Up, Up, and Away

We rolled out of bed extra early (those of us not heading to seminary or an airplane) to say our goodbyes and get hugs before Bryan and Cooper left.

What Does the Fox Say?

Art Club applications were due this week at the middle school. Everyone had to submit a piece of art to get in. Sophie stayed up much later than was wise and created this beautiful fall scene with oil pastels. The fox is my favorite part.

In the Quiet, Misty Morning

We finished our fourth week of school today. I celebrated by waking up with a horrible headache, possibly due to starting each day at 6:00 in the morning, pushing myself to keep working until bedtime, and then going to sleep somewhere around midnight.

I do not recommend this schedule.

Bryan handled all the morning work of getting the kids to school while I laid in bed in my dark room with my hand over my eyes, trying to get the pain to go away.

And then I slept for most of the morning.

The purpose of this post is not to complain, though I've definitely done that. My goal in writing about my early mornings and late nights is to say, yes, it's hard and I'm exhausted. But I really like having a little bit of time with each kid before school. I sit and talk with Phoebe while she waits for her ride to seminary. I sit in the car and talk with Sophie while we wait for the bus. I have nearly an hour of one-on-one time with Topher after Sophie leaves and before he catches his bus.

We have mornings that are rushed and chaotic and contentious. And we have peaceful, calm mornings. Which we get depends largely on how late the kids (even the grown-up kids) were up the night before.

Yesterday morning I was waiting for Sophie to be ready to leave when I looked out at our backyard. This picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful these trees were. It is autumn, but none of these leaves have turned orange yet. That's all early morning sunlight turning the green to gold. It was so lovely that I stepped outside into the chilly morning and took this picture. I would have missed that if I hadn't been up earlier than I wanted to be. And I would miss the time I'm getting with each kid. I think that's even better than watching the sunrise on the trees.

Sleep Is Contagious

Sometimes Cooper puts more than Topher to sleep at bedtime.

Crazy Days of Summer

I took this picture of Sophie after church on Sunday, she fell asleep while drawing. 

School starts on Monday. This summer has been so busy, going back to school might feel more like a rest than work.

Based on the picture, I think a rest is needed.

Motivation

In addition to deep cleaning and sorting through papers, I decided hosting the youth was a good reason to take apart the great room and paint most of the trim. You know, normal house prep stuff. Topher helped by borrowing my phone and taking a bunch in-process pictures.

At first I thought I would be able to pull the trim off the wall without moving this big cabinet. I was wrong. Emptying and moving this added significantly to my project.

The contents of the cabinet were relocated to the table, then to the library when we needed to eat dinner.

This door trim was sanded and wiped down, but not yet painted. A few of the kids liked the distressed look from the sanding and tried to convince me to stop here.

I kept going though. In this picture the trim looks black, but it's actually a deep chocolate brown. I really wanted to paint the walls as well so they would match the white walls in the rest of the downstairs, but I decided sleeping was a better idea than painting for three days straight.

I also though about painting all the walls this beautiful blue color instead of just having the blue as an accent wall. Again, sleep won. The trim looks closer to its actual brown than black in this picture.

I was awake until 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday finishing the painting and cleaning up my supplies. Somehow we made it through 9am church and got the house put back together in time for the fireside. And now I'm so much closer to having all the downstairs trim painted!

Those Were the Days

Christmas break is over, it always ends too quickly. 

We enjoyed the extra sleep and bonus family time.

I loved that the kids weren't bogged down by homework and had time to practice their musical instruments, not because they were required to, but because it made them happy.

I also loved not having to leave the house as often, it was warm and cozy inside.

And Topher loved being the first one awake every morning so he didn't have to fight anyone for the TV remote. 

Day After Day After Day

This has been a long week. A looooooong week. It started with the Primary Program on Sunday. It went really well, but it was just part of a full day. I could feel myself getting sick at the end of last week, though I told myself I couldn't succumb until Monday when the Primary Program was over. I've spent the week coughing and sneezing and trying to balance resting with still getting everyone fed and where they need to be on time.

Actually, I think it's been a long month. I've been staying up late with some kids and getting up early with other kids. I keep losing track of what day it is. I'm pretty sure sleep deprivation has something to do with it. Maybe I'll find a day during Thanksgiving break to sleep in.

Maybe.

Day Off

The kids had a good first week of school. Our district starts with a four-day week and then a four-day weekend. We celebrated our first day off of the year with some mild sleeping in, one early cross country practice, and a few free donuts from the summer reading program. And lots of chores.

Bryan was well enough to go outside for a few minutes today. Progress is good, even if it's small.

Brain Glitch

Today Bryan and I tried to catch up on sleep while the kids were at school.

And yet I'm so tired that after more than seventeen years of blogging regularly, I almost forgot to post.

I guess I have more catching up to do.

FYI, Bryan is feeling better. He's okay standing and sitting, but switching between the two is pretty rough.

The Only Time He's Still

For the record, we have plenty of pillowcases, but apparently we don't always use them.

Also, sleeping kids are still as cute as sleeping babies.

Do Unto Others

We attended both our old ward and our new ward on Sunday. We went to our old ward at 9:00 to support our young friends and watch their Primary program. It was both wonderful to witness and so sad to see all these kids that I don't get to work with anymore. We got lots of hugs and some shared tears.

Then we went directly to our own meeting which starts at 11:00. That included our second and final practice for the Primary program. Right after that was a baptism for a young man who had a remarkable conversion story. By the time we got home we had just enough time to change, make a quick dinner, wolf some of that food down, and get back in the car.

Cooper, Phoebe, and I spent the hours from 5:00 until 8:30 preparing, serving, and cleaning up dinner at a local emergency shelter. It functions out of the basement of a church during the six cold months of the year to provide food, shelter, and showers to those without. I was simultaneously incredibly thankful that it exists and incredibly sad that it needs to exist. The people we served were so thankful. Phoebe took the job of handing trays of food out the window between the kitchen and the dining room. I joined her near the end. One woman came up to the window and asked if we were from a school. I told her we were from a church. She asked which church. I answered, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." She grinned, said thank you, and left.

I didn't anticipate how exhausting standing for three and a half hours would be. After that very long day, I fell asleep at 10:30, which is a totally normal time to go to sleep, but not at all normal for me. I slept for nine and a half hours that night.

I guess the moral of this story is that spending a full day serving others leads to a really great night of sleep.

Down On the Farm

After visiting with my friend Beth, we drove south of BYU to visit our good friends Brett and Ben and their kids. The remodel they're doing on their new house is still under construction, but the basement was done and is beautiful. We loved getting to see them and stay the night at their new house. The highlight, other than visiting with our friends, was getting to play with the kittens their family had recently found in their barn. The kittens were such a big deal that very few pictures were taken of anything else. Many thank to Phoebe, Cooper, and Peter for sharing their pictures with me for this post.

Most of the kids got to sleep in this amazing bunk room.

The next day Brett gave us a tour of their farm. 

Horses.

Cows.

Topher's one goal for the day was to hold a chicken. Brett made that dream a reality.

After the tour the kids played for a bit while Brett and I chatted.

Phoebe particularly liked this waterfall. She spent some quiet time here.

Thanks for letting us visit! We always love getting to spend time with you guys!

Nighttime Mode

"Mom, let's take a picture." - Topher, delaying bedtime and still being adorable.

Soporific

Topher: (while driving home from the library yesterday) Mom, sometimes I go deaf. And sometimes, I go blind.

Me: (glancing at Phoebe in the passenger seat only to discover she's just as confused by his statement as I am) Oh? Does this happen at specific times?

Topher: Yes.

Me: When?

Topher: I never hear the end of Moon Song or Mockingbird.

For context, those are his favorite bedtime songs. Based on what he said, I guess they're pretty effective.

Sleeping Cool

I made the mistake recently of calling Topher beautiful. He informed me that because he's a boy he is cool, not beautiful.

Go Go Go

I've spent every spare minute this week working on fixing up one of the rooms in our house. It's going to take several more hours before it's done. My brain and body are both complaining that I haven't rested enough this week. And the next week won't provide much relief.

I'd better sleep while I can.

The Same and Different

This picture of Peter, taken about a month before I started the blog, popped up in my memories from Google Photos today. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he still sometimes sleeps with his legs crossed. I don't think he snuggles his water bottle anymore though.

The Night Life

"Mom, I have a question. Why does it seem like the night is the best time to do anything?" -Sophie, my fellow night owl, an hour and a half past her bedtime.

Recharging

I discovered Cooper napping yesterday afternoon. I feel like this picture is a good representation of how the whole week has gone. We've had lots of napping, more screen time than usual, and very little is getting accomplished. We did go see a movie (Wonka) on Wednesday, but that's the only adventure we've had.

I'm not complaining, It's nice to have some downtime.

Maybe after all this resting we'll be full of energy for the new year.