One of the things I admire about Lily is how intentional she is about giving our kids our time. Today she announced she wanted to play Clue with the kids, and I happily jumped on that train. It is so fund to spend time with them! This was a fluke game of clue in which someone made a guess early on that basically revealed to everyone what the answer was and then it was a mad dash to make the accusation! It was fun. Here are photos and a video!
In the afternoon, Lily and her friends Jen, and Courtney all got a massage as a mother’s day treat, while Matt, Chris and I prepared dinner. When they returned, we all had delicious burgers and then played games afterwards.
Earlier in the day, Lily took the kids to bed, bath and beyond.
Back at home, Basil enjoyed his new stuffed animal toy, and his amazing memory foam doggy bed.
In the evening, Lily and I got a babysitter (Eliza), so we could go out to play tennis. Unfortunately, when we got to the courts, there was ultra intense wind. We decided to just play anyway. The wind was so strong that if any of our shots went high in the air, the wind could really carry the ball. But we still had a blast. I just love spending time with Lily, and it felt like an adventure to play in near-tornado conditions (exaggerating some of course, but it was rather intense). Lily loves wind, I remember early in our marriage coming home to seeing papers and things strewn about the house, and pictures crooked because the windows were open during a windstorm. I could barely handle the chaos that was ensuing in the home, but when I found Lily, she was sitting on the bedding saying, “isn’t the wind invigorating!!” That little anecdote actually says a fair amount about our respective personalities, haha! But I must have come around some, because I loved playing with her in the wind.
When we got home, we found that Eliza helped all the kids make creative craft boxes. Lydia’s is still drying in the garage in the picture. The kids absolutely love it when Eliza babysits, and it’s not hard to see why!
Today Lily took Casey, Ammon’s neighbor friend, to the park with the other kids (sans Lydia) for a play date. Clarissa looked groovy in her heart shaped glasses!
Also, here is a picture of a tree in front of our house that is looking very purple and pretty right now.
Recently, Lily and I have gone to a couple of taco places, and they have been amazing. But, Lily and I have had multiple conversations that we think there is no match for what we can make at home. Tonight we put the hypothesis to the test. And I’d have to agree. I’ve never had restaurant tacos as good as what we had tonight. Our typical go to is rockfish, vegan fake chorizo, and sometimes beef steak. We use delicious veggies for filling and we use both corn and jamaica tacos. It was so so yummy! Lily even bought some of the simple, but fancy taco holders that you usually see in restaurants.
Lily also made delicious potatoes and an unbelievable fruit salad!
This evening Lily and I lined up a sitter and went biking together. Lily wasn’t feeling super great, but the beautiful weather, scenery and time together kept her wanting to keep biking. I had such an amazing time with her. It made my whole day and was a huge bright spot in the middle of unusually high work intensity.
Today was another incredible Sunday. This morning I walked Basil, rested some more, and then had a wonderful deep values prayer/meditation. I’ve had a lot on my mind around my work-life balance, and if I have the right perspective about what really matters. One of my favorite sayings from Thomas S. Monson is that the most important lessons in life are those lessons around what is most important and what is not. Lily and I also had such a good time meeting up with Matt and Diana last night and Matt and I talked about work a lot, and that triggered even more pondering about my job, and if I’m giving too much, or if I’m having the right perspective about work. My prayer/meditation yielded a lot of clarifying thoughts that I spent a lot of time putting in a journal, and that was a wonderful way to start the day. In short, I reconnected with the awareness that my family, and doing good for the world are the most important things to me, and that my job, as much as I enjoy it and love throwing myself into it, is primarily a means to serve my family, and I should never let it become or feel more important than my family.
After meditating, the kids and adults listened to church, and I made waffles for everyone for a yummy brunch. Also, Lydia made caramel and custard, and even though I was too hard on her about the mess, I really am impressed at her initiative to keep learning so many skills, like baking.
Mid-day, the kids watched TV, and I watched an episode or Mr. Rogers with them, which I love to encourage because it is some of the most positive behavior and thinking modeling I have ever seen. Mr. Rogers was brilliant! We watched the last episode of season 1, which had surprisingly amazing special effects, being that it was a kids show from the 1960s.
Then we all went to the park near our rental property to fly kites, let Basil run around, bike, scooter and see friends. Liberty came with her dog peaches. And Eli, Meghan, Emily and Matt came with their dog Daisey. We also saw Michelle Jaramillo and her son. It was so much fun. I love that park. I get to see friends, as do the kids, and people get to do a variety of activities while Basil runs around with other dogs. Since many friends from the old neighborhood live minutes from the park, its super easy to meet up with people whenever we go there.
We did have some kite drama. Eli let go of the bird kite and I had to get on top of someone’s garage and use a rake to reach it (in a tree) to get it back. That gave me enough kite drama for one day, but our kite troubles weren’t over. Clarissa then let go of the bird kite, and it floated away until I couldn’t see it anymore. I gave up on it, because I had my hands full with 4 kids and Basil (Lily was catching a break at home). But Matt and Eli didn’t give up. They got in their car and hunted it down. Eli spotted it in the sky several blocks from the park, and drove until they found it wrapped around a powerline in somebody’s street. Matt told me where to meet him, and when I got there, neighbors had already erected a ladder to help with the cause. We eventually got it down. It was so heroic of Matt and Eli to chase it down for us, and I was very suprised to get the kite back. It’s been a great kite, so that was very happy. Thank you Matt and Eli!
We had subway for dinner, and then went to menchies, took some to Georgia, and at a bunch of it at home (ice-cream cake). Then we watched the Disney Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which was beautiful and all started settling in for the night. It was really good to chit-chat with Lily before retiring as well. What a great Sunday!
