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I am in the middle of staving off a mild panic attack, so this will be short.

We had a really wonderful dinner with a fascinating, kind, lovely family tonight. They have eight kids  (all 100% bilingual in different languages), have lived all over the world, and are terrific conversationalists.  In fact, they were so good at making us feel comfortable that I am panicking because I think I shared too much. If I didn’t have social anxiety, maybe I wouldn’t worry, but since I do, I am feeling pretty vulnerable and anxiety ridden right now.

Abe is about to give me a blessing because on top of that, school starts tomorrow and I am practically sick with worry.

To force myself out of my own worry for a moment: Abe is a gospel doctrine teacher now, and today he taught such a beautiful lesson about the annunciation to Mary and also the annunciation to Zacharias. He  helped me think about belief as a virtue, to believe God is the same throughout the ages, and to believe that miracles can happen today. That was the extremely distilled takeaway from a discussion rich with faith-promoting possibility.

On that note, here are today’s pictures:

Nothing really happened today, which is why this is a perfect place to record an anecdote from earlier this week. I can’t believe I forgot to write this down!

Mary had pooped in her undies, and I was undressing her very carefully in the bathroom. As I started to carefully remove the underwear, I muttered, “This is sooooo scary!”

Lydia was watching the whole procedure with great interest, and when she heard me say that, she responded, “But Mom, don’t worry! God is always behind you.”

I was so thrilled by her encouragement! It gave me the perspective and happiness needed to proceed with the unpleasant procedure  in more buoyant spirit. She then proceeded to tell me she would pray for me. She went to the next room, knelt down, and said a rather lengthy prayer for every member of our family. I was and am so proud of her, and I am very thankful for that sweet girl’s faith and example.

On another wavelength entirely, it feels like we are always at IKEA on weekends. The only picture I have from today comes from there.

I was determined to get some of our Saturday stuff done today so that we could have more free time tomorrow. Therefore, I rushed the girls through breakfast, piled everyone in the car and raced to the library to catch it at opening hour. We speedily selected some books in order to race back home and read for an hour. Then: Lunch time, preschool carpool, and cleaning.

When Lydia came back home, we did an hour of tutoring. Mom, thanks so much for the infusion of new materials! Lydia LOVES them, and we had so much fun with them today. Actually, I took this picture after wiping away all the tears on Lydia’s face because when she learned that this was our last work page, she cried.

Then we went out to dinner with Tom, Suzanne, David and Olivia. David flies back east tomorrow, so we all had dinner at Cafe Trang.

I want to get in as much of my book as possible before bedtime, so that’s all for today!

Today I bought a pass to the Orem Fitness Center. It was 20% off, and waaaay cheaper than our Salt Lake pass. I also discovered a new machine I had never used before: A lateral. I loved it.

Then I came home and spent the day recovering from my work-out. I kind of think that’s a clue that next time I should go a little easier. At any rate, I made lots of progress in my book, and Lydia played right next to me most of the time. She played more imagination today than she has in a long time, so perhaps being a checked-out mom isn’t all bad.

On the other hand, by the time I finally did get around to active parenting (post dinner–so sad!), Lydia was so tired that I lost patience with her really quickly. We were working on some preschool workbooks, and by the end we were both a wreck.

So after a phone call with my family, I resolved to start over and try harder. I went to Lydia, who by then was a bawling, incoherent, hysterical mess, and asked her to forgive me for being so impatient earlier. We sat down and did better! Initially I resolved to do nothing but affirm her in session #2, but since  I am a compulsive correcter, I couldn’t manage that. What I did manage was correcting more patiently, and Lydia responded beautifully.

Seriously, events like today’s lead me to believe I  am the source of my three year old’s behavior problems. If I could be more patient and kind ALL the time, then maybe she would never throw tantrums. Maybe her tantrums are just my negative energy thrown back at me.  I don’t know, but I definitely know that when I am more patient and kind, it helps a lot.

Pivoting: Our neighbors, Lauri and Summer, came over and visited for an hour this evening. Summer is going to babysit the girls next week while I’m at school, so after I gave Summer a run-down on our routines, we all just sat around and visited. I love our neighbors and neighborhood.

The only picture I managed to take today happened this morning. I thought it came out okay. Mary was chowing down on a lemon, and I ran for my camera…but by the time I got it, she had moved on. The picture still came out, though!

We had a play date this morning with our neighbors, and I let Lydia and Mary paint for the first time in forever. Usually they paint with Abe, but since we had a friend over and Lydia really wanted to paint with her new friend, I let her.

One hour of clean up later…but it was worth it. Also, Brittany (my neighbor) has a book club! They are reading The Professor and the Madman this month, and I am very excited.

Speaking of reading, I ditched the book I’ve been reading for the past two days (the one about the Silk Road). It had too much pseudo-poetic observation and not enough substantial history, so I figured it was better to cut my losses and start over. I’m so glad I did! I started reading Bill Bryson’s At Home, and I could not be more delighted. He discovers that the whole history of the world manifests itself in our houses, and he documents that history in funny, intelligent, and often ironic detail. I love it. That’s how I’ll spend every spare second for the next couple days.

Here are some pictures from the not-spare seconds:

 

Lydia had her new dance class today–with Olivia! I was happy to discover the Orem Fitness Center, where her dance class is held. For the past three weeks I have been working out on our treadmill, but when I run I usually end up injured, so it was nice to discover such a convenient alternative.

After lunch, tutoring, and naps, the girls begged to go outside. Even though I didn’t know if I had the energy  to put on their boots, I acquiesced. The cold air was very invigorating, and I ended up getting to know my neighbor, Brittany, a little better. We scheduled a play date for tomorrow.

Bad news on the potty training front: Mary had a very unfortunate #2 accident in her pull-ups during her nap. I find that discouraging.

Good news on the potty training front: After her accident, Mary wanted to wear undies, and she’s kept them dry ever since! She’s gone to the potty at least three times since her nap. She also kept her pull-ups dry right up until her nap. I find that encouraging.

 

I have a mountain of laundry on my bed standing betwixt me and my bedtime, so I’ll make this quick! Today was a terrific day. I deep cleaned the house, cooked dinner, chauffeured, read the kids a ton of books, remembered to take pictures, read some of my new books, and did a whole bunch of laundry. Why can’t every day be like today? Oh, that’s right. Life. Life gets between me and rockstardom!

But here are pictures from a day where pretty much everything went right.

 

 

Again, reporting from death’s door. I have no idea why I am so tired…chronic fatigue syndrome? Abe feels the same way. Maybe it’s contagious.

Anyway, we have a new 1 pm church schedule, so in the morning I prepared dinner. I made this. By the time dinner came around, I was so sick of smelling it that I took a couple bites and felt completely grossed out. I kept eating to avoid waste, but yuck. Abe thought it was great, which is good because it means his lunches this week are totally taken care of. Here’s what it looked like:

Thankfully, I took one bite of the broth and realized the girls wouldn’t eat it. So I made them different plates with the instant ramen. I envied their plates all through dinner.

Today Mary had a series of potty successes…and failures. I am so thankful for Abe, who changed all three of her pooped-in undies. I asked him to describe his procedure to me in detail because I am so scared to do that. I don’t know why it’s so intimidating, but I feel daunted. Anyway, after all that, I decided that tomorrow  she will just wear pull-ups…at least until Abe gets home.

And here’s one Abe took this morning before church. Lydia has discovered infant shoes are just the right size for her stuffed animals!

Also, a Mary anecdote. We let Mary go play in her room while the rest of us finished dinner, and about five minutes later we heard a blood curdling scream come from upstairs. As Mary tries to actively commit suicide at least three times today (at church today she flung herself off the stage onto the gym floor), I was sure she had broken a bone or worse.

Abe raced upstairs to discover Mary crying uncontrollably in front of the book Grandma sent Lydia for her second birthday, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. When Abe asked Mary what was wrong, Mary sobbed out, “It’s a scawy book!” Apparently, she had opened the book and found the pictures so terrifying that screaming and crying ensued. Abe switched out the book for a “less scary” one, and Mary immediately calmed down and smiled contentedly.

I personally love that book, but we thought it was so funny that Mary had that reaction. One day maybe she’ll read this and smile at herself. I hope so.

I felt like I was walking in molasses all day. It was one of those days where nothing went wrong, but every task felt daunting because I was so dang tired.  After we got the girls in bed, I realized I didn’t have any pictures for today’s blog and I panicked.

So I went around the house and took random pictures of things I could talk about. Here they are.