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After a morning cooking and cleaning, at 1pm we were finally ready for Mary’s Very Hungry Caterpillar party.

…Here’s one of my secrets, though. I, um, actually find most parties and large gatherings to be mildy to moderately uncomfortable. Most of the time, in groups of five or more you will notice me over there in the corner blushing, perspiring, and struggling to work up the courage to do simple things (like talk).

But I love to throw parties. Mainly, I love menu planning and cooking for big crowds, but if I let myself get really carried away, I could have a lot of fun in the decoration department, too. Today’s decorations didn’t blow anybody away; I just ordered some Eric Carle cardboard  cut-outs, and I taped them to the wall. In lighting where the tape showed, it looked like my house was covered in band-aids.

But I digress. Abe tells me today’s party was a success, even if I couldn’t tell because I was so busy trying to stop sweating and blushing for no reason at all.

I did, however, register that Mary had a great time, which was the hoped-for point of everything. She was so excited, in fact, that when we piled in the car after the party to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey, she didn’t even fall asleep for the first thirty minutes. (Lydia was asleep as soon as we turned the keys in the car.) She just sat in her car seat, smiling, giggling, and emitting general sounds of contentment.

After the turkey pick-up–and drop-off to Abe’s mom’s office freezer–, we hightailed it to our ward Trunk or Treat. A trunk or treat is when everyone sits at their car trunks in the church parking lot and hands out candy to the kids who “trunk or treat” from car to car. It’s actually lots of fun, and a crazy idea in terms of sugar intake for children, especially if the children (like mine) also have another Halloween party AND Halloween itself all in the same week. Yikes!

I cooked too much for the birthday party, so we gave away a lot of food afterwards to some friends and family members who are currently indisposed. You would think that would be the end of the leftovers, but guess what? After that, I still had an ENTIRE apple slab pie (feeds 18) and almost an entire batch of candy cookies left.

Thankfully, my ward did a service activity to the Road Home a while back and so I knew the perfect solution. As Abe, the kids and I drove there to give away our pie and cookies, Abe and I talked about what it must be like to have to recover from a drug addiction, as the women who live at the Road Home must. Abe pointed out that it must be like trying to deny your strongest food craving multiplied a hundred times. When I thought about it like that, I was in total shock that anyone could ever recover ever. What heroines those women are.

On our drive home, Lydia was really sweet to Mary and called her a “sweet widdle baby,” asking her politely to not cry please because we would be home soon.

Then we had a post candy-coma dinner (of sorts), bath time, bedtime, piano time, blog time and oops-I-forgot-to-shower-this-morning-so-guess-I’ll-do-that-now time for me.

I saved the photo dump for the very end, since there are a bajillion trillion, and probably nobody but geriatric future me wants to look at all of those.

It’s past 2am, so:

Today we had a great play date with Misty, Sophia and Max.

Then I menu planned and cleaned while the girls napped.

Then I shopped for food and party stuff.

Then I came home and cooked and cleaned until now. I don’t have a pastry blender and would have killed for one about twenty minutes ago, when I was frantically two-forking the butter into the flour for the slab pie. Turns out slab pies have more crust, so the darn recipe wouldn’t fit inside my food processor like a good normal pie crust. Hence the two forks and my current incoherent state.

But I am excited for Mary’s birthday party, and I am also excited that from here on out our non-family birthday parties will be MUCH smaller. Marilyn taught me this before Lydia’s 2nd birthday (she had 7 kids): Kids get as many guests as their age. So Lydia got 2 for her 2nd birthday and so on. The only exception for us is birthday number one, which seems to be trending in as a larger affair. Full report tomorrow–which, coincidentally, is also our ward’s trunk-or-treat (and the day I pick up our turkey from a local turkey source). What a big day!!!!! I better get a full five hours sleep so I can wake up and do all the stuff I didn’t do tonight!

I signed up for culinary school this morning. I am so excited! I have dreamed about this for years, and I can’t believe it’s actually happening.

At first I was worried about childcare, but then we realized that if I took two night classes a week, I wouldn’t have to worry about that at all. I can just drop the girls off at Abe’s office at 5:30pm, and his office just happens to be exactly on the way to school. So, um, no drawbacks. I am going!!!!!!

Classes start November 7, and orientation is November 6.

Abe is out of town tonight, so he took the morning to accompany me to the office to sign up for classes. I am allergic to numbers and anything related to finance, so his presence was greatly appreciated. Sorry, we fall into traditional gender stereotypes in that area (as in so many others), but I fervently hope my girls will overlook my bad example and take after their grandmas, among whom are notable math whizzes. For–one shining–example, Abe’s mom owns a tax practice and is amazing with numbers.

After our long morning, we came home and had a typical afternoon filled with meals, snacks, naps, reading, and playing pretend. Well, it was mostly Lydia running around playing pretend, but I did finally join her for a little bit before informing the girls they had to get ready to go visiting teaching with me. I then loaded them in the jogger and walked to my favorite (I can say that, right?! None of my teachees reads my blog!!) visiting teachee.

Marilyn gave the girls Halloween bags of goldfish for the walk home, and they finished their snacks in the dark before I finally cajoled Lydia into coming inside.

After that it was baths, reading, and bedtime. Then I came downstairs and ate too much (as usual), scrubbed down the kitchen, took out the trash, picked up some, and now am blogging. Right now there’s a pile of clean laundry as tall as I am next to the bed waiting to be folded…on the other hand, there is, right next to that, a book by my favorite essayist, Adam Gopnik, also waiting to be read. I wonder which one will win out?

Did you even see how dusty that table was?? Probably the book.

I kicked it up into high gear this evening because awesome Abe took the kids to a restaurant for dinner (our Groupon expires Saturday), and he gave me the whole evening to: practice piano, clean the house, listen to conference talks and go do Bikram yoga. Right now I am sweaty and undoing all of that hard work by gorging on the lamb Abe brought back from the restaurant. It is SO good. Yum.

Lydia got her second–and third and fourth and fifth–kiss from a boy today! (My mission companion’s son, Markus, gave her her first a year ago.) This time Nathan at preschool leaned over, gently held Lydia’s head, and kissed her approximately four times on the cheek. It was so cute. No pictures, though. I retired my camera after almost crippling little Hannah in an attempt to take a photo earlier of Sarah’s lesson.

Lydia was so good at preschool that I offered to take her to the library on our way home, even though Mary was conked out and slept through the entire unbuckling-buckling process.

When we got home, the girls were on different nap schedules, so after feeding them both separate lunches, I bought myself time for reading scriptures and my novel–and then napping–by letting Lydia bond with Dora the Explorer. After Mary and I woke up, I fed them both again and took them outside to read books until Abe came home. He changed and joined us on the lawn.

After that, Abe, like the knight in shining armor he is, proceeded to take the girls for the rest of the evening. He is traveling tomorrow, so the next time the girls will see him after tomorrow morning is Friday. At least that’s my justification for letting them all go off together so I could do my thing(s).

Tomorrow I sign up at the Art Institute for culinary school!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!! (I’m going part time–details more forthcoming tomorrow, when it is final and more pertinent.)

I took too many pictures today. But you know what? When I’m old and can’t move around much, I’ll tell you what I’ll be doing in my abundant free time (assuming I can see). I’ll be reading this blog and remembering the good life God gave me. Also, my favorite part of reviewing my blog is looking at the pictures. Sometimes, when I’m long winded (this paragraph is already looking slightly fat to me), I just skip reading what I’ve written and go straight to the pictures.

So I’ll make it easy on my future geriatric self and skip straight to the pictures today.

..Aaaaaannd I found out at the library that the book I just started today (The Lonely Polygamist), is due in a matter of days. I love it so far, and so here’s me finishing this blog entry so I can hurry up and get to my book.

Today Abe had to pass the sacrament at the hospital, so I had to get the girls fed, dressed, and ready for church by myself. We arrived approximately forty-five minutes late. Good things Mormons have three hours of church every Sunday! That means that even though I missed my favorite teacher for Relief Society, I still got all of Sunday School AND Sacrament meeting in.

Sunday School was all about what it means to minister to the poor. Whenever these lessons are taught, someone inevitably points out that there are many ways to be “poor,” and that our call to minister to the poor is broader than simply doling out money. I agree, sort of. But I agree more with this: at the end of the day, there are people in the world whose problems could be resolved by money. We, middle class citizens of a first world country, should be giving them ours. That simple.

[pause in blogging] Abe just came down and talked to me for a while about the lesson he’s teaching next Sunday. The topic he was assigned is “talking to our children with gentleness and mildness.” He was really excited because in the Book of Mormon, when the people are trying to kill two prophets, God surrounds the prophets with fire and then proceeds to chasten the people in a voice of perfect mildness and gentleness. The point here: Even when we do crazy awful things like try to kill a prophet, God speaks gently and mildly to us; therefore, we should always speak gently and mildly to our children–no matter what.

I pointed out that if we could surround our children with a pillar of fire anytime they were doing something heinous, we wouldn’t need to yell either. We could just whisper directions all day long, and our children would be perfectly behaved. Poor Abe left scratching his head. Sometimes I wonder what God is going to do with me.

So back to the day. After church, we ate lunch, I got a blessing from Abe (about culinary school–I am going!!!!!!), we took naps, and we played in the living room for an hour before Skyping with one set of Abe’s grandparents. I played the piano for them, and that felt like the perfect channel for all the practicing I’ve gotten in lately.

After Skyping, we went to the Miners’ house for dinner and family birthday celebrations.

They were doing September and October birthdays, so Mary (Sept 27th!) got a cake and presents. She was pretty cute.

Then we came home and I played the piano for another hour while Abe kindly bathed the girls.

After that, I wasted time online and picked up the messy house. Abe just came down to check to see if I’m done blogging yet, and so–

Yes. I’m done!

Saturday is best done in pictures, so here goes:

After lunch, I was in a carb coma and lay unmoving on the bed for a while. When I came to, I dictated a children’s book I’ve been thinking about into Abe’s phone. I’m so excited about it! The main character is a dog who lives in my old Chicago neighborhood, and her owner is a lovely Muslim lady named Fatima (I think). I just want to make a small contribution to the misunderstanding going on the world at present, and so I thought that helping to normalize the “other”–even in a simple way–might help.

After we recovered from our comas, I played a little piano concert for my beloved mom and grandma over the phone (Skype wasn’t working), and then Abe and I took the girls on a run around the canyon. His only goal for the day was to do the run, and by the time I got my act together, we were staring down the prospect of running in the dark. Thankfully, that motivated us to move fast [a totally relative, nay–hyperbolic– term] enough to make it home before it was pitch black out.

After dinner, I abandoned Abe and went on the grocery shopping rounds I neglected to make this morning. While I was gone, he bathed the girls and put them to bed.

After I came home, I cleaned our dee-sgusting kitchen and started making Mary’s birthday cake for her celebration at the Miners’ (Suzanne’s parents’) house tomorrow. Abe helped pick up the house, and I think he is currently passed out on the bed right now. Let me end this now and get my stinky self in the shower so that I can go to bed soon.

Last night Lydia had an accident at 1am, so I cleaned her up and brought her into bed with me. As delightful it was to sleep next to such a sweet little heater, sleep was lighter from there on out.

Lydia made up for my light sleep by sitting in front of Dora the Explorer and Harry the Bunny for two hours (eep!) while I studied my scriptures, ran on the treadmill, and showered. (Mary, thank the stars, naps all morning with the exception of breakfast.)

After Mary woke up from her nap, I fed the girls lunch and hauled them to the Discovery Museum for an hour. Lydia didn’t want to leave, and I did not feel up to carrying her kicking and screaming in one arm while holding Mary in the other…so I bribed her to leave with cookies. I felt like a bad mom, especially because the minute Mary saw the cookies she practically foamed at the mouth until I gave her some. I am SO worried about her sugar addiction, and I feel really bad every time I find myself giving her sugar. It shouldn’t be that hard to just not give her any, right?!

We came home and the girls passed out long enough for me to embroider and hem some fabric for a baby skirt. Our friend, Aria, just had a baby, and I have been meaning to get this skirt made for months. Now the baby’s been here for practically two weeks, and I am just now getting around to the project.

When the girls woke up from their naps, we went on an “outing” to the garbage to throw away the many poopy diapers Mary produced today, and then the girls had dinner.

After dinner, Lydia insisted that she wanted to read to Mary and play with Mary…without me.  A host of emotions ensued. First off, I completely understand why playing without me is, as Lydia said, more fun. I always point out the ways various activities she’s engaged in can end in her demise. One particularly embarrassing example of this occurred last week. The back door was open and I was scolding Lydia loudly for hanging onto the book shelf. I described to her in graphic, gory detail what it would feel like if the shelf fell on her and she died and or got maimed and or got dismembered. Our sweet, angelic, seventy-three year old landlord happened to pass by the open door during my diatribe, and he was clearly shocked. I was embarrassed, but not embarrassed enough to change my ways. So no wonder Lydia doesn’t want to play with me!

It still hurts, though.

On the other hand, the fact that she successfully entertained Mary without my supervision translated into more free time for me, so being kicked out of their play time wasn’t exactly terrible. I got an hour of piano practice in.

What am I practicing for? I have no idea. I said in a recent blog I play for myself and my family, and that’s true. But I also realize that having a goal might help focus my practice, so I am considering entering some amateur competitions. You have to be 35 for the Van Cliburn, so I have four and a half years to get myself in shape.

Abe got home from his trip at 8pm, and I immediately ran to the piano for another hour of practice. And now it’s blogging time, and soon–sleepy time. Hooray! We made it to the weekend! In fact, since my house always gets trashed on the weekend, I am not picking up tonight as a nod to that sad reality.

When Kristin was here with her girls two (?) weeks ago, we talked some about happiness. She told me that happiness is like pearls on a string; the pearls are moments of joy linked together by the string of normal (less joyful) life. I like that.

I’ll tell you what my string is: Mealtime. I keep hoping I’ll become a more patient person so that feeding my children does not make me want to weep with frustration, but right now I’m not there. Tonight Mary screamed from the moment I put her into her high chair until I gave her a bottle after her bath (one hour later). She provided a similar soundtrack for her three other meals as well.

BUT. But. That is actually the only string I can think of today. The rest of the day felt like a concentrated series of pearls. E.g., we went to the library and read books on the crunchy leaves outside. (Actually, just one book by my favorite children’s author, Jan Brett. Doesn’t her art just transport you? And the text is pretty darn good, too!)

We spent hours playing on the floor and reading books at home, and I even got over an hour of piano practice in–with Abe out of town! A minor miracle. I’m learning the Chopin nocturne I listened to while giving birth to Lydia, and whenever I hear it I feel overcome with love and emotion. After Mary’s fourth meal, I NEEDED that music in my life.

I also took the girls to the playground. It was chilly and they both have runny noses, but I figured it was sunny out, and we needed sun.

Today was also the first day in a while where Lydia’s iPad usage was under five minutes long. That, for me, is a record. I just decided to see what would happen if I studied my scriptures and tried to take a nap without sticking an iPad in front of Lydia, and guess what? It wasn’t the end of the world. Granted, my study and nap were frequently interrupted because Lydia parked herself and her toys right next to me on the bed, but I loved the interruptions because they frequently ended in cuddles. More pearls!

Speaking of pearls…: