On Tuesday I went to yoga in the morning and Abe helped get the kids ready so I could stay longer than usual.
In the evening after we got the kids down, Abe and I went to the Morrells to minister. Rose Marie showed us her quilts and told me she would help me with mine. It was a sweet visit.
I wish I had more pictures of this day and more details about what happened. I am back blogging while watching a documentary about fasting, and so that is all I remember for now.
On Monday I let the kids have the day off from school so we all could go to Ogden and meet up with my friend, Ashley Keyes, her husband, Stephen, and her kids, Naomi and Benjie. They live in Texas but were in town for the holidays.
The museum was wonderful, and I had a lovely time chatting with Ashley. Ashley is a Brene Brown devotee and encouraged me to read Brene Brown while I was on bedrest. So we had a great time putting that reading to work, getting vulnerable, and bonding. I felt so connected to Ashley by the time we left around 3pm. I wish she lived closer! I also wish I had a picture of us together, but by the end Ammon was in the middle of huge tantrum. No picture possible. I did get some earlier of the kids:
Today I worked with the girls on our puzzle project. We are trying to get every puzzle in the house completed. We are not there, but we made progress!
We also had Jaden and Mallory over for dinner after church. It was so fun visiting with them. At one point Abe laughed so hard he cried. I always dread these dinners because of all the work getting ready for them, but afterward I am always so glad we did it. Anything good takes effort, so I just need to remember that next time I feel overwhelmed by the work ahead.
On Friday I naturally woke up at 5:22, so against all of my resolutions to sleep in, I got up and went to yoga. Then I came home and cleaned the house–and myself!–while Abe got the kids fed and ready for the day.
The rest of the day we spent napping and helping the girls with their practice. Also, the kids decorated the mini tree my mom got them:
When I woke up from my nap, Lydia begged me to go back to bed so she could bring me some cinnamon toast she made from the recipe book I gave her. (Abe helped her with the broiling part.) She also cut out hear shaped marshmallows and put them on a mug of cocoa, which I just happened to be craving! She was so proud of her snack. It was delicious and touching. I was too busy eating it to get a picture.
At 5pm we left to the Riverwoods to meet up with Karin and Jay.
When Clarissa and Ammon got antsy, Abe took them out to roast s’mores and see Santa, much to Ammon’s euphoric delight:
And then I took Ammon to the car to warm up while Abe let the girls roast marshmallows and see Santa too.
Lydia feels sad because she is worried Santa won’t come because of the locker incident. Abe and I are going to lift our home consequences for it because as we’ve talked about it, it’s become very clear to us that Lydia had no idea that her joke about a puppy would make the other student feel bad. She is a very kind girl.
When we came home, we put the babies to bed and did a quick puzzle with the girls before going to the Bogdens to minister. Mary wanted to fill her room with completed puzzles. She’s almost there. Maybe we can reach that goal Sunday.
On Friday morning we listened to Evita in preparation to go to Abby’s play that night. Ammon and Clarissa were great dancers to the music:
Then after school Mary had a performance class, so I took the other kids to the park during her class.
After we picked up Mary, Lydia wanted to go get flowers for Abby. I was feeling rushed and initially said we didn’t have time, but Lydia persuaded me by stating that she likes to do for other people what she would like them to do for her. I loved hearing the golden rule stated to clearly, so I caved and squeezed in that errand.
Then we went home, ate pizza, and went to Evita and the high school. It was so fun seeing Abby on stage!
I read Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness at Home today. I have a feeling I’ve read it before, but it caught my eye at the library yesterday. Some of her writing resonated strongly with me, and she made me think a lot about how to give the kids more free time. I don’t know how other kids have so much free time! I have to be a drill sergeant in order to hurry the girls through practice, homework, dinner, and getting ready for bed before they have ANY free time at all. I feel like if I let them have free time before all of that other stuff got done, they would just get increasingly tired and wouldn’t get their homework or practice done until 10pm or later.
But I wish they had more free time, I really do. So today I cut their practice down to thirty minutes, put them on a timer for homework and dinner—and even then they weren’t in their pj’s and ready for free time before 7pm!!! It’s so discouraging.
I am also worried that I am failing Ammon. He clearly needs more stimulation during the day than I can give him. I need to check out during Clarissa’s nap for my own sanity, but Ammon still hangs out next to me and asks for my attention regularly while I am either reading, cooking, sleeping (very lightly), or watching a documentary. I tried to preemptively stave off guilt by reading him a ton of books in the morning and by periodically reading to him and paying a modicum of attention to him during Clarissa’s nap, but by 1:30 my nerves were a bit thin. I was starting to find him…less charming than normal. Not because he was any less charming!! I was just worn out. So I put him in front of Amazon’s Room on the Broom (his very favorite movie in the whole world) and started cleaning and prepping dinner with some peace and quiet. Maybe I should enroll him in preschool…but then there’s the potty training issue. He adamantly refuses to potty train. So I guess I’m all he’s got for now. 🙁
On that note, this is a picture of Ammon coloring while I tried to check out.
Today Lydia and I had a really, really hard harp practice. I feel so guilty. I have this incredible life, and I should really have an emotional reservoir to be more patient and kind with her. I have all sorts of resolves for the future, but in the meantime…poor Lyida. At one point, she said through tears, “You’re making me deaf!”
On the other hand, Mary was absolutely perfect during piano. I was amazed at how her technique is progressing. And she was an angel all night. It seems that when one of the two older girls is misbehaving, the other one takes that as a cue to be incredible. So Mary was sweet, compliant, and darling all night.
I went to Odaka Yoga and reiki tonight after the horrible practice, and that was incredible. It helped me in changing my energy around.
Abe is in Chicago on business. We’re on the phone and since I don’t have any pictures from today, I am ending this blog now.
Tuesday was kind of a downer day for me personally because I binge ate not only once, but THREE times.
But on the upside, instead of yoga I chased around Ammon and Clarissa for an hour. It is soooooo cute to see Clarissa run away. And when I collapsed on the floor afterward, Ammon said concernedly, “Mama, are you dead? Get up, Mama!”
Another super stressful aspect of yesterday was that Lydia got a demerit in school. Her best friend was going through lockers trying to find white boards to write jokes on, and she told Lydia to help her. Lydia agreed and wrote a joke about a lost puppy on one of the boards.
One of the kids who got a message on her board started feeling scared and unsafe at school because she didn’t know who was going through her locker. Her parent called the principal, who found out by the handwriting that the culprits were Lydia and her best friend.
Lydia and her best friend admitted that they knew it was wrong to do this and that it was mean but they did it anyway. (At home, Lydia adamantly denied knowing it was mean because the joke she wrote was about a puppy.) Anyway, we were all shocked and upset that Lydia made other kids feel unsafe and scared at school. She will have no screen time at all until Christmas break, and all of the time she would have spent on the screen will now be repurposed as scripture study and also study of The Book of Virtues. At the end she will write me an essay on why it is important to choose the right and why we should be courageous with our friends.
Also Abe had to do tithing settlement until 9pm at the church, and he’s going on a trip Wednesday through Thursday, so we didn’t get to see him much. It was a day I’d be happy to forget, except for the fact that I just blogged about it and preserved it for the ages…
Mary had 50’s day at school. I can’t figure out how to do my new trick of embedding photos with these particular photos, so here they are in smaller form:
In the morning Clarissa and Ammon had their well-child checks, and Clarissa had some shots. Here she is post shots sucking grumpily on a lollipop while Ammon happily pushes her along:
I spent the rest of the day cooking for a vegetarian Thanksgiving. I bought a Tofurkey on the spur of a whim last week, and so I made a bunch of sides to go with it today. It was supposed to be a fun, happy meal, but I was so tired and grumpy by the time we sat down that it wasn’t exactly that. Mary also declared that I never cook anything she likes and had a tantrum. It was sad.
But the good news is my mom had a fantastic empty nesters FHE tonight. She saw some beautiful stain glass and had dinner with the empty nester group and came home so happy. She also looked so pretty. I should have taken a picture.
Abe and I finished the day by ministering to our neighbors. We visited with them and had such a great time.
Also, last but honestly, this should really be first: SAP BOUGHT QUALTRICS TODAY. This move will change out lives in a really great way. We feel very blessed and thankful for the way God has lead our family. On my way to the temple this morning (I went to the 5:40am session), I said a prayer for Ryan Smith, the CEO of Qualtrics. Abe found out when we woke up at 4:45am that Qualtrics had been bought, and so I had all morning to think about it. I feel very grateful.
Today was fast Sunday. I am used to eating A LOT every day, and so fast Sundays are hard for me. I coped by planning out a series of Christmas feasts from around the world for the month of December. It was really fun researching what different people in different countries eat for Christmas. My favorite discovery was Japan. They eat KFC for Christmas! That night will be easy.
After we broke our fast, I played with Clarissa for an hour. She was in the best mood. We played ball and she tried to kick it. We also played on the lion, and when I told her that we were going to play with it, she understood me and walked around the corner right to it! She also loved trying to stuff my mouth with paper, which I would spit back out. She thought that was hilarious. I love my baby.
