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.
We kept Lydia and Mary home for all of church except Sacrament since Lydia was still sick. After church, we came home and napped (and joked about how much our family naps–except Lydia, of course).
I took these after Abe and I got up. We took Lydia outside because it was a beautiful day.
Drawing in the dirt.Lydia spontaneously lay down and soaked up the sun.
Checking out deer poop in our yard.Driving Daddy in the car.Checking out how the sun roof works.
Then we woke Mary up so we could go to dinner at the Andersons’. Paige made the most delicious meal I have eaten in so. so. so. long. I am still thinking about it. And we enjoyed meeting their friends, Shad and Jenna. Shad told us all about the new fantasy novel he’s writing, and we are excited to read it when it gets published. We had a ton of fun–it made our whole Sunday feel happy.
Then we came home and might try to catch the closing ceremony of the Olympics before going to bed. Abe asked me if I felt rested (after our many naps) and ready for the week. The fact that I don’t want the week to start made him exclaim that I must be slowly dying if I’m not recovered after the excessive amount of rest this weekend offered. The more likely story is that I’m a wimp who’s behind in homework, housework, and piano practice, and I don’t want the consequences of my procrastination to catch up to me this week.
Abe, on the other hand, feels great and ready to work. He gets significantly less sleep than I do, so I don’t understand. But I love his new job for making him so happy, and I’m glad that at least one of us doesn’t dread Monday!
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.
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…
Days like this make me wonder why every day can’t just be like today. Why can’t they? I can’t figure it out, but I’m really glad when days like this happen.
This morning Lydia crawled into bed with me and wanted the iPad. I trade the iPad for practice time reciting scriptures, and today I actually recorded her reciting her scripture.
Then we went to a Valentine’s day party at preschool:
Lydia spent the rest of the day going through the valentines from her friends over and over. She had so much fun.
Then I took the kids to Gateway for Dairy Queen Blizzards and some pizza:
Again, this part of the day made us all unreasonably happy.
Then I gathered my courage and took both girls to the movie, Frozen.
This was their first movie, and they loved it. Well, Mary spent most of the movie climbing up and down the stairs and running around the theater while I chased her. Thankfully, there was only one other family in the theater, and they had small kids too. At one point, Mary ran right under the huge screen just as a big boom from the movie rang out. She let out a delighted yelp and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her straight back to me. She’s my little thrill seeker.
Then we came home and took naps. They napped so long that I didn’t have the heart to wake them in time for me to get to class, so I just read all of the class slides and did a bunch of homework instead.
The only low point was when I lost my temper at Lydia after dinner because she was screaming for cake. But that really was the only low point for Lydia and me, and the rest of the day was just a delightful series of fun events. I guess if this happened every day, I wouldn’t appreciate these good times the same way…but really, it would be so nice.
On top of it all, Abe got moved up into a track that positions him for the next round of promotions today, so honestly, every one of us had a great day.
Now it’s time for baths and bed. I think I even have time to read my book tonight. Yay!
Here are some more pictures from the day (mainly for Mom and Grandma!):
Talking with Nana and Grandma Cullen.Lydia wanted them to see her cat’s pink smile.She spent a lot of time trying to get them to see her cat.Here’s her cat’s “pink” smile. He needs a bath…I did Mary’s hair while we were on the phone. Clearly, I need to focus more when I’m attempting pigtails.After naps. Trying to figure out the iPadBecause I don’t understand the “less is more” principle when it comes to pictures of my kids.
I am totally exhausted but Abe, who has been working like crazy all day, is downstairs feeding Mary (again) so I can blog and go to bed. I love him.
I almost missed yoga this morning but thankfully woke up at 5:40 and made it into class by 6. Cynthia met me there, and I was relieved that I didn’t sleep through it, since I forgot to set my alarm last night.
After yoga, I showered at the studio and headed straight to school. I started the day practicing knife cuts, but I had to make up the eggs class I missed Thursday…so for the next three hours I did nothing but attempt to make French omelets and flip eggs. For the record, I make eggs all the time at home, but they are in a nonstick pan, and I flip them with a spatula. Also, I make Western omelets (that are brown and folded vs. yellow and rolled).
In the two hours I practiced, I never once flipped an egg successfully. I had eggs land on the floor, on the range, on the counter, and the ones that landed in the pan either turned funny or got their yolks broken by the fall. It was nothing short of disastrous. I am pretty sure the chef thought I was mentally challenged. The fact that I battle terrific shyness, self-consciousness, and a constant terror that I am incapable of performing the task at hand is no help. I just try to smile and say as little as possible, because when I try to talk, I either stutter or say something monumentally stupid. What’s worse is everyone there is incredibly friendly, and I would love to be friends with all of them if I could work up the courage and wit to talk coherently.
At any rate, here is something I plated (under explicit instruction) at the end of the day:
I came home and laughed and cried a little about the experience with Abe, who was so reassuring. It’s nice to have someone to come home to who is familiar with your weaknesses and can still say positive, loving things. Again, I love my husband.
Then I lay in bed until it was time to go to the Alvarez party for Leah. Carolina, Nefi, and Leah live in Bountiful, so we drove there and spent the evening with them. One of the best parts was that my favorite young women’s leader of all time, Camey Hadlock (Elder Anderson’s daughter), showed up! We chatted the whole party. She is one of my life-long inspirations. She has four kids and is about to start a doctorate program in education and technology, and in anticipation of starting the program, she has published an article in the main journal of her new field. She’s also written much of the new church instructional material for Come Follow Me. She’s just an amazing person who has stayed in touch with the young women she’s taught all over the country, and I admire her so much. Here’s a picture of her posing with Carolina and me. She looks the youngest of all of us (even though she has a teenage daughter while Carolina and I have babies).
Here are some more from the party:
Lydia was waking up from her car ride, and Leah was so cute and wanted to play.
Mary, Lydia AND Abe all wanted pictures taken with the Bubble Guppies:
