Author: Abe Darais

2 Hour Church

This is Abe again. I’m trying to help by blogging on the weekends. Lily gets pain in her wrists from all the typing she does, plus,  I just want to contribute. This blog will be such a treasure to look back on when we are older. I value it so much and want to make sure I’m pitching in.

Due to the new year, there were a lot of first today. I will list them below:

  1. Church now starts at 9:00.
  2. Ammon is now a Sunbeam in primary (no longer in the nursery).
  3. Church is now only two hours long
  4. We started the new suggested home curriculum by reading the parable of the sower over dinner.

Overall it was a good Sunday.  Lily and I substituted for Mary’s primary class which was a lot of fun. I absolutely love kids and their innocence. It reminds me of the simplicity of my own childhood.  I’m not sure if we taught them anything, but we did try :).

When it was time to pick kids up from class, I wondered where Ammon’s new classroom was as I started through the hallways. Then I heard two boys yelling in a steady “ahhhhhhhhh!” unbroken for maybe about ten seconds. I followed the sound and found Ammon with another boy just standing and yelling. Ugh. Poor teachers.

On the positive side, Ammon’s potty training is going INCREDIBLY well. He didn’t have a single accident. Major kudos to Lily who had the guts to initiate the undertaking. I was definitely intimidated.

I had financial clerk stuff for about two hours after church and enjoyed talking to Moroni Hair. The new schedule is great because Lily puts Clarissa down as soon as she gets home so it’s not too crazy.

Lily and I have felt quite daunted by life lately, and we both napped to catch our breaths. She made a beautiful grill-cheese, tomato soup, roast cauliflower and spinach salad dinner.

Afterwords, Lydia led the most wonderful family home evening that she prepared. She wrote out three gospel stories that taught principles about forgiveness, tithing and prayer.  Lily and I so grateful she led out on our family home evening.

Lily and I retired early tonight. Winters can be hard on us feeling cooped up with all the kids messing up the house over and over and over again, and not getting as much sunlight.  But all in all, things are going very very well.

Below are pictures of Clarissa at church. She was so darling in her cloak!

(This is Lily editing Abe’s post. On Sunday night Abe discovered the girls playing a game of “owls.” They had started off by playing board games but ended up fighting, so they made up this owl game where they pretended to build a nest in Mary’s bed. All of their socks were mice that they gathered for food in the bed. They begged to sleep all night in their “nest,” so Abe caved and let them. Here’s the picture he took.)

Indoor (fun) Saturday

I’m also temped to call my title “A Lazy Saturday” for the following reasons:

  • The day started for me after getting about 11 hours or sleep
  • I left the house only once for fifteen minutes to get carpet cleaner from target for Ammon’s accidents.
  • At Target, I was in my slippers, shorts, a t-shirt and my sports goggles (my actual glasses broke and the new ones are on the way, and I hadn’t troubled yet to put in my contacts). I’m sure I looked amazing.
  • I “got ready for the day” at 7PM after Ammon and Clarissa went to sleep
  • After “getting ready for the day” I sat on the couch with Lily, Mary, and Lydia and watched Harry Potter 2 while binging on cookies and popcorn (we went through three bags).
  • After the movie, Lily and I started watching the TV series Victoria (very good).

But I decided NOT to call my title “A Lazy Saturday” for these following reasons:

  • With 4 young children, lazy days are physically impossible.
  • Lily was proud of me showering and putting on nice clothes at 7PM and “never saying die”
  • Lily did back-to-back classes of pilates and hot yoga, went into some kind of systemic shock and replenished at Aubergene until she felt better.
  • I got an hour or two of work done.
  • I had a wonderful scripture study focused on the Savior’s sermon on the mount.
  • I and (mostly) Lily cleaned the entire house in the morning.
  • Ammon made major progress potty training.
  • I made the kids steel cut oats in the morning and a very nice lunch.
  • Lily and I did music practice with the girls.
  • We had a dance party.

I actually quite liked today.  It was a nice blend of lazy, irresponsible and replenishing with doing the responsible things that (hopefully) mattered the most.

Here is a video of our dance party. Below are two more pictures.

Lydia had a very tough and long harp lesson and afterwords she settled on the couch to do homework. The compliments keep rolling in from when she played in church, so that helps us all to keep going.

Below is a picture of lunchtime:

 

 

 

 

A Long Short Week

It was very hard to come back to work this week. I genuinely love the people I work with, and I love the work, but I got very accustomed to a slower pace.  So even though this week was only three work days, I was so ready for it to be over.

This was especially the case since Thursday night our baby (who has been getting up at night more than normal) slept perfectly, BUT ALL THREE OTHER CHILDREN WOKE UP…and it seemed they were perfectly spaced out to make sure that Lily and I didn’t get more than 1-2 hours of sleep at a time.  Additionally, Mary had her 6:30 AM piano lesson, so sleeping in was not an option for me.  Lily got a little extra rest, which she deserved because she was much more responsive during Lydia’s midnight nose-bleed, Mary’s 2AM announcement that she wet the bed and Ammon’s 4AM nightmare screams (or whatever order it was actually in).

About Lily’s day: She was still working on potty training Ammon, which has been a major challenge. He seems scared, almost traumatized to go the bathroom at the beginning of the day, but once he does it a time or two, he gets happy about all the adulation and gets on a roll and does better the rest of the day. Still, I think he regressed Friday, so Lily was doing a lot of cleaning of messes I think. Lily did get a nap which was a blessing considering the night of low sleep she had and how nuts it must have been with the kids at home with it too cold to go outside (it’s been so cold!), with no basement to play in because it’s not fixed from the flood, with half-naked Ammon running around making sporadic poo or pee messes and then making dinner, probably also fitting in Lydia’s harp practice somewhere in there. She amazes me.

On my end, I had a very intense day at work that included a lot of e-mail, 4 one-hour territory planning sessions with different direct reports, a one hour prospect demonstration, and various other activities.  I was running on fumes from the lack of sleep. Lily and I exchanged love notes during our crazy days and agreed that our love for each other was helping us through our painful days.  I am so in love with her :).

I came home a bit early so Lily could take Lydia to harp. I served up a delicious pot pie that Lily cooked during the day. Mary protested because it wasn’t one of the very few foods that she likes, but everyone else loved it (Lydia just didn’t like the crust). Lily came home and helped to wrap up the night routine.

Then, at about 7:30 PM I lay down just to catch my breath, and I literally woke up around 7:00 AM Saturday. Lily stayed up and watched Harry Potter 4 with the girls.

One of my favorite moments of the whole day was seeing how thrilled Clarissa was about the light-switch that she’s been learning about. The video is below:

Clarissa with the light-switch

 

 

Leaving for San Diego

Friday I had two internal meetings at work which was a completely gift from God, because that allowed me to get everything done and still get home by 4:45. Lily was still tired, but she rallied and did TONS of packing and cleaning to get us ready for San Diego. I couldn’t believe all she accomplished with four kids on her hands. When I got home we took a couple hours to water the garden, finish packing and tydying and load the kids. We were out by 7.
I was going nuts with joy in the car. I told Lily that family road trips are what is all for. Why I work, we we have kids. I just am overcome with joy when I get to be strapped in a car with my five favorite people in the world.
Lily drove the first leg to Vegas and I drove the second leg. We pulled in at midnight pacific time. Our car said it was 104 degrees at midnight and the lady at the desk confirmed it was 100 or hotter. At midnight! Our room was nice and very cool though. The Homewood suites has been an incredible discovery for accommodating a family of six in one room.

The fourth of July

The 4th of July was a wonderful day for us. As I mentioned yesterday, work has been going very well for me, but it has also been super exhausting. I’m doing better work than i’ve Ever done and it is appropriately exhausting.  So the 4th of Jujy was amazing. The kids largely cooperated by sleeping in so Lily and I got to sleep in amazingly until 9:30. After waking up, we got everyone ready for the day and went on a jog in Nunn’s Park. Ammon and Clarissa were in the double stroller, Lydia rode her bike and Mary was one her theee wheel scooter which is now way too small. She doesn’t want yet to transition to the two wheel scooter that fits her. It was a beautiful day and an incredible time. I want that Tom be a Fourth of July tradition every year.
Lily and I were feeling exhausted after the jog so we napped afterwards while Clarissa slept. When Clarissa woke up, it was off to the Darais family party.
I love my fourth Of July family parties. I’m so busy these days that I just don’t see my family that often. The party is a gathering under the same shady cluster of trees every year in a park north of the Provo temple. We alsways have ham or turkey sandwiches, fruit, soda and desert while we all visit. What I remember most about this year is visiting with Leland Stout, a neighborhood legend. Legendary for his strength. He shared stories about him lifting 55gallon containers, lifting the engine side of a VW bug with Mark, etc. He is now older, with a snowy white beard, and has difficulty walking so he uses an electric wheel chair to help him get around.
What impresses me the most about Leland Is not his legendary physical strength, but his incredible pluck, and strength of Spirit. He had us all roaring with laughter with jokes like, “what is the last thing a redneck says before he dies, he guys watch this.” And “I was driving on the freeway and my wife called in a panic telling me to be careful because she’s watching the news and the are reporting that some nut is driving headon to traffic down the wrong side of the freeway and for me to be careful. I said, one? There are hundreds of them!” Leland has had a tough life, but his spirit has proved to be so much tougher. I want to be more like him.
After the Darais party, we came home and put Ammon and Clarissa to bed. Lily was exhausted so she unwound on the couch with me while I did the budget and then went to bed while I went to fireworks with Lydia and Mary.
We went to a firework show that was one coldesac east of ours. It was hosted by Moroni Hair, the neighborhood famous Jack-Sparrow impersonator with a jack sparrow ship to boot.
Every year Moroni hosts a firework show for a hundred or so friends, family and neighbors.we brought or monetary donation which he requested, and it makes sense that he requested it because it was an incredible show.
First there was a bike parade. Lots of kids had flags and ribbons on their bikes. My kid’s bikes were I decorated, but I think they had fun riding around. One kid had transformed his wagon into an army tank, and he was able to blow smoke through the gun nozzle.
There was also Carmel and regular popcorn and fresh strawberries with melted ice cream which cream you can buy by the gallon at maceys.
The actual show was incredible. Some of the fireworks were almost like what you would see launched from a stadium. Lydia and Mary took turns being in my lap or snuggling at my side. It was a wonderful night. I chatted a lot with Scott Hansen, my former second counselor from when I was Elders Quorum President.  It was so nice to catch up.
Upon returning him, Lydia and Mary watched fireworks from our porch. Orem, and Utah Valley in general takes fireworks very seriously so there were shows going on all around us that we could see from our porch. Mary eventually got tired and went to bed. Lydia finally went to bed after coaxing. There were fireworks going off until about midnight.

Swimming pool

Tuesday was a very good day at work for me. I have been more disciplined about not scheduling too much in my day, and about creating time cushions around  stressful or intense events so I can have some recovery and a chance to come up for air throughout the day.  Also, I’m noticing that each quarter, I get a little better at what I do. I’m starting to feel more traction in doing my job well. Yay experience!
At the home front Lily took all the children to the outdoor Provo swimming pool.  I think it sounds nuts to take all 4 kids to the pool by ones self, but Lily said it works out great.
When I got home, we had an absolutely delicious grain bowl that Lily made with with Farro, roasted cauliflower, and other yummy vegetables. I ate mine, had seconds and finished a bowl or two of the kid’s unfinished meals.  I love Lily’s cooking, and her grain bowls are one of my favorite because of how delicious and healthy they are.
After dinner, I helped the kids get ready for bed and cleaned whil Lily took Lydia to harp. Georgia was also super super helpful with cleanup.