Returned

I've got a backlog of books that I've been listening to recently. I've burned through a few series (Phoebe wanted new recommendations, so I tried them out first), read an excellent book about personal revelation, and am looking forward to those in my queue. I always love adding another title to my ever growing list of books.

Something I don't love? Dedicating time to a book and having to stop partway. Usually I have a good sense if a book is going to cross my appropriateness threshold soon after I start reading. Occasionally one slips through. Last night I had to stop reading a book after I was more than halfway through. And I was annoyed. I didn't think the story was well served by the addition of material that made me blush and say out loud, "Nope" while I returned it to the library. I'm mostly annoyed that I gave almost three hours (listening to the book at double speed) to a book that I'm not going to finish. But I'd rather return it than add that kind of material to my brain.

Oh well, on to the next one.

In Your Dreams

One night this week Cooper was upstairs in his room after Topher had been tucked into bed. Cooper heard someone walking around so he got up to check who it was. He saw Topher, sitting in front of his open door but behind his closed gate. That's when the following exchange took place.

Cooper: Buddy, why are you awake?

Topher: No, I'm just dreaming.

Wacky Wednesday

We had a low-key celebration for Dr. Seuss' birthday. It was so low-key that it basically just consisted of reading/watching his books and passing around a tall white and red hat. But something is better than nothing, right?

Mr. Independence

We are officially in the I-will-do-everything-for-myself-or-else-I will-go-pout-or-throw-a-tantrum stage.

It's exciting.

Tree Time

The People

For many years we've discussed world events with our kids. We made the choice early on to talk with them about big and scary things, not because we wanted to frighten them, but because we knew if we didn't someone else would. This often happened when they attended school in person. A friend or teacher would mention something that had happened and the kids would come home and ask questions. I guess you could say that awareness of current events is part of our family culture.

Bryan and I had been watching Russia encroach on Ukraine, holding our collective breath, praying that they did not invade. Last Thursday morning we woke to news that Ukraine was under attack. We were both heartsick. Peter and Phoebe are both avid headline readers, so they were also aware of what was happening early on. We've talked with them and tried to answer their questions.

I keep thinking about the people. There are good and innocent people in Ukraine, people who are being attacked, people that are being driven from their homes and their country. And there are good and innocent people in Russia, people that do not support the wicked actions of their leader, people that are being imprisoned for speaking against him and his horrible actions. It hurts my heart.

And I'm worried about what will happen if the leader of Russia claims Ukraine. Will he press forward? Will one country be enough for him? 

We will continue to fast and pray for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia.

I wish I could do more.

Cookie Elves

Last night Sophie had a Primary activity. She joined over Zoom while the rest of the girls gathered at their leader's home. They all decorated cookies. I had been in contact with the woman in charge so I knew what supplies Sophie would need. I didn't get any pictures of her during the activity, but I got one before and after. We had enough frosting left over that I baked another roll of cookies (I'm not great at making sugar cookies from scratch, so Bryan picked up premade dough at the store) so the other kids could frost some as well. Because of the frosting colors the whole activity felt like we were celebrating an early Easter.

Order Up

Last night when I called everyone to the dinner table for Chicken Parmesan, Topher loudly refused and hid under the futon instead. Several of us tried to coax him out, but he would have none of it. Finally I went to talk to him.

Me: Buddy, why are you under the futon?

Topher: (with intensity) Because I don't want that food!

Me: Oh? What food do you want?

Topher: I want ice cream with bananas!

He was disappointed that I didn't offer that as a dinner substitute.

He did finally come to the table. He ate the cheese off the chicken, two noodles, and drank two glasses of Crystal Light lemonade. Oh well, something is better than nothing.

Careful, sometimes I take pictures of kids throwing tantrums...

Play On

I complain about how loud my house is, then I take pictures like this and realize I'm largely to blame. I guess if quiet was really my goal I would stop encouraging them to use all the musical instruments we have.

Bring on the music.

Run For Your Life

The girls and I made a goal at the beginning of the year to learn how to run a mile without stopping. I've only been able to do this once in my life, ten years ago when we lived in the hotel in Wisconsin. That took a summer of walking/running on a treadmill for 45 minutes a day. I figure this will take some time too.

The girls were eager to start right away, but we had to wait for the weather to be accommodating. It's been an exceptionally cold winter. We finally had a few days of warmth two weeks ago, so we started. We're following a program that is supposed to have you running in six weeks. However, that requires four warm days each week for us to be outside and we don't have that quite yet. We've had to modify the plan. That's okay, our goal is to run it by the end of the year, so we've got some wiggle room.

Cooper and Topher have joined us on each outing. Peter has tagged along on a few. We take the stroller with us for two reasons. The first is to carry the water bottles and jackets that are inevitably shed as we run. The second is for Topher. Some days he walks and runs most of the time. Some days he rides. And some days he gets in and out of the stroller as much as we'll let him.

The first day we did ten rounds of running for 30 seconds followed by 90 seconds of walking. After a few days of that we shifted to eight rounds of 60 seconds of running then 90 seconds of walking. Yesterday we moved to ten rounds of 60 seconds of running followed by 60 seconds of walking. 

Yesterday was rough for all of us. We really had to push ourselves to keep going, especially as we got closer to the end. Sophie dropped back just over halfway through and was having trouble running. Peter dropped back too and helped her by holding her hand and walking with her as I ran ahead with the others. Sophie and I were both impressed with his choice.

For most of our runs I have my phone (timer) in one hand and either the stroller or Topher's hand in the other. I spend so much time watching for cars and calling out when to jog and when to walk that I failed to take any documenting pictures for several days. I finally remembered last week. If you look at Cooper in the penultimate picture it'll give you a good idea of how tired we all are at the end. That's right, he rolled himself home in the stroller once Topher decided to finish on foot.