Author: lilydarais

Here is a video of Clarissa helping with the biscuits.

Here is a video of Ammon and Clarissa learning the letter E.

Here is a video of Ammon’s roar!

Clark, Swathi, Soren, and Meera left at 4am this morning and Ammon wandered into our room frowning.

“Where’s Soren?” he asked.

“Soren had to go to his home, Ammon. He’s in Seattle.”

“Oh, no!! That wasn’t supposed to be for more days,” he pouted.

I had the sad job of informing him he miscalculated the calendaring, and then assured him that we would see his cousins again soon (hopefully!!!).

Then Abe and I daydreamed about things we want to do after the pandemic. It’s so sad because right now Abe can work from anywhere in the world…but for obvious reasons, we are home bound. After daydreaming a lot, I spent a lot of time googling Airstream remodels.

We also cleaned the house. Abe went to help his aunt with some phone issues and did the grocery shopping while he was out. He also played basketball with the kids in the evening. It was sweet looking out the window at all these people I love having fun outside together. I also read more in my book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. I got really excited when I checked the back cover and discovered the author is half Filipino like me! I can count on one hand the half white-half-Filipinos I have met in my lifetime, and I always feel resonance. I don’t know if it’s my bias, but I am loving the book.

Also Abe got a cute picture of Ammon playing in the basement. He was building a maze.

In the evening we all drove to Heber and hiked the Cottontail loop trail. It was much, much more accessible than last week’s Silver Lake climb. Both Abe and I independently thought it reminded us of an Audoban trail we visited in New Mexico. I think it reminded us of that one because it was so peaceful and there was no one around.

Here is a video of the kids jumping.

In the morning Abe and I attempted the 500 workout, only for us it was more like a 350 workout. We did seven ten rep increments of push-ups, burpees (I hate those), squats, sit-ups, and supermans. By the end Abe was late to work and Clarissa was crying so we had to cut it short.

A little later Lydia had fun taking a selfie of herself in Nana’s chair.

For home preschool Ammon and Clarissa worked with pincers to sort some plastic fruit into a pie, and then they started fighting. So I put Clarissa on the iPad and worked with Ammon on letters, spelling and reading. When I tried to read him a book, he interrupted by reciting it to me. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as told by Ammon is so adorable and I should have caught it on video. But I was so appreciative that he assumed everybody would want to witness his feat and repeated it for whole family at lunch time. It was so cute.

After lunch we did a couple more hours watching videos about Australia and talking about Australia. Each kid researched the country separately and then took turns teaching us all what they had learned. The girls were enthralled with what they were learning and Ammon’s imagination has been captured by Australian animals and the cultures of Australia’s islander neighbors. He especially likes the New Zealand Haka and the Fijian fire dancers. Also Lydia kept getting up to eat more Vegemite. She has a very adventurous palate.

Here is a video.

Ammon wanted to take pictures and told me to smile for the picture below.

After we were done researching we all went up to watch Jack Randall interact with Australian animals. Ammon has every part of the shows memorized and narrated to me everything that was about to happen the whole time. I loved cuddling with my kids.

Then Mary had her piano lesson, and when Abe was done with work, he took Ammon, Clarissa and Lydia to fly kites. The wind was good and they got two kites up and had a good time.

At home I organized the pantry and was salivating over everything because I did a twenty one hour fast on the heals of a 24 hour fast today. I was DYING. So when Abe came home I decided to eat–a LOT.

After that I read more of Bill Bryson’s Down Under to the girls and did a relaxation narrative with them before heading out to walk with Abe. He is so fun to walk and talk with, and I love that time so much. He is going through a lot with the end of quarter work pace stress but he is such a graceful, kind, and thoughtful person–even when things are stressful for him. I love him so much.

This was my favorite kind of day, and I am so excited for tomorrow!

On Wednesday I did my second 24 hour fast of the week and it felt really good. I also did yoga and biked in the morning, but I didn’t get my heart rate up very high so the exercise didn’t feel masochistic (which was basically how the entire month of April felt).

Mary finished her math class yesterday. I have no words to express how grateful I am that nightmare is over. She got so behind while I was sick and has the attention span of a goldfish, so playing catch up–while also doing eye therapy, piano, and constipation therapy–has been so stressful.

(Actually, I don’t even know why this was so stressful because she spends most of the day with my mom working and coloring, so my mom basically got her caught up. And since her attention span is so short and the Miralax-induced bodily flow leaves her exhausted, we’ve been very easy-going about piano and eye stuff for the past couple weeks too. So again, I remain confused about why the situation felt so stressful. Nevertheless, IT WAS.)

My mom is an angel with Mary, who is a little love sponge and spends almost all of her free time with her very loving Nana. I am so grateful for all my mom does for her. It’s a ton. Thank you, Mom!!

Mary, in turn, is an angel with Clarissa. Clarissa looooooves her–and she has caught on that she can get Mary to do whatever she wants. Lately she has started bossing Mary around a lot. In response, Mary is extremely patient, loving and kind. When I hear them together, I honestly start to worry Clarissa is being spoiled because the minute she whines or says “no,” Mary appeases her in the most soothing, sweet tones. I actually intervened yesterday when Clarissa was being unreasonably demanding. I told her to stop bossing Mary around and told Mary she is allowed to say “no” to Clarissa. Mary said, “It’s fine, Mom. I’m fine.” She appears to not mind being controlled by a toddler. I am wowed by Mary’s loving heart often, but yesterday I was freshly impressed at how easily and generously she gives.

Lydia recreated Rene Magritte’s Son of Man using medical underpads for the blue background.

Lydia also earned a grab bag for running a mile without stopping! Abe ran with her. I am so proud of her!

I had the BEST evening walking around the block and neighborhood with Ammon. We spent an hour just walking and talking. (He did almost all of the talking). At the end we played a little game he made up in front of the house. I am not sure exactly what the game was, but I was supposed to push imaginary buttons that made him run through the sprinkler. It was a gorgeous evening and it was such a delight to just focus on Ammon without distractions. He is the most darling, funny, sweet boy. I love him so much.

After I tucked him in, Abe and I watched our new favorite show, Designated Survivor. It is so, so good.

Also, here is a book Mary made for a belated Mother’s day gift for Suzanne:

On Monday I fasted and it went sooooo fast in the afternoon because Arielle flew in from Missouri and dropped by for a socially distanced visit. It was soooooo fun and wonderful to talk with her. I could talk with her for forever! (And we basically did.) We forgot to take pictures though!

She is also doing a juice fast and is on WEEK FIVE. It was impossible to feel sorry for myself fasting when she is going three months on nothing but juice. Apparently every three months our bodies completely regenerate, so she is regenerating her body on the three month schedule by flooding it with pounds of freshly juiced spinach and kale several times a day. It’s amazing. I am in awe.

Also, Mary made a book for Tom for his birthday. We had to get it digitally before she mailed it off because of how amazingly sweet it was:

Here is a video of Mary going through her book report that Georgia helped her with. She was going to a box to display her report, but Nana’s wall did the trick 🙂

The best part of Friday was an evening walk. Abe spent two hours walking around our block and neighborhood with the older girls, and Lydia talked the whole time. Abe was so thrilled because he didn’t have to do anything but listen, respond occasionally, and enjoy the kids. He said that it was the first time that it felt like just chatting with friends instead of with children.

They spent a lot of time imagining crazy science experiments. When I unburied myself from my book and joined them, I got to be the judge of whose experiments were the craziest. And then we sent the girls in to put themselves to bed while we did a few more laps around the block. At one point, as the sun sank, the trees erupted in bird song. That was magical. And oh my goodness, the view from our house is insane. We watched the sun set over Utah Lake and the mountains beyond. So beautiful.

I think we’re going to try to make this a routine because it was just so fun.

I am sooooo glad to be back on our schedule!! Oh my goodness, there’s something so much easier (in some ways) when the kids have specific tasks they have to complete…all. day. long. Oh, it’s so nice to be in that groove again. By the end of last week I was kind of dying. We are going to need to keep some sort of schedule in the summer because letting the kids do what they want all day long makes me slightly crazy. (Not that I mind their activities–but it actually ends up being almost more work in some ways…)

I also added two new things to the schedule. At 2pm we had our audiobook time where the older girls and I all listen to E.H. Gombrich’s History of the World while coloring or playing with play dough. Then at 3pm we had our Shakespeare tea time. We eared Marullus’ speech to the Romans about a dozen times while drinking tea and eating biscotti. This was my favorite part of the day. Ammon loves to join in and repeats the lines after us in his half-way-there linguistical way. It is darling. Like, so, so, so cute. Lydia and I both fed him the lines of the entire speech at least once each because we thought his acting was so hilarious. Next time I will get a video.

Here is a video of Mary reciting the speech.

Here is a video of Lydia reciting the speech.

Here’s a picture of the girls during our Shakespeare tea time.