Category: scripture journal

ramblings

This morning I fed the girls, practiced, and took them to Institute and the library. At Institute, both girls went to nursery. They did fine until Lydia had a little run-in with a friend, and Lydia burst into tears. At the sight of Lydia in tears, Mary became inconsolable, and I could hear her soundtrack an entire floor down. But I got to attend most of Institute before that, and it was awesome. The curator of the BYU museum of art talked to us about the Carl Bloch exhibit, and I am now dying to go.

Our institute is packed, and so parking is hard. I thought I’d found a great spot today, but when I came out, I discovered a ticket! Did you know you can’t park within 20 inches of a crosswalk? I sure didn’t. I wasn’t blocking the crosswalk, but I guess that wasn’t good enough. I guess I know now.

By the time we came home, the girls had gotten a second wind, so I played with them for another hour before putting them down. Then I did my usual climb-into-bed deal for a nap and some reading. I started Good Lord Bird, and even though it is rather humorous, I already know I’m not going to finish it. Besides, it’s due tomorrow.

When the girls woke up, we ate, cooked, colored, played, read, and I sneaked in more practice (while they ate). Then Abe came home and we had a lightning fast FHE.

Since yesterday was the State of the Union, I decided to do a lesson on our president. I remember when I was a little girl, one of my greatest friends and teachers was my next door neighbor, Ruth. She was in her 90’s, and she was a wonderful listener. She also had a way of gently correcting that never felt like a reprimand but still had great sticking power. On one occasion, I remember going over and saying some negative things about Clinton to her. Ruth responded by telling me that she was from a part of Indiana where the people are called “yellow dog Democrats,” meaning if a yellow dog was on the Democratic ticket, they would vote for it. She said that once she remembered saying something bad about the Republican president, and her mother immediately replied that the presidential office is worthy of our respect and support, no matter who holds it.

I haven’t always acted on the principle Ruth taught me that day, but it’s always in the back of my mind during political conversations. Abe and I read the twelfth Article of Faith to the girls (“We believe in being asubject to bkings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in cobeying, honoring, and sustaining the dlaw“) in the hopes that they learn to respect our leaders and honoring all efforts to uphold our democratic system. In order to drive the message home, we played parachute. By now, Abe and I joke that we can relate parachute to any gospel principle; this time it was, “We should uphold our leaders just like we will uphold these objects…in the air over the blanket!”

Then I ran off to Bikram with Anique. Thank goodness she drove, because I felt so sick afterward, I don’t know how I would have made it home. The room was packed, and so maybe the extra bodies drove the temperature up. Whatever it was, I did not feel good afterward and am only now starting to feel somewhat normal.

Here are the pictures from the day:

Ever since Santa brought Lydia her cat back, Puss has played and ever more central role in Lydia's life. She has full-blown conversations with him all day long, and he is her favorite thing to discuss with other people. Mary has picked onto this, and when Lydia is feeling sad, Mary has started bringing her her cat. This was after a sad event with a tower Lydia was building, and Mary was cheering her up.
Ever since Santa brought Lydia her cat back, Puss has played and ever more central role in Lydia’s life. She has full-blown conversations with him all day long, and he is her favorite thing to discuss with other people. Mary has picked up on this, and when Lydia is feeling sad, Mary has started bringing her her cat. This was after a sad event with a tower Lydia was building, and Mary was cheering her up.
Everyone is cheered.
Everyone is cheered.
I snapped this picture and then joined in. That left corner of the blanket needed some help!
I snapped this picture and then joined in. That left corner of the blanket needed some help!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today was my thirtieth birthday and it feels like kindof a big deal.  I feel like I just lost the last part of me that felt sort-of young.  I mean, when I was in my twenties, I was lumped in with college undergrads etc., but now I’m lumped in with the thirties, which I’m sure is even a cooler group, but it does feel like a change!

Lily and I each had great days today.  I had an awsome training session at work that gave me a lot of insight on how to succeed, and at home Lily was, well, accomplishing crazy amounts of stuff.

Her day started off with a two and a half hour playdate with Paige Anderson and her daughters Ada and ‘Liv.  After that Lily somehow managed to practice piano, feed the children, clean the entire house, write me an incredibly touching birthday letter, make me a happy birthday door poster, paint me another happy birthday poster and finally set Lydia up with paints so she (Lydia) could paint me a happy birthday poster.  The crazy thing is that when I arrived home, she said she was not tired because she had rested during the day…..um…….when?

But I have to say, all her efforts to make the day feel festive really changed the complexion of the day for me.  At work, most people didn’t know it was my birthday, and so not much of a deal was made (I’m still very new), but at home I felt truly celebrated and I thank my sweet wife for that.

As soon as I got home, we had dinner with my mom and Jay at the Spaghetti factory (per my request).  I love the Spaghetti factory at Trolly Square because spaghetti speaks to my inner child and yet the atmosphere is classic vintage.  It’s hard to explain.  I just love how it feels there and the food is great.  Dinner conversation was very delightful with topics ranging from Obama raising the minimum wage to 3-D printing to why Payton Manning deserves to win the Super Bowl on moral grounds (because he’s such a dog gone awsome guy).  At the very end of dinner, it was time to go, but Lydia wanted to eat more of her Spumoni ice cream.  Lily told Lydia that she could take five more bites and then it would be time to go.  Lydia quickly took four bites and then, before she could take the fifth, she froze and started gazing into space.  We all assumed she had just acquired a massive brain freeze and then after her period of gazing she finally piped up, “I feel cold, does anyone else feel cold?”  It is truly hard to recreate how funny it was when she said that, but we all got a great belly laugh.

Now it’s time for bed.  I’m eager to get to work tomorrow and start applying what I learned in training.  Pictures!!IMG_6405 IMG_6403 IMG_6402 IMG_6399 IMG_6394 IMG_6393 IMG_6391 IMG_6390 IMG_6389 IMG_6387

grace

This morning I woke up and prayed a lot for strength to make it through the day. It seemed like there was a lot to do, and I was tired and a little overwhelmed. But I really felt God answering my prayer. I got most everything done on my to-do list, and I enjoyed doing it. It feels unusual, so I feel pretty confident there was divine intervention along the way.

The morning was filled with feeding children, cleaning, homework and practicing. At one point Mary was crying because she wanted my attention, so I picked her up and talked to her. I asked her if she wanted to read (vigorous head shake no), if she wanted to play with her bugaboos (slightly less vigorous head shake no) and if she wanted to play with her blocks (a little sound that sort of kind of sounded like “yes”). Hopeful that she wanted to play with blocks, I put her down.

Sure enough, off she toddled to her blocks and proceeded to play with them until Lydia announced that she loved Mary and wanted to play with her. This announcement was greeted with a squeal–nay, scream–of excitement, and the two of them spent the next half an hour playing happily together. I wanted nothing more than to watch, but I knew that would ruin the dynamic…and I had homework to do, so I just listened delightedly. When I was done with my homework, I sneaked into their room and caught a picture of them in play.

IMG_6381Then I folded laundry until our play date. I had scheduled a visiting teaching play date with my companion and visiting teachee, but I never informed our poor visiting teachee that the play date was at my house. I wanted to spare her the descent of five small children and two adults upon her home, but since I never relayed that intention, our play date included everyone but our visiting teachee and her daughter. Oops.

But here are the pictures from the play date:

IMG_6382 IMG_6385 IMG_6383Doesn’t Mary look a lot like those twins? They are a week younger than Mary, and the three of them look like they belong together.

Then I rushed off to cooking school. While I was learning about soups and eggs, Abe took the girls to a Thai restaurant in Lehi where they met up with Karin, Jay, and Jay’s kids to celebrate Jay’s birthday. Abe tells me the girls were perfectly behaved. I felt bad because I forgot they were going to do that, and I didn’t bother to put shoes on Mary when I loaded her into the car to go to school (where Abe and I meet and pass off the girls). She walked around the restaurant in her socks.

mary at restaurant lydia at restaurant jayOh, and at cooking school, my group decided to do our presentation on fried foods. I have never truly fried anything in my life (unless you count when the oil is barely a quarter inch deep), and I’m covering tempura. I just nodded and smiled like there’s nothing more in the world that I’d love more than to research and do tempura, but inside I was dying a little bit. But I do love to eat tempura, so maybe this won’t be so terrible…

Undone by being binky-free

Today started out strong, really. I deep cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, played with my kids, read to my kids, worked on reading with Lydia…and then came nap time. Mary is learning to sleep without her binky, so today nap time was severely truncated.

In its absence, I developed a pounding headache and by the end of the day I was in bed watching this (can you believe that the audience hissed at the premier?! This concerto–in its original 2 piano version– has been the equivalent of my musical comfort food since elementary school. I just can’t imagine a sound aesthetic where this seemed musically deviant!) while Abe tried to entertain the kids on speaker phone during his commute.

I had great plans to get all of my homework done today, but that will have to wait.

Here are today’s pictures:

Grandma, Mary played with those bugaboos you gave her all day. We literally played with them for an hour straight, and that was after she spent the whole morning wearing them around her neck.
Grandma, Mary played with those bugaboos you gave her a ton today. We literally played with them for an hour straight (all I did for 60 minutes was take them apart and put them back together again and again), and that was after she spent the whole morning wearing them around her neck.
Lydia wore her tutu today.
Lydia wore her tutu today.

The rest of the pictures are from FHE tonight, wherein Abe put on another puppet show about sharing. Per my request, he also threw in a skit about staying in your seat until you’re done eating. Grandma, do you recognize some of those puppets?

IMG_6309 IMG_6311 IMG_6314 IMG_6317

Abe got great feedback at work today and great feedback on the sermon he wrote for Jon and Shirley. It’s truly beautiful. If they allow me, I’ll post it after their wedding in May.

To bed, to bed.

Fun company

The one solitary picture I took occurred during our morning play date with Misty, Sophia, and Max. We went to the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum together, and this is what Lydia and Sophia did while we checked in:

Yep. They're cute.
Yep. They’re cute.

Then we came home, ate lunch, and had naps/quiet time. I’ve been feeling sick and I knew I had five hours of class tonight, so instead of hightailing it to the piano, I crawled into bed with Beethoven’s latest biography. I have loved learning more about him, but this one thing stuck out to me: One of his guests described his apartment, and in doing so noted that there was, I kid you not, an unemptied chamber pot underneath the piano. All the chairs had food and clothes strewn all over them, and there was a mountain of dust on the piano. The author noted that Beethoven literally lived in squalor. Can you imagine? He composed his magnificent work in that!!! I should really ease up about the kitchen floor.

A lot of other tender, funny, and truly sad moments touched me today, but since it’s almost midnight, we’ll have to leave on the note of Beethoven’s unemptied chamber pot.

But I also had my first lab class tonight, and I L.O.V.E.D. it. My teacher is a former middle school English teacher who gave that up to go to cooking school and ended up at Chez Panisse. She is very funny, knowledgeable and has endearing mannerisms. We worked on dicing, stocks, and kitchen etiquette/clean-up today. I have great classmates who all seem to be team players, and it was just fun. I was worried that the late hour of the class (6 – 11 pm) would be hard, but the material was so riveting I had no problem paying attention.

Okay, one last anecdote about Alice Waters, since my teacher worked for her. She told us that when Alice Waters came to town, everyone at the restaurant would have to change routines. In Alice’s absence, they would use the fireplace as a cooling station and set up the kitchen for efficiency. When Alice Waters visited, they’d be warned in advance and set up the kitchen for her arrival by lighting a fire in the fireplace and setting out vases of fresh herbs all around the kitchen. I guess even Alice Waters can be out of touch sometimes. (She did note that the restaurant had an incredible vibe and notably egalitarian spirit; the chef world is normally very hierarchical, but nothing of that sort is tolerated in Alice’s Berkely kitchen.)

Anyway, I spent the day with my children, Misty, Sophia, Max, Beethoven and Alice Waters (and Job and Nephi).  Not bad for a Thursday.

Spur play date and outing reality check

We’ve all been getting sick for a while now, but I was in denial all morning because I wanted Lydia to be able to go to preschool. Our co-op has a rule that runny noses aren’t allowed, and you would think that’s pretty easy to understand except that I get hung up on the definition of “runny.” Finally, I admitted to myself that she really did have a runny nose, and we stayed home. Bummer.

Until! Until the phone rang. Aria called and suggested a play date, which was  perfect since her kids both had slightly runny noses too. Great! We proceeded to have an awesome play date which culminated/ended in lunch and hot chocolate. By the time we were done, Mary was waaaaay overdue for her nap (usually at 11 am, today pushed to 1:30 pm).

After naps, I loaded the girls in the car. They have not set foot outside of the house since Sunday; we were overdue for an outing. But man, oh, man, by the time we were done with our library-grocery store run, I was just about ready for self-induced house arrest for the rest of winter. Waiting in line with two screaming children in an understaffed Sprouts was…horrible. To be fair, Lydia was great 90% of the time, but all it takes is a five minute meltdown for the whole outing to feel like a total disaster. By the time I got both girls back into the car, I was ready for a meltdown myself. Also, Mary lost her binky half way through our outing and screamed for the rest of the time. I spent about five minutes searching up and down the aisles for it before giving up and heading toward the mile long check-out lines.

To make it slightly worse, the woman behind me kept making exasperated sounds while I fumbled to get my groceries loaded onto the checkout stand. I was holding one screaming baby in one hand while the other cried and hung onto my legs, and I was mentally already throwing the b-word around when I realized that the poor woman looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She was bent over in pain and looked ashy gray in the face. I should have made sure she was okay, but she didn’t seem to enjoy the time my situation had already cost her, so I figured I’d better skip the small talk. Instead, I tried to internalized the lesson: Don’t judge on appearances. A woman who might appear to be an unfeeling, heartless b– is much more likely to be a wonderful person who might be acting out of her own personal duress. I hope I have more understanding and patience the next time I run into someone like that.

Anyway, here are today’s pictures:

I set up the princess castle tent for the play date. Espen really wanted Enna to come in with him.
I set up the princess castle tent for the play date. Espen really wanted Enna to come in with him.
He wanted to give her a hug. Precious overload.
He wanted to give her a hug. Precious overload.
Mary was on the go the whole play date.
Mary was on the go the whole play date.
Lydia put this hat on Espen. His great grandparents were the first LDS converts from South Africa after the missionaries were sent in the second time, so this was actually a pretty appropriate attire.
Lydia put this hat on Espen. His great grandparents were the first LDS converts from South Africa after the missionaries were sent in the second time, so this was actually a pretty appropriate attire. Also, the girls and I spent part of the morning playing “Imagination” on that pink blanket. I’d forgotten how fun that game is! Also, Lydia handed me a pretend sea shell during dinner, thanks to our morning game.
At the library.
At the library. Lydia was up to her old hoarding tricks again.
I made stuffed pumpkins again, and I kind of love taking pictures of them. They're just...cute.
I made stuffed pumpkins again, and I kind of love taking pictures of them. They’re just…cute.

picture back log

My yoga class ended around 10pm tonight, so this is a late night post. Therefore, it will be quick. I took some pictures with my iPad today and in so doing discovered a small back log that I am going to throw up here, since this is the end of my daily report.

Mary woke up before Lydia this morning, so we hung out for an hour. We took some selfies.
Mary woke up before Lydia this morning, so we hung out for an hour. We took some selfies.
Mary threw her first angry tantrum today (no tears, just screams and kicks and wriggles) for an hour and a half. This is what happened afterward. We cuddled, unbeknownst to her...
Mary threw her first angry tantrum today (no tears, just screams and kicks and wriggles) for an hour and a half. This is what happened afterward. We cuddled, unbeknownst to her…
This is Mary happy, earlier in the day. Today she wanted my undivided attention at ALL times. It was fun, but the minute I tried to do anything except pay attention to Mary, the fun ended.
This is Mary happy, earlier in the day. Today she wanted my undivided attention at ALL times. It was fun, but the minute I tried to do anything except pay attention to Mary, the fun ended. 
Then I found this one on the iPad and couldn't believe I'd forgotten to post it. Mary LOVES climbing, and she's even gotten from where she's standing in the picture to the top of the desk. We are now super careful never to leave anything out that could give her a foot lift.
Then I found this one on the iPad and couldn’t believe I’d forgotten to post it. Mary LOVES climbing, and she’s even gotten from where she’s standing in the picture to the top of the desk. We are now super careful never to leave anything out that could give her a foot lift.
Posing.
Posing.
I know Christmas is done, but I LOVE this picture of Lydia cuddling the snowmen. And I miss that tree.
I know Christmas is done, but I LOVE this picture of Lydia cuddling the snowmen. And I miss that tree.

Abe’s first day

Today was Abe’s first day at his new job! I wish I had more to report, but I haven’t seen or spoken to him much, since I went to class tonight and ever since I’ve been home he’s been running on the treadmill. We did have a quick conversation during one of my class breaks, though, and he was ecstatic about his new work environment. It seems like such a healthy, wonderful change for him.

In the meantime, I enjoyed his new schedule, because it means I now get up before the kids. It was really nice to read and shower and brush my teeth BEFORE the kids woke up. I also like getting up when it’s still dark out. There’s something cozy about that.

This morning I cleaned the whole house while Mary, who was in a don’t-put-me-down mood, cried most of the time. I fed her a couple times, and that helped a bit.

Class was also fantastic. I finally feel like it’s what I signed up to learn, and I learned so much tonight! For example, stock is not supposed to be salted. Who knew? We learned about a ton of stuff that I’d love to write down, except I hear Abe and want to hear about his new day. So, quickly:

By the time I took this photo, I'd already showered, dressed, and brushed my teeth. (This is AM.) Sadly, I was about six hours ahead of normal.
By the time I took this photo, I’d already showered, dressed, and brushed my teeth. (This is AM.) Sadly, I was about six hours ahead of normal.
While I was cleaning, the girls stopped tantruming for a couple minutes to watch Daniel Tiger together.
While I was cleaning, the girls stopped tantruming for a couple minutes to watch Daniel Tiger together.
When Abe was watching the girls tonight, he took this picture of Mary with the potty seat around her head.
When Abe was watching the girls tonight, he took this picture of Mary with the potty seat around her head.
Here's another one Abe took tonight. That's supposed to be a smile...
Here’s another one Abe took tonight.

Okay, now I get to hear the full scoop on Abe’s day!!!

9 to 9 run-down.

Abe went to Tom and Suzanne’s house this morning to work on his work stuff, and in the meantime I: Started making tomorrow’s dinner, played piano with the girls, aided Lydia in her attempts to craft more postcards for her cat, read books to Lydia, and rocked Mary for approximately half an hour while both girls threw long, loud tantrums. Finally, I figured out Mary needed breakfast #2, and after that she went to sleep.

Then Lydia and I Skyped with Clark and Swathi until Abe came home. As soon as he came home, I hightailed it to the piano and remained there until Mary woke up from her nap. I think after that we ate again, read more books, and then I took a nap.

After that, we went to the library to pick out more books and read down some more fines. Then we stopped at Payless to buy my chef shoes (this semester is my first one with a lab class, so I didn’t need them until now). It seems like a lot of food industry people must shop at Payless because they had a TON of non-slip, food-industry friendly options all in the same place.

Then it was gas, groceries, home, dinner, clean the kitchen, read to the girls, and bedtime.

I should mention that Lydia, who had been anticipating our outing all day long, fell asleep the minute we got into the car and didn’t wake up until we returned home hours later. Even after we brought her inside, she sat on the couch in an unblinking stupor for (Abe and I timed it, sort of) 20 minutes.

lydia on couchWe thought it was funny.

Since I finished The Hobbit, I feel like maybe I can read again. But even though I checked out three fabulous options (Gladwell’s David and Goliath, a Beethoven biography, and The Fellowship of the Ring), I feel pulled to this month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living. The iPad edition has links to six different heirloom seed catalogs for vegetables alone. There are also links to flowers and other plants, but it’s the veggie links that truly pull on my heartstrings. Does this link not make you want to plant tomatoes, or does it not make you want to plant tomatoes? Tomorrow I am going to ask the bishop if I can get a plot in the church field a couple blocks from our house. Hopefully they’re not already all taken!

I should also mention that Tom did a magnificent job fixing Abe’s laptop today, and Abe has been over the moon with excitement and anticipation all day. My nightly blogging habit on his desk computer has made him miss a working laptop, and now he has one again. Hooray!

cozy

After Bikram this morning, I came home to discover this:

Abe and Lydia had spent over an hour building this together.
Abe and Lydia had spent over an hour building this together.
They were still outside, hard at work.
They were still outside, hard at work.
Lydia packed the snow by kneeling on it.
Lydia packed the snow by kneeling on it.

Abe told me that he’s done with snowmen for the season.

These are leftover from the last snow. The one on the right used to be 10 feet tall. Lydia named (all by herself) the one on the left "Snowhopper." My mom named the one on the right "Mr. Snowshine." Their time has since passed.
These are leftover remnants of snowmen from the last snow. The one on the right used to be 10 feet tall. Lydia named (all by herself) the one on the left “Snowhopper.” My mom named the one on the right “Mr. Snowshine.” Their time has since passed.

After I came home, Abe went to lunch with his friends, Morgan, Kendall, and Kade. After that he went to his dad’s house to work on his homework for his new job, and so I had the girls to myself. We played, ate, and napped.

During their naps, I read some more of The Hobbit. That book is meant to be read on a day like today:

IMG_6255While I was reading, fat snowflakes were falling outside of my window and I felt so cozy and warm inside.  It felt so wonderful to be reading about such adventures while I was snug under my blankets during an actual snowstorm. I also really like the parts of the book where the travelers get hungry–and then really enjoy getting fed. That cycle seems to happen every couple pages, and it never grows old (on me).

In fact, I was so taken with the coziness of the whole situation that I went downstairs and made soup. Then Abe came home and I spent the rest of the evening practicing. Last night I had nightmares that I had memory slips on La Campanella, and I woke up panicky and spent the next thirty minutes trying to see the score in my head. It was nice to address the shaky parts in real life.

Also, I am really nervous about my competition audition tapes. I did not realize they were an actual audition until Abe read the fine print before packing them up to mail. When I made the recordings, I just thought that the judges wanted to see how you played, and it didn’t really matter what you sent in. Those recordings a) weren’t memorized, b) were chock full of technical errors, c) seriously lacked in musicality, in part because of a. But I guess that the good news is, if I don’t make it into this competition, there are tons of other ones around the country, and I can make other recordings–hopefully, ones that I actually like. In the meantime, though, I’m biting my nails and hoping I make it into the competition.