for the third Saturday in a row, honey woke up and went golfing with friends. since this has happened two times recently, I knew how this would go. it was like I could see into the future... except that everything happened even earlier than I thought it would.
I was in the process of waking up to Andrew's stirring when Brady walked in to climb in bed with me... at 6:20. what the heck?! so we snuggled and I fed Andrew and then I heard Elizabeth by 6:40 maybe and then Abigail woke up at 6:50 I think. so don't worry... our entire family was up and at 'em before 7am. thank goodness for Andrew that he didn't wake up during the night so I actually wasn't tired today, even starting the day in a less than ideal way. honey took Brady golfing with him so I just had the three with me until 9:30. last night before bed I'd made a half recipe of baked French toast so I put that in the oven this morning and it made the day feel a little happier and more special. and I finally cut up a watermelon that's been sitting around for weeks. not sure why but I couldn't for the life of me remember to cut that thing up. I told all the kids to remind me to cut up watermelon for breakfast though so we made that happen. contrary to the picture... Elizabeth loved it. I put that giant bowl on the table for Elizabeth and Abigail and they just went at it with their forks. we do family style.
Elizabeth is a character. she is so funny and so sweet but so horribly disobedient. maybe implementing the strategies from this parenting book will help her out too.
honey took Abigail and Brady to the pool. Abigail had a pool party there from 10:30-12:30. I had Elizabeth nap during that time... 10:45-12:45. and Andrew was napping during that time. I did depressing stuff like cleaning up everyones messes from the morning. ; )
Abigail had a primary activity at the church from 4-6 but Brady wasn't old enough to go so honey took him and Elizabeth on a bike ride to the school's playground and then he came home and made us burgers for dinner.
Elizabeth was somehow taking selfies in my bathroom while still wearing her bib from dinner? not sure how the stars aligned to make this happen but there it is.
and then honey went to fight night at 7 at a friend's house while I put all the kids to bed... with no fights or tears! well, not involving me. they still have their own issues with each other.
I have no idea how, but I'm grateful for the energy and motivation I've felt today. doing motherhood from 6:15am- current (8:45pm) and all the cleaning and care taking that go along with that. I did multiple reading lessons with Brady and two writing lessons with Abigail and read the three kids books in Abigail's room when it was too hot to play outside and maintained my patience pretty well even when there were a number of times that it should have felt much harder than it did. I never felt like I needed to escape or have alone time which is so foreign to me. I'm still wondering how it happened and what kind of a fluke that was but mostly I'm just grateful. even when honey sent kids to their rooms for quiet time, I got them out for reading lessons and then for all of us to read together in Abigail's room. just because I wanted to spend time with them instead of by myself. I'm still having trouble believing that that happened. what an exciting day for that to have happened.
running out of milk and eggs at the same time pretty much guaranteed that I'd need to get myself to Costco soon.
and somehow this alllllways happens. go into Costco for milk and eggs and then bury your baby under $200 of groceries.
8 gallons of skim milk, 10 dozen eggs, four loaves of bread, a tub of sour cream, a tub of cottage cheese, giant package of toilet paper, box of yogurts (these have been great for when I don't have the motivation to make food for myself), tortellini (I was feeling ambitious about actually making dinner), hummus (because it was on sale and Brady's favorite number is four so we got four), two packages of snap peas (because we need something to eat with all that hummus!), bananas (even though I never have good luck with Costco bananas, I just keep trying), and a package of bottled water (because we had a door to door salesman come by the other day and it was so hot so I offered him a drink and he asked for a bottle of water to take with him... I was so embarrassed that I didn't have a simple bottle of water for him... I ended up filling up a water bottle with ice water and told him to just throw it away when he was done with it because I didn't care about getting it back. I'm still wondering if he ever drank the water or if he was sketched out that it wasn't safe or something... who knows). and a box of orbit gum with something like 252 pieces of gum inside... that has proved to be an excellent purchase so far but more on that later. we got other stuff too like gogurts and magnesium vitamins but holy cow it was amazing how my simple list just filled my cart to the brim. probably didn't help that I started with three kids though.
eating lunch and hanging out with our new neighbor friends. we seriously couldn't have lucked out any more with our new neighbors. I looooove that Brady has a friend on the street now. I mean, he had Presley before, but it's really great now for him to have a boy to ride bikes and scooters with.
we got that 100 easy lessons reading book on Wednesday afternoon and did five lessons that day and then no lessons on Thursday. at Costco, I bought that huge box of gum to be Brady's rewards for completing a reading lesson. he was so excited to get a piece of gum that he asked to do a reading lesson. I started the stopwatch on my phone (because I'm roughly timing how long lessons take us) and he was so whiney and not very cooperative. finally he told me that he was just too tired so I told him fine and I just got up and went to put Andrew down for a nap. came back to a sleeping Brady. and just 9 minutes and 33 seconds before, he'd been begging to do a reading lesson. I'm glad I let him nap. also, this is why he won't be doing four days of afternoon preschool. I think if he just does Tuesday and Thursday of afternoon preschool, he'll be able to nap/rest on the other afternoons and still be totally fine. he just really still needs naps.
while all three kids were napping, I cleaned out my car. honey spent some quality time with Andrew since it was his second day in a row that he was more high maintenance and needing to be held/tended to. we watched part of the big friendly giant but none of us were into it and both kids eventually requested that we turn it off and they could go to bed instead of finishing the movie. ha. fail. I got in a screaming match with Abigail during bedtime because she wanted me to stay with her forever until she fell asleep and wasn't willing to compromise at all on any of the suggestions I made to her. she seems to be the only kid right now that thinks she's an only child and it kills me. and I sat in Brady's bed forever texting honey who was on the bed in Abigail's room like 20 feet away from me. eventually I made my way to the kitchen where I cleaned up and made the bread/egg part of baked French toast and stuck it in the fridge for the morning. mentally, the day had some highs and lows and I'm grateful that my honey really text therapied me through the lows. night times can be rough on me mentally.
today was picture day for Abigail at school. we started early and somehow managed to get her picture-ready and squeak her to school on time! woohoo!
Brady got himself dressed and on the stairs called out his typical "BASEBALL PLAYER COMING THROUGH!!!" he walked in so pleased with himself that I could hardly stand it and then climbed into bed with me and said "I dressed so cool I can't even believe it!" and it put me over the edge. he is too much.
how could you not fall in love with this guy? he's so endearing to me.
he's also really skilled and surprised me today with a new trick. I've never even seen him practice anything relating to standing on his bike seat so it totally took me by surprise that he was so proficient. he's also really good at riding with one hand and can even ride with no hands for a few seconds at a time.
Jill recommended this book to me on Thursday when we were at her house to see the baby pigs... I ordered it a few days later and it just came today while we were eating lunch outside. we did the first five lessons in 34 minutes. they only went so fast because Brady already knows his letter sounds but I thought it would be good to not skip any lessons so we're just doing them quickly instead. once things get more challenging, I've heard the lessons take at least 20 minutes and sometimes parents split them between two days and also take several days of a break in between lessons. Brady doesn't love it, but he's extremely motivated by mini marshmallows at the moment so we'll see how things progress with this. I'm working my way through reading the parent portion.
honey sent me this picture on his drive from Vegas to st. George.
our neighbor's are having sprinkler issues so we had a stream of water washing onto our driveway. Elizabeth found it and promptly took off her shoes to frolic in the little stream.
she was thrilled.
Abigail got home from school and started spinning. Brady joined her. surprisingly, no one got seriously injured.
I can't remember what it was, but I made a request and this was her response.
which led to her being keenly interested in exploring her belly button. we're all pretty easily distracted around here.
lately, I've let go of trying to have a clean house and it's amazing how much else I'm able to do during the day. today, we spent a ton of time outside, I worked with Brady on reading lessons, I read the intro of the reading book, and I continued to listen to the audiobook of 1, 2, 3, magic which was recommended to me yesterday afternoon by the family therapist that Abigail and I met with. Chris and I will meet with him again in two weeks and I want to have read the book and had time implementing it before I return. luckily, our library has hoopla, which I've heard about a lot but never actually used. I put the book on hold at the library but realized it could be a while before it became available.... but it was instantly available on hoopla, so I made an account, downloaded the app, and was listening to the audio book within minutes. today, I've just had it on play while I've been outside watching the kids or inside nursing Andrew. I've never been into audio books, but I may have to give them a fair shot because I'm getting in so much more "reading" than what I otherwise would. I'm over 2 hours in and have less than 5 hours to go. but I know it's less than that because I'm listening to it at 1.5 speed. I haven't started using it at all, but tonight with the kids, I kept thinking about how it would come in handy. as with every other thing, I'm insecure about trying something new because it's hard for me to remember things long term. it's one thing to parent a child with ADD... it's another thing when the parent also has ADD. like last year, Abigail did SO well at school with the star chart her teacher did to reward good behavior. I didn't even attempt anything like that at home because I just can't remember stuff like that. honestly, it's hard enough for me to remember to get my kid a glass of milk if they ask while I'm cooking dinner or doing anything else in the kitchen. sooo, wish me luck.
I feel like I've just got a lot on my mind lately that I've had to think about... and I know it's nothing for anyone else, but for me it feels like I'm juggling ten million things.
Brady is now in the afternoon A class at preschool for just Tuesday/thursday and his first day will be tomorrow.
my paint color is still getting considered. HA.
I'm planning to join the rec center gym.
I'm hoping to do reading lessons with Brady during quiet time.
we checked out a tablet from the library that's loaded with math games that Brady can also do for a bit during quiet time.
I'm listening to 1, 2, 3, magic on audiobook and will implement it before our next appointment... hopefully with all three kids... Elizabeth is turning into a bit of a defiant firecracker.
I'm slowly getting the kids on a schedule and moving up their bedtime. tonight I got everyone in bed by 7:45 and lights out for everyone by 8. Brady and Elizabeth were out by 8:15 and Abigail closer to 8:30 or 8:45. progress.
as I said... no one else would really consider this anything to juggle but for me, it's felt busy and chaotic. I'm hoping as we stick to the schedule I've made and I power through things, it will become more mainstream and automatic for me. one thing that has really really helped is that I quit Facebook two weeks ago. I did this a year and a half ago (I think maybe February of 2016) and didn't get on Facebook until October when I became pregnant and was in bed 24/7. this time, like the last, wasn't planned. it was just one day that I decided I would skip Facebook and then it felt good so I kept doing it. two weeks ago, my neighbor Stephanie that just moved posted on Facebook a picture illustration of the varieties of spiders and posted about how she'd just killed four spiders already that morning in her apartment. I commented about how she better not ever post pictures like that again and then realized that that was a big mistake. because then my notifications were filled with that photo every time someone commented, liked, replied to, etc. that photo post. I know you can unfollow the post... which I tried to do without looking at my phone (because spider picture)... but almost reported Stephanie to Facebook by accident. whoops. gave up on that and decided I would just take a few days off Facebook and wait till it blew over. but then I just decided maybe I should go on a Facebook fast for a bit. I'd love to quit Facebook for this whole school year but I'm not committed to it because the second I tell myself I can't have something then I want it fifty times more. right now, I'm just actively remembering and choosing to abstain from Facebook because it makes me happier. I truly need to quit it forever, I'm just not there yet. who wants to change my password for. me?
and now I'm off to clean my kitchen. or go to sleep. or maybe just eat a cookie (thanks mother! the gift that keeps on giving!!!). it's just glorious that I've already enjoyed over an hour of silence and it's only 10pm. woohoo!
but first... just wanted to say how grateful I am to have ambitions again. my mentality about life right now is a complete 180 from what it was earlier this year. reading parenting books, deciding to homeschool (and preschool) my child, spending time outdoors with my kids, choosing to join the gym... when six months ago I struggled to get out of bed, feed my children, and get myself dressed. just thinking about any one of those things would send me into a fit of depression and overwhelm. now, I'm back to waking up excited and just feeling frustrated that there's not enough time in the day to do everything I wish I could do. not the opposite of wishing that I didn't have to live my day and that it could just be night time again so I could fall back asleep into unconsciousness. it's so crazy to try to wrap my mind around the change. someone point me to this post next time I'm pregnant, please. ugh, I'm so not looking forward to going back to that again. in the mean time, I'll just enjoy this ambitiousness and hope that I feel.
just another picture seeing how my top paint swatch on the side of my house isn't identical to the lower siding color on the side of my neighbor's house.
she takes me off guard sometimes when I look up from my phone and see this by my face.
she was coming to ask me to buckle it for her. don't worry, we got things switched around.
hard hat area.
we went up the street to watch the building going on.
it entertained them for quite a while.
and then they saw the cows come and of course got VERY excited about that.
cows and construction... what more could you ask for?!
I'm not sure how, but Elizabeth lost her balance and face planted in this planter.
I got most of it scraped off her tongue and told her we'd go home to get her cleaned off but that just made her scream more. she wanted to stay. so we stayed.
I took Abigail to an appointment tonight. I forgot to bring extra fairy books so she'd already finished the one in the car before we even got there. luckily there were Lincoln logs to play with and she continued to impress with her creative, outside of the box thinking.
also, persistence. she would not clean up without getting all of the pieces balancing just right. the slightly pictured guy so generously helped her with that.
and here's me... just continuing, for my own entertainment, to take pictures of paint because it's like that Pocahontas song about never stepping in the same river twice and paint colors, because of lighting, are never going to stop changing color on you.
nearly every morning, Brady walks into my bedroom and asks for a treat. this morning he walked in and said "the clips are today!!!" he's been counting down the days.
I scheduled last week to have stacey meet us at the library for Elizabeth's therapy so we could be there for the library party. turned out not to be much of a party (so strange because most of the library party are over the top well done) but I'm still so glad we went. it turned out to be a really fun morning.
I had to get us all ready early so we could go straight from dropping Abigail off at school.
my kids just really love to be photographed. Brady asked if I could take a picture of him so I told him to stand against this wall and then Elizabeth had to stand next to him and wouldn't leave because she wanted to be in all the pictures, not just one.
trying to ever so gently nudge her out of the picture.
seriously?! i can't get over this kid.
especially the hand in the pocket.
the library was a MADHOUSE. parking all down mainstreet was nuts and they had the empty dirt lot across the street roped for cars to park there. and police were directing traffic and standing out to keep the peace. why? oh, because the library offered eclipse glasses to be handed out at 10am. I knew there would only be 200 pairs (because I called last Monday) so I picked some up from grease monkey instead. good thing because there were well over 200 people (one library inside estimated around 1000) and they'd been out there for hours standing or sitting in camp chairs. craziness.
also, thankful again to have Brady be my helper. he's so great.
stacey brought her son since he didn't have preschool and I was soooo excited for Brady to meet him. their birthdays are only five days apart and the boys hit it off instantly. stacey told me she signed Zack up for a 4 week thing of soccer so I signed Brady up for it too. hoping to nurture that little friendship and I think Brady will love it. stacey and Elizabeth worked on colors with paw patrol.
they also did nursery rhymes in this Elmo board book that we ended up checking out and bringing home with us.
I can't even handle it. it really is amazing how well they hit it off.
ha.
we started watching the eclipse around 11:15 and had such a good view from our spot in the library that we stayed in the kid section and just came over to check on it whenever we wanted.
most of the reason I wanted to come to the library for it was (obviously not for the glasses because we brought our own) because stuff like this is just more fun to experience with other people than it is to experience alone. we had a little group of us (including my favorite librarian, Andrea) that were gathered together watching it. Andrea also kept playing a total eclipse of the heart on her phone so we had some mood music.
I packed sandwiches and apples for the kids and it came in handy.
didn't stop Elizabeth from scrounging for more food in my purse though. it was great being with the librarians because they opened the emergency exit door and we all could go as we pleased outside and inside through that little side door.
we got home around 12:45, just as our trash was being picked up. I lent our glasses to each of the trash men for a few seconds so they could have a look. they didn't speak any English (except one of them managed to say something about apple and iPhone because of the way the sun looked like it had a bite taken out of it) but I think they thought it was pretty cool. I watched it in its final minutes and it was gone at 1:14. crazy how much hype that brought for how brief it was. cool to witness though. what amazed me most was, during the height of the eclipse, how the sky was barely dimmed even though we were only getting 7% of the sun's rays when we were used to 100%. it's just that powerful. also, I kept thinking of so many spiritual analogies from it which was cool.
also, in case we're still wondering, still going back and forth with this lady about paint colors for my home.
at 2:30, I dropped by three kids off at Sarah's house and went to the school to observe the afternoon A preschool class. short story: it looked like a much better fit for Brady. I called to see about switching him to that class.
walked in on this... Abigail was setting up an epic "eeny meeny miney mo" with her chapter books. I say epic because she only does the "you are NOT it" version so each book has to be individually eliminated.
Andrew was just loving checking the mail with honey.
I filled this out for Brady. I swear I explained the eclipse to him SEVERAL times and had him watch multiple you tube videos about it and even made up our own little model using a crumpled ball of paper as the sun and Andrew's nose syringe as the moon but he somehow still thought there would be a million hair clips floating across the sky. so... he was a little disappointed.
and lastly... I laughed out loud when I was cleaning up and saw this. "my goal is to improve my habit of reading books in the morning by not reading." ...written right next to her homework assignment of "read 15 minutes." I'm not sure how much she explained to her teacher so her teacher probably thinks we're all weird. just to fill you in... Abigail LOVES reading fairy books and will read one or two when she wakes up (they each take her about 45 minutes) but I've told her that she can't do that on school mornings because she needs to just come downstairs to shower right when she wakes up. now my kid is the one who is writing goals about trying to stop reading because it's forbidden by her mother.
