Month: February 2015

Sometimes I have days where I realize my life is too easy. I am definitely not complaining, but I don’t think this lifestyle can possibly be healthy or sustainable long term. Doesn’t the best growth come from struggle? In my last ward, almost every Sunday School lesson came back to a discussion about how to endure the hard blows of life. I always felt like such a wuss listening to everyone because my only real struggles right now are with my own character flaws. If I ever actually become that “new creature in Christ” I pray every day to be, my life (if the situation remains stable) will be simple and utter bliss.

And that is why I steel myself every day for some blow from the sky. I probably can’t become the person I want to be without enduring a couple of real trials, and so days like these feel peaceful in a kind of eerie way.

All that to say, we had a perfectly normal day. I worked out, took the girls to the park, made dinner, and somewhere in there took a nap.

It’s now 1:30 am, and I have just finished binge watching season five of Downton Abbey. I fell asleep right after putting the girls to bed, and when I woke up two hours later, I couldn’t get back to bed. Hence my irresponsible use of late night time.

My only hope for tomorrow is that the girls will sleep in. They had a full, long day today, and Mary swapped her usual three or four hour nap for a one hour one. I pray we all wake up together at 10 am tomorrow.

Although today wasn’t terribly productive in the chore department, I did play a lot with the girls, and that made me happy. When we first moved into this house, I made sure that all toys were kept either upstairs or in the basement. I reasoned that I would never have a mess downstairs if I kept it that way. The downside, which I overlooked, is that I rarely ever play with the girls now.

I wish I could say I took steps to remedy the situation, but the credit actually belongs to Summer, the girls’ babysitter. She moved some puzzles and dolls to the main floor a couple days ago, and we have all been playing more ever since. I’ve decided I prefer the current arrangement.

Pictures:

Considering all I wanted out of this day was to deep clean my house, this day feels like a smashing success. Granted, my day effectively started at 11 am and cleaning didn’t happen until 9 pm, but it got done! And in the meantime, I had so many good experiences with the girls.

As I was getting lunch cleaned up, I heard on the radio that it was 60 degrees outside. I dropped everything, packed the girls in the car and drove to the nearest park.

I have figured out a way to get Lydia to nap. All I have to do is convince her to cuddle with me and boom! she’s out for a good hour or two in the middle of the day. That’s perfect, because I’m generally out of commission for a good couple hours then anyway, so we can just be out of commission together.

This afternoon Abe called to tell me that his Aunt Christina, Isabella’s mother, passed away this morning. Our hearts have been so heavy as we have prayed for Isabella and her family. We love Isabella, and we simply can not imagine how hard it must be to lose her mother at age 11.

And what a mother! Christina epitomized love, long-suffering, empathy and compassion. Abe’s fondest gastronomic memories are of meals she lovingly cooked for his family after his parents’ divorce. Even though she suffered greatly during her life, Christina always listened to others and spoke only words of encouragement and kindness. She was an inspiring example to all who knew her. When Suzanne broke the news to Abe, she said, “A mighty oak has fallen.”

Pictures.

Abe has been wearing broken glasses for nine months now. Karin generously bestowed Abe with new glasses for his birthday, and he is so excited to not stare through peeling lenses anymore!

He’s so handsome. Doesn’t he look great in his new glasses?

On the home front, we had a smooth day. I worked out at home and at the gym while Lydia was in ballet, and then we came home for lunch, math, and naps. Lydia actually napped curled up in my arms. Sleeping with my arms around my first baby was definitely the highlight of my day.

And then it was off to school. I successfully redid the dishes I messed up yesterday. Abe was supposed to bring the girls to the restaurant, but I accidentally brought the car seats to school with me. Oops! Thankfully, Karin and Jay still came, so I had someone to look forward to. It helps to have people I care about in the dining room. I enjoy the process so much more knowing that the food is going to land on loved ones’ plates.

Today was a reality check for Abe and me. Abe had a deluge of work waiting for him in the office, and I had restaurant tonight. I messed up every. single. dish. It was so depressing. I am going to redo it all tomorrow in a quarter of the time so my station can be ready for service.

One cool thing we did was smoke cream cheese for our cheesecake. Even though I forgot about the cheesecake and let it cook too long, the flavor was amazing. We used pickling spice, woodchips, galangal, cinnamon sticks, and orange zest to flavor our smoke. I also caramelized cornflakes, but I must have looked away while pouring the salt or something because they tasted like salty potato chips. I must have accidentally dumped salt on top of them. Oops. And I also made (and messed up) milk crumbs. Lots of redos tomorrow.

Speaking of mistakes, the girls made one this morning. While I was on the phone with Mom, Lydia grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped away at her hair and Mary’s. You can barely tell on Lydia’s hair, but poor Mary. She was shorn and lopsided before, but now her hair is a cross between Euro-punk and chicken.

I took a picture of the girls because I was laughing inside, but I told them sternly that I was only taking the picture so they could see the damage they caused. The result is–a mug shot! Two guilty little faces caught fresh from the act.

Before we left for Cancun, one of the bishopric approached Abe and said they had a calling for me: First counselor in the Primary. (That was the calling that was so hard in my last ward.) Abe turned ashen gray and explained that while I would accept whatever calling they gave me, that particular one might be hard for a number of reasons. He then gently suggested that the calling I had already suggested to each individual member of the bishopric, a calling to the nursery, might be better.

Last night I got the call to the nursery. Hip, hip hooray! Thank-you, Honey, for helping me land there. Of course, I credit the listening skills of our new bishopric, my own culturally inappropriate talks with them (effectively preemptive strikes), and God too. Basically, I am thankful to everyone who helped me get a calling that a) I enjoy b) makes me feel like I have something to contribute c) is every other week so I can go to Abe’s Gospel Doctrine classes and c) syncs with my school stress this quarter. A blessing indeed.

Today was my first day in nursery, and it was awesome. It was especially nice not to abandon Mary after having been away so long.

After church, we rushed home to get the house in order for dinner with the Maudsleys. They were in town for a baptism, and Katie offered a couple weeks ago to come over with a raclette dinner. I enthusiastically welcomed yet another opportunity to get out of cooking dinner, and when the Maudsleys got here today, we joked that they were like a food truck. Just look at the amazing dinner they made after transporting ingredients and equipment from over an hour away:

Abe got spit up on twice while holding their adorable new baby, Phillip. He was so happy to be holding a baby again that he didn’t care a bit. Even though I am no longer at the stage where I feel actively allergic to babies, I preferred to watch and coo from a distance.

Just fell asleep twice while typing. Good night!

We made it back yesterday night, and it was so, so, SO wonderful to see the girls. At one point, Mary looked up at my face and exclaimed gleefully, “You came back!” Heartstrings warmed. Both girls came into my room this morning and preferred a long, long cuddle to any offers of food or other entertainment. I got lots of cuddles throughout the day, and we ended with…yet more cuddles in Lydia’s toddler bed. Mary squeezed herself happily in the middle, and I felt like I was in heaven. It is so nice to be back home with my girls.

The only real activity today centered around going to dinner at Chelsea and Derek’s house. Chelsea made magazine-worthy eggplant involtini. It was so good, and it felt so great not to have to cook dinner; the return to reality was softened slightly when Chelsea offered to outsource that task.

For most of the day, we lounged at home with the girls. Abe did a couple of lovely home improvement projects, and we rounded off the day by watching the movie, Emporer. It is about the end of WWII in Japan and the drama surrounding the U.S. decision on how to deal with Hirohito.

Today felt filled with WWII, actually. I devoured the rest of my book on the U.S. rowing team that won the gold medal at the Berlin olympics, and I read a cousin’s post on Facebook about how today marks the 71st anniversary of when Darby’s Rangers were gunned down behind enemy lines. Grandma, I thought of you, and I couldn’t imagine how you felt after you learned about Ralph. You are such a courageous woman. I love you.

Pictures.