winning at life

I woke up (well, who are we kidding... it set in last night) sore from the weights class I did at the gym yesterday. Thank goodness it was yoga day today. I managed to get Abigail ready and off to school on time and the rest of us ready so we could drive straight to the gym. Dropped the kids off at the daycare and got five minutes of warm up on the treadmill and then went upstairs for yoga. It was a sub named Debra and she was telling us scripture stories and mythical stories to go along with the yoga poses and she was all about her theme of the day of heat and change. Very entertaining and a pretty good workout. Picked the kids up at 10:45 and hung out at the playground with molly for an hour or so while our kids played. The weather was beautiful although maybe a tad hot. That sun. 

Got brady and Elizabeth lunch (well, brady likes to make his own sandwiches now so that part was easy) and he read books to Andrew since I was putting Andrew down for nap. I put Elizabeth down at 1 and gray got picked up at 1:10 and I was in the shower by 1:15. Woohoo!  My whole nap time was spent showering and then ironing some of Chris's shirts. I'm 100% against ironing but our dryer has been sporadically not doing the wrinkle mode that keeps it tumbling. So I've accumulated a stack of wrinkled dress shirts. Tackled all seven shirts. Ironing is the biggest waste of time ever. Also, Elizabeth never napped. Hung out in her crib forever and eventually started crying so I finally got her out at 3 something and she actually was awesome reading books quietly in her room while I did ironing and put the shirts away.

At 3:55, my alarm went off for school pickup and as I told Elizabeth to get her shoes on, I smelled a dirty diaper. Got her diaper changed. Went to Andrew to get him buckled. Also had a dirty diaper. I think I was ten minutes late picking up the kids. Whoops. But I did grab three bananas and passed those to the kids while they were getting buckled and we were all able to drive straight to the library. I know we just went last night (and had a super embarrassing exit that involved three of my four children screaming), but Chris was in slc today and not getting back til 8. When he's out of town, it almost guarantees us a trip to the library.

Two minutes after we walked in, one of the librarians was walking around saying there was availability for the fairy garden making class that was about to start (I'd had Abigail on the waitlist) because people last minute didn't show up. So Abigail and Brady ran over to join that and I nursed Andrew and Elizabeth played.

After it was over and people were clearing out and cleaning up (but of course Abigail was still working hard), the kids noticed that where were actually foam crowns and orange sugar cookies and orange juice juice boxes and I decided that I was officially winning at motherhood today. 

We stayed a bit longer so the kids could play and we checked out our hold books for Abigail and a whole ton of books that I'd collected for Brady. We left after 6:30 and got home closer to 7. Walking in, I started an episode of paw patrol for the kids while I nursed Andrew and put him to bed (that kid is so neglected and so patient... he's not really a pet rock anymore... I'd put him firmly in the carry on baggage category).

honey got home while the kids and I were eating dinner.  Brady and I went upstairs and read a bit.  I just wanted to show him the new library books I got for him and show him that even though some of them look hard... he's completely capable.  I haven't told Brady yet, but we're gonna take a break from his reading lesson book for a while.  we may or may not come back to it yet... I haven't decided yet.  I want to see how he does with me working with him out of real books that have a much larger set of vocabulary words.  I know he's capable of reading more than just the limited words in the reading lesson book.  

anyway, then Brady had a meltdown when I told him I was going to put Elizabeth to bed (it was 9:00 or something and she didn't even nap at all today!) so I left him and I think he was asleep within two or three minutes.  it was by the time I finished brushing Elizabeth's teeth.  ha.  I think school days really wear him out because he doesn't get a nap or any quiet resting time.  

so once all the kids were asleep, I was so exhausted but my kitchen was a disaster.  lately, I've assigned that job to Christopher, but right now is his busiest time of year and he said he wouldn't be able to get to it tonight or tomorrow morning so I went downstairs and did the pile up of dishes and started the dishwasher and cleared off the counters.  it felt really good to get that accomplished but didn't feel good to see the clock say 11 and know my sleep time was dwindling. still so worth it to wake up to clean kitchen though.  it makes all the difference to my day.

I'm not gonna pretend that all my days are so amazing, but I couldn't fail to record this special one.  everything just came together for me and I feel so lifted up from it.  thank goodness for amazing days.

first snow!

kid zone at the library

today was a frustrating day in a lot of ways but luckily not all bad.  honey was supposed to go to South Dakota but his client last minute cancelled his lunch meeting (luckily before honey was on a plane to South Dakota) so he was home for dinner and bedtime instead of being gone.  woohoo! 

Brady took this mirror selfie.

this is a regular computer in the library for looking up books.  Elizabeth thought (or maybe was just pretending... I'm not sure) that it could also be for checking out books so she loaded our books on the keyboard and it was cute to watch.  she's just a funny kid.

also, it's more amusing to me now even though I was severely annoyed at the time that she brought this book from home.  snuck it into the car without me realizing and then managed to sneak it into the library.  and luckily it still came home with us.

Brady did his kid zone craft in record time again.

Abigail strung beads on pipe cleaners for as long as the librarian let her.

even Elizabeth did enough to make herself a little bracelet.

and Brady played with Andrew.  he loves him so much.

funniest part of my day was when honey asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch and I had to tell him that I couldn't because I was going to pilates with Sarah.  how long is it going to take me to not feel like a poser when I say that.  anyone that knows me should understand how laughable it is that I had to turn down costa vida because it was going to interfere with a pilates class at the gym.

and my most grateful part of the day was that my honey got dinner plates for the kids so that when we got home from the library, it was one less thing for me to do and manage with my headache.  thank goodness for that.

I deserve a medal

I have been majorly sucking at making time for scripture study.  I did, however, manage to flip open my scriptures this morning and just read a quick few verses.  I feel like it was meant that I found these this morning (I just flipped to a random page)... I've been reflecting on my post from almost two weeks ago about how I googled boarding schools.  things got significantly easier after that.  one major issue just basically all but vanished... or at least the ill effects of it.  it made me think of when I was dealing with infertility right after we got to California and Heavenly Father pushed me to my breaking point and then I finally got pregnant and was relieved of that heartbreak I'd been experiencing.  

I feel like that Wednesday was a breaking point for me.  I'm not sure if that specific trial is going to be a thing of the past now or if my burdens are just being eased for a time.  either way, I'm appreciating it.

these kids were having so much fun playing with the donuts.  I was thinking the other day that they're maybe the best toy in our entire house.  thanks Emmy!

she must have had Brady help her get her helmet buckled. she sure loves that helmet.  it's hard to get it off her even indoors.

she almost always rides this scooter while sitting down.  she just reaches her hand up to press the red button or walks it with her feet.

I was filling out Brady's paperwork that I needed to take to orientation with us (whoops... a little last minute on that.  I saw that they requested a full body shot and head shot and groaned at the thought of running to Walmart to get it printed.  but it didn't request a number or size so I just took them on my phone and then, when I got to orientation, emailed them to his teacher.  what a cute kid.  so insanely excited for preschool.

also, I love when he requests that I take pictures of him on his bike.  he's obsessed with riding his bike now.  he just takes off and rides around and around the block.  never really cared for riding a bike with training wheels, but once he learned how to do two wheels, he's LOVED riding his bike.

my favorite little fatty.

orientation was great.  I think there are maybe like two other kids in Brady's class... not sure why since I think there are a lot of kids in the other class? his teachers seem really nice.  they also tried to help me figure out a solution to the fact that the district requires an adult signature to sign your kid in and that means that I'm parking and lugging my kids with me to walk Brady to his classroom to sign in.  we'll play it by ear I guess and hopefully be able to figure something out... y'know, since this will be four days a week for the entire school year.

Brady watched some paw patrol and Elizabeth took a nap from 2-4 until it was time to get Abigail.  I took all the kids to grease monkey with me to pick up free eclipse glasses and luckily the guy gave me five pairs.  I called ahead and they only give out one per person present so I couldn't pick up any for honey or Abigail if they weren't with me.  so we went after we got Abigail from school and the guy saw Andrew in his carseat and winked and said "I'll give you a pair for this little guy and maybe he'll want to share with his old man." ha.  so now our whole family is covered.  except then Abigail told me that her teacher had those in her classroom (so Abigail is probably already covered) and honey told me he has a meeting that day at 12:30 or something so he'll be watching from the highway or wherever he is at the time.  Brady will be at preschool at the time so I'm going to send his glasses with him and hope that he'll get to go outside to watch.  and I'll have two littles with me and will take them to the library eclipse viewing party that'll be happening.

so after getting our glasses, we went to the library.  I try to take the kids to the library on evenings that honey won't be home because it helps pass the time til dinner and bed.  it's our second home.  also, see those clouds?  this has been the summer of rain every afternoon/evening.  it's nuts.  our grass is actually green this year!

can you tell which books on hold belong to us? Abigail is nearing the end of her rainbow magic books.  she probably only has 20 or so left but there are three mini series that I haven't found on our library website even though the wikipedia list doesn't mention them as being only available in the UK.  I'll need to ask a librarian about those.  and in the mean time, I'm trying to find other series that she'll like.  I've found a few other fairy series and I think mermaid tales sounds promising too.  we'll see.  Abigail just keeps telling me that she's going to reread her current fairy series.  she loves them so much.

not sure what they were all looking at... I just mostly thought it was precious that they chose to all share that chair.

and then they went back to eating their granola bars.

who's pumped?

Brady and Elizabeth are both really helpful to me with throwing stuff away... especially diapers.  Elizabeth though has decided lately that she only want to put things in the recycling.  so I have to remember every so often to remove the dirty diapers from the recycling and put them in the trash can immediately next to it.

my honey.  cracks me up.

I feel like a champion for doing so well with the kids for Sunday and Monday.  I provided activities for them and was patient and we stayed engaged.  I think the word that stands out to me the most is "intentional."  I never checked out and sat on my phone while yelling at the kids to play with their toys or stop making a mess or doing stupid things.  we kept it simple but kept it intentional.  that's my goal going forward... to stay intentional as much as possible.

I'm thankful for this new school year and the fresh start it brings.  the start of last school year was completely magical.  I remember I kept telling mom over and over that Abigail in first grade was the best thing to ever happen to me.  Abigail was great, Brady was great, Elizabeth was great, I was loving life, and everything was perfect.  and then I got pregnant in October and everything fell apart near instantly.  SO, chances are, I'm not going to fall pregnant anytime this school year and I'm wondering just how long we can keep the magic alive.  crossing my fingers here!