28 December 2014: Christmas

Merry Christmas! What a week we had.  Monday we enjoyed the first day of our Holiday break together by doing whatever the sisters wanted to do.  We had breakfast at McDonalds (meh) and then went to the car wash (seriously).  We roamed WalMart and played at home.  In the afternoon Felicity had volleyball practice.  My cube-mate at work happens to be a member in our stake and mentioned that his wife had been organizing a volleyball team for 8-9 year old girls.  I figured we would give it a try and see how Felicity liked it.  It wasn't surprising to me that she was a natural at it and she seemed to really enjoy herself.

The kids had dentists appointments late in the afternoon and it took FOREVER.  Each kid received X-Rays, cleanings, and exams.  Felicity and Helen so look forward to going, Arlo enjoys it until its his turn!  Everyone's teeth are healthy and clean!  We had family home evening and watched The Grinch when we finally did get home.

Tuesday, Arlo went to school and Felicity and Helen and I went to the movies.  We saw the new Annie movie and it was pretty cute!  We had popcorn, and soda and really enjoyed ourselves.

We picked up Arlo after nap time and went to the park.  Felicity and Helen roller skated and Arlo and I played on the playground.  It was such a beautiful day to be in the park.  We put together our candy baskets when we got home and drove around to deliver those.  This year's had banana bread, haystacks, fudge (edible thanks to my mom), sugar cookies, cut out cookies, gingerbread men, Hawaiian pineapple coconut cookies, and angel sweets.  I really love being able to make a variety of treats and put them together for our friends.  I even included some of the ornaments I've been making.

Arlo woke up Wednesday morning sick, so that wasn't fun.  We were up at 4 and he finally was able to go back to sleep around 7.  He and I slept in until around 10.  He was suppose to have a well-child check up with his pediatrician, but I called and cancelled since he wasn't feeling well.  We went over to my parent's house in the afternoon and I went and picked up my grandma to join us for our annual Mexican food feast and opening presents with Nana and Papa.

 The kids were so excited and had such a great time.  The food was excellent and we really enjoyed one another's company, I was especially grateful that Grandma decided to come.

We were very spoiled and walked away with so many nice new things.  The girls got new Monster High dolls (cringe) and lots of new PJs.  Felicity's favorite gift was a stuffed Olaf.  Helen loved her new dolls and Arlo got a basketball hoop and basketball that he really enjoyed playing with.  I wish I had gotten a good video of it, but that kid was sinking baskets from 6+ feet away.  I may not have to worry as much about his college fund!

 We had pie and ate plenty of good food and enjoyed lots of good company.  We came home and I was surprised that the kids weren't sleeping!  I tucked them into bed and happily filled stockings and placed all their gifts under the tree.

We enjoyed our morning together which mercifully didn't start until 7:00!  We read the Luke account of the Christmas story and then took our traditional picture at the top of the stairs before coming down to open gifts.  We enjoyed Hot Chocolate and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and their dad came to pick them up at 9:30.  It was a really difficult parting.  Most of that was due to a frustrating exchange between he and I and I was admittedly sad when I had to walk back inside after they left to clean up all the wrapping paper and put away their new, as of yet, unenjoyed things.

I went for a run after they left and that felt good.  It took me awhile to feel better about the situation with the kids so I decided to take myself to the movies.  I've been wanting to see the new Hobbit movie since it came out and figured this was a perfect opportunity.  I've become accustom to going to the movies by myself, and it doesn't really bother me.  I greatly enjoyed the movie and it was just what I needed to take my mind off my hurt feelings.  When I got home I planted myself on the couch and worked on some fun projects I've been wanting to do but haven't had the time.  Well, as it turns out, I didn't move from that spot on the couch for a few days.  I ended up watching over 17 hours of Peter Jackson/Tolkien movies, and five of the eight Harry Potter movies among other things.  I did get out of the house for a run on Friday, but by the afternoon I wasn't feeling well, having got whatever stomach bug Arlo and Helen had.  I did end up making four hats, some ornaments, a scripture tote for Helen, went through my basket of "things to fix", and I started a cross stitch that I'm going to make into a stocking.  I stayed home from church on Sunday since I still felt so lousy and didn't want to expose anyone else.

I have so enjoyed the holidays this year.  I've loved extra time with the ones I love and doing the things that make me the most happy.  I hope that everyone else has had a very Merry Christmas and has time to reflect on the gift that is our Savior Jesus Christ.  We'll see everyone next year!

21 December 2014

I’m so very tired.  I do this to myself, so I have no one and nothing to blame.  Christmas baking, Christmas crafting, events, obligations, homework, piano practice, family time and a myriad of other things all squeezed into the last month of the year has kept us very busy and burning the midnight oil.  

 Monday we had our 7^th annual Gingerbread Family Home Evening.  Each year I host a family home evening where we invite some friends to the house for an FHE lesson, gingerbread house decorating, and caroling and hot chocolate.  I let the girls choose a family to invite and then I invited a  couple of families as well.  We had a very nice turn out this year and enjoyed a lesson on the gifts we receive because of the Savior's birth.  I had plenty of gingerbread houses; each child got to decorate their own this year.  I bought a few, and then when I went to look in food storage to see if I had another tucked away, I found seven extra!  I think the kids had a fun time.  We had hot chocolate and did some singing, with Jan at the piano.  It was such a nice evening, something I look forward to every year.

I was home with Arlo who had a cold and cough on Monday and Tuesday.  I was so tired from a late night, that I took Arlo to Circle K after dropping the sisters off at school.  If I was going to get a Polar Pop, he wanted to have one too.  So you may have seen Arlo standing outside of a Circle K at 7 in the morning, in his Pajamas, drinking a blue slushy.  Yes, I am aware that I’m a terrible mother.  He hung out in his PJs all day and laid on the couch; I think he watched Cars at least three times while I worked.  Not having to commute did leave me enough time to get dinner made before picking up the girls and they enjoyed that.

 Tuesday we had a relatively quiet Taco Tuesday.  After dinner the kids got dolled up and donned their new Christmas PJs for pictures.  I wanted to take some to make Christmas cards with.  They were pretty cooperative, and although I didn’t get the shot I was hoping for (and Walgreens skewed the color in the prints) I got some decent shots and spent some time making photo cards with them to print. 

Wednesday night for Activity Days we were suppose to go Christmas caroling with the girls around the neighborhood, but it was cold and rainy, so we stayed in the building and sang and then watched a Christmas movie.  I was grateful for a nice relaxed activity.  After the kids went to bed I made a hat for Helen’s secret Santa gift exchange at school.  About two hours in to what turned into a 3-4 hour project I was shaking my head at myself wondering why I decided to “save the money” and make something instead of buying a $5 gift.  I mean, honestly, I’ll drop $5 on lunch out without a second thought, in a heartbeat, without skipping a beat (and usually its closer to $7), but heaven forbid I spend it on an inexpensive gift exchange gift for my six year old to give, when I can make something.  See what I mean about holiday stress being my own fault?  Long story short, I crocheted a Hello Kitty hat for the little girl and then put together a cookie/candy tray for Helen’s teacher.  I wasn’t quite done with my baking yet, I still had dough for the Hawaiian coconut cookies in the fridge and I hadn’t cut out, much less decorated, my sugar cookies, yet, but I put the basket together with what I did have.  See, I am making some changes.  It wouldn’t have been unheard of for me to stay up all night baking to get the last of it done to put on the cookie platter, so I am making some progress, however small!

The kids were all hyped up on Thursday for the last day of school.  I picked them up after work and we had dinner and then headed to Tucson to get a photo of them with my niece as a Christmas gift for my mother.  Well, it didn't go as well as I had hoped.  It didn't go well at all actually.  Arlo pretty much flat out refused to cooperate.  I was so frustrated with him and then Helen started crying at some point, my niece was less than enthusiastic to sit for pictures either.  I can't believe that we got a semi-decent photograph, there were only three to chose from...yeah it was awful.  I dropped the girls off at my parent's house afterward since they didn't have school on Friday and Arlo and I went home.  I stayed up getting my Christmas cards written, addressed, and ready to send.

Horay for Friday, last day of work!  The kids went with their dad after I got home from work.  He had family in town and wanted to be able to spend time with them and the kids, so they were going to spend Friday night and Saturday with him.  I'm still learning how to navigate my feelings about how my relationships, or lack thereof, have changed with his family.  I am, regardless, happy that the children got to spend some time with their Davidson family.  The downside was that Helen was sick with a stomach bug when I picked them up on Saturday evening.  I was less than thrilled about having to scrub the carpet!   Luckily, I got to spend Saturday morning with my Grandma celebrating her 88th birthday.  We had breakfast and went to the thrift.

We had a very nice Sunday, that included a lovely Christmas-themed Sacrament meeting, interpreting for me, dinner at Nana and Papa's, and cookie decorating.   Nana took us out for a drive to look at the Christmas lights; it was a lot of fun to get bundled up and see the lights.  I feel more and more ready for Christmas after each very late night and am grateful to have time off to spend with my favorite little people.  I won't be returning to work until January 5th and have a lot of plans for fun.  

 I can't express enough how grateful I am for the gift that is my Savior.  I love this time of year and try (and sometimes fail) to remember that all the activities and hustle and bustle are meant to draw us closer to Jesus Christ.  That all the things I stay up late doing, all the things I squeeze into an already saturated schedule, are suppose to help express my love and appreciation for others as I try to follow our great exemplar.  We hope that in the coming week everyone we know and love has a joyous and love-filled Christmas.  He is the gift.

 

14 December 2014: Arlo's Birthday

 What a great week we had.  I learned a few things and am still trying to learn a few things.  I was home sick on Monday, but was able to work from home.  I did end up picking up our Christmas tree at lunch time.  We have traditionally decorated our tree as a family home evening activity, and it is by far one of my favorite, and at the same time most stressful, Christmas traditions.  Last years' was epically stressful and I'm pretty sure it ended in kids going to bed early.  This year, I really thought about why I love decorating the tree with the kids and identifying the parts that make it stressful.  I decided that actually putting the tree up is stressful, especially with anxious kids watching me wanting the minute by minute update on if it's ready yet.  Having them excitedly, but not very carefully, manhandle my fragile ornaments is another point of anxiety.  So I put the tree up right after I got it home while they were all still in school.  I also sorted all the ornaments pulling out the non-sentimental and non-breakable ornaments.  In the evening after the lesson, I let them decorate the tree however they wanted.  It was wonderful!  I reminded Arlo to be gentle and to not throw anything, but other than that it was smooth sailing.  We actually enjoyed our time together, and that's the point right?  After they went to bed, I rearranged the ornaments they had hung (almost all of them on the same two branches in the lower left corner of the tree) and then brought out the rest of the ornaments and strategically hung them.  Why had I not thought of this before?

I've continued to work on my holiday baking and crafting.  This week I made each of the kids hats.  They turned out so well, and I hope they fit and the kids like them.  Tuesday was Arlo's third birthday.  He was excited to take cupcakes into school to celebrate.  I let him choose dinner, and he picked tacos.

 Thursday evening I went to a meeting for our upcoming stake family history fair.  I've been asked to teach a class on journaling and blogging as a way of recording your family history. Helen and I also worked on a science report that she had to do for school on the states of matter.  I won't lie, I did a lot of the work and she did the pasting and labeling.  Is it terrible to complain about an extra project in the middle of December when they have all their regular homework to do as well?  We did get it done, but I had a big girl melt down right before having to leave for my meeting.  Felicity was in the bathroom and Arlo had to go, so instead of finding one of the other two available bathrooms, he pooped on the carpet in his room.  I am ashamed to admit that I did a fair amount of ranting and hand flailing before cleaning it up. 

Friday I was off and Arlo and I went grocery shopping and cleaned house.  I took him to school in the afternoon so that I could go to my eye appointment.  I had an annual check up and picked out a new pair of frames and ordered contacts.  The vision in my right eye has held steady, the vision in my left eye has deteriorated some, but nothing a little adjustment to my prescription won't fix.  In the evening we met my parents at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Arlo's birthday.  He had a great time.  Their dad picked them up when we were done.

I was up early Saturday morning and finished cleaning up and did some baking.  In the afternoon the single adult group had a trip to the Mesa temple planned, so I went with them.  It was nice for someone else to drive, I crocheted on the way up.  We spent time in the temple and then walked around to look at the lights before heading back home.  I was skeptical about going since I had so much to do at home, but I was glad that I did.  After Thursday's melt down, I really needed the perspective change that it brought.  I'm so glad that my Heavenly Father is so patient with me and all the reassuring and reminding I seem to need.  I finished  cleaning the upstairs when I got home and wrapped some Christmas presents before bed.

Sunday was quiet, I slept in and then went to church in the afternoon.  I'm honestly going to miss 1pm church next year when we move to 9am.  I went to pick up the kids right after and we enjoyed catching up on the ride home.  The kids helped me sort the candy in preparation for our gingerbread FHE when we got home and then we read together before bed.  The kids really enjoyed Arlo's new interactive Jingle the dog which responds with appropriate doggie noises as you read his story.  I got it at Hallmark in February for like 90% off, it was his birthday present from me.  He also got a Black & Decker tool bench from Nana and Papa, and a variety of Cars matchbox cars from Uncle Josh and Aunt Andria.    We're looking forward to our annual gingerbread FHE tomorrow night and our last week of work and school of the year.

7 December 2014

It’s beginning to look a lot like December.  We’re starting to see more holiday related events popping up on our calendar and I’ve gone back on the caffeine (sigh) because I’ve been staying up way too late each night trying to accomplish all the things I have to do.  Monday we had a fun family home evening.  Helen gave the lesson on the Savior’s resurrection and we played “Harry Potter: Scene It”.  The kid’s really enjoyed that a lot.  I’ve done a lot of baking and crafting in the evening to try and get ahead of my Christmas list.

Wednesday was the annual Activity Days Recognition Night and Talent show.  Felicity played Jingle Bells on the piano and I assume it went well.  I had to run Arlo to the bathroom and they jumped ahead in the program so I only caught the last 30 seconds of her playing!  It was a fun event and I’m so glad that Felicity is not nervous or shy about sharing her talents.

We went to a single adult BBQ on Friday night.  I was responsible for making pulled pork for the event and I solicited some help from Jan.  I also made ribs as I had six slabs of ribs in my freezer that I wasn’t going to make in the foreseeable future.  We had a relatively nice time, Arlo enjoyed the desserts sitting out on the table, and I don’t know how many brownie bites and cookies he had.  We stayed up, the kids watched a movie and I cleaned and worked on laundry.

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning to pick up a basket from Bountiful Baskets.  I was irritated they didn’t have the apples I ordered, but was grateful in the end that I was up so early because it bought me a few extra hours of productivity.  The kids and I stopped and got donuts for breakfast and then made a trip to Wal-Mart from some necessities; the kids still in their PJs.  I managed to get the house completely cleaned, and all the laundry done.  We decorated the front yard, hanging lights and decorating a little fake tree.  Victor helped me get the lights on the eves as getting on the roof is a real nerve-racking experience for me.

I bought the girls a new bunk bed from an estate sale and my dad brought it over for us.  Victor and I spent the better part of two hours taking the old beds apart and moving them out to the garage and moving the new beds in.  They are very nice and I’ll be taking the old ones over to the kids’ dad’s house, so they have them to sleep on over there when they are visiting.  By the time I finished all of the chores it had gotten pretty late, so we ended up going grocery shopping instead of to the ward the Christmas party.  In the evening we watched “The Grinch” for movie night.

Sunday was busy; we had to be ready early so we could go to tithing settlement.  Arlo was very wiggly during church which makes it difficult to really enjoy Sacrament meeting.  I subbed in primary (it seems I teach primary just as much now as I did when I was actually called to teach primary), luckily it was for an older class, so it was more enjoyable for everyone involved.  Arlo got to sit through Sharing Time to help acclimate him to Primary, can you believe he'll be a Sunbeam in January.  Heaven help that poor teacher!  He had a great time. We went to Nana and Papa’s for dinner after church and had a really nice visit.

I’m hoping to get and decorate our tree for home evening next week and to finish decorating the house.  We have a lot of fun things coming up!

30 November 2014

It was such a great week.  I felt so excited to have the whole week off and had a reasonable to-do list to accomplish.  Monday I kept Arlo home from school so he and I could hang out.  I missed the opportunity to ever stay home with him like I did with Felicity, and to some extent Helen (I can't believe I've been supporting my family full time for almost five years now).  We went grocery shopping and did some chores and shopping.  We had lunch together and did some baking before picking up the sisters from piano.  We had homemade lasagna for dinner which was met with great praise.  It felt so good to serve my family a home cooked meal that didn't come out of a box or from a drive-thru.  Our family home evening lesson was based on the Fifth Article of Faith and was basically a lesson on how the Priesthood blesses our lives.  We watched Fantasia as our activity. 

Tuesday morning I dropped the kiddos off at school and drove to Phoenix to attend the temple.  I was excited for a day in the middle of the week to go and also mark off another temple on my growing list of LDS Temples in the United States to serve in.  It was fairly busy, but also very peaceful.  I was grateful for the time of reflection and self-assessment.  An added bonus was I got to listen to The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans on my way there and back.  I have such a hard time finding time to read, so audio books really help me utilize my driving time more effectively.  I stopped at In N' Out for lunch on my way home before picking up the kids from school.  We had a great evening with homework, piano practice, reading, and playing. 

I went out with my mom on Wednesday for breakfast and shopping, we had a nice day, but ran out of time before accomplishing all we wanted to do.  I picked the kids up from school and we went home and got ready to go into Tucson for Holiday portraits.  I wasn't really pleased with how they turned out, so I was glad I didn't pay much for them.  It did however; mark off my last photo shoot required before the big club membership payoff with my next session, so that is good.  Needless to say, I'll be taking my own holiday photos for our Christmas cards this year.

 We had a nice and quiet Thanksgiving on Thursday.  I was taking a few things over to dinner with my parents that I had to make before we left the house.  I made two pies, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls.  My grandma came this year, which was great because she hasn't come the past few holidays.  It was so nice to see her and spend time with her.  We had such a relaxed and enjoyable day.  We stayed quite a while and went home full and happy and grateful.  I'm so very grateful for Thanksgiving, an opportunity our communities have to reflect on how blessed we are.  I'm grateful that it ushers in the holiday season when everyone seems to be a little nicer and a little more Christ-like; and the world needs more of that!   Friday, I had some chores, including pulling out the winter clothes and packing up the things that are too small for the kids.  That's always a chore with a lot of washing and drying and folding/hanging involved.  I also helped our friend's daughter make a birthday cake, which as usual for cakes, took the better part of the afternoon.  We did get to then go to the park with them to visit and have cake and the kids had a great time.

Saturday my dad watched the kids so that my mom and I could go out to lunch, have our nails done, and do some shopping for my mother's birthday.  It was fabulous.  The kids and I had movie night in the evening and I picked A Christmas Story.  They had never seen it, and although the language was a little more crude than I remember, we really enjoyed it.  It was so wonderful to have my kids with me at church today.  Due to visits with their dad falling in between stake conference, the temple dedication, and general conference, they hadn't been to church in nearly 8 weeks!  I ended up interpreting, but just knowing they were there with me made it so much better.  We had dinner at home and finished out our evening with some reading before bed. 

It will be hard to get up and go back to work after 9 glorious days of spending time doing the things I love most with the people I love most, but I am grateful for my job, and after all, I'll be back on Christmas break for several days starting in just a couple of weeks.  I think I can manage!  

23 November 2014

This week was a blur.  A blur.  I put in 18 hours over and above my 40 to use towards taking all of next week off.  I was at my desk from 7-5 every day and did a couple hours from home each night.  Did I also mention that I took myself back off of caffeine?  Yeah, it was a fun week.

For Family Home Evening on Monday we had our lesson on the fourth Article of Faith and our activity was watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because Felicity took her AR Test for it (and got a 95% and 16.4 points).  We'll see if we end up watching any of the remaining movies and we'll have to see how the fourth book goes, the series starts to get more dark and scary from here out.  The kids were a little nervous about the scene at the end when Lupin turns into a werewolf.  The kids really did love it, though.  Arlo has taken to casting spells at us from the dinner table with his fork, how cute is that?

We had activity days on Wednesday, and since our combined activity got cancelled sort of last minute I scrambled to put something together.  Then as it turned out, it looked like only one of my girls showed up, so we combined with the other class to then have all the girls eventually show up.  It was a little cramped, but a lot of fun.  I was so happy when Friday rolled around and I left work knowing I had 9 days of freedom before I had to go back!  The kids ended up going to their dad's Friday night, so I enjoyed a couple of movies and Christmas gift crafting.  Saturday I slept in and then went running, I ran errands and baked banana bread.  I also did my Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  I ended up pulling up 1/3 of my garden and weeding and raking.  I haven't had the time or drive to plant a winter garden, and honestly, probably won't.  Right now I have my rose garden and all my potted plants and then a section with watermelon (still going strong) and zucchini.  I imagine the colder weather will kill off the watermelon shortly and then I'll clean that area of the garden too.

Sunday was quiet and peaceful. I substituted in Helen's primary class, it was too bad that the two times I've subbed in there, she hasn't been there.  I picked the kids up in the evening and as it turned out Arlo didn't want to leave.  That was hard on this mama.  We both had some tears, but in the end I realized that it's a great thing that he has such a good time on his weekend visits.  Loving his dad and wanting to be there and have fun has nothing to do with me.  He was a little upset for the rest of the evening and just wanted to cuddle until he fell asleep.  As big as he is, he's still my baby.  I have big plans for the coming week, mostly just doing the things that would love to do every day.  I'm going to make dinner every night, and with real ingredients.  I'm going to walk to the bus stop in sweat pants.  Arlo and I are going to play and clean and shop together.  I'm going to crochet and back and sew.  I'm hoping to get to the temple this coming week too!