SABBATH
Today the talks in Sacrament meeting were about keeping the Sabbath day holy and it hit me that satan wants me to think that we are not doing a good job on Sundays. I have spent the last couple of months (who am I kidding? might be a whole year or so) nagging the kids and getting frustrated with them on Sundays for not doing all the things I think they should be doing. It's been a real strain on our weekends to have this added stress of me making sure that this is a holy day and in the process, I think I've been the problem! I think they have needed reminding and there is a lot of room for improvement, but we do really well! I'm actually really proud of us when I think about it realistically and especially after Bro. Moore's talk today. I need to lay off. I did better today and I think that I was better at doing things WITH the kids today because I wasn't irritated at them, which was good. So this was a great learning experience for me. 4-15-18
MOTIVATION
I had so much motivation and energy on Monday! It was amazing! I got so much done. Including all of the boys' SEVEN LOADS OF LAUNDRY done! And all but the last two folded. It's embarrassing that they had so much, but it isn't because I haven't nagged them to bring their clothes up so that I can wash them. But it was a really good day! Molly and I made cup towers, read books, watched SOME TV, but not a lot. She was being so happy and so fun to be around. It was so nice. I really don't know what's gotten into her lately, but she has been so fun and cheerful for the last four or five days. It's been heavenly. She was cooperating and letting me get work done after we played and took things to kids at school. She got in the car without complaining and was pleasant in the car. Charity and I were on our last day of the 15 day challenge and I hadn't had the stuff we needed for her lunch so I just picked her up at lunch and we went and got Chik-fil-a salads. They were delicious. It was fun to be with Charity. Just a really great day! I couldn't have been more happy with how it went. 4-16-18
15 DAY CHALLENGE
So we did it!! Charity and I finished the 15 days! We did a highly modified version of it, but it was still REALLY HARD! Just ask Charity :). But seriously, I gotta hand it to Charity- she did AWESOME! And I was so glad she stuck with it! Even though I kept telling her we should quit and do something easier. Pretty awesome. I can't say I had amazing results (because I didn't!), but I think it was a good experience and nice to do something with Charity. 4-17-18
MEG JOHNSON
We had the most amazing RS night tonight! This woman who is paralyzed from her chest down (C7- so feeling and movement in arms, but not really in her hands) came and spoke to us. She was such a refreshing, fun, FUNNY, and uplifting speaker! I LOVED it! First of all, she was hilarious. I loved her candid nature and how relaxed she seemed. Second of all, her story was so incredibly inspiring. Who better to teach and talk about overcoming trials and letting our trials "sharpen us". And that our trials are part of who we are and what makes us. I loved how she talked about service being the way to overcome hard times. I need to hear that! I thought her use of the scripture about how "if you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me"--- she pointed out that when we are serving and we find someone to serve, we have found Christ and we are serving him and that when we let someone serve us, we are becoming Christ-like being the one who is being served is representing him. SO COOL!! She had some cute stories about things she's been through and really just gave such a great feeling about how those things were part of Heavenly Father's plan for us. That we KNEW what we were going to have to go through here. That she even knew. Which is just so awesome. Then she challenged everyone to pray tonight to know what tool we are. Which tool did he intend for us to be. I am going to do that. I also loved how she said that she asked Heavenly Father what he intended for her to do, not because she wanted to know His whole plan, but because she wanted to be even better to help him out and serve her purpose. Very cool. I loved how she talked about how when we are not happy it is our own fault and it's like a battle between us and ourselves. Kinda cool. It was just such a neat night! I was so glad that most of us were there. Kelly and I got to sit and be served dinner by the young men (Nate, Brad and Luke in their nice sunday clothes served everyone!). It was neat. The only thing I didn't like was stressing about how things were going at home with Noah in charge. I never would have left a 10 year old in charge of three other people including a two year old Molly for two hours before!! SO crazy! Luckily all was well. I knew it would be, I just stressed about it. And I loved that Luke pointed out how funny that lady was :). She really was hilarious. Just a really awesome person! So grateful that she shares her skills with us. 4-17-18
NOTHING
Wednesday evening had me in kind of a trance. It was the weirdest thing to have everyone home from mutual (they had counted the night before as their activities), and not really have anywhere else to be (until my 8:30-11:06 Presidency meeting) all evening long! It was heavenly!! I really can't even describe the joy I felt as we all sat there and watched the Jazz game! It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! And so relaxing. Which I couldn't help but wonder if Wednesday was a little bit of a tender mercy from Heavenly Father to carry me through Thursday! I was totally geared up for it already. But anyway- such a nice little blessing. 4-18-18
STRESS
This is a pretty cool happening that I'm actually not sure I'm allowed to post about- so I guess I'll ask for forgiveness and remove it later if it's not okay. So Dave Noriega who has a show on KSL now- I think he took Doug Wright's spot, so cool!, called Nate to talk about a recording he had heard between a pilot who's plane had exploded and left them with a big hole in the side that a person had been sucked out of, and a controller trying to get them a safe place to land. He was so impressed with their ability to stay so calm and the way they responded to the stress that he wanted more information about how controllers are trained to handle those types of situations in such a way. Nate didn't feel right about an official interview and found out from the FAA that he's technically not allowed to and could probably get in a lot of trouble, so turned him down. But found a way around the rules and just told Dave all about his training. It was a long conversation while we walked through Costco and I think Nate felt pretty cool about it then, but it was even a MILLION times cooler to then listen to his show not even an hour later where Dave repeated everything he had learned from his "research". I just LOVED the way that he praised controllers!! It is about time they get some good representation. Nate smiled through most of it and loved the way Dave put it all, I don't think he could have been happier, well, maybe without the "supervisor with the heart attack" and actually the credit Dave gave the supervisors, but we decided that would work as Nate's cover. Nobody would ever believe he was the one giving the information if there was something positive about supervisors :). Sounds harsh, but really. They're not the ones to thank. Ever. So anyway. Very cool experience for Nate and a well-deserving compliment to Air Traffic Controllers. They really do have more stress in one day than some will encounter in an entire year. It's cool and I'm so proud of Nate and that I get to claim him. I do wish he'd given me some of the credit for his development of stress management. I mean really! Being at home is like the simulators when you're married to someone like me :). I am still laughing about how they compared some of the everyday stress they face or like radio stress to Air Traffic Control stress- or even just talking about it in the same show- because I don't think they were really comparing it- it was just super funny. I don't think anyone really gets how important ATCs are and what they really carry all day. Anyway. I'm done. I love Nate :). 4-19-18
FIRST TRACK MEET- BRAD
Well, we're all glad to have gotten the first track meet over with :). I cannot express how frustrating this one was. Mostly because I shouldn't :). But I've learned that all the new things my kids do get better with experience. They are all unknown the first time, but then after that- you kind of know a little more what's going on and what to expect. So luckily, I went into this one with the attitude that I was "looking forward to the next one and knowing what is going on". Nothing could have prepared me for how chaotic and confusing this track meet was going to be. Well, on second thought- it would have been nice if they'd even ATTEMPTED to prepare me for it! We have received almost NO information about track at all! It's been really frustrating dragging information out of Brad (the little that he's been given) or the coaches (thanks to Emily). I just wish they would be a little more forthcoming! Is it so hard to shoot out an email to all the parents?? Why did you ask me for my address if you weren't going to use it?? Okay. Sorry, I'm done. Now I've said too much. Brad was super nervous for this meet as well, and wasn't fully prepared, so things went a little haywire. He thought he was supposed to do shot put first, so he was over in that area waiting to hear his name. Then while he was waiting they announced one of his other events- the hurdles 100 m and he ran over to get in on it and couldn't figure out where to go or who to talk to, to get his name on before they ran the last race. He completely missed it!! It was so sad!! I had to talk him down- he got pretty emotional. I would too with those kinds of nerves and anxiousness. So we went back to the shot put and then worried about where he was supposed to go for his third event the relay 400m. It was stressy!! To say the least! He did get to participate in the shot put before I had to leave to take Kelly to her game. He did a great job on his first attempt, got 21.9. He wasn't thrilled with that score, but I was just so proud of him for even being there and branching out and doing something that was probably really uncomfortable at the moment. I've actually been so impressed with his dedication to track. He's been to every single practice and pushed himself through them all. It's been fun to hear about and witness. I'm really proud of all of his effort and his bravery in trying out for several events, knowing that he is a 7th grader and may not get to participate a whole lot. But seriously, I'm so proud of him. I was sad when I had to leave, but it was probably a nice little stress release for him to have me out of there and complaining. Actually, I hope he didn't sense my frustration, I really tried to keep it to myself. And a text to Emily :). So anyway. He did get a couple more tries on the shot put and eventually got to run his relay, which I'm glad Nate was there for. I am hoping to be able to be more available for his other meets. This was our practice run we decided :). We know what to expect now :). 4-19-18
HAMILTON- CHARITY
So this is a funny story- Marjorie Moore had a cool thing at her work where they were letting kids enter essays to enter a drawing to win tickets to see Hamilton. She had kind of nagged Charity more than she was comfortable with, so to please Marjorie, Charity quickly wrote up an essay and sent it in, not thinking much of the contest since she really had no idea what Hamilton even was. Well, of course she won the drawing for the tickets to see it with an elected official! I think I laughed really hard when she told me she won. I had to look up the price of the tickets just out of curiosity and learned that her tickets could have been worth more than $500!! This was big!! And even the Bishop was super excited for her to be able to go and see it. Which made her even more distraught. She was seriously SO DISAPPOINTED and so frustrated that she now had to go. Made me laugh. She tried so hard to think of a way out of it, but being the honest girl that she tries to be, she couldn't think of anything except that she wouldn't have a ride there since I would be running around doing everyone else's stuff that day. I allowed her to use that excuse even though I would have found a way to drive her. Well, turned out that Marjorie had to go as well and would be more than happy to drive her :). HA!! Her plan failed. I started to tell her to just tell Marjorie that she didn't want to go and just be honest about it and then realized that I didn't want her to get out of it! I wanted her to stick it out and experience this cool new thing! No matter how against it she was. I am trying to teach her to branch out a little and explore the world a little. She was SO not happy with me. She cried about it several times by the time Thursday came. And when it came time to go, she was really laying it on thick. But I stayed strong and didn't give in. I was hoping against all odds that she would end up liking it. I was leaving right as Marjorie was pulling up and couldn't help but feel like I was feeding them to the wolves (both Charity- in forcing her to go, and Marjorie- in letting her take someone who didn't have any interest and even detested the idea of going). But I was in a hurry so I just tried to forget about it. She went and much to my surprise and even making my day- I got the text from her at about 7:30 pm saying, "This is actually kind of cool." My heart was screaming!! I was so relieved! And while it wasn't her favorite thing to do, she did have some great things to say about it! She was shocked by the language which I had no idea about and we all joked about the irony of two of her YW leaders and Bishop encouraging her to go and that she would "love it!". Still cracks me up. The whole thing. But hopefully she learned her lesson about entering things she doesn't want to win, just to please someone, and I also hope she learned that there are cool things out there even if we don't think it's going to be cool, and to have an open mind. She's such a good girl, I can just give her that advice without any disclaimers. I know that's not always the case and I am so grateful for her strong will and her determination to be herself and make the choices that will bring her closer to the Savior. I also love that she followed through. Good girl. 4-19-18
WILL'S PARTY
Jack got invited to Will's party and what a privilege that was!! He was SO excited picking out Will's gift and then talked about all the gifts that Will got and the fun that he had at his party- I was so glad he got to go and that he'd seen Luke's play earlier so he didn't miss it that night. And I was glad Jack had somewhere fun to be during our crazy day. 4-19-18
ON TOP
On top of all this madness we call Thursday evening, we had softball practice for Erika and a baseball practice for Noah! It was the most full day I think we've ever had. The only kid who wasn't doing something big that night was Molly! And really, everything is big with Molly! I was super glad for my realization last week and tried to not get too overwhelmed by our juggling schedule, but seriously! We crammed more stuff into a three hour period than I think some families do in a whole week! And I know we're not the only ones who have busy days, but this one needs to be documented:
Starting with picking up Charity at 2:20
Picking up the Jr. High kids at 3:00 bringing Kelly home to get ready for her game
Nate left to go to the track meet
Making phone calls and texts that I wouldn't be picking up the other half of the neighborhood from Elementary school, and then heading up to Brad's track meet at 3:15
Leaving Brad and Nate at the track meet at 4:30 to pick up Lindee, Kelly and Noah
Peeling Charity off me as she begged me to not make her go to Hamilton as Marjorie pulled up
Dropping off Noah at his practice at Gailey Park
Going back up to Lindee's to get the right uniform
Driving the long way (ugh! Still annoyed with my navigation on my phone) to West Haven to drop off Kelly and Lindee, wondering all the way home if I was going to even make it time for Luke's play! Having my phone NOT die while I listened to some calming conference talks to keep my nerves down
Nate and Brad left his meet around 5:15 to get Noah, take someone to the school to save seats for the play, get Jack to Will's party and then get Luke to the school (as I'm typing this out- Nate may have had a crazier schedule than I did- thank goodness he's an ATC and knows how to handle stress!) for his play
I walked into the front doors of the school right at 6:00 and just as they were announcing this being the last sixth grade play, perfect timing!
Then raced out of the school at 7:05 to get Erika home to grab her gear and up to Nichols park for her practice.
Nate had someone pick up Jack on time, without even a reminder from me
Then after we got home, I took Kelly and Luke to get F'reals at Maverik (Nate had spoiled Brad with a dole whip at the meet, so he was done "celebrating") to "celebrate" Kelly's goals and Luke's awesome acting job.
It was INSANE!! And really, kind of normal, but also kind of not! They ALL had something!! So anyway. We did it! 4-19-18
ANOTHER BIGGIE
Friday was another big one. Not in the same way that Thursday was, but boy are we happy to have this week over with :). Must be April Toto! So Nate had to work an extra shift that day, so I was on my own to get the house cleaned up and dinner ready for the team dinner we were hosting for Kelly's team that night. This might not sound like much to some people, but our house has not seen company in a while! It was a BIG JOB!! I had it all planned out how I was going to get started right after dropping off the kids and then remembered telling Mrs. Piper that I could come to help with a fun project with the kids that morning! What was I thinking! I was painting their hands and putting hand prints on a special paper with them and had to do each kid in the class! I was a mess trying to get it all done quickly enough that I could still have time to get my house clean! It ended up taking about an hour which wasn't too bad. I got started on the kitchen. It's tough because I really didn't have time to do everything I wanted to do, but the way I clean, finding something new to do at every turn, doesn't really aim toward finishing any one thing! So I had to focus! And I did have my conference talks on the entire time which totally helped! I think I've heard/read the whole conference about three times now. It's been great! And I did get so much done on the kitchen before needing to go pick up the food. When we got back, I got back on the cleaning and didn't stop until 1:25 when it was time to get the kids. I was pretty proud of all that I had accomplished! I mean, I scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees for an entire hour!! That's how bad the floor was and that's how motivated I was! It was nice that Kelly had said she didn't think there were any pressing things that needed to be done beforehand... she's a good girl. So anyway- everyone got home and thankfully offered to help with different things- Noah! Such a good boy! "Hi Mom! Is there anything I can do to help?" And ERIKA! The little Saint!! She helped SO much! Even with the preparing the food! Couldn't have done it without her. As much as I didn't want this dinner to feel like a big production- it was there!! BIG PRODUCTION CITY! But hey, we don't do a whole lot of hosting, so I guess we're okay. There were two girls missing so just 10 of them showed. We had my Tangy Meatballs and Nate's Mashed Potatoes (was I ever flattered that she chose my cooking over Nate's amazing smoked food- again, such a good girl :) ) along with a few veggies and sides. Then to top it off Nate made them his cute little cheese cakes in the mason jars for dessert. Wow! They loved it! It was so much fun to listen to them all and get a feel for the fun that they have together. I LOVE that Kelly has this team and this sport. It's such a great group of girls and such a good cause, I feel. Makes me so happy to have her be a part of it all. I wish I'd done something like it when I was her age. Here's to hoping we can recruit some more players for next year! We need a JV team so Kelly can feel super awesome making Varsity :). Her words. Love it. Anyway! The night was a success! Then we all went to Winco for treats and had a movie night watching Big Hero 6. Good times. 4-20-18
HKRS
The kids had another successful day at the races! Jack ran his whole 1/4 mile again! No stopping! I am still so shocked. But glad! This is great for him! He seems slightly competitive as they're starting out, but not enough to push him at the end :). Still does great though! I think he was in 4th place last week and close to that this week. Course there were lots more kids this time. Erika completely trashed the other 2nd and 3rd graders in the 1/2 mile. She is so amazing! Luke and Noah stuck together the whole time again and didn't have that kid on their heels like last week. He seemed to give up sooner. Noah sprinted to the finish getting a pretty good time and Luke was right behind him. So fun. I love having those two run together. It was fun to hear a mom talking about how they are- "those two boys in the front. They just have this hidden energy that they pull out at the end and nobody can beat them!" Made me smile. And Kelly did too. We're so proud of our runners. 4-21-18
GARAGE
We got our garage cleaned out! YAY!! Looks great! And it was a lot of fun doing it. I'm so glad we get some help from a few of the kids. Everyone else played and kept themselves busy though, which is also good :). Felt good to get that old dresser out of there. As well as finding a more useful place for Nate's bench and the bikes. I'm hoping to get that bike ready for Titan to have. We'll see. Good Saturday! 4-21-18
CHARITY DRIVING
So Charity hates driving herself places alone. It's like the weirdest thing to me that I have to talk her into going and doing something fun by herself. Stopping to get a Fiiz on her way home from work, or going to Target before her shift and buying a new shirt with her new money! She just hates being alone. So we've been trying to encourage her to do that more and giving her opportunities. She took one Saturday but invited her sibs and went and got ice cream (and a corn dog for Luke) at Arctic Circle. Cute girl. Stretching her wings a little. 4-21-18
PROM DRESS
I don't remember if I posted about dress shopping with Charity or not, but about a month ago we went up to the mall for a quick look at what was available there. It wasn't Charity's favorite. There wasn't much that she liked and we were having a hard time finding the right sizes. Kind of tainted the whole experience for both of us. Since then I've wondered where we were going to be able to shop. Well, you can imagine my excitement when I got an email from Neesees dresses with unBEATable prices!! I mean seriously, these were like HALF as much as the ones we saw at the mall. I tried not to get too excited before showing it to Charity, since I knew she was pretty particular about the style and fit, but this was just too good to pass up! Surprisingly she was just as excited about it as I was! We measured her and hurried and ordered it with expedited shipping (for $7 I can know that we will have it in three days and not have to wonder if we have time to send it back or alter it... yes please). Well, it arrived Saturday! A day (well, three days early since we thought with business days it wouldn't be here til Monday!) early even!!! It looked great! She tried it on and it fit perfectly!! Like I don't think we could have found a better fit!! I was SO HAPPY!! She really likes it and all we really need to do is hem it, which is awesome! It seemed too good to be true, so this was a VERY pleasant surprise! So glad to have that done! Now it's just getting excited for the dance left :). Oh and making his boutinere :). 4-21-18
No comments:
Post a Comment