I spent all morning cleaning, although my house is in shambles right now and there’s no way anyone could ever tell that. I am also exhausted because we just got back from a dinner party in Park City that was so fun we lost track of time and arrived home after 10 pm. Good thing we didn’t have to bathe the girls tonight!
Here are some pictures from the day:
I have a TON of pictures from today, and since I have to get up early tomorrow, I’m just going to post them with captions.
Then we headed home for a play date with Misty, Sophia and Max. I love them all so much. Max is starting to army crawl, and he is just the cutest.
After they left, I put Mary down for a nap and gave Lydia another piano lesson. I set a timer for twenty-five minutes. I think she could do longer sessions than that, but I run out of steam. I’m going to try for at least half an hour next time. When her piano lesson was over, I gave her a cookie and cuddled with her on the couch while we did another poetry session. We read “Heaven-Haven: A Nun takes the Veil” by Gerard Manley Hopkins and talked a lot about Aunt Lydia (a nun) and angels (since that’s what Aunt Lydia is now). I love that poem, but I really wanted to work more on “God’s Grandeur,” which is my favorite. Next time.
Oh! And we read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) and talked about it a bunch. Lydia decided (on her own) that Shakespeare was writing about the relationship between her and her cat. Um…..
Then I went to school and worked on the following:
While I was at school, Abe took the girls to the ward party.
Today I finally enrolled Lydia in preschool. After calling Challenger this morning, I felt so relieved to find a preschool that had a philosophy that fit what I’ve been looking for. Originally, I was going to go down tomorrow to sign Lydia up, but then I got scared the open slots would fill up, so I rearranged my schedule, picked up Lydia’s immunization forms and headed down to sign Lydia up.
From the moment I pulled up to the school, I had a good feeling. I would go into detail, but it’s late and I’m trying to hit my bedtime goal, so basically: we feel good about this decision, and we think Lydia will thrive at Challenger.
Then I took the girls grocery shopping, after which it was nap time and cooking-time. Abe had his birthday celebration a month late because Dan’s in town and staying with us, and so we took advantage of the situation to have Kade, Brittany, and William over too. It was a fun evening. The only way it could have been better is if Preethi, Nat and Kina could have been here too.
Mary napped from 1:30 to 6:15pm today. That made it possible for me to cook dinner, but I felt sorry for her because she woke up feverish and miserable. We think/hope she’s teething, since thus far she only has four teeth.
To bed, to bed.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Then it was Smith’s for food, and now bed.
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.
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:
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:
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…
Happy Valentine’s Day! Well, it was for Abe and me. We celebrated early since babysitters are booked on Friday. Pre-date, the day was so relaxing. Lydia was exhausted from all the highs of yesterday and took an almost three hour nap. Mary slept too. Abe got home by 5:15 and we left on our six hour date right away–which just might be the longest date we’ve ever been on.
Here are the pictures from early in the day:
And from our date:
Then we tried to go see Saving Mr. Banks, but it was only showing in Layton, and we were late. So we saw Catching Fire instead and have talked nothing but rebellion, revolution, and fantasy lit ever since.