Author: lilydarais

We were outside almost the whole weekend. We had an Elder’s Quorum barbecue yesterday evening and then our kids played with the neighborhood kids all afternoon today. Most of our pictures are from yesterday afternoon before the barbecue.

Also, I taught a Relief Society lesson on integrity today. Preparing for the lesson made me realize I need more of this quality in my life!

Saturday dinner: EQ BBQ

Sunday dinner: Food storage “lasagna.” Our real meal of the day was lunch. Abe had prepared a beautiful black bean burger lunch for our arrival home from church. I felt guilty that I never do that when I get home before everyone else. Maybe I will make the effort this Sunday.

Yesterday I took the kids to the Utah State Fair. I bought both girls one treat each at the end. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lydia drop her spoon on the ground. She conscientiously picked it up, blew on it, rubbed it against her shirt vigorously, and blew on it more before using it. I figured that was fine and made no comment.

Mary, on the other hand, dropped her ice cream on the ground while I wasn’t looking. When I was about to buckle her in back the car, I noticed there was a lot of dirt in her ice cream. I tried to clean off all the parts with dirt, and then I took a bite to make sure there wasn’t any left. That was the worst bite of my life! I tasted fair ground dirt for a good thirty minutes afterward. Mary had been eating fair ground dirt for a solid fifteen minutes without my noticing. Ack! I threw out the offending ice cream.

Mary was not happy that I threw out her ice cream. She communicated her unhappiness with the situation repeatedly. Her communication mounted into a full blown, lie-on-the-ground-and-scream tantrum right as we were entering Trader Joe’s. Some nice ladies walked around her joking, “A child screaming in the store–never seen that before!” I was grateful for them.

After Trader Joe’s we went to Kid-to-Kid, after which it took two hours to drive home–such was the I15 traffic. I felt done in after that.

We were supposed to spend the evening going out to dinner with Abe’s work region. I was dreading the drive to Heber after having spent so much of the day in the car already. As it turned out, Abe’s boss called us and told us they had gotten an earlier start than expected. We were too late to catch dinner with the group, so Abe and I ended up going out to eat together at Oregano in Provo.

I went to bed at 10, and Abe stayed up until 12:30 working on an big RFP that is due Tuesday.

While we were in Provo, my mom had an outing to Salt Lake with the empty nesters. They had dinner and then drove to a Tabernacle concert. She said that it was the best concert she had ever attended.

I have pictures of the fair below:

 

Just some pictures from this afternoon and evening. We bought lemonade from some darling little boys in our ward. It was cute to see them talk to Lydia.

Also, we had butternut squash soup and kale salad for dinner.

In the evening my mom and I went to Summer’s soccer game. We had the best time talking with Laurie, and I loved all of the time outside in the sunshine.

I am manically trying to squeeze in some reading before Ammon wakes up…but I forgot to blog yesterday. Actually, my early bedtime hit before I could blog, so I put it off until this afternoon.

I thought I had no pictures to show from yesterday, but lo and behold, Lydia’s teachers posted a bunch on the FB group for her school. Hurrah.

Also, when I went to drop off Lydia’s registration papers at the central school, I fell in love with the neighborhood. I have to get Abe on board so we can have a goal to relocate in three years.

We had leftovers for dinner. I also baked five loaves of zucchini bread (from our overgrown zucchini) and spicy chocolate cookies. All I want is to eat more of those cookies, but I am restraining. I figure I will bake some right before leaving to pick up Lydia from school. That way the house will smell good when she returns.

These are the pictures I snagged from FB. They are doing a Native American unit and built totem poles in class.

Today was a marathon! With Lydia’s new Wednesday schedule, we had to switch her harp lessons to 8am on Tuesday morning. Usually Lydia is the first child up (sometimes even beating Ammon), but today, of course, she slept in. I had to wake her to get to her lesson on time.

And then Mary, who usually is up by 8, slept in until almost 9:30. She had Let’s Play Music at 10, and so we raced to get her ready. My mom was a great help because Mary had wet her bed. Taking care of that AND getting Mary to music on time was only made possible by my mom.

We also had ballet and errands today, not to mention home schooling. It was a packed one.

We had Thai red curry with potatoes, eggplant, and peppers. There was some tofu in there too, but if I had included that information in the previous sentence, it would have read like the ingredients list in a recipe.

While the girls were in ballet, I took Ammon to the splash pad. He was adorable, as usual.

Today Abe and I went on another early morning run. I really like those.

Even though I squeezed in some family history letter transcription and a chapter of reading, the rest of the day felt very to-and-fro-ish.

Lydia screamed for two and a half hours during harp practice today. I took a video of a short bit of that two and a half hour long session. We went straight from that to piano practice, and from there to Let’s Play Music. After that, I let her off the hook for the day.

We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner, and I baked sweet potato pies (without the crust) and zucchini bread for our teatime during the rest of the week.

Abe has been exhausted all weekend and needs to go to bed, so this will be short. We had a great Sabbath. There was church, visiting teaching, lots of family history, dinner outside, and tons of reading with Lydia.

Oh, and we had chicken pilaf (from food storage), salad, and melon for dinner.

Here is a picture of Mary coming in to talk to Abe and me. She was being an “officer.” An officer, she explained, gives cards to people. I should have gotten a video because she was to-die-for cute in her explanation.

Yesterday Karin came by for dinner. She brought Thai food and cupcakes with her. We all enjoyed visiting so much. Not only was all of the food so yummy, but then she gave my mom and me birthday presents! It was so fun to celebrate our birthdays in September.

Today Abe and I went on an early morning run together. I can run twice as far when Abe is with me, and that’s a literal fact. We haven’t run together since we lived in the Salt Lake Avenues, and so this morning was fun.

We got a lot of errands done today and the kids spent the day playing outside with the neighbors, playing inside with each other, and watching Daniel Tiger. I am reading Mind in the Making which said that television can actually be a powerful teacher as long as the content does not include aggressive behavior. Daniel Tiger feels like a safe bet.

Abe took a bunch of stuff to the dump, I mowed the lawn, and then we all ate dinner outside. I am also reading the book, Dinner: A Love Story. The author says that she has catalogued their family dinners every day for years. I thought that was a great idea! She says that writing it down makes her feel a (false) sense of control over life. I also think that writing down keeps you accountable. Since one of the mantras of the homeschool conference I attended was, “Copy, but don’t compare,” I will copy this neat idea.

Tonight we had sweet potato soufflé and salad. Yesterday we had take-out Thai food and cupcakes. The day before that we had black bean soup, avocados, salsa, and tortilla chips. The day before that we had eggplant rollatini…and that’s where my memory stops. If I blog every day, maybe I won’t have to rack my brain to figure out what we’ve been eating all week.

Afterward Ammon watched the girls play. He was so glued to their movements that we joked that he looked like he was watching TV.

The big news of the day is that I discovered a school for homeschooled children today. They attend for one and a half days a week. For the full day they cover the full range of academic subjects, and for the half day they have “specials.” Tomorrow is specials day, so Lydia will cover the following subjects: hand sewing/crafts, musical theater, fibers (e.g, learning how to make yarn out of wool, etc.,) and math games. I am so excited for her.

Also, this charter school BUYS ALL OF MY CURRICULUM for me!! I have spent hundreds of dollars on math and writing curriculum, but this school will purchase whatever curriculum parents want and give it to the parents. All of the curriculum I’m using I could have gotten for free. It’s unbelievable.

The homeschool also has optional, whole-family field trips.

Lydia had a great harp lesson today. I observed her teacher teach her how to figure out a piece by ear. I felt like I was observing a work of pedagogical art. She is such a talented teacher.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening outside. I spent a peaceful hour with Ammon studying scriptures while he crawled around. The girls then played with the neighbors, and we all had dinner. After dinner Abe drew the girls on the basketball court. Cute pictures to follow.

And from tonight after baths:

Today was our first official day of home schooling. The word “official” means we followed a set schedule, held all of the learning in our classroom, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning. Lydia exclaimed multiple times that the best part of the day, which included ballet, an outing (to the grocery store), and playing outside with friends, was –home schooling! I can’t even express how happy that made me.

Mary also seemed to enjoy it, although her attention span is a little shorter. 🙂 Mary had Let’s Play Music today, and it was a parent day. I haven’t had much, if any, alone time with Mary for a long time. Parent days are nice that way; Mary and I get to cuddle, play together, and bond. My mom made that possible by staying home with the kids today.

Ammon is starting to stand for short periods on his own. He has been doing this for a couple weeks, but he’s starting to do it more regularly now.

Abe is heading down the home stretch of the quarter. He had a four day weekend and so today was a catch-up day. On top of that, he had six meetings. I don’t know how he handles it all so well.