Today was a heavy day, but also very good. I was in meetings by 7:30, and Lily was super busy today too. Not only was she doing all the routines with the children and keeping the house clean, but she also built out a schedule for Ammon and Clarissa to help them use their time more constructively.
Lily really has the home operating in amazing order. The older girls have really taken the Family Carnival to heart. To earn money, they recreated the Mona Lisa. I think they did a great job on Mary’s smile!
I had my pipeline reviews today. The forecast is relatively stable, but still quite shy of quota (not the best, but about in line with what other NorthEast teams are doing).
I had 10 meetings almost completely back to back, and then I had my meeting with my therapist Mary Lou and then my bike work out (which I loved!)
Mary Lou is retiring. I will always remember her as one of the guides who helped guide me through a time of life that involved intense change. Literally the changing of the old wine skins to the new wine skins for the new life God wanted to pour into me. It was a painful and traumatic process at times, but she has helped me to learn to approach life with more mindfulness, acceptance, self-compassion and gentleness. More than anything, she has helped me to believe in myself, and in my own ability to get through life in a positive way. I love Mary Lou.
After work, we all enjoyed spaghetti, and then all the girls and I played in the sandbox and on the trampoline (I did a lot of watching too) until 8:30 when we put everyone to bed. Ammon didn’t want to get dirty so he stayed inside. Lily read to him, explained his new schedule to him and put him to bed.
Speaking of Ammon, here is a funny anecdote of something that happened today. After the anatomy lesson from yesterday, we put the skeleton model way high in his closet (8 feet or so) so that he wouldn’t play with it. This morning when Lily walked into Ammon’s room, Ammon tried to hide it, but Lily found that he had the toy skeleton. Lily said, “Ammon, how did you get that toy skeleton.” Ammon responded, “uh…..it fell.” Lily said, “Ammon, I know you got it, so can you tell me how you got it?” Ammon said, “I forgot.” Lily said, “Ammon, I will forgive you if you tell me the truth. I know you know what happened.” At that point, Ammon told her that that he climbed up the shelving to get to the skeleton. Lily and I gave Ammon positive reinforcement and praise for telling the truth. He just wants to please people so badly and we are trying to help him understand that telling the truth is what pleases us the most. Still, Lily and I got a good laugh at his efforts to please us by hiding his conduct.