Today was an overall beautiful Sunday with home-church, Mr. Rogers, downtime, good family discussion and amazing food.
But the main thing I want to report on is that Lily and I have picked up fasting due to the book Obesity Code (and other content) that Lily read. We’ve learned a lot about the importance of allowing your body time away from food so insulin levels can drop. We also learned how extended fasting (longer than 16 hours) allows your body to start burning your fat for energy (which helps if you are trying to lose weight). Lily and I have been sold on the health benefits. She has been fasting a lot more than me. She does most of her eating in a 3-6 hour window every day and then periodically will do a 24-hour (and one time did a 36 hour) fast. Both of us are losing weight. I’m amazed at how it works (even though I’m such a wimp and talk a lot about how hungry I am). I’ve done a lot of damage to myself by stress eating and having unhealthy snacks in large quantities. Despite its difficulty, it feels good. My diet is that I only eat 3 meals per day with zero snacking. Then I fast every Sunday until dinner. Anyway, Lily and I are hoping to keep these lifestyle changes going permanently in one form or another, so I wanted to report on how it all began.
Lily also read to the family about the rioting going on right now because of the police officer that murdered an African American man (and it was caught on camera). The murder, and the violent riots, and the police response are all extremely hard to process. We hope for peace, understanding, love and progress.
Here are a couple of pictures from the day:
The first one is of Ammon eating on the floor using the chair as his table. He goes there when Clarissa is annoying him. In this case, he asked that a picture be taken because he thought it was cute and photo worthy that he eats here 🙂
Today was a very busy Saturday. As soon as I woke up, I went to Sports Cuts to get a haircut, and then I went to Lowe’s to get 900 more pounds of sand to put in the sandbox. I also stopped by our old house to take care of a couple things with the renters and while I did that, I let Eli and Naya wash my car for $6 because they were doing a car wash. It was great!
While at the old house, I snapped a picture of our new deck that Moroni built.
At home, I loaded the new bags of sand and then played in the sandbox a little bit with Clarissa. All told now, I loaded 40 50-pounds bags of sand, so 2,000 pounds. Some spilled in transit, so we are probably more like 1,998 pounds of sand, but it’s a lot!
Clarissa said she was on the mountain (the new sand I just dumped in).
Clarissa had a huge tantrum when it was naptime (which is common), but Mary helped to calm her down by reading a book to her.
After Clarissa went down for her nap, I went to drop off some returns packages for Lily, vacuumed out the car, went to Lowe’s for a sprinkler pipe remover, picked up In-and-Out for the family and stopped by the old house again to remove some sprinkler piping.
At home, we ate dinner then watched another episode of the dark crystal. After the kids went to bed I built a bookshelf (Lily built one earlier), and then Lily and I did our walk routing. It was a very fun and very busy day!
A day or two ago, I asked Lily what she thought about celebrating our anniversary by just completely focusing on our children, and playing with them all day. She LOVED the idea and immediately was on board. We so often celebrate our anniversary by getting away and spending time just the two of us. Which makes a lot of sense because an anniversary should be about a couple spending deep time just as a couple. But given the circumstances under Covid-19 making it impractical to travel and get a babysitter, Lily and I loved the idea of celebrating with our children. They are central to what has made our ten years together so beautiful. And it was wonderful, just wonderful to include them in the celebration. It just seemed right.
Knowing we were going to have a full play day with the kids helped motivate Lily and I to get the house and all the play areas in tip-top shape. When I announced to Lydia yesterday that Lily and I were going to spend a whole day just playing with the kids, Lydia stared at me with her mouth wide open for about ten seconds. She then said, “this is the part where you tell me, Lydia, you are not a codfish.” (referencing Mary Poppins).
Lily and I both slept in and Lily asked Lydia to make popovers for breakfast. Lydia LOVES to bake so of course she jumped at the chance. They turned out so delicious!!!
I’ve been craving hot dogs for a while and I was delighted that all the kids wanted hot dogs too. Lily has been not eating as much due to her dieting and so she was happy to let us order hot dogs even though she didn’t like them because she wasn’t going to eat until later.
The lunch was sooooo good. Everyone seemed happy, and my fully-loaded polish dog hit that craving I’ve had. You’ll notice another boy eating dinner with us. His name is Liam. He plays with Ammon through the hole in the fence you can see in the below picture. Since he already interacts with Ammon, we’ve allowed him into our inner circle regarding Covid precautions and we let him come be a part of our fun celebrations.
After all that outdoor fun, Lily and I took some down-time to recharge for the rest of the day. When we got going, we did a Sistine Chapel exercise with the children sans Clarissa that we learned from the Harbuck’s. Here is a video of Lily explaining it to them. Weeks ago, after Lily announced the project, Mary talked about painting the “sixteenth chapel.” We thought that was adorable! The activity is basically coloring pictures with markers on paper taped to the underside of a table.
After than, we did an activity making a Roman Aqueduct bridge out of plastic cups and cardboard.
After those activities, it was dinner time. We had Pita Pit for dinner and we also ordered a coldstone ice-cream cake for desert.
After dinner and ice-cream, we watched the relatively new Dark Crystal series on Netflix. It was AWESOME!!
Then, we played three rounds of nobody leaves the couch. It was sooo much fun, and it also completely pooped me out. Here you can see my legs coming out of the couch as I passed out after we played. Lily was letting the babies throw flower petals (here is a video), but I barely knew what was going on. I was in an exhausted stupor. Lydia was having Alexa tell me to get up, haha, but I was out for the count for probably a good ten minutes.
After throwing flower petals, Lily and I put the babies to bed, and then Lily and I played dolls for a solid half-hour with the girls. Lydia and Mary always have Kendal and Maple be mischievous little sisters and in this episode, they exploded a hole in the side of a boat, and everyone got stranded on a island, until they made their own raft and floated to San Fransisco, where the Mayor met them, and invited them into his home, and accidentally set his house on fire (but luckily Kendal saved the day by helping to put out the fire). It was a lot of fun. I love cracking jokes to make the girls laugh, and it is so fun to play with Lily and the two oldest girls. We had such a good time.
Also, as usual, the Anniversary Elf came, left a note, and flowers and reminded us of the tradition to read the beautiful poem Georgia wrote for us for our wedding.
There was a tangible energy in the air today. It felt like a trip, a vacation, a holiday. Lily said to me that it was possibly her favorite anniversary we’ve ever had. I had to agree that I absolutely loved it. I also felt absolutely pooped from all the fun. Happy Anniversary my love!! Then you for ten incredible years, 4 outstanding children, and an absolutely wonderful mother-in-law who joins us in our home. I love you Lily!!!
Yesterday evening when I was feeling sick, I cancelled my bike ride with Daniel Olsen. I was soooo bummed to cancel because I was really looking forward to the bike ride.
As expected, I woke up today feeling sick, and I took the morning fairly easy. But around noon I got feeling better, and really kicked things into gear.
I assembled a sandbox for the kids, purchased sand at Lowe’s and filled the box. I also stayed up until after midnight with Lily super-focused on getting the house in great shape. We organized and cleaned the upstairs which was a major project. By the time we went to bed, the house was in perfect shape for the day ahead, which you can read all about in the next blog 🙂
I feel quite awful from my sickness as I type this at the end of the day, but I woke up this morning feeling really good. Lily and I planned the day last night and decided that what we wanted to focus on today aside from her getting a workout (my workouts are pausing due to illness), was to fully organize the house. Mostly that meant organizing toys and setting up an area for Lydia and Mary to play with all the American Girl dolls that have been in storage.
When I woke up, I had sinus issues, but my energy was almost 100%. I quickly got cracking on housework. Lily and I had so much fun playing house together. We moved a dresser, created a great area in the girl’s room for them to store and play dolls, and overhauled how and where the toys are stored (and got rid of quite a few that are no longer useful). It was so fun to do this with Lily. As we were working, we let Clarissa (to Lydia’s terror because Clarissa is not guaranteed to be careful) play with the doll things for a little bit. Here are twp photos and a video of that moment.
While putting new batteries in toys, I got to use the new battery organizer Clark and Swathi gave us for Christmas. I’m obsessed with organizing, so I really love this!
Here is Clarissa taking a nap with her baby doll:
Also, today we learned good news from our real estate agent about how selling our condo is progressing.
At 5:45, I went to pick up my friend Nick to take him to his high school graduation. Nick is around 30 years old, and has been trying to get his GED for 12 years. Recently, Utah started a program that allows adults to go through all of the high-school classes and get a diploma without having to take a GED. Nick enrolled in this program and completed every requirement. I am so happy for him. I have been his friend for about 11 years. I’ve followed his fight to get a GED, and now seeing him get this diploma is so amazing. It was such a special thing to be a part of. I got to pick him up, take him to the graduation, treat him to dinner afterwords and drop him off. It was a very meaningful time. We wore face-masks in my car to be smart about germs and I cleaned up good when I got home.
Nick was so happy. We arrived and he got his cap and gown and we took some pictures. The sun was very bright!
While we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, we hung out by my car and Nick just talked to me. He was so happy. So excited. He couldn’t believe this day had come. I asked him, “Now that you have your diploma, what is next?” He told me not to ask him what was next, because he was just loving soaking in the feeling of having climbed the mountain. He faced so much frustration. Every time he didn’t pass the GED was hard for him I’m sure. Now, he finally got what he’s been chasing for so long. It must have felt so good. It must be a building block to his own self-confidence, his belief that he can achieve what he puts his mind to. He told me that at one point he had completely given up on the idea of a GED. Then he said his grandma got really sick and she is his greatest inspiration. When she was sick, he thought she might die, and he knew he needed a way to cope if that happened so he knew he had to throw himself into something that would make her happy. Someone suggested school to him. He found this program and the rest is history. Once he enrolled, he really took off. He did around 3.5 years of high school credits in one year. As of last week, he had a full credit left before he could graduate. He had them send him home with everything he needed to complete to graduate this week, and he had a ton of work. He paced himself, and worked diligently over the weekend, and amazed his teacher when he turned in the completed packets Monday so he could graduate Wednesday.
He also told me about his social studies class. He loved that class, and he is so good at history. In fact, his teacher let him teach a class for thirty minutes on the industrial revolution. Nick beamed as he told me he loved that teaching opportunity. He was just so happy. Just absorbing it all. To have finally climbed the mountain, something that so many times felt impossible. He did it, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Nick was so excited about his graduation that he asked the Principal if he could borrow his cap and gown for 20 extra minutes so I could drive him to Maverick where he worked so he could show himself to his coworkers in his cap and gown. She obliged and we made the trip:
After going back to the school to return his cap and gown, I took Nick to Firehouse subs and then dropped him off at home. The whole time he was high on his accomplishment, and just reminiscing on the journey. He was so happy.
At home I showered, sanitized my phone and collapsed into bed. I was gradually fading into feeling really sick during my time with Nick and by the time I got home I was wrecked. I watched more “Our Town” while Lily put the kids down, and eventually I revived myself to go walk with Lily. We had a great time talking as usual. Because I feel so sick, I cancelled my bike ride tomorrow with my friend Daniel Olsen, which makes me sad, but it’s the right thing to do.
I woke up this morning, and my hint of a sinus infection yesterday had turned into full-blown hay-fever and there-is-an-animal-living-in-my-face sinus infection. My eyes were on fire and I had congestion, runny nose, sneezing etc. I used my allergy medication (including eye-drops) and neti pot (Lily got me hooked on those for when I’m sick), and I took it verrrry easy today. Lily was a total super-hero, fixing meals for the kids, doing music lessons, got in her workout, doing house projects, cleaning etc. I chipped in here and there, but mostly I felt very lethargic and rested.
I did get Clarissa this morning. She ate multiple bowls of what she still calls, “Rice Christmas Trees.” She was calling them Rice Crispies by her last refill so maybe she finally learned, haha, which if true, I’m sad about it because I love hearing her call them, “Rice Christmas Trees”.
Around 11:00, my sprinkler repair man came. It’s hard to express my joy at seeing him. His name is Nate and his boss is Brett. I’ve been texting with Brett for five weeks to get Nate over to fix them, but they have been very slammed. I finally scheduled with someone else and then told Brett, and that seemed to get their attention because Nate came with in a day of me telling Brett I would go with someone else if Nate didn’t come soon. The long story short is that there is an underground commonwire that isn’t working an entire box of circuitry (3 stations) is not working. Nate will need to run a new common-wire all along the back of the house to the sprinkler control panel, but he will do it in a way that is not too noticeable. I spent time with Nate outside helping him test stations and discussing the situation with him.
After that, I had miso soup and Lily fed everyone and ate with me. I was feeling very tired and had a long nap after that.
After waking up, I still felt very sluggish, but I did manage to do a few things around the house including getting out all of the children’s American Girl doll toys that have been in storage for a long time. Lily said it is the perfect time of their lives for them to be playing with the dolls and I agree. Lily was incredible. She did Lydia’s music with her. She organized all the dolls. She arranged for dinner. She also played a lot with the children. She’s been working so hard to organize the house so the children have good places to play, but she made it a point to interrupt her organizing if a child asked her to play so she could play with that child. It was such a beautiful site to see how much time she spent with the children today. Honestly, it was inspiring to me and reminded me of the type of dad I want to be more. Also Lily did the children’s night routine. She had so much energy!
I was feeling very tired, but I did walk around the block with Georgia who was not feeling well, but wanted to get her exercise. I loved talking with her. She has such a sweet and pure soul and is always talking about things she feels grateful for and God. She is a lovely person. She has had a lot of adversity with her health, but she bears it with incredible grace and resolve.
At night, Lily and I did more organizing and Lily went on a walk with Lydia. I got our smart plug working, which is so cool. Now that I’m done blogging, I can say, “Alexa, turn off plug” to make my bed lamp go off :).
This morning I woke up and was actively up and about the house. I looked over at Lily who was conked out on the bed and it was nine o’clock. Then I woke up from an incredibly vivid dream to realize that Lily was yelping in pain during her stationary bike exercise routine, and I was still in bed…..and yes, it was almost 9:00. As I lay in bed, not feeling well, and feeling daunted by life, I decided that today, I would just be around. I’m on vacation. I’m with my family. That would be enough for me today. I think it was a good call, because there was just so much happening around me, and with feeling sick, just being there was the most I was capable of, and also very fun. 🙂
After showering I found breakfast on my desk. Mary was the waitress who took my order (see menu below), and brought it to me. Lydia was the cook. I ordered and ate pancakes and a bowl of cereal.
Lily has had super powers lately. She has been fasting to work towards a weight goal, spending time with the kids and diligently helping them with their music, exercising religiously, cooking, and whipping the house into shape. Here is Lily trying shoes on Clarissa to see what shoes we should keep and which ones we should get rid of. Clarissa loved this!
Check out the shoe closet after she was done with it today!
Lily also made a special place for some walkie talkies so Lydia and Mary could take them when they go for walks around the block (leaving one at home for us to listen). This is Lydia and Mary right before going on a walk to test the radios. It turned into Lydia encouraging Mary to run a whole mile so Mary could use the money she earned from running the mile too buy doll furniture that Lydia was very interested in.
While Lily was crushing it with projects around the house, I fed the kids, cleaned up the kitchen, folded clothes, cleaned up the kitchen again and was just around to help or be there as needed. It was a good pace and a good day.
For dinner, we had leftovers (which were amazing since Lily made so many amazing things this week: potato pancakes, spring-roll ingredient leftovers that I put in miso broth, pasta with home-made sauce, roasted beets). While eating, Lily and I played clue with Lydia and Mary. It was so fun!!
We also received two pieces of great news. After many years of trying, my friend Nick is graduating high-school. I was so happy for him! I will be driving him (we will both wear masks) to pick up his diploma. I have followed this journey of his to graduate high school for ten years, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
Also, I learned that we might be getting a great offer on our condo in Chicago. It is contingent on something we are currently confirming about condo association rules, but fingers crossed! Georgia fasted yesterday in part for success selling our condo, and I’m always so touched at how closely she follow and cares about things in mine and Lily’s life.
After dinner, the kids watched wonder and Lily and I took Ammon on a walk. Ammon seemed very happy to be outside. He is also soooo friendly. He saw some kids playing and said, “mom, do you think I can turn those humans into my friends?” He walked right by them and said, “hey, do you want to be my friends? Maybe when carona virus is over, you can come over to my house!.” I think the kids thought this was very cute.
At home, I collapsed in bed, and then couldn’t sleep, so I walked which was nice. Now I’ll take some NyQuil (I’m choking down snot) and try resting one more time. I’m glad Lily is so functional and peppy right now as I’m a little under the weather and its great to have her zip in the home.
I started my Sunday with the standard meditation, writing in my Jesus journal and prayer.
Lily and I both decided to fast today for health reasons (so fluids are OK unlike the traditional LDS fast).
Honestly, fasting feels healthy, and I like it as long as I’m not under stress ie, trying to do too much.
So I took it relatively easy today which was nice, because that’s how I like to approach Sundays anyway. Plus, I woke up with a mild sinus infection.
Lily and I both spent really good time with the family today. Here is a sweet picture of Lily reading to the kids.
I also read to Ammon, Clarissa and Lydia a fair amount. I also played trains with Lydia. I spent some time transcribing old journal entries and then we had home church. We had a lesson and scripture reading about miracles. Here is a picture of Mary. This is her Pinocchio costume. She said she wants to wear it for Halloween.
After an amazing dinner (incredible whole wheat pasta with amazing home-made sauce, potato pancakes, beets and roasted broccoli) we all watched Wonder (except Clarissa who watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Wonder was such a touching movie. It was so nice to watch something so wholesome as a family. Georgia watched with us also. It was such a nice evening and such a nice day overall.
Now I will carry Lydia up into her bed. She read until about 11:00 and then had trouble falling asleep so cuddled with Lily while I blogged.
I made Bao buns, carrots and yogurt for lunch for the kids. Aren’t they precious!
Here is my gorgeous wife. I love her outfit!
For dinner I made spring rolls. Lily helped walk me through everything. She was on the couch and freezing. She did a ton of fasting during the week and broke one of her fasts today, and her body reacted by shutting down, getting very tired and getting very cold. Also, Lily was super productive during the week (including really solid music practice with the kids for which I’m so thankful!) so I think she just needed a break. She walked me through what ingredients to do and how to make the peanut sauce. It was all a hit!
On Friday, I had the day off of work (yay!). My brain and nerves were shot from the intensity of work. Lily had a big to-do list she wanted to do and that was perfect. I love manual labor, especially as therapy to let my mind decompress. Lily and I used much of Friday (until past midnight) to completely overhaul the basement to turn it into a wonderful play area for the kids. Lily has put a ton of thought into how to make our home a better place for our children to play so they will spend more time playing and less time watching TV. On Friday we cleaned various parts of the house, set up the sewing table, cleaned the sewing table area, cleaned the art area, replaced our queen bed with a king bed in our bedroom (though it still has the queen mattress since the king mattress was ruined with dust), hung a large mirror in our room, put a large rug in in the living room, set up a train table and moved a basement rug to the end of the room to go under it, set up two sets of drawers to go by the sewing table, and more.
Today was a huge success. Here is a picture of Lily helping to set up Ammon’s train table.
