Author: lilydarais

On Tuesday most of the day revolved around grocery shopping and making dinner for a friend who had surgery because of an ectopic pregnancy. I made her one gruyere, soprasata and leek quiche and one apple, leek, and gorgonzola quiche. My friend was up and energetic when I dropped off the food, which I found astonishing because half of the blood in her body is currently not her own. She is amazing.

I let Lydia skip climbing. Okay, the truth is that I didn’t tell her we were skipping because she would have protested. I just didn’t take her and she didn’t notice. Phew.

We came home and I made pizza and brussel sprouts for dinner. I took it easy after that and focused on Clarissa, who had been neglected all day long. I put the kids in front of a movie while I bathed, nursed, and interacted with Clarissa. She really is so low maintenance, but after ignoring her the whole day, I just couldn’t do that any longer. She deserved my full attention.

Also, I have been under-utilizing the pictures I get from Lydia’s teacher. She takes pictures of Lydia all the time and posts it on the Bloomz app. I always forget to post them! Here is one from weeks ago. The eighth and ninth graders wrote their own myths and told them to the first and second graders. Each little kid got to listen to one big kid tell them a myth. Lydia really got into the myths and regaled us all at dinner with the myths her partner told her.

Today Abe and I got up at 5am to do Insanity. Both of us were feeling tired, but we are always so glad to have done it–and it is so fun to work out together. Abe had to leave on another work trip today, so I was glad to get some time with him before he left.

I spent the whole rest of the day teaching the kids. I did sight words with the girls, story time with Ammon, and helped both girls practice their instruments. They both gave me a run for my money, but I am happy to report I didn’t yell. Maybe therapy helped?

I also folded a lot of laundry. Thank goodness that’s done!

Also, it was Fifties Day at Lydia’s school because today was the fiftieth day of school. She dressed up and had so much fun.

On Sunday the kids had their Primary program, so Tom and Suzanne came down to see them perform in church. The girls did great! Lydia very sincerely annunciated every.single.syllable in each song, and Mary charmed everyone with her red glasses and clear speaking.

After church we had a German dinner. Lydia is taking German in school and is in love with all things German, and I have been promising her a German dinner for ages. While I cooked, Tom and Suzanne helped the girls make gingerbread–baked in Germany!–turkey centerpieces.

We had braised red cabbage with apples, potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce,  mustard aspic (so much better than it sounds), rye bread, chicken bratwurst, regular bratwurst, tofurkey bratwurst,  and Rittersport chocolate for dessert.

After it was all over I went to bed at 7:30pm. Lydia and Abe stayed up later. Lydia is plugging through The Little Princess, which is way above her reading level but we love her for trying. She read for an hour while Abe prayed and studied scriptures. Lydia told me in the morning that after Abe finished his scriptures and prayers, he let Lydia eat some late night ice cream with him before bed. He is such a good dad.

On Saturday Abe and I held to our 5am wake up and did Insanity before starting the day. We love working out together, and on Saturday it is really nice because there’s not the same mad rush afterward to get ready for the day.

We did still sort of hustle though because we wanted to be at the zoo when it opened. Every time Mary finishes one hundred repetitions of one of her pieces, we take a field trip. She actually filled out her one hundred chart for Mary Had a Little Lamb a couple weeks ago, but we were all too sick to take a field trip. Yesterday was the first day that we could, and I was so glad because it was such a beautiful day for an outing.

After the zoo, we stopped at Trader Joe’s and stocked up before racing back to Salt Lake to get some material from Jo-Ann’s and drop Mary off at a birthday party.

While Mary was at her birthday party, I whipped out a circle skirt for Lydia. Monday is Fifties Day when kids dress up from the Fifties, so I thought a circle skirt would be cute. Sadly, I bought the wrong color thread and so all of my mistakes showed through on the waistband. The petticoat I made for underneath was made of practically invisible tulle, and so I sewed practically blind and ended up with a petticoat with no elasticity in the waistband. Just as despair set in, I realized Lydia had a fifties style dress in her closet!!! Hallelujah.

As soon as I finished the petticoat, the babysitter arrived and Abe and I headed out with Clarissa to a sushi-making class with our neighbors. There is a fabulous Asian market that our neighbor Josh has been telling us about for a long time, but we’ve never gone. Finally we went last night to the market for the class, and I was so glad to discover it. It’s a gem and I would have totally missed it had we not gone for the class. It’s practically hidden from the street.

After the sushi class, Abe, Clarissa and I headed to Harmon’s for a late night grocery run. We wanted to prepare from the German dinner on Sunday. Since we are used to going to bed between 8pm and 9:30pm these days, the 10:30pm bedtime on Saturday felt like midnight. We slept in two hours the next morning until the kids got up after 7am.

On Friday we had a play date with Blair and James. I love talking to Blair, and it was fun to see James and Ammon interact. Ammon hasn’t had many play dates with kids his age, and so it’s really fun for me to see what he is like with others. Ammon loves to share and tried to give James a ton of toys throughout the play date. That made me really happy.

After school I thought Lydia had a group harp lesson, but it turns out the lesson is next week. Her teacher must think I am a total ditz. I am always, always getting dates and times mixed up. In my defense, though, I asked on Thursday what time Lydia’s group harp lesson was because the board said there were group harp lessons on both Nov 10 and Nov 17. Her teacher replied “4:15,” so I assumed she meant the tenth. Oh, well.

After the non existent lesson, we came home, did homework and practiced until dinner and bed.

The kids also had fun building a fort!

On Thursday I had my second therapy appointment. I called the insurance company before and realized I would be covered if I switch therapists, so Thursday was my last time with this particular therapist. I really liked her and learned a lot in our two sessions.

My mind did wander a little at points and I should have asked her the non-therapy related questions that kept coming through my head. This is what they were: “Where do you buy your jeans? And who cuts your hair?” I wanted to ask her these questions because she had a build larger than mine (although I win for how much body is currently attached to said build) and she looked great. I can never find jeans that fit my large hips and waist, but somehow she had great fitting jeans. Perhaps the reason I can’t find jeans relates to the fact that I don’t even try on jeans when I am my current size…perhaps I should work up the courage and try sometime.

And also, my hair stylist moved and the last person I tried butchered me. Normally I can live with bad haircuts, but this one was truly horrible and I am scared to go to someone else lest I end up with something even worse. Anyway, this therapist was Latina and had hair similar to mine. As I said before, she looked fantastic so I really wanted to figure out who did her hair.

I should have just asked her the questions. I mean, I was paying for her time, so why not? I don’t know why I didn’t ask, but since I didn’t, she filled the time teaching me all sorts of things about behavioral triggers and how to avoid building emotional walls that numb you to pain around the triggers. I wasn’t sure that this lesson actually applied to me and my problems, but I appreciate the information anyway.

Here’s how the board looked at the end:

On Wednesday I visit taught in the afternoon during Ammons’ nap. One of the great things about living in Orem is that everyone in my ward lives well within walking distance. I was able to walk with Clarissa in the Solly in the sunshine to and from Camille’s house. That and the visit was a beautiful punctuation to the mid-day cadence, and I just enjoyed it so much.

Ammon has discovered the play kitchen in the basement. Since food is his favorite thing in the whole world, the kitchen and its stash of play food has blown his mind. He busies himself toting food all around the house, setting up various tables to eat, excitedly exclaiming over all the different types of play food on the table, and instructing others to partake with him.

Here he set up a place for “Mare,” (Ammon’s nickname for Mary).

Here is a close up of cute Clarissa. She is a very good fourth baby and lets her brother and sisters take up most of my attention, I am so sorry to say. I wish I spent more time stimulating her with books, pictures, and conversation, but I suppose she gets some stimulation–amusement, even???–from her siblings.

Also, the kids had a dance party in the evening:

Finally, yesterday Mary scraped her foot galloping on her pretend horse from her piano lesson to the car. She asked Nana, the Band-Aid queen, for a band-aid.  It was a hard decision because there were so many choices!

 

 

Abe and I went to bed at 7:45pm last night. Actually I thought Abe went to bed with me, but it turns out he got back out and read for two more hours before he fell asleep. Anyway, we have been getting up at 5am to do Insanity together, and because of our early bedtime last night, we could give our work-out our all this morning. It was the best part of our day.

Abe had a really hard, busy day. He had a lot of complications arise with certain deals, he got called out for something he did wrong, and Mondays in general are just busybusybusy for him. He also had to break it to me that he has two more work trips this quarter.

I also got called out, sort of. Mary’s piano teacher seemed a little miffed that we never get around to practicing her staff and flash card notes, and I think he thinks I purposely avoid them because I am a Suzuki devotee. That is not the case at all! It’s just that we are finally in a beautiful practice routine that is nevertheless exhausting, and after it’s over I am usually daunted by the idea of yet more music. But I guess we will do them this week.

Here is happy Mary celebrating life after her piano was done. She’s pretending to be a choo-choo train.

In other news, I started the novel, The Sympathizer, dropped pumpkin bread off for a sad friend, got back into the bedtime routine of scratching Lydia’s back (after a five month hiatus), took the car through the car wash, vacuumed the car, and untangled an insane yarn knot today.

Sunday was a really laid back day–for me, at least. Abe, on the other hand, had to teach a lesson and attend his presidency meeting.

We had chili for dinner and then talked about the upcoming elections during FHE. Abe educated us on our choices for mayor, and then we held a secret vote. We all chose the same person, even though Abe gave us a perfectly even-handed description of both people.

We want the incumbent to keep doing what he’s doing, and I think the girls like that he is into building parks.