October 24, 2013
5:45 – I guess I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep.
Jared had to take Brita and Laurel to school at 7am this morning for math
intervention, so by the time we both woke up at 6:30am, my opportunity to run
had already passed. Too bad that doesn’t mean I won’t be running today. Now I
just get to figure out how to fit in a run later.
7:50 – I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and wake
the girls earlier, so I got them out of bed and we all rushed to get ready.
This is actually not a bad scenario every once in a while. It teaches the girls
how to be fast and make good use of every minute.
8am – Meg was dressed and her hair was done, so we sat down
at the piano for ten minutes and got ready for her lesson tonight. She got two
starbursts for being so focused and not complaining or whining. When Leah saw
the whole starburst thing going on, I know she was wondering if she was going
to be left out of it. But I asked her if she had made her bed and that’s all it
took for her to get two starbursts. I love rewarding them for good attitudes
and hard work.
8:15am – I realized we forgot to do Meg’s homework last
night, so I pulled it out and let her work on it while she ate her grapes and
apples. Ironically, this is the one assignment that took her longer than two
minutes to complete. She is usually able to whiz through her worksheets, but I
guess they are learning new concepts so it took a little longer and she needed
my help. We got through it though, and we ended up being just a couple minutes
late for school.
9am – Just as I was cleaning up my breakfast dishes and
getting ready to shower, Carrie called and we had to talk for a little bit. So
I jumped in the shower at 9:20 which meant I was going to be late for visiting
teaching appointments at 10am.
10:10am – Picked up my visiting teaching partner, Lori
Yardas, and we visited with Harriet Guyman until about 10:40. Harriet is at a
different stage of life than Lori and I are, and we both thoroughly love our
visits with her. Today she told us about the early years of her marriage and
how she and her husband lived in a trailer that they moved around Wyoming when
he worked as an electrician on new construction homes. The first seven years of
their marriage, they moved nine times. She said the work just ran out at some
point and she and her husband along with four little children moved in with her
husband’s parents. What they thought was going to be temporary, turned into
five years and at that point the Lord’s plan went into effect as miracles fell
into place helping her husband get a job and they were able to buy a home. As
she told her story, I thought about the help and direction we received when we
made our two big moves, first from Arizona to Texas and then from Texas to
Utah. I know the Lord was at work in our lives, helping us find homes, jobs,
and friends to help us. We tried to do our own thing, but once we figured out
the path the Lord intended for us, we were blessed with our own personal
miracles that let us know the Lord was fully aware of us and working on our
behalf.
After visiting with Harriet, we visited Stephanie Echols who
is a newlywed and managing a big apartment complex that is in our ward
boundaries. I am amazed at the things she does at her young age and how
responsible she is. We had a very different conversation with Stephanie than we
had with Harriet, but it was a good morning and a good way to spend an hour.
11:45 – Hurried and ate some chicken leftover from last
night’s dinner then headed downstairs to help mom and dad. We moved some furniture
around, went through some files, went through all of mom’s shoes (she donated
17 pair to D.I. and still has more than she can find space for), found a place
in a cupboard for all of her candles, hooked some electrical cords up to power
strips and emptied a few boxes. Moving takes forever, but things are falling
into place for them and every day they get a little more settled in.
2pm – Left mom and dad on their own so I could take care of
some laundry and could try to straighten up a few things before the kids got
home from school. I’ve tried to help mom and dad as much as possible over the
past week and it’s thrown off my regular routine a bit. I’ve got to get some
things cleaned and organized before this weekend because Brita is having a big
party at our house on Friday night, and Chad and a couple of his kids are
coming into town for a BYU game that same night and will be staying with us.
When I knew all of this was happening I was freaked out at first because our
basement family room is a disaster with mom and dad’s stuff in there. But I
just decided I’m going to be okay with it. We have a path cleared out so people
can walk around and we can sit on the sofas and watch TV. I’m not going to let
something like a messy basement keep my family from spending time with people
and I just hope the people who come will understand and not care.
3pm – Picked up the girls. I always take Laurel home before
I pick up Leah and Meg, so Brita comes along for the ride. Even though Laurel
lives close to us, her home is outside of the bus boundaries, which I can’t
believe. There is no way I would let Brita walk to school from where Laurel
lives, at least by herself. She’s walked home plenty of times, but only with a
group of friends. Anyway, Laurel’s mom just had a baby and she still has a few
little kids at home, and I know how hard it is to be running around in the car
when you’ve got little ones who need to nap and have downtime at home. So Laurel
rides the bus home with Brita every day and I drop her off at her house on my
way to get Leah and Meg and I love it. As I said before, I love to be around
Brita and Laurel together. Today they walked in the door and I was surprised
because Brita had called me from school earlier in the day to ask if she could
stay late for a pumpkin carving activity. I had told her to call me when it was
over. When I asked what happened, she and Laurel were full of answers and it’s
almost always like they have to restrain themselves so they don’t talk at the
same time. Apparently, Brita forgot that she was going to stay for the activity
and just got on the bus out of habit. She remembered before the bus left the
school, but she didn’t dare get off the bus because the bus driver had just
gotten cranky with a boy who got off the bus. That was a big story for those
two girls. I felt bad for Brita because she really wanted to go to the activity
and because she thinks it’s not so much fun to carve pumpkins with the family.
After we picked up Leah and Meg, we went to Macey’s so I
could buy ice cream cones for the girls. I had told them they would get ice
cream after the doctor’s visit yesterday, but by the time we were done it was
so close to dinner so I promised we’d go today. While we were there, we picked
up a bunch of ice cream for Brita’s party tomorrow night and I let the girls
choose pumpkins. No pumpkin patches for us this year, or most years if I’m
being truthful. Macey’s does a good enough job for us in the pumpkin
department. As soon as we got to the check out line and we were putting our
groceries on the conveyor belt, Meg blurted out, “MOM! I finally found out that
Seth has a crush on me! I knew it all
along!” The guy checking us out was totally amused as were Brita, Leah and
myself. When I asked her how she knows that, she said, “Because he always sits really close to me on the
carpet instead of sitting next to Talli!” (Talli is a little boy in their class
who Meg has a crush on…the other night when she was telling me about her crush
on him she said, “I just don’t know why I’m so into him!”). She is a perceptive
five year old and I eat it up when she shares tidbits of her life with me.
4pm – Folded some laundry and straightened up the kitchen.
5pm – I was totally dragging, so thought I’d rest for a few
minutes. Jared came home about 5:15 and informed me that Meg was sleeping
(that’s a recipe for disaster come bedtime) and was that okay. It wasn’t, so I
rolled over and fell asleep myself. At 5:30 Jared hollered into the bedroom
because he knew I needed to take Meg to piano lessons around 5:45. He’s not the
most gentle at waking people up, but I was grateful he was paying attention. So
I hurried into the kitchen and threw together the most desperate meal I know
how to make – open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches. This time there were none
of the usual options of mozzarella, cheddar, goat, or pepper jack cheese with
mushrooms, tomatoes, and avocado. Nope, this time it was cheddar cheese thrown
on top of a piece of bread and stuck under the broiler in the oven. I always
burn them when I do this, but luckily only one sandwich burned this time so I
claimed that one. Meg and I each grabbed a sandwich and took it with us to eat
in the car on the way to piano lessons. Meg jumped in the car and said, “Seriously Mom?! Just grilled cheese and nothing else for dinner?!” Yup.
Sometimes that’s all we get.
6pm – Meg’s piano lesson started. Meg is in group lessons
and will be for at least a couple more years. They cover it all in those
classes – ear training, theory, sight reading, composition. It’s awesome. But
it’s a lot of work for both the kids and the parents. I am happy enough with
the results that I am willing to make the sacrifices I have to make to help Meg
along. Meg was silly tonight. For whatever reason, she wanted her keyboard on 0
volume so no one could hear what she was playing. She thinks up weird stuff to
do sometimes.
7pm – Walked in the door from piano lessons to see Jared and
Leah working on Leah’s toothpick bridge. That thing is going to be a beast of a
project. I’m glad she’s getting started on it right now. When they asked where
her information sheet about the project was, I pulled it right out from under
their noses and they wanted to know where I found it. “Right here underneath
the cheese that is still left out from dinner that ended about an hour ago.”
Geez. Easiest clean up of the week and everything was still out where I left
it. And not only that, but they had to reach over the cheese and bread every
two seconds to get the materials they needed for their project.
7:15pm – We pulled out Meg’s homework for her to work on
while she ate some grapes. The poor kid was starving when we got home. At 7:20
Jared was chomping at the bit to get me out the door so we could show the
rental house again. Meg cried and carried on, “I want to spend time with you! I
want to go too! I want YOU to help me with my homework!” Brita was my saving
grace. She stepped in and told Meg she would be happy to help her with her
homework and Brita was so patient with her in a really stressful situation.
Brita has made an incredible effort the past while to be a really good sister
to Meg, which I will admit must be a hard thing to do sometimes. But she is
really stepping up and it’s making a huge difference in their relationship and
in the way I see Brita. I see the two of them getting closer to each other and
I feel a change in the spirit of our home. I love it when my girls use their
agency to make hard and good choices.
Jared and I met two brothers who looked at the house. We
weren’t thrilled that we could smell smoke on one of them. Then at 7:45 we met
three single guys who also wanted to see the house. They seemed like nice guys
and our best option so far.
8:15pm – When we got home we saw all three girls sitting at
the computer watching an episode of Studio C. I love that show and it’s one of
the only shows that doesn’t make me cringe when I see my girls watching TV. The
show is basically a bunch of funny, silly skits put on by a group at BYU. It’s
all clean and in pretty good humor. When their show was over, we worked on
making lunches for tomorrow then finally sat down for family prayer and
scripture study at about 8:40. After that, it took me a good hour to get
everyone in bed and to do a couple loads of laundry in the process. The girls
wanted to talk a little bit and Meg always gets her story and song.
9:15pm – Finished doing the dishes and cleaned off the
kitchen counter. I love it when the kitchen island is totally bare. It’s not
bare tonight because all of Leah’s bridge project has been pushed to one end
and the three pumpkins the girls chose today are slightly off center on the
counter, but it’s close enough and it’s definitely a lot cleaner than it was a
few hours ago.
This picture doesn't show the pumpkins sitting on the counter, but it's at least proof that the pumpkin tradition is alive and well.
10:30pm – I finally started my run. I almost made a bunch of
excuses for not going tonight, but I’m the only one who loses by giving in to
that weakness. My eating has been really bad today and I was feeling super
tired, so I figured a run in that state would actually be really good training
for the Ragnar and I didn’t plan to go far anyway. So I strapped on my
reflective gear and went for a quick 2.2 mile run. I was frustrated that I had
to stop and walk for three or four minutes, but my right shin was in incredible
pain every time I landed on my right foot. Once I got off the road that was
really sloped on one side (it slopes down from the center of the road to the
sidewalk so I’m almost running lopsided), I was able to start running again.
Even though it was just two miles, I was really glad I went mostly because I
kept the promise I had made to myself this morning to find time to go. And I
always feel good when I’m done running, so that was a bonus.
12:30am - Said good night to my awesome hubs and hoped for sweet dreams.
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