Yay for the sun! It’s back, it’s beautiful, and it felt gooooood today. After touring another preschool this morning, we went to play group at a nearby park.
Lydia kept claiming she couldn’t climb up this hill and would fall down every two steps. Mary kindly went down to help her up (my interpretation. Lydia said Mary came over to hit her…).
Then we came home and I fed the girls lunch. Then I cooked, cleaned and gave Lydia a piano lesson.
Then Lydia took a nap. When she wakes up from naps at home, she usually is a little…touchy. So I baked chocolate chip cookies while she was asleep, and as soon as she started to wail, I told her there were cookies downstairs for her.
She’s had a “winky” eye (at least, that’s what I call it) since she was born. That means when she takes a big bite of something, her right eye flies wide open. It’s pretty cute.
After Abe came home, we had dinner and FHE. I mainly sat on the couch in a tired stupor, but Abe taught the girls about Moses, and they drew pictures of Moses parting the Red Sea.
This morning I whipped the house into shape before preschool.
I found Mary trying to wet her toothbrush while I cleaned the bedroom. The other day Abe found her crying because she got stuck on top of the toilet tank…
I was supposed to teach about farm animals and the letter “q,” but I never got around to “q.” We got stuck on the making-butter part of my lesson, wherein the kids were all supposed to shake jars of cream into butter. It didn’t work, but they had fun shaking. Thanks to the internet, I found out I could just stick the cream in the food processor and change it into butter that way, so I did that and we all ended by eating bread and butter.
Sarah did most of the shaking. With her arm stamina, she would have been an amazing asset on my midterm!We took the buttermilk that separated from the butter downstairs, dipped chalk in it, and drew pictures.The little ones had fun watching everyone.Afterwards, we had a play date with Ada while Paige dropped some paintings off at an art gallery in Park City. The girls watched scenes from Frozen for a while before going on to play in the princess tent Clark and Swathi gave them for Christmas.Abe took this picture while I was in class. Apparently, there was some music making while I was gone.We had a lot of Frozen time today. This is right before bed.
I spent all morning and the early afternoon at school, turning out French toast for a breakfast with the president of the Utah chapter of the American Culinary Federation (turned out she wasn’t hungry and didn’t eat a thing), washing mountains of dishes, and getting briefed on our team’s strategy for this year’s competition.
Next Saturday is my first black box competition, which is a competition where the judges put out surprise ingredients and you have to turn out a meal in an hour (like the show, Chopped). I am so nervous and am sure I will panic and blank, but it will be good experience. At the library today I checked out a ton of cookbooks on dessert because after the Saturday competition our team will have a pow-wow and decide what dessert we will make at the November ACF competition. It has to be an autumn-appropriate dessert that’s traditional but with some kind of modern twist. I saw a recipe for persimmon tea cake with kumquat glaze and thought that looked promising. We’ll see what my teammates think.
When I came home, I found this:
Abe made me pancakes, and Lydia scribbled a post-it note for me. It was so sweet. Also, Abe makes better pancakes than I do. Mine always come out so uneven.
Then we all took naps–except for Lydia, who would occasionally pop in our room announcing hunger or a desire to engage in some kind of activity requiring Abe and me to exert energy we simply didn’t have. I wish I were a super high-energy person; I could be such a better mom! Instead, I end up mumbling directions to Lydia from bed on how to procure herself animal crackers and cookies.
After Mary woke up, Abe and I dragged ourselves out of bed and took the girls to the library and on a round of errands.
When we got home, Lydia burst into tears at the prospect of dinner and begged to go “straight to bed” instead. Since she’d snacked a lot in the car, we obliged. Mary stayed up and ate animatedly with us. She has a new word! When we ask her how her day went, she smiles and says, “guh” for “good.” I am so worried because up until now, her only word has been “bah” for “bye.” Now at least she has a two word repertoire.
Then Abe and I watched the Olympics and I wasted time online. Abe still has to plan his lesson tomorrow, so I’m going to do some homework and then go “straight to bed,” just like Lydia.
Lydia woke up this morning the sickest I’ve ever seen her (except for when she had an ear infection). But even though Lydia was the sick one, Mary was the needy child today. I think she gets upset when I’m away at school, and the day after she gets mad when I do anything that doesn’t directly involve her.
The following evidence of that demand indulged:
And then she tripped over her feet and cried for an hour and a half. I held her for most of that time, and the only thing that stopped her crying was when I took pictures of her tantruming (is that a word?) on my legs and showed her the results.
Lydia was pretty low-maintenance all day.
Abe had another good day at work, and I wasted massive amounts of time online when I wasn’t feeding or attending to children. I really need to start practicing again, since I stopped after cutting myself a month ago in school. Maybe tomorrow…
This morning we had a play date with Lalitha and Eden:
Eden danced for us.We all loved watching Eden dance.Mary was so sleepy, but she was mesmerized by the dancing, too.
Then I fed the children, set Lydia up to paint in the basement, and put Mary down for a nap. Then Lydia took a nap.
Representation of what happened during quiet time. I copied pictures off the internet for preschool tomorrow, called/researched local preschools for an hour, lesson planned, and did homework.
Then I went to class. Tonight was carbs night, and in addition to all the carbs we cooked, the chocolates class next door was sending over their midterm projects. I feel so sick right now. Time for a shower and bed.
The girls watched “Let it Go” from Frozen for a little bit this morning.
Then we ate breakfast and read books until it was time for Institute. Today Institute featured some artist who has studied how Joseph Smith looked in life, and so the talk was slide-centric. Unfortunately, Mary was pretty tired and sad, so we ended up leaving early.
Then we came home for naps. I could have done so much during their nap marathon! Instead I wasted massive amounts of time online and just dozing off. But after their naps, Anique and Fleur came over for an impromptu play date. I should have taken a picture since Fleur and Mary are almost the same age, and they were so cute together. Next time.
Abe came home in time for us to head over to the Jewish Community Center for their preschool open house. We love the JCC more than ever, but it seems to be the most expensive preschool around. Gulp. Good thing we saved! The other good news is that we get a student discount since I am in school, so that’s great. And Lydia loved the preschool. She didn’t want to leave and talked the whole way home about how much she wanted to go there.
Then we came home, had FHE, and watched more of the Olympics. The ladies’ short program was tonight, and I am so glad we got to see it.
On a different note, we said many prayers for Ukraine today. One of my friends posted an excerpt from the Book of Common Prayer on Facebook, and I had never read anything from that before. It was beautiful and so relevant. A phrase she posted later has been ringing through my mind ever since: “Dona nobis pacem.” That’s what I hope to fall asleep praying tonight.
This morning I took the girls to the park for our ward play group.
Mary noticed her shoe strap had come undone. Also, the girls LOVE to hold hands whenever we go anywhere.Lydia helped fix Mary’s shoe strap while Mary’s negligent mother looked on and took a picture. Also, see Lydia’s hair? That took me approximately forty minutes this morning. I saw a girl with this hair do yesterday and really wanted to try it on Lydia. Next time I will make her hair more wet before I attempt it.Whee!
The rest of the day was spent feeding kids, napping, reading my book, and folding approximately five huge loads of laundry (basically the girls’ entire wardrobe and more than half of our clothes, too).
Anique and I did our soup exchange yesterday, which was the greatest blessing because I had no time to cook tonight.
Then I went to my Relief Society meeting. I’m on the humanitarian division of the committee, and so we picked which organizations we’re going to help this year.
Happy President’s Day! One of the pictures I neglected to take yesterday was of the town right outside of Zion. The entire Main Street was lined with flags, and that helped put us in a patriotic, grateful spirit. On our run this morning, we decided that we would rather lead our very own happy lives than lead the country, and we are so grateful to those who are elected and willing to do the latter.
We went on a run to City Creek Canyon this morning, but since we were both exhausted, we did a lot of talking and walking on our “run.” By the end, Lydia was begging to go to the park, and so Abe took the girls to the park while I showered and did some homework. When they came back to the house, Lydia was a wreck because she did not want to sit in the middle of the messy jogger for even a minute longer. The jogger was full of spilled snacks, sippy cups, random toys, and rumpled blankets. Lydia was screaming and trying to wriggle out of her seat belt when they pulled up to the door. I felt a lot of sympathy because that’s exactly how I feel when the van gets trashed. Maybe she got it from me.
Anyhow, before Lydia’s jogger meltdown, she and Mary had a lot of fun at the park. Mary has started throwing herself off any height she can climb to because she expects Abe to catch her. Abe made me promise to never leave her unattended at the park for even a split second from this point forward. Duly noted.
We calmed down by having a banana swirl party. Here is Lydia pitching in our family effort to get Mary to eat.Lydia is more successful than her parents.
Then we took a family nap (except for Lydia, who came into our room periodically to do puzzles, ask for food, and color). Then my Auntie Geri called and we got to talk for a long time. I have been meaning to call her for over a month, so it was really wonderful to chat.
And then we took advantage of all the sales at the outlet mall in Lehi. Abe got a whole bunch of new clothes, and I got a sweater and some jeans. I swore off jeans when I discovered leggings last year and made a commitment to myself that I wouldn’t wear anything that’s not at least as comfy as my pj’s. That commitment has been extremely comfortable, but I find myself doing crazy things…like not changing my outfit for days because it’s just too easy to wear what I wore during the day to bed…and when I wake up, guess what? I’m already dressed! So the sad, unhygienic continues until the absolute need for a shower intervenes. Also, I am excited to have jeans that fit.
Then I took my midterm for my concepts and theories class. It was really easy, and I suspect the teachers have a lot of pressure from the administration to spoon feed success to the students as much as possible. I’m not complaining, though.
Then we came home and discovered a package from Balu to the girls! Lydia was asleep, so Mary got to sleep with both new stuffed toys:
I spent this morning trying to get homework done. I can’t remember much more that happened today, honestly. I think I fed the kids a bunch, read some in my book, played with the kids, and went to school. That’s about it. I didn’t even get a chance to talk with Abe at all, so I have no idea if he had a good day or not. He sent me a super sweet Valentine’s email, but he didn’t mention how his day went in it, so I’m guessing it was good? I hope it was good.
Here are the pictures I took this morning:
We have a love triangle at our house. That is Lydia’s cat, Tabitha. Now, Tabitha isn’t THE cat that Lydia’s obsessed with, but Tabitha’s in second place. Mary, however, has developed a recent fondness for Tabitha and carries her around whenever she gets a chance.
Mary fell asleep at lunch with a graham cracker in her mouth. I ran for my camera, but by the time I got it, the graham cracker had dropped to her lap. She was a little sleepy today.Abe’s aunt, Christina, sent us some Valentine’s cookies. I took a bite of mine before I realized that my camera was literally right in front of me. The cookies deserved a photo, don’t you think?
At school today, we had the second part of our midterms. I made a bechamel sauce, minced parsley, did one tomato concasse, and spent about two and a half hours making mayonnaise by hand. Did you know you can break mayonnaise even after it’s come together? I sure didn’t. After an hour of beating, I got impatient and broke my mayonnaise with a couple big squirts of oil. Drat. I think I gave myself carpal tunnel, but another hour and a half later, I managed to rescue my mayonnaise.
This morning I sneaked in a trip to the library and grocery store before our fun play date with Paige, Ada, and Liv.
Here are some pictures from the play date:
We did a lot of art: painting, coloring, stamping, and playing with chalk.Paige brought over some polymer sand that was incredible. It looked and felt like sand, but it cleans up like cotton candy–a no mess kind of sand that just makes you marvel at technology.Adorable.
Then the girls were so worn out from the fun that they took a three hour nap. Hallelujah. I read a chapter in my book and then proceeded to do the same.
By the time we woke up, I just had time to make some soup, feed the girls dinner, and eat the last piece of last week’s cake before Abe came home.
We finished up with a Family Home Evening lesson on what it means to be children of God. Of course, we ended by playing parachute…
