For the record

I hate Spring Break.

I never want to make dinner again.

Tomorrow will be different. Hopefully better :)

So many pans on the stove...

I have quite a few projects in the works, but not much to be done this moment, so I feel like I have NOTHING in the works. Awkward place to be: looking for something more to do while knowing it will be impossible to follow through.

Kitchen remodel: We ordered cabinets and hired the contractor. They're just waiting for building permits right now before the work can begin. Maybe in two weeks?

Garden 2016: started tender seeds indoors, planted hardy seeds outdoors, now I'm waiting for things to grow (and the weather to warm up) before transplanting everything outside. The new chicks are growing so fast, but still don't have enough feathers to keep themselves warm outdoors. Their chick fluff has been spread out over a larger surface area, so they look all pink and vulnerable in the last few places without juvenile feathers. They poop and eat like mad, though, so it won't be long. I'm ready to move the chicks out of my bathroom. Gotta wait, though. The old birds are only producing 2 eggs a day, so it's almost not worth it (to me) to keep them around. I went to feed/water them the other day and one hopped over and flapped onto my back. What?! Why?! I shook her off.

Spring Break: completely caught me by surprise. The first day was torture. Second day was better. Third day was the best yet. I feel like this is a big project, but mostly it just keeps me from doing my usual stuff :)

Learning Spanish: kinda hit a low point recently. I've continued my daily 10-minute practice, but it's barely holding on to the vocabulary I've learned. I like it enough to keep practicing, but without people to speak it with, my interest is waning.

Physical activity: going strong! I'm still visiting the gym regularly and enjoying my time there. I just met my first goal, though, so I'm casting about for another one to help keep up this momentum.

Encouraging my kids' education: I don't know if this would classify as a "project" per se, but it's something that takes up a lot of my time these days. I'm working on incorporating their learning into more daily activities (e.g. any time I perform arithmetic for cooking or cleaning or timing or anything, I ask the kid(s) to do it, too. Or when they ask me about something, I use the first words that pop into my head without dumbing it down too much). That takes effort, man. And that kid Robert is full of questions. This evening, I found myself trying to explain why raw chicken in a hot pan of oil produces explosive popping. James asked me this morning about whether sharks eat alligators or alligators eat sharks.

Keeping tabs on my kids' health: I worry a little about Matthew's slow language skills, so I've been signing more with him, and he LOVES it. I worry a little about Alice's checkup last week and her failing a hearing test in her left ear. We go back in a couple weeks to test again. She also complains of blurry vision now and then (while confessing that she desperately wants to join the "glasses club" at school). No medical concerns for Robert and James, thankfully. Or should I say "yet"? ;)

Summer plans: I'm starting to plan summer activities and lessons (swim? music? sports? camps? travel?) and trying to find that sweet spot in the middle of what I want and what they want. So many options, not many quiet moments to ponder the possibilities.

Teaching Primary: I teach a group of 5-6 year olds at church every week. I have seven students. Some more disruptive than others. The moment-by-moment discipline stuff uses the most energy, but I like the kids. Most weeks it's a fun challenge. I just feel like I'd be a better teacher if I had fewer students :)

I'm sure there are a few other projects I'm working on...oh yeah! My Lent goal. Kinda lost track of that one. Hmmmmm.

Recent photo of me. I took it for my texting profile photo, but now I can't figure out how to get it there :) Ha ha ha! Add that to the list of projects.

Dirty boys, Parent'Teacher Conference, and Luncheons

I love to see my kids in the garden, even if they're digging for treasure.

Another beautiful, warm spring day! I prepped a part of the garden bed for planting snap peas, but I'm afraid to plant just yet...the boys are accustomed to tromping wherever they like, so I'll need to develop a fence first.

James' Parent-teacher conference was today. It's just preschool, so I felt kinda silly about it, but I did actually learn something about James today. He knows a few letters and shapes. More than I knew he knew. He's also a good citizen in class, a contributor, and super independent. He's getting better at expressing himself verbally, too, which is especially important when he gets frustrated/upset. His favorite color is currently orange. His favorite dinosaur is ankylosaurus (the one with the club on its tail). He's been talking at home about things that are real and not real. Every once in a while he'll say something out of the blue like, "Did you know that rockets aren't real?" or "Dinosaurs are real, but only a little." He's asked about Jesus being real, and ghosts, and monsters, and dragons, and magic. They're all in the realm of "known of, but not really seen"...kinda confusing for him.

I attended a ladies luncheon today with a bunch of women I don't know very well. Ugh. It was really, really hard. I almost went home after the first 5 minutes. Really. But once the eating started and people broke out into other rooms to watch kids or feed babies and whatnot, it got less painful. There was one person there who knew me from before Bobby became bishop. She asked me a question about raising chickens and suddenly I was me again. Well, I was "me on stage", but it was more comfortable than "me wanting to get the heck out of there."

I don't know what I'm looking for socially anymore. Don't know if I really want to invest energy in getting to know all these new people all the time. It's so much easier to fall into my kids and the old, familiar relationships I've already worked on for so long. So why did I go to the luncheon? I wanted to support the host. I wanted to get to know her a little better. And I did. I'm glad I went for that reason alone. I'm just so darn slow at this social stuff, especially in unstructured groups, that I don't give the best impression. Bah humbug.

This luncheon also confirmed for me that I am so glad I don't have an infant. Everyone else can want/have one, but I am quite content to never have another one again :)

"Climbing is my talent"

That number on the wall means he's 25 feet above the ground. Bobby took this picture from the second story balcony.

Robert managed to climb all three rock faces this week! If only he could be so brave in swim lessons ;)

Lemon Cranberry Scones

Proud baker and disgruntled assistant (who must settle for the SECOND largest scone).

She made them herself! They were divine. There's something to be said about kids making pastries...they don't overwork the dough. And when you can use fantastic recipes from America's Test Kitchen, success becomes routine :)

Birthday Girl

Alice turned 9 today, thrilled to her toes. She insisted on doing things with a little more maturity.

She ate an "adult" portion of veggies at dinner and read an "adult" portion of the chapter during family scripture study (with great emphasis and feeling). Grinning. Delighted. So pleased.

She won't let me take a picture of her, though, so you'll just have to imagine her doing these things :)

Our home teachers gave her a Spanish-English picture dictionary and some Spanish vocabulary flashcards. Very generous. She wanted to practice with them after her homework.

We got to Skype with my parents and the Barneys tonight, which was fun. I've had to practice letting the kids be their kid selves. When I stop trying to have a decent conversation, then the Skype experience becomes much more enjoyable.

Alice asked for a birthday party this year. After all the hullabaloo last year with her turning eight, I was reluctant. We talked about my reservations and her hopes and finally compromised on a very low stress party format (win for me!) in which she could invite as many friends as she cared to (win for her!): we will simply meet up at a playground and play for 2 hours. She promptly typed up an invitation and printed copies for her 12 closest friends.

Sheesh, girl. You're blowin' my mind!

Love her, even when I don't understand her. Love to see her excited about change. She's hopeful about the future and loving today. That's a good place to be on one's birthday :)

Snippets

James asked to have someone over to play today. First time ever. And he didn't ask to play with the kid his age that he sees regularly. No, he asked to play with the other kid, slightly younger than him, that he fights with 75% of the time. Huh, what!? Why?!

For the record, Robert has yet to request anyone to come over to play. He has also never asked to go play at someone else's house.

Alice. asks. every. day.

Alice wants make-up and jewelry for her birthday. Real jewelry: clip on earrings and necklaces that she can wear for real. Not dress-up stuff. Ack! Ack! Ack! Trying not to panic. I'm scratching my eyes out at the thought of visiting the jewelry portion of a store, much less selecting something that I think my child will like. I have NO idea! She also asked for a puppy...maybe a puppy would be less painful.

Wait...just got an idea...maybe I could let her choose her own jewelry...make it one of our girls' nights or something. Set a budget, let her go wild. Yes. I can handle that.

Robert is reading! It finally clicked. His teacher tells me he entered KG at a reading level A, which is barely sounding out words on his own. One of his closest friends at school started at level D. Both boys made incremental progress through the year, but suddenly Robert decided he wanted to read what his friend was reading and he worked at it until he could. Now he reads level J. Robert has this quiet little competitive streak in him...most stuff he doesn't care about, but if he DOES care about it, he'll find a way to succeed at it. He confided in me that he likes being a good reader. Which, you should note, is different from liking to read. He likes being good at it. See? Subtle competitive streak.

Our furnace stopped working last night. Lucky for us, the house managed to stay relatively warm (63F) despite the freezing temps outside. When Bobby went into the crawlspace to have a look, he discovered inches of water on the floor. Yay. Two service calls, 9 hours, 4 furnace parts, and $1500 later, all problems were identified and repaired. The furnace just happened to stop working AND make the flood. Two totally different, unrelated parts broke at the same time. Go figure. It's a blessing, though, 'cuz we would not have discovered the leak for months otherwise.

Dirt! Glorious Dirt!

Warm day today. Very warm. The babe and I got to play outside in the garden while the other three were at school. Normally, I would have used that time to exercise, but Matthew had a fever this morning and I had to change my plans.

This was good for me, though.

I pulled weeds and measured/planned some infrastructure changes while Matthew toddled around playing in everything...mostly dirt and the big red car. The top few inches of soil in my raised beds were warm and fluffy. I just raked my hands through it and smiled.

The chickens got to stretch their legs around the yard, too, but after 30 minutes or so of pecking and scratching, they gathered around my legs and followed me around. Kinda creeped me out. I led them back to their pen :)

We did some stuff in the middle of the day, and came back outside in the afternoon. We had a couple friends over and the biggest boys started digging for gold (clay chunks). I kept pulling weeds (should have pulled those last fall, dagnabit!). At one point, I heard Matthew and James playing in the big, red wagon nearby. Then I heard a "fwump"*grunt* and I turned to see Matthew's legs flop over into the garden bed. He had been standing in the wagon like James and lost his balance. No worries, his face broke his fall:

It's a good thing the soil was so soft and freshly cleared of pokey weeds ;)

I suddenly found myself in a serious grump. Not because of the crying, dirty kid who would now need a bath before dinner. No, I love my kids getting dirty. This time, I was grumpy because we had to stop our fun right then if I wanted to get ANY dinner made and served before bedtime.

Confession: I hated making dinner tonight.

But I did it. And strangely enough, the kids were so hungry and so happy from playing outside all afternoon (instead of snacking all afternoon), that they ate it up gratefully and massaged my shoulders. Before I knew it, I was saying, "Cheesecake for everyone!"

And Bobby brought out the cheesecake.

Spring is the bestest time EVER!