Author: lilydarais

Abe is still on death’s door, but he powered through work anyway. It was his turn with our therapist this week and he reported it was a great session. Basically they always have the same conversation about how Abe works too hard and needs to slow down. She has asked him to, as a therapeutic exercise, sit down and do nothing–on occasion. I still have yet to see him complete this task, even though he’s about to drop from illness and stress.

I spent most of the day ruminating about church issues, singing hymns to the Ammon, reading to Ammon, playing with Ammon, playing puzzles with Mary, baking banana date muffins, doing laundry, and listening to the Wicked! soundtrack with all of the kids.

My mom met her new doctor and likes him. She also helped the girls with their homework. If it were up to Abe and me, our kids would be total delinquents. We are so grateful for my mom. She is our ace in the hole!

Our neighbor, Josh, drops in several times a week. It’s fun having a neighbor who just pops in whenever. I feel like we’re on a sitcom or something when it happens. He dropped in twice today and we all enjoyed his company.

For FHE tonight we played “Go Fish” with paper fish and a magnetic fishing pole. On the back of the fish I wrote questions to prepare us for Easter, such as:

• Why did Jesus die?
• How did Jesus die?
• When was Jesus resurrected?
• Who was the first person to see Jesus resurrected?
• …etc.

There were ten fishes, and Mary did an insanely cute job of instructing us on the game. She will make a great teacher some day when she grows up.

Also, Abe is still insanely sick. He went to urgent care and the doctor told him he is suffering from a nasty virus. Poor Abe is under so much stress from work that he can’t get the rest he needs to get better.

On Saturday we all went to West High School, Abe’s Alma Mater, to join the March For Our Lives. Clark and Soren had to catch their flight, so they were only able to come with us to the beginning. We sad a said goodbye, and my mom cried after they left.

Almost right after Clark and Soren left, we bumped into Betsy and Micah! Considering there were thousands of people at the march, we felt so blessed to run into them.

We were grateful to march for the safety of children in America, including our own children. I mourn the fact that my children have to grow up in the era of mass shootings, and I am so grateful to the courageous teenagers who have led the way on this issue and organized the march.

After the march we went to the Miners and celebrated Grandma Miner’s birthday. I wish I had pictures but had full hands the whole time. It was a good time.

And then we drove home and collapsed. It was a full, very physical day and we were exhausted. Abe was actually very sick the whole day and has been sick for two straight weeks. It was a pretty big day for someone suffering from an onslaught of viruses.

On Friday Clark took the boys to Qualtrics in the morning and a playground in the afternoon.

After school the girls had their dress rehearsal pictures for ballet. They were so beautiful!

Thursday was Lydia’s one hundred and twentieth day of school. Usually the kids dress up on day on hundred as one hundred year old people, but this year they dressed up on day one hundred twenty because her teacher was out of town on day one hundred.

Lydia was such an adorable one hundred and twenty year old.

On Wednesday I pulled Lydia from school so she could join us for an outing to the zoo. With Clark in town, we can actually do fun outings!

When he’s not in town, we are sort of housebound because it is almost unsafe to take Ammon places. He literally combs the perimeter of places trying to find openings and weak spots so he can escape. I can’t chase him as fast as I need to since I have Clarissa, not to mention all of the injuries from pregnancy that still haven’t healed.

Anyway, with Clark in town, it was like a party. We could go places! Clark can run down Ammon and we can be adventurous AND safe! It was wonderful.

Here are the pictures from the zoo:

On Tuesday we took the kids to the Thanksgiving Point Farm! Clark took all of the pictures and I have none. 🙁

First the kids rode the ponies. That was a big hit. Then they examined the cows, the goats, and were especially impressed by the turkeys. Some of the turkeys had received the presidential pardon. We couldn’t figure out which one(s?).

Then we dropped Mary off at school before heading home and having quiet time.

I think I cooked dinner, but it’s all a blur since I am back-blogging and I can’t really remember the rest of the evening. I think that was the night my mom, Clark, and I sat around and discussed the excellent Atlantic article by Michael Gerson entitled How the Evangelicals Lost Their Way.

I would definitely lump Mormons into that article for a lot of it. 61% of Mormons support Trump. I can’t wrap my mind around the hypocrisy. I literally screamed while reading the article. It was such a good article, but unfortunately I don’t think any of the Evangelicals or Mormons who voted for Trump will read it.

This morning we had a play date with Maddie, who is moving soon. I learned a lot yesterday when I talked to her mom, Amelia, for the first time ever. I casually asked Amelia if I could help with the move–and she said yes! I was honestly shocked and so instructed by her answer.

Normally if someone who I didn’t know asked me if I needed help, I would probably say “No, I’m fine,” even if I could use the help. The fact that Amelia so graciously and humbly said, “Yes! Could  you please watch Maddie tomorrow?” made me rethink my own response to offers of service. I was thrilled that Amelia said yes and allowed me to help out. Babysitting was literally the easiest thing she could have asked for, but it made me feel happy and useful. I think I will always reference this exchange when people offer to help in the future.

Maddie and Mary hit it off.

Meanwhile, Clark and my mom took Soren and Ammon to Cookie Cutters to get haircuts. Ammon was in desperate need.

In the afternoon Clark and my mom took the boys to Qualtrics. Someone asked if Ammon and Soren were twins! That made me so happy.

Meanwhile, because Clark had Ammon, I got to watch the girls at ballet for the first time all year. I didn’t even know the name of their teacher until today, and they’ve been in ballet since September.

Then I brought Clarissa home and finished making corned beef and cabbage for dinner. We were a little late to the St. Patrick’s day dinner theme, but better late than never, right?

On Sunday morning I spent the whole morning planning my lesson and helping the kids get ready for church. Abe was really supportive and let me shut myself in my room for hours to get ready.

Thanks to Abe’s support and God’s grace, the lesson went well. It was on President Nelson’s talk on the Book of Mormon, and I felt my testimony grow while preparing and teaching.

Then I came home and made shepherd’s pie for dinner.

After dinner we ate the rainbow cake that Mary and Ammon made on Saturday.

Abe did Elder’s Quorum visits with Josh, and during their hour and a half long visit, they covered the following topics: the flesh eating bacteria that’s in marijuana coming from Chicago, marijuana from different parts of the country, how to make homemade bombs from coke cans, how to replace metal piercings with rocks so ear lobes don’t swell in the summer, and how some gifted people can talk to rocks. The topics of these visits are, I think, supposed to be sort of spiritual, but Abe found the conversation very amusing. I laughed a lot when he recounted it all upon returning home.

Those sneaky leprechauns visited our house for St. Patrick’s Day! The kids were beside themselves with excitement and declared St. Patrick’s Day was more fun than Christmas. Their favorite part was the green pee and poop in the potty. Ammon literally ran back and forth to the potty gleefully shrieking “That’s gross!” probably twenty times. It was hilarious.

Then Lydia ran to Eli’s house to go to a birthday party before returning home and heading straight to Shen Yun. We dropped off my mom, Lydia, and Mary at the show to meet up with Suzanne. It was my mom’s birthday present to Lydia, and it sounded amazing.

While they were at the show, Abe, Ammon, Clarissa and I went to the zoo. It was cold at the zoo and I was in sandals, so I stayed at the gift shop with Clarissa while Abe took Ammon to see the lions.

Then we picked up the girls and my mom and headed home.

We let the kids stay up late to greet Clark and Soren when they arrived from Pittsburgh. The kids were so excited to see their uncle and cousin.

It was a full and very fun St. Patrick’s Day!