Abigail's fashions

we've been having unusually warm weather.  but still, Abigail was anxious to wear her hat, scarf, and mittens.  she walked downstairs, ready to wear this outfit to school.  how do you find that balance of letting your kid confidently wear clothes they love and protecting them from outfits that will have other people making fun of them?  

I let her wear the whole thing except that I had her put on full length black leggings... and I brushed her hair, which naturally broke up what she had going on above her shoulders... since she had on the hood of the hoodie and then the hat and then the scarf.  I can't remember exactly what she looked like when I dropped her off, but it was a significant improvement considering I only asked her to change one thing.

here's our daily Andrew picture.

monkey see, monkey do.

I did a reading lesson with Brady out of his reading lesson book.  for the first time since October 14th.  the book made a pretty significant jump where it dropped all of the special symbols (like a line over the long vowel sounds) and font and went to a regular font and no symbol clues.  it was sooo confusing/frustrating for Brady even though he was fine reading that font in regular books that had no special symbols.  after a few days of frustrating lessons, I just dropped it.  we did some "lessons" of just him reading books to me (mostly bob books) but that eventually faded out too.  he's not a fan of bob books because there's really no plot and his questions never get answered.  so, mostly, he's just been reading random stuff that he sees around and sometimes reads some easy reader books.  I decided to try the reading lesson book again and Brady and I were both pleased and surprised at how easy it was for him again.  so even without formal lessons, the time off was still a time of learning for him.  anyway... we'll see what kind of schedule we do with it going forward.  it's just nice to know that it's an option again.  and just to note... the first lap was reading all of the words two times through, the second lap was reading the story the first time through, and the third lap was him reading the story the second time through while pausing at points to answer reading comprehension questions.

Brady told me a few weeks ago that he wanted a drum for Christmas.  it was the first I'd ever heard of it so I thought it was a fleeting thing.  not the case.  he's really into drumming now... with Lincoln logs and a boppy pillow.

Christopher had a bishopric meeting at 8:30 and bedtime was ROUGH... especially because Brady was exhausted and out of control.  I sat in the hall and waited for my kids to fall asleep while I read this conference talk about how hard is good.  these are screenshots of some of my favorite parts.

and honey and I watched some this is us before bed.  I love that show.

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.

cleaning Abigail's room

what an eventful day! I skipped the gym and cleaned Abigail and Brady's rooms, Brady made lunch for himself and Elizabeth, and Andrew found his feet (they were previously lost)... so much excitement to be had!

the biggest success of all though was that Abigail and I managed to get her things and her homework done by 4:35 without any anger or head butting or power struggles! we typically get home around 4:10 and her list of things/homework takes about an hour and 45 minutes to do... sometimes longer.  so for this to be done in 20ish minutes is nothing short of a miracle.  WOOHOO!!!