Author: lilydarais

The kids made a HUGE fort, and Abe and I honored their efforts by playing tigers with them inside of it. I also read them a book since the constant growling was wearing out my voice.

Lydia has the most amazing teacher, and for one of her project she has to learn the banjo, which her teacher supplied:

On Saturday we were feeling soooooooo in love with our country’s democratic process. We were so thankful it prevailed over fascism and are so grateful to be Americans. To celebrate our country, we spent the day walking in the wide open spaces on Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.

We saw lots of bison and some antelope on the island, as well as lots of birds. At the top of Buffalo Point we could see a nearby herd of bison but it was so windy that instead of taking photos we just took a quick glance at them and retreated to the car.

Then we drove to Spitz in downtown Salt Lake and picked up some lavash wraps, salads, and the best sweet potato waffle fries–Berliner style, topped with sauce and tons of veggies. We ate in our car while rain poured down outside, and then we drove to Gourmandise to pick up some pastries afterward.

I got the kids some cannolis, some layered pastries for my mom, Abe and me, and some interesting fun looking pastries for Abe’s dad and Suzanne, who we drove up to see outside afterward. It was so fun to see them!

Then we drove home, picked up a tool from Lowe’s, grocery shopped, and put the kids to bed. Also, Abe fixed our fire pit!!!

We have lived in the home for a year and because one of our kids broke the fire pit first thing upon moving in, we have never used it until Abe fixed it last night (with a little advice and an extra tool from Moroni!). He was beyond delighted to sit outside by the fire. I wanted to join but was so cold from being outside so much that I had to return inside after about five seconds with him.

On Friday morning after dropping the girls off at school I drove straight to Salt Lake to pick up Lydia’s brand new pedal harp. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the harp in the store because half of what I love about the store is the actual Lyon and Healy harp store in Salt Lake. I love that it is in a beautiful old home right at the bottom of the Avenues and how quiet, peaceful and slow everything feels inside. Ammon and Clarissa also loved seeing some brown squirrels eating nuts outside the door.

After picking up the harp we drove to Tulie Bakery and picked up some over the top delicious baked goods. I dropped some off at my friend Chelsea’s house and at my mom’s place on the way home. After dropping the kids off at home with Abe I ran out to Barnes and Noble to pick up a present for Mary’s friend’s birthday, and then I blitz cleaned the house before picking the girls up from school.

Then we drove almost straight back to school for Mary’s friend’s party. The kids dropped off presents and picked up goody bags for the virtual party.

On Thursday the vote count still continued! While we watched in the evening, the older girls, Abe and I all played a board game called Election Night. It was a great game, and I felt like I learned more about the electoral college (or at least which states are worth how many votes) than I did before.

And before that, the kids had fun trying out their new window markers.

I prepared for election day by, of course, voting early by mail–and also ordering Chicago deep dish pizza days in advance. I found out that Lou Malnatti’s ships! So I ordered six pizzas and felt so excited to have deep dish to help me through the vote count agony.

We also made red and blue virgin jello shots and floated some cactus marshmallows in them to represent Arizona’s role in the election–little knowing that just hours later Arizona would swing to Biden!

It was a beautiful day so while the little kids were in preschool Abe and I went to the nearby tennis courts to play tennis. We are getting better, and it was so delightful to play in the warm sunshine. I am still recovering from a UTI, so I didn’t push myself too hard. But even so we were thrilled to discover that we can actually volley longer than we used to.

In the evening Michaelann joined us as we watched the vote counts start. It was so fun to spend such a historic night with such a dear friend. I didn’t have hope that the election would be over in one night, but I had no idea that we were just watching the start of what seemed like a week long process. It was fun/painful to watch different states get called, though!

On Monday I tried out Ketamine. It was really expensive but I have been curious. Sadly, I didn’t really get much out of the session other than a sensation of consciousness apart from self–and honestly, that was really cool. Also every time I thought about Abe while on Ketamine my body did this automatic thing where I breathed deeply and felt full of peace and light. It was not a conscious response but a bodily response that I felt like I was observing outside myself. Abe is my safe and happy place.

But afterward I threw up three times and spent three hours completely unable to do anything because of the nausea. After I felt better, I heated up the lamb and made some polenta for dinner. Abe took the kids to Sundance to get ski passes while I recovered, and since I took so long recovering we ate dinner really late. But it was yummy! And Lydia got to seed a pomegranate, which was something she’d been wanting to do ever since we read The Pomegranate Witch.

The only picture I have from this day is one the kids must have taken of themselves in the car. I just found it and think it’s pretty cute.

This morning I took Clarissa grocery shopping while Lydia and Mary stayed home working on Lydia’s insane school project and Ammon and Abe went to church. Ammon has been working really hard on his writing skills and took his writing book with him to church.

Then we can home and I prepped some lamb shanks for braising and made a lasagna with some of the leftover “pumpkin puke” (spaghetti squash with pesto) from yesterday’s Halloween lunch. We also attended a Zoom cradle ceremony for Melita, which was really beautiful.

Then everyone migrated outside. Abe had a call with his AXB friends, and then Mary, Lydia and Abe worked hard on the pine needles project–for literally hours. I took the computer out there to catch up on back blogging in the sunshine and played a game with Mary that she and Lydia had invented with Mary’s addition machine.

In a little bit I am going to visit my mom and bring her some stuff. And then we’re hoping to not be up until midnight wiping down pine needles. I seriously question this project and am starting to think Lydia must have misunderstood what she was supposed to do.

Oh Halloween Abe made the kids a pancake, eggs, and tofurkey sausage breakfast. They all had seconds before I came up to help clean and make lunch.

After lunch we all sat around watching Halloween movies until dinner. Well, Abe actually used the time to clean and do house projects, but the kids and I watched movies together. I loved cuddling with all of them, and I didn’t feel too guilty about doing nothing because this is my second week on antibiotics recovering from a UTI that just won’t seem to go away. I think my body is tired from fighting infection and just loved the rest. Well, I know I loved the rest, so I guess that’s all that matters.

After our movie marathon Abe went outside to hide 60 glow in the dark eggs he had spray painted earlier that morning. I bought black light flash light for all the kids and we surprised them with flash lights and an egg hunt. They loved it, and after they had found all the eggs they hid them in the yard for Abe and me to find. The deal was if we could find all the eggs then there would be no candy Sunday, but if we couldn’t find all eggs then they could have one more day of candy. It took a while and was a close call, but Abe and I found all of the eggs–and it was a really fun to do an egg hunt!!

After the kids hid the eggs Clarissa came to me and said, “Can we please go trick or treating?” She put her hands against her chin and tilted her head in the cutest way. I told her to go ask Abe, who was really resolved to be more safe this Halloween. However, at Clarissa’s cute mannerisms he did an about face and took all of the kids trick or treating around the block.

While they trick or treated, I stayed home and folded laundry while listening to classical Renaissance music. It was so peaceful and wonderful. Happy Halloween!