bedtime, so that’s all for today!

Today I bought a pass to the Orem Fitness Center. It was 20% off, and waaaay cheaper than our Salt Lake pass. I also discovered a new machine I had never used before: A lateral. I loved it.

Then I came home and spent the day recovering from my work-out. I kind of think that’s a clue that next time I should go a little easier. At any rate, I made lots of progress in my book, and Lydia played right next to me most of the time. She played more imagination today than she has in a long time, so perhaps being a checked-out mom isn’t all bad.

On the other hand, by the time I finally did get around to active parenting (post dinner–so sad!), Lydia was so tired that I lost patience with her really quickly. We were working on some preschool workbooks, and by the end we were both a wreck.

So after a phone call with my family, I resolved to start over and try harder. I went to Lydia, who by then was a bawling, incoherent, hysterical mess, and asked her to forgive me for being so impatient earlier. We sat down and did better! Initially I resolved to do nothing but affirm her in session #2, but since  I am a compulsive correcter, I couldn’t manage that. What I did manage was correcting more patiently, and Lydia responded beautifully.

Seriously, events like today’s lead me to believe I  am the source of my three year old’s behavior problems. If I could be more patient and kind ALL the time, then maybe she would never throw tantrums. Maybe her tantrums are just my negative energy thrown back at me.  I don’t know, but I definitely know that when I am more patient and kind, it helps a lot.

Pivoting: Our neighbors, Lauri and Summer, came over and visited for an hour this evening. Summer is going to babysit the girls next week while I’m at school, so after I gave Summer a run-down on our routines, we all just sat around and visited. I love our neighbors and neighborhood.

The only picture I managed to take today happened this morning. I thought it came out okay. Mary was chowing down on a lemon, and I ran for my camera…but by the time I got it, she had moved on. The picture still came out, though!

We had a play date this morning with our neighbors, and I let Lydia and Mary paint for the first time in forever. Usually they paint with Abe, but since we had a friend over and Lydia really wanted to paint with her new friend, I let her.

One hour of clean up later…but it was worth it. Also, Brittany (my neighbor) has a book club! They are reading The Professor and the Madman this month, and I am very excited.

Speaking of reading, I ditched the book I’ve been reading for the past two days (the one about the Silk Road). It had too much pseudo-poetic observation and not enough substantial history, so I figured it was better to cut my losses and start over. I’m so glad I did! I started reading Bill Bryson’s At Home, and I could not be more delighted. He discovers that the whole history of the world manifests itself in our houses, and he documents that history in funny, intelligent, and often ironic detail. I love it. That’s how I’ll spend every spare second for the next couple days.

Here are some pictures from the not-spare seconds: