Month: July 2017

This morning my mom drove Lydia and me to Lydia’s harp lesson. I knew it was my only outing for the day, so I snapped a picture:

Thanks to our babysitter, Sophie, I spent the rest of the day in my chair by the window. The girls had a play date with Pippa in the afternoon, and Betsy came and sat visiting with me for a truly lovely hour. I just love her and I also love that I don’t feel any panic after visiting with her. She is just so easy going, funny, authentic (like one thousand percent authentic), and engaging. I am looking forward to our next play date, whenever that happens.

She also brought me homemade pizzelles! They were so yummy.

Abe had a great day at work, and my mom was, as usual, so helpful with everything. It’s her birthday tomorrow!!!

This 4th of July was one of my favorite of all time. In fact, it was my favorite! Every part of the day was beautiful, happy, fun, peaceful, filled with feelings of gratitude–or all of the above all at once.

I had gone to bed on the third of July feeling grumpy about how much Abe has to shoulder while I am on bed rest, but in the morning we talked about it and completely resolved my issues. He is, what can I say? The BEST. He told me this can either be a really special time in our lives that draws us closer, or it can be a hard time. We can choose. After mulling it over for a while, I decided this is going to be a special time. I am going to try to be humble and not get angry about everything that people are doing for me. I am also not going to let my personal pride debilitate me, literally, for life.

We also started off the day by letting the kids make their own flag toasts. (We helped Ammon with his.)

Then Mary crafted a cut-out of herself. She decided that her friend, Anabelle, probably wanted Mary around full-time, and so she gifted this cut-out of herself to her friend. Mary has a terrific sense of self-esteem.

Then Abe took the girls to the Freedom Festival. It is a very patriotic festival where the community recreates a Revolutionary War camp community, and historical characters tell their stories. Abe’s favorite was George Washington, who told wonderful stories about how he learned to be a better grandfather. He also loved how George Washington had no problem telling the kids they were children of God who had the power to change the world. Sometimes we stop and realize that Orem is has some really special qualities, one being that people talk about God openly at community events.

Then the kids played outside for the rest of the day.

Karin and Jay joined us for dinner. While they were helping with dinner prep, we all enjoyed Abe’s soundtrack of the best kind of American music–Hawaiian music! We then had tofurkey dogs, brats, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, grilled pineapple, and a trifle I made in the morning.

I got to ask Karin about a crazy idea I had this afternoon. Since I’ve been busy crocheting, I have been wishing there were a way to give the blanket I’m making to a hospital somewhere and let the receiver know that they and their baby have been prayed for. Then I thought, why not start a non profit where people can donate items to prayed-for, albeit anonymous, recipients? That way the recipient can know that someone has prayed for them.

Karin told me that the process for starting such an organization is pretty simple, but the upkeep is a little bit of a headache, especially when it comes to taxes (which is her specialty). I will have to mull it over more–meaning, it will probably never happen. In the meantime, maybe I will just tuck a note into my blanket before donating it to a women’s shelter or something.

In the evening we watched fireworks. I have never lived in a place like Utah Valley before. Everyone shoots off their own fireworks, and some cul-de-sacs go in on shows together, creating spectacular presentations that rival civic displays.

Abe, my mom, and the kids joined the neighbors sitting outside and enjoyed being surrounded by shows. (I stayed mostly inside our cool house listening to Hawaiian music and crocheting the baby blanket.) There was a show going on in the middle of our cul-de-sac, a show at the beginning of our cul-de-sac, a show in several neighboring cul-de-sacs (which were completely visible), shows from behind our house, and to top it off, our musically talented  neighbors across the street stood outside with their enormous family singing Fourth of July anthems.

I have always loved how Halloween helps mingle communities in fun ways, but I think the Fourth of July in Utah Valley achieves that even better. We enjoyed celebrating our country, our community, and our freedom with such deeply good people. I also love that my kids have made treasured memories of incredibly exciting Fourths of July. I hope the fun they had remains as a treasured memory for the rest of their lives.

On Monday we spent the whole morning practicing instruments, and then I made lunch for the girls before leaving the kids to the babysitter for an hour.

After she left for her afternoon break during Ammon’s nap, I read to the girls and tried to teach them how to crochet. Then I Googled “how to teach young kids how to crochet,” and I realized that I was not alone in my feeling of frustration. The internet says not to attempt this before the kids are seven. I have since ordered French knitting spools and hope we will have a better experience with those. The internet tells me we will.

After our crochet failure, I spent the rest of the day Googling bento box lunch ideas and crochet patterns. Abby, the babysitter, took the kids outside and had a picnic with them. They played outside until Abe came home.

Abe came home and made us a delicious salmon dinner, after which the kids ran over to the neighbors’ front yard and spent the evening there. The neighbors had their 4th of July fireworks a day early and set off almost an hour’s worth of fireworks in the cul-de-sac. Abe and the kids joined them for s’mores, sparklers, and the fireworks.

Today I stayed home from church and had an incredibly peaceful morning. I read scriptures, prayed, read my Ensign, crocheted, wrote some overdue cards, and looked out of my window a lot.

Before all of that, I had a great time doing the girls’ nails and hair. I don’t know why I haven’t picked a day to do their nails every week. It saves on the pre-lesson scramble to find nail clippers and cut them short, and I generally enjoy grooming my children. (They hate it when I do their hair, but I have always, always wanted to be better at doing hair, so I enjoy the practice.)

It was fast Sunday, so the day was a little harder on Abe. He and my mom were fasting, and they had to make up for everything I couldn’t do. They fed the girls, cleaned up after the girls, changed all of Ammon’s diapers, and generally did everything that needs doing. I felt so sorry for them! I did help cut up vegetables for our curry dinner, but in light of everything else they had to do, my contribution barely deserves that term.

On the cute side, the girls decided during nap time to bring up snacks for me. They were so cute about what they brought up: A torn piece of red pepper, broken graham crackers, a smattering of dry cereal, a Hershey kiss, a miniature marshmallow, a cup of ice, and a party-favor container of pink play dough.

Saturday was a wonderful day! The upside to my fall is that, in terms of bed rest, “my guilt is swept away.” I had problems before because I felt like if I technically could walk, even with pain, I should be walking and doing everything that I possibly could to be independent.

With the fall, I am no longer physically capable of much, so I have enthusiastically retired to my bed and comfy chair by the window. I have finished five books, taught myself to crochet, planned out the week, and have generally enjoyed resting, praying, thinking, and looking out my window at the incredible view.

Abe had a fantastic Saturday too! He took the kids out for breakfast and then to Jo-Ann’s to get fabric and material for all of the projects I’ve planned this week. I can sit, so the girls and I are going to spend a lot of time embroidering, sewing, and crocheting. (I also intend to knit, but since I only have one pair of knitting needles, that will have to be a solo activity.) I also figure we can spend a whole lot of time reading. We have been so busy that I haven’t read with or to the kids nearly as much as I would like, and bed rest is proving to be such a marvelous opportunity to catch up on that too.

Ack, look at me! I intended to write about Abe’s Saturday and then went on about me. Ick. Basically, Abe had a wonderful Saturday and felt really happy all day long. The stress of last quarter dissipated and he feels very optimistic about the new quarter.

He also had a fun interaction with the girls. They were misbehaving so Abe took away their dessert privileges. The girls then ran inside to compose and choreograph a song to change his mind. Minutes later they ran back to Abe singing and dancing about what a wonderful, fun, strong, funny, awesome dad he is. It worked! He gave in and they were allowed to eat dessert.

My mom had a good Saturday too. She checked out a local festival with one of her visiting teachees, and now she knows all about what to do with Abe and the girls on the 4th of July.

At the end of the day, Abe and I went to Lucas and Kim’s house for a Poldark date. I spent the whole day in bed saving up so I could manage to get myself to the car for our date. I almost cancelled, but we plan these things months in advance, and all I had to do during the evening was sit on their comfy couch. All of us HATED the episode we watched. Ross cheats on Demelza!!! I think Lucas wants to watch something else entirely next time, but Abe is still intrigued by the Poldark plot. I think the series has seriously degenerated, but I enjoy Lucas and Kim, so I’ll watch whatever.