This morning we all woke up with tummy aches. Lydia said, “Daddy, we are all sick because we ate meat yesterday. Can we not eat meat anymore?” Abe and I happily yielded to her request (today).
I went to Bikram this morning with Cynthia, and we slid into class a little late. Our instructor, Marc, doesn’t like latecomers, and he often lectures on how latecomers should reflect on the way their behavior affects others around them. Today he was a little milder in his rebukes, but he still delivered a rather stern post-class homily to us on the virtues of punctuality while Cynthia was signing up for her pass.
After sweating it out in yoga, I proceeded to be cold for the rest of the day. (Although I shouldn’t complain–the recent reports and pictures from the Midwest make Salt Lake look like the tropics right about now). When I finally warmed up enough to move, we packed up my sewing machine and took it to a sewing shop in Murray that does repairs on warranty. I KNOW my machine could not sew buttonholes last I checked (in June), but it magically fixed itself on the way to the shop. I felt like an idiot for bringing it in–but a happy idiot, since no further repairs are needed. Now I can sew buttonholes all day long if I want to!
Speaking of repairs, Abe has spent hours this week following various tutorials on how to break a Master Lock. We lost the combination to a lock we have on a door that leads to the roof, and Abe tried hundreds of combinations before finally just taking a hack saw to the clasp. I felt sorry for my poor husband, frustrated to the point of having to use a hack saw on his vacation. Also, his vacation ended today with an email giving him loads and loads of homework for his new job. It’s been fun while it lasted.
I also read Preethi’s recent blog on resolutions and loved her idea of having her toddler start memorizing scriptures. Lydia and I started on this today, and I have to say, after an hour of drilling, drilling, drilling, Lydia’s recitation of the first clause in 1 Nephi 3:7 was… spotty. Preethi, if you’re reading this, how do you do it?
Also, my friend, Maria, and I have been exchanging a very fun, spirited set of emails on Amy Chua (she has a new, super controversial book out, people!). As Lydia and I repeated the same clause over and over (at least a hundred times, no exaggeration), I did feel slightly closer to Amy Chua (my number 2 idol, right after Martha.) Maria made the awesome point that Amy Chua takes sole credit for her daughters’ success when actually, a whole host of unacknowledged social privilege played into that. So true! But I still admire Amy Chua’s personality, humor, intelligence, and even her ability to play the media. The link in this paragraph actually irritated me quite a bit because the reviewers seemed not only derisive, but dim. But I’m lazy and it’s the first thing I clicked on when I googled her new book…by now I should have just gone back and changed it to the simple Amazon link, seriously.
Here are today’s pictures:





