Author: lilydarais

We did it! We stuck to our schedule. I was literally running at times to keep us on track, but we did it, and it felt good.

We even managed to squeeze in a play date in the afternoon. We went to the Bean Museum with our neighbors, the Halls.

After FHE, I played the piano for a while to calm down. Lydia came downstairs and asked if she could climb into her harp cover and listen to me play again. She fell asleep listening to the music. I half wonder if she remembers (subconsciously) what it was like in the womb. In any case, we think this new habit of hers is unbelievably cute.

If I want to stick to my schedule tomorrow, this needs to be brief. I have some pictures from the museum below.

My computer is about to die and I am too lazy to move to its charger, so just a quick check-in for the blog.

We had General Conference today! This is my favorite weekend church-wise for the year. Sadly, we were so distracted by the kids this time around that I feel like I missed much of it. However, I did catch on to two themes. First, I feel like I heard a lot about repentance and relying on the atonement. I liked how one of the speakers said that without the atonement, repentance is just miserable behavior modification.

Secondly, I felt the Spirit witness to me that I personally need to be more forbearing. I can look back and see that a lot of the inter-relational difficulties I have experienced have come because forbearance is not my default mode. It needs to be my default mode. For example, at the end of cooking school I had a big internal debate about whether I should formally complain about some of my teachers. I prayed and debated with myself before finally deciding to go ahead and complain. In retrospect, I wish I had been more forbearing. I would have had fewer regrets if I had just kept my mouth shut and taken whatever injustices I felt were dealt to me. This is good to keep in mind for the future.

Apart from conference, I spent the whole day planning the next six weeks of homeschool. Teaching from Rest advises to plan in six week segments and to stick to the plan for the whole six weeks. Otherwise, the author points out, you’ll always be itching to tweak the plan. I am so, so thrilled to finally have a plan written down. This particular plan is the result of months of experimentation, contemplation, and methodology research. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take a picture of my plan and upload it to this post. I’m sure it’s far from perfect, but for now, I am so pleased.

First, the news on Abe: He made his quota! We are so thrilled and proud of him. He has worked for this particular promotion for three straight years. When he started at Qualtrics, he literally began his career over. Friday marked the day when Abe not only sold his millionth dollar of Qualtrics software, but it also marked the day when he finally made it into management. That has been his goal since day one, and he made it. He has worked so, so hard, and God has been so, so gracious in helping him achieve this goal. We feel grateful, thankful, and blessed.

This weekend we have all been exhausted, but that’s good because it’s General Conference. We are tethered to the TV all weekend long. Yesterday I taught Lydia how to embroider during the first session. My thought was that she could quietly embroider in front of Conference, but instead we had a lot of meltdowns whenever she made a stitch too big (in her mind). I spent a lot of Conference ignoring conference and giving pep talks about how in embroidery you can always undo your mistakes and try again. That’s a good life message, but I wish I had heard more of conference.

Guess what though? I get to try again today. 🙂

Lydia had a hard play date with our neighbor. The little neighbor boy, Eli, is a little rambunctious. He is very cute and has a lovely vintage-boy quality about him, but after yesterday we have decided (again) that we need to limit the kids’ time with him. Lydia was playing outside with Eli and his little sister when Eli demanded a treat. Lydia came in a begged for some applesauce packets to give to Eli and Chloe. I let her take some outside where Eli summarily rejected the packets. Instead, he yelled, he wanted a treat. Applesauce is not a treat. Then he took a pocket knife out of his cowboy boots and threatened to cut Lydia if she did not bring him a treat.

She came back in the house shaken. While I went to explain to Eli that he can’t talk to Lydia that way, she ran to her room, locked the door and sobbed. I felt so sorry for my sweet girl. Finally, when Eli understood that Lydia wouldn’t want to play with him again because he had scared her, he apologized and promised repeatedly that he wouldn’t ever show her his knife again. They played again for a little bit and then I sent the neighbors home.

Also, I played the piano for the first time in a long time yesterday. Lydia came and curled up in my lap while I played. Then she slipped onto the floor under the piano. I heard a lot of rustling but wasn’t really paying attention until she got very quiet. Then I peeked under the piano and discovered that the sweet girl had unzipped her harp cover, climbed in, zipped herself inside and fallen asleep listening to the music. It was, quite possibly, the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Today was actually quite peaceful on the home front, although we ended with a three hour harp practice. It took us almost three hours to do six repetitions in Lightly Row. I am fried. Lydia, however, is always in a terrific mood after her meltdowns. I don’t get it, but I’m glad that she’s no longer screaming.

Abe is very, very stressed about the end of his quarter. It ends tomorrow. We won’t know until tomorrow whether he hit or not. We’ll be so glad when it is over.

I recently read a blog post about how to celebrate, among other things, Wednesdays. What a great idea. Actually, Wednesday is a great day for me now that Lydia goes to school on Wednesdays. I can, theoretically, get so much more done with just two kids in the house.

Except…I’m not sure what I actually accomplished today. The laundry remains stubbornly undone, only now it’s distributed all over my floor. I threw it all around during a frantic search for a pair of Lydia’s clean undies. We used to have a ton of undies, and then I put one pair in the emergency prep duffel. Ever since you would think I had stored away all of her undies.

I did some brief lesson review with Mary, and we completed her birthday puzzles together. She was a happy, tired girl today. Last night she was up until 11pm because she could not come down from her happy birthday high. While we went around talking about what we loved about her, she appeared to be short-circuiting from joy. She was grinning, laughing, and undergoing regular full-body spasms of joy. Abe and I couldn’t bear to force her to go to sleep, so we let her stay up.

We were regretting that decision when Lydia wandered in at 2am asking if Mary’s doll house was complete. She was so excited to play with it. Finally she announced that she wanted to cuddle. After all of the attention Mary got, of course we let her cuddle. She tossed and turned for an hour before finally falling asleep.

On the Ammon front, we are in the throes of diaper rash because Ammon has changed his pooping schedule. He has decided to now poop six times a day. On the advice of one of my mom’s friends, I ordered some Penaten from Germany. I love the stuff, except during the second use the expensive container fell face down on the dirty carpet. I didn’t realize how dirty the carpet was until I picked up the Penaten. Darn. I am scooping around the dirt and hoping the Penaten will work anyway.

I visit taught and was visit taught today. I guess I have that to say for myself on the accomplishment front.

Here comes some lovely autumn rain. I love that sound of big, juicy drops hitting dried out leaves. Guess I’ll close up this post and all of the windows after that.

Today was our itty bitty Mary’s birthday. Except–she’s not so itty bitty anymore! Actually, before my mom moved in, she was still pint sized. But my mom actually takes the time to feed Mary her dinner, whereas Abe and I would just put it in front of Mary and remove it an hour later untouched. Turns out if you actually feed them, they grow! Mary shot from still being able to wear 24 month clothing to a legitimate 3T–and sometimes even 4T!!!–in one summer. Wow.

When she woke up in the morning she got to eat the Fruit Loops she picked out a couple days ago for her birthday. Then we all piled in the car and went to the zoo. After the zoo, we did birthday errands and picked up her cake and party favors.

When we arrived home, the neighborhood kids descended on our house. They made it feel like a party from 4pm until 8pm. We had dinner, batted down a piñata, sang to Mary, ate cake and ice cream, and opened presents. It was chaotic and happy. We think Mary had a great time.

My mom made me promise I would include the next bit in the blog. After the zoo and birthday errands, we were driving home in the car. Mary piped up from her carseat and said, “Mom, you’re the best mom ever. I love you.” I was so touched and said, “Thank you, Mary! You made me feel really good.” She said, “That’s what birthday girls do! They make people feel good.”

And she does. We all went around tonight at bedtime and said things we love about Mary. Lydia started and said that Mary is happy and “active,” and she helps Lydia not be afraid at night. Lydia said she always wants Mary close by when she’s falling asleep. I said that I love how cheerful Mary is, and I love how she loves to learn. She can already read because she loves to learn! Abe said that he loves how Mary is so cheerful and says cute things. Nana said that Mary cheers her up by her cute sayings, her cheerfulness, and her dancing. Lydia kept exclaiming that we all love how cheerful Mary is. She charms our socks off every day, multiple times a day. Happy birthday, beautiful little Mary!!

 

 

 

Mary got a long jump mat for her birthday. The neighbor kids had a blast.

Yesterday we had a peaceful Sunday. I actually forget what went on other than church. I think I read a lot in some homeschooling books and the girls watched a whole bunch of Veggie Tales. Ammon has been very fussy all of his waking hours. He only takes one shortish nap in the middle of the day, and so it has been very difficult to accomplish much.

Yesterday we had clam chowder, Boston baked cod, garden veggies, grilled corn, and plum cake for dinner and dessert.

Today my mom triumphed in her battle against government bureaucracy. That took up most of our morning. Instead of being responsible and home schooling the kids when we returned, I let the girls play outside while Ammon napped and I read a book. Then I went to yoga and Let’s Play Music with Lydia.

After we came home, I spent the afternoon with Ammon. After several hours of baby watching, I felt worn out. I told Abe we were going to eat cold cereal for dinner. My mom then offered to clean if I would cook. We ended up feeding Hawaiian haystacks to all of the neighbor kids. We had so much fun hosting them all for dinner. They are each interesting and delightful in their own way.

We had a peaceful day today. My mom spent most of the day at the temple, Abe got some potentially good news at work, and I had a day of domesticity at home with Mary and Ammon. Lydia had a great time at school.

We had spiralized zucchini and bolognese for dinner. I also baked more Mexican chocolate cookies because I have no self control. Abe and I have been running in the mornings, so hopefully that can offset the damage.

Tuesdays are stacked for us. We have a harp lesson, Let’s Play Music, and ballet. We also have been sharing a small cold. I have been plying the kids and myself with nano-silver. Since we are on Dave Ramsey, I can’t borrow from next week’s budget to stock up on Vitamin C tablets for the kids, but I plan to remedy that first thing when the new week hits.

I also forgot to take pictures. Since I spent much of the day feeling feverish, I am going to forgive myself for that.

Abe continues to be stressed about his quarter.  There is a lot of pressure because if his pod hits, he gets to be a Team Lead next quarter. We can’t wait for September to be over already.

My mom had her visiting teachers visit. She also spent a lot of time walking, and she was a great help watching Ammon so I could take Mary to Let’s Play Music, and then watching him again so I could make dinner.

We had Middle Eastern tofu-stuffed zucchini for dinner and plum cake for dessert.

After dinner we had an FHE lesson on reverence. The girls practiced being reverent while I played through a hymn and read the introduction to the Book of Mormon out loud. I am hoping some of that practice show this Sunday. I dread sacrament because I always feel like such a parental failure in church. Our ward has very quiet children, and it always seems like mine are the only ones being irreverent.

Today we played with the Marshall kids all afternoon. I found them so delightful. The kids decorated me with flowers, and Carter was really sweet and gave Ammon lots of animal crackers while the other kids returned inside to play. I thought Camden was hilarious because he wanted to be decorated with flowers–and he even wanted a flower in his pants! (Picture below.)

My mom is going through some challenges right now with government bureaucracy. We spent the morning with her with no resolution to her problem. We hope that by next Monday it will all be resolved.

We had black bean soup for dinner.