Month: March 2018

On Saturday Abe and I put the kids down right at 7, made sure they were all actually either sleeping or falling asleep, and then hightailed it outta there to go on a date.

It was a much needed break. Both of us feel like we are falling apart from all of the demands of life. We shopped for birthday presents, got some incredible deals on cookbooks at Barnes and Noble, ate and In-N-Out, drove through Dairy Queen, and talked a ton.

I took pictures of a couple books I want to check out at the library:

We came home and played the Easter Bunny. After we had filled the eggs, prepped the baskets, and hidden a ton of eggs, Abe stepped outside and just started throwing handfuls of eggs all over the lawn for good measure. We love being the Easter Bunny’s helpers.

Earlier in the day we listened to both sessions of General Conference, although we were late for the second session because the shower broke and almost flooded the house.

My favorite part of Conference was snuggling with Lydia in bed while watching it on my laptop. Everyone else was watching in the basement and it was nice to watch with Lydia.

My other favorite talk of the day was this one by Larry Echo Hawk.

Abe hit his quota today! It was another nail biter, and we were all so proud of him.

I finished the book I got when I went out Wednesday night. I loved it! It was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

Abe and I watched the most recent Star Wars movie to celebrate the day. We watched the whole thing at a time, which is almost unheard of — for us.

On Thursday my neighbor came over at 7pm to see if I would come visiting teaching with her. She happened to come in just as everything in the house was falling apart. Not only was every inch of the house a complete disaster, but the girls decided to have their worst fight of the week. They were yelling at each other à la Anastasia and Drusella from Cinderella, filling the halls with their high-pitched insults and screams. Clarissa was augmenting those lovely sounds with her own full-throated screams, and Abe trying his best to extricate himself from the mess as fast as possible so he could be on time to basketball.

My neighbor and I had to yell at each other to hear above the noise, and even then we couldn’t hear each other. Somehow (I wonder how?) she came to the conclusion that I was unavailable for the evening.

After she left, everything calmed down and got sorted out, and when everyone was asleep and the house was clean, I sat down to stress-eat and reflect on the day. My first instinct was to be embarrassed that I had been caught in such a low moment, but my next thought was that it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

On Thursday my neighbor got to see our whole family in complete chaos. In today’s world of social media, it is a gift to see anything imperfect. The high moments that we see and share are probably, for the most part, just as real as the low moments, but real life is full of highs, lows, and the mundane in-between. As long as we’re sharing segments, we might as well share reflections of the balance.

The balance is beautiful.

On Wednesday I tried to put the kids and myself in front of a movie from 5:30 until bedtime so I could calm down after the homework-piano-harp-dinner-clean-up-bath rush, but bedtime hit and I was still feeling fried crisp. After the kids were in bed I ran out the door without my phone (which is perpetually lost). Abe asked where I was going and I called back that I didn’t know. That scared the bajeebers out of Abe who thought I was going to jump off a cliff!

In fact I was hungry because I hadn’t had a minute to sit down and eat all day. I went to In-N-Out, Barnes and Noble, and Dairy Queen to calm down.

When I arrived back I found Abe pacing the cul-de-sac convinced I was dead. We had a long talk and afterward we all felt better.

Abe is still on death’s door, but he powered through work anyway. It was his turn with our therapist this week and he reported it was a great session. Basically they always have the same conversation about how Abe works too hard and needs to slow down. She has asked him to, as a therapeutic exercise, sit down and do nothing–on occasion. I still have yet to see him complete this task, even though he’s about to drop from illness and stress.

I spent most of the day ruminating about church issues, singing hymns to the Ammon, reading to Ammon, playing with Ammon, playing puzzles with Mary, baking banana date muffins, doing laundry, and listening to the Wicked! soundtrack with all of the kids.

My mom met her new doctor and likes him. She also helped the girls with their homework. If it were up to Abe and me, our kids would be total delinquents. We are so grateful for my mom. She is our ace in the hole!

Our neighbor, Josh, drops in several times a week. It’s fun having a neighbor who just pops in whenever. I feel like we’re on a sitcom or something when it happens. He dropped in twice today and we all enjoyed his company.

For FHE tonight we played “Go Fish” with paper fish and a magnetic fishing pole. On the back of the fish I wrote questions to prepare us for Easter, such as:

• Why did Jesus die?
• How did Jesus die?
• When was Jesus resurrected?
• Who was the first person to see Jesus resurrected?
• …etc.

There were ten fishes, and Mary did an insanely cute job of instructing us on the game. She will make a great teacher some day when she grows up.

Also, Abe is still insanely sick. He went to urgent care and the doctor told him he is suffering from a nasty virus. Poor Abe is under so much stress from work that he can’t get the rest he needs to get better.

On Saturday we all went to West High School, Abe’s Alma Mater, to join the March For Our Lives. Clark and Soren had to catch their flight, so they were only able to come with us to the beginning. We sad a said goodbye, and my mom cried after they left.

Almost right after Clark and Soren left, we bumped into Betsy and Micah! Considering there were thousands of people at the march, we felt so blessed to run into them.

We were grateful to march for the safety of children in America, including our own children. I mourn the fact that my children have to grow up in the era of mass shootings, and I am so grateful to the courageous teenagers who have led the way on this issue and organized the march.

After the march we went to the Miners and celebrated Grandma Miner’s birthday. I wish I had pictures but had full hands the whole time. It was a good time.

And then we drove home and collapsed. It was a full, very physical day and we were exhausted. Abe was actually very sick the whole day and has been sick for two straight weeks. It was a pretty big day for someone suffering from an onslaught of viruses.

On Friday Clark took the boys to Qualtrics in the morning and a playground in the afternoon.

After school the girls had their dress rehearsal pictures for ballet. They were so beautiful!

Thursday was Lydia’s one hundred and twentieth day of school. Usually the kids dress up on day on hundred as one hundred year old people, but this year they dressed up on day one hundred twenty because her teacher was out of town on day one hundred.

Lydia was such an adorable one hundred and twenty year old.

On Wednesday I pulled Lydia from school so she could join us for an outing to the zoo. With Clark in town, we can actually do fun outings!

When he’s not in town, we are sort of housebound because it is almost unsafe to take Ammon places. He literally combs the perimeter of places trying to find openings and weak spots so he can escape. I can’t chase him as fast as I need to since I have Clarissa, not to mention all of the injuries from pregnancy that still haven’t healed.

Anyway, with Clark in town, it was like a party. We could go places! Clark can run down Ammon and we can be adventurous AND safe! It was wonderful.

Here are the pictures from the zoo: