Maybe We Just Need a Cow

We've entered that stage of life where I buy so much milk each week that I run out of shopping cart space.

Working Nine to Five (And All the Other Hours Too)

I offered to speak at Phoebe's career day (which is really career month since the speakers are spread out over multiple weeks) on being a stay-at-home parent. Her teacher enthusiastically said yes and I felt great about my choice. Since then, Phoebe has come home and reported on hearing from an engineer who brought catapults for them to play with, a nurse that brought tiny newborn hats for each child, a contact lens rep that gave each child a contact lens, a police officer, a pilot, and a cardiologist.

I am suddenly feeling much less secure.

I know that I work hard everyday, but I'm finding it difficult to distill my job requirements into a 20-30 minute format that would be engaging for third-graders. And what on earth do I bring to give to each child? Laundry to fold? A calendar to fill in? A general and pervasive feeling of exhaustion?

That does not sound appealing.

This task seriously has me examining my life.

Here are my (real, no jokes this time) ideas so far:

• Explain what my day looks like, then setup some kind of relay race for the kids to act out a day in the life of a stay-at-home parent.
• Bring several hats to show all the different roles I fill.
• Tell them that this job might not last as long as other jobs, it might end when kids get older, or it might continue.
• Incorporate juggling somehow, though I can only juggle scarves.
• Sing...something, maybe a lullaby?
• Find joyful aspects of my job to highlight, not just the hard work parts of it.

I really don't have any idea of what sort of swag to bring. I could hit the Dollar Store and get everyone a measuring spoon? Maybe a wooden spoon? Dryer sheets? A sock that has lost its mate? A different hat for each kid? That seems expensive.

Any suggestions on either the presentation or the prize are welcome!

Fan-Stache-Tic

The Watchful Eye

Remember Sophie's 100 day shirt? It turns out it happens to double as a wonderful search and find game. While the other people at home were napping yesterday, Emma found puppies and stars and pumpkins, among other things.

All Together Now

Aunt Paige and cousin Emma are here visiting! The girls all put on their matching leggings from Aunt Leah so we could take a picture the first day they were here.

Topher was there too, sans matching leggings.

Catch!

Here Comes Trouble

One night this week Bryan needed to call Peter up from the basement. Instead of yelling down to him, Bryan used his phone to broadcast a message through the Google minis we have on each floor. This is what happened:

Bryan: (his voice booming from the speakers) Peter, come upstairs right now.

Topher: Uh-oh. Pea-ah (Peter). Uh-oh.

Topher read the situation correctly, which is both amusing and amazing.

Academic Artists

Both Cooper and Peter have had art based homework recently. 

Cooper is generally meticulous when it comes to his assignments and this was no exception. He stayed up several hours past his bedtime to complete his Grecian urn about the god Apollo.

And then he colored it in. I asked his friend at church about the homework and he replied that he'd printed off a picture to put on the urn and was done in ten minutes. Well, I guess it's good that Cooper is dedicated, even if he was bleary-eyed and groggy the next day.

Peter, on the other hand, usually rushes through his work. However this year we tied his ability to play video games to his grades. He let his science grade drop below the required ninety and he's been going the extra mile to bring it back up. His teacher even emailed us to tell us how impressed she is with Peter's improvement. I asked if she knew he was doing it to earn back video games. He said she did not. Ninety is also the cut-off for honor roll, which is one of his goals, so at least he's not completely motivated by screen time.

This diagram of a flower was due on a Monday, but Peter's teacher let him turn it in the Friday before and even agreed to grade it early. He did well, but the assignment wasn't worth enough to bump him up the few decimal points he needed at the time. He's since raised his grade to ninety. I wonder if he'll keep his new work ethic.

The Mighty Toothbrush

All four big kids went to the dentist this month and all four received high marks for how clean their teeth were. I think this guy is almost ready for his first dentist visit as well.

My Funny Valentines

Our Valentine's Day this year consisted of:

chocolate for breakfast,

fancy hairstyles,

color-coordinated outfits,

(mostly)

sweet marshmallow treats,

loving pictures (until he had enough and pushed her away),

dipping pretzel sticks in chocolate and sprinkles,

heart-shaped homemade pizza,

family movie night,

and so many flowers that we ran out of vases.

It was a good day.

The Look of Love

I hope you love someone as much as Topher loves watching the trash trucks collect our trash and recycling each week. Seriously, trash day is his favorite day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Frozen

Way back in 2015, during our sojourn in Illinois, I wrote about making freezer meals. Some of the meals were great, some were okay, some weren't wonderful. I considered it an interesting experience, but didn't think much more about it until this school year. This year we have dance two nights each week, right during the time I would normally make dinner. I decided I wanted to try freezer meals again, but I approached them differently.

This time, instead of setting aside a day to make several distinct meals, I slowly built up my collection by making giant batches of one thing and freezing the excess. Sometimes this meant cooking an entire family size package of ground beef and turning it all into taco meat or stroganoff sauce and freezing meal-sized portions. Sometimes it meant building three pans of enchiladas and baking one for dinner while I froze the other two for the future. And sometimes it meant I bagged leftovers from a meal and stuck them right into the freezer instead of hoping someone would eat them out of the fridge before they needed to be tossed.

I quickly banked many freezer meals. As we used them, I would set aside one of Topher's naptimes and do another giant batch of something or other. Doing this once a week for a few weeks in a row has been helpful in replenishing our supply.

This method of freezer meals has been just right for us. I make meals we already love, so I'm not wasting time or money on food that will be eaten grudgingly, if at all. I can throw a meal in the slow cooker on our dance days and know that we don't have to come home to a dinner of cereal and milk. And I've discovered that it's helped on non-dance days as well. If I haven't made dinner during naptime (which is generally the goal), I can pull one of the partially prepared meals out and have it put together quickly, while still supervising the troops. That's code for not leaving Topher alone with Sophie for any period of time.

Freezer meals have been a game changer.

Just the Two of Us

Nineteen years ago today, Bryan surprised both of us by asking me to be his wife. I am so thankful that he was listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost that cold winter night. To celebrate this day I looked for the most recent picture of just the two of us. I looked and looked and looked.

I finally found one.

It's from August 2017.

We had an overnight adventure as a family in NYC. While our kids stayed with our dear friends that live in the city, Bryan and I saw the Broadway show The Play That Goes Wrong. It was laugh out loud funny pretty much from start to finish. We had such a wonderful time that we stopped for this slightly blurry picture next to the poster afterward. Topher is in this picture too, but we didn't know that when we took it.

And for whatever reason, we haven't taken a picture of us since. I should work on that...

Happy anniversary Bryan!

One Hundred

This is the first year since we moved away from Utah that we've gone this far without a snow day from school. Snow has fallen, and some of it has even stuck, but not on a school day. Now, I don't mind going without all that snow and am happy to have the rain that we've gotten instead.

However, I've discovered that I do miss the snow days. I miss the chance to stay indoors and bake and watch movies and play games and maybe even sleep in. Our school district has so few days off that I've come to rely on the snow days to break up the year.

On the bright side, because we've had no snow days the kids have already had their 100th day of school. Part of Sophie's homework for last week was to bring in something that had 100 components to display in their classroom 100 Museum. She asked if we could glue 100 of items to a shirt. I thought of the button collection that Bryan's mom gifted us a while ago. Sophie liked the idea and selected the buttons. I wielded the hot glue gun, but since parents were supposed to assist with this project, I figured that was fine.

We think it turned out pretty well.

Phoebe didn't have to bring anything in, but she decided to make a necklace with 100 tiny beads. In the end, only one other kid in her class brought something in, so it was good that Phoebe had made the necklace so her classmate wasn't alone.

Tiny Taps

Someone discovered his sister's tap shoes.

Bookends

At Home

We are sick. We are coughing, aching, sniffling, dripping sick. Our voices are getting gravely. My energy has disappeared. It is miserable.

And yet, I keep thinking how thankful I am that we're not in the hospital.

It was this week last year that Topher was in the hospital with RSV. That was such a long, awful, scary week. His recovery was slow and he still is the first one to catch whatever respiratory illness is going around. But he recovered. And we're sick, but we're sick in our own home. and for that I'm exceptionally thankful.

Piano Man

When he started piano lessons five years ago, Cooper was not a fan. I mean, he liked the actual lessons because his teacher was nice and he got to play with Lego while Peter had his lesson, but Cooper hated practicing and did not see any reason why he should spend his time learning to play the piano.

Fast forward to today and he has very different feelings. Our piano teacher retired last summer and we switched to online piano lessons, which we LOVE! Peter and Phoebe still grumble about practicing, but Cooper willingly spends large portions of his day at the piano. I ask that they work on their lesson material for twenty minutes and then can spend the last ten minutes of their practice learning any song they want. Cooper searches YouTube for piano tutorials, then gets to work. He usually goes far beyond the expected thirty minutes.

It makes my heart happy to hear him play. And playing the piano makes his heart happy too.

No Groundhog Shadows Here

It got up to almost sixty degrees at our house yesterday! Compared to how cold it has been, that felt wonderful. We took advantage of the warmth and played outside for a bit when the kids got home.

Like Nephi

Phoebe had her turn to speak in Primary yesterday. She wrote about seventy-five percent of this talk and I jumped in and cleaned up the last little bit and added a scripture while everyone was putting their shoes on to go to church. The steps to the podium in the Primary room were a little wobbly, so she stood next to it and delivered her talk from there. She did an excellent job.

Like Nephi

Nephi was a good example to his family during hard times and found good in many things  Laman was a bad example and found bad in many things. They both could have the exact same thing happen to them and have a totally different perspective. Laman would see the afflictions and trials and Nephi would see the blessings. In 1st Nephi chapter 16 verses 17 through 32 we learn about when Nephi broke his bow. After a long journey through the wilderness, Nephi’s family pitched their tents and Nephi and his brothers went hunting for food. Nephi’s bow broke and his brothers were mad at him. Their bows had stopped working, so they had relied on Nephi’s bow.

Verse 20 says: “And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael did begin to murmur exceedingly, because of their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness; and also my father began to murmur against the Lord his God; yea, and they were all exceedingly sorrowful, even that they did murmur against the Lord.”

 In verse 22  it says: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren, because they had hardened their hearts again, even unto complaining against the Lord their God.

Instead of being angry, Nephi got to work to make a new bow. Verse 23 says: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food?

This week my mom challenged us to find good things that other people were doing. I found good things that my brothers and sister were doing. For example, my sister was getting up right away every morning and getting ready for school. 

I challenge you to be like Nephi and not like Laman, and to find good things in stuff that is happening. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.