Natalie in Provo

So, I didn't record this yet... On Monday night I took Natalie down to Provo - I met up with Ethan in American Fork, and they had her sleep over for two nights, Monday and Tuesday night. She got back Wednesday night, getting a ride home with Abi after Abi's Lyceum orchestra reherasal was done. 

Ethan said he wants to take a different sibling each week to come sleepover and make some memories. Natalie was the first one. She went with Bella to the Tuesday devotional, and then Tuesday night is the night they don't have anything, so that is like their date night. They took Natalie out for fun at an arcade and out for dinner. Playing games - 

Waiting for some burgers and fries...

Yummy ice cream!

Today she went with Ethan to his class - 

Then they headed to American Fork to drop N off with Abi before they had work, so that worked out pretty good logistically, and saved us a trip. I think it's super great that they want to make some memories with these little brothers and sisters before they have their baby in May. Such a fun idea. 

So I put that here cause Wed and Thurs were busy. Today was a fairly normal Friday. I spent just a little bit of time this morning reading Simple abundance, Feb 19 - 21, and wow I loved it. I talked to Nicole on my way to Costco (for frozen pineapple). Owen gave my green smoothie a try, cause he's trying to be healthy so he can be a big strong football player. 

Then I went to get Lily at school in Eliza's car, I took her to Blue Note Band and then I was going to  go to Provo to get new blender pitcher, cause that broke today, buuuuut they are closed on Fridays. Boo, but yay that I discovered that before driving there. So instead I went to the DI, then to a park for a little grounding and squat sitting, then picked up Lily, back for date nigh at Aubergine. Sophi and Natalie had violin group class, Abi took them to that. I took DPK to Wayne's, Corey brought them home when he was done working which ended up being about the same time that Lily and I were arriving back home.

Museum with Kids

So, I went to the Church Art and History museum yesterday, and I was really touched. I had heard about the current exhibit a few months ago at church, but I did not realize until last night that the exhibit was ending March 1st. That is this Saturday!!! I wanted to go back and see more, so I loaded up the younger kids after school and we took an outing down to the museum. 

They were more interested in the water fountain than in going to a museum.

Natalie was reaching into the water to get coins for her and her brothers to use to make wishes. 

They wondered if that was ok to do, worried it would undo other people's wishes to have her reuse the coins. I told them it would be ok. Natalie got a little bit wet though.

Ok, enough wishes, let's go. We didn't end up seeing hardly any of the art work today, cause I was watching kids in the children's area the whole time. It was cute - Katharine gave a talk at a replica of the Conference Center walnut pulpit. 

And they played with the fun interactive areas.

Katharine making a display of all the toys.

Peter working on a temple steeple.

And his family tree. That face in the red square really does look like you, Peter!

Owen worked on drawing different temples with some stencils.

And there were ipads to color on. 

K having a go at the temple spires. 

Soon Owen was bored and wanted to leave. K would have stayed until it closed if she could.

Learning about temple baptismal fonts.

I did want to try to go look at some of the exhibits, but it wasn't as easy as it was last night. So I'm glad that Corey insisted I come yesterday, and that I do it without the kids, cause even though it was only 45 minutes yesterday, my heart was full. They didn't want me to leave them, so they came with me. As soon as we walked out of the children's area, Peter was frightened by this sculpture, called "Laundry Monkeys". I thought it looked horrible as well. "That is giving me nightmares..." Peter whimpered.

Sheesh, why did they put this right at eye level of where the kids come out of the children's area?!?! Well, let's see how something so ugly gets accepted into the church museum... "Contemporary Latter-day Saint artists such as Janis Wunderlich adhere to the belief that candor about the underexplored complexities of life invites empathy and works to the edification of its viewers. In Laundry Monkeys, Wunderlich draws on her Cherokee heritage and uses animals to explore human relationships. She makes palpable many personal demands--emotional, physical, spiritual, and social. Children, animals, and household objects cling to every inch of the female figurine, threatening to topple it. With arms outstretched and legs positioned to bear weight, she braces herself. The cluttered composition and rough surfaces are metaphors for the experience of life, which is often messy and challenging. Fantastical and playful, the piece uses humor to depict the realities of mortal existence and honors the individual's need to engage deeply with family, church, and community." K. I get it I guess, but that is still super ugly, and I would not feel proud if I had made it nor would I ever put something like it on display in my home. The kids weren't too interested in the art, so I'm glad I was able to see some of it yesterday. Maybe Corey and I can come down tomorrow for date night to look around some more. I followed the kids around. We ended up over by the Moroni statue. A nice docent at the museum visited with us. The boys tried to lift up some metal plates that weighed as much as the golden plates would have. They were heavy. Katharine tried to climb on different things and to feel Moroni's toe, and had her feelings hurt when the docent told her to not touch it. She was so dejected!  

Haha, she's so cute. Of course you can still call all the shots at home, little princess, but at this museum, they make the rules and we have to obey. Ok fine, but she still felt sad about that.

Ok, Owen, you were kinda patient. We can go now. 

On our way to the car, I realized I forgot to get a parking validation, so we went up into the conference center to get one. Ugh! More?!?! Katharine can't take it. 

We made it back home. Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday that K did #1 in potty for the first time ever! Good job Kat! Earlier today, I went with K to Costco and got stuff for green smoothies. I'm going to give it a try for a bit. Seemed like a good thing to do for March and it's green St. Patrick's day festivities. 

Art Museum

Here's my Wednesday report. I took carpool this morning. Before we left, I discovered that that elusive "someone" had exploded butter in the microwave, which makes me want to strike a stern and swift judgement upon all my children. I vowed that I never want to buy butter again. I admit I was over reacting, but I really do hate it. This is what happened - I'm up before carpool, I'm making oatmeal and trying to clean off the counter, but I can't cause the dishcloth is all coated with grease, yuck. I wasn't sure why it was so greasy, but I try to rinse it off and I get it in a bowl to microwave it to get it clean, I go to the microwave and it is COVERED WITH BUTTER EVERYWHERE and so some kid was microwaving butter, which I tell them not to do, or someone was up past bedtime last night making a mug cake in the microwave. Grrr. As we are picking up carpool, we pick up Soph's friend and Sophi is looking at her weird, and I was like "What???" then I clued in "is she wearing my shoes?" Sophi borrows my adidas and I share them quite willingly everyday, but I thought that was super tacky to let her friend borrow them without asking me. "I thought you'd say no..." So then you just take it and do what you want?!?! Better to ask forgiveness than permission?!?! I was bugged... Kids are bugging me. I was kinda fuming on the ride to school but decided to save my lecture for later. But I did send Corey a voice message and complained about butter and girls always baking desserts, and kids being entitled and taking shoes, etc etc. When I'm back home, Corey says I can't swear off butter, and he thinks it's great that the girls like to cook and bake and then I got up and left to go outside to rake up pine needles before the garbage comes. K, I admit I probably a little too mad about this, but it didn't help that he was not letting me vent or sympathizing with me. My abrupt departure and a few tears caused him to come out and apologize and knelt down in front of me and kissed my feet. He asked for permission to reset the clock 10 minutes. K, your charm has humored me and made me laugh. We can reset the clock but we'll need to reset it 20 minutes. Then he agreed that yes, we should never buy butter again! And yes, these kids act so entitled!!! THANK YOU sweetheart, I feel heard. It reminded me of a Diary of a CEO thing I heard the other day in a reel (in this video at 1:27:22): SHUT UP, Listen. Corey is really great at doing this with the kids by the way. Not so much with me, but hopefully I can learn how to articulate myself and give feedback to help us improve. I hope he gives me honest feedback as to things I can do better. So again, ok, yeah, maybe I don't really want blue hair or to never buy butter again, but it helped after the clock reset that he humored me for a few minutes and let my frustrated feelings be heard. 

So, I was already kinda touchy emotionally after this morning. Then I had Parent Teacher Conferences this afternoon, and a relief Society activity tonight. Meeting at the church at 6. I told Corey to be back home at 6 so I go and he could be with the kids. I looked at life 360 at 5:45 and noticed that he was not on his way yet. I didn't say anything (I need to learn how to be direct) Then at 6:15 sent him a message that I was going to go to the activity and I'd just take Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine with me. He said he could take them, he just had been busy and hadn't left yet. Abi had the van at Lyceum. I was going to take Eliza's car and it would be fine, we'd all fit, I'd just have Owen ride shotgun. He insisted I not take them, and that I'd enjoy myself more without them. I'd enjoy myself more if I go, and if I don't go now I don't think I'll have time at the museum at all. But ok... he came home, took ODPK with him to Provo to see Mel's concert, and I left at 6:40 to go downtown to the activity. I parked, was at the museum at 7:15. Sigh. I found the young women group, there were not a lot of relief society sisters, just the RS sisters that are also YW leaders or have girls in YW. 

Well I'm glad I came to rep the RS, even if I was super late. Here are some of the pieces I liked. The Exhibit was called "Work and Wonder: 200 years of Latter-Day Saint Art". I loved the colors in this one (can't find the title of the piece...) but I remember that it represented Christ in Gethsemane (left panel) on the cross (right) and resurrection (center). 

Ok, I found it - this is called "Again, Glorified" (Atonement Triptych) by Paige Crosland Anderson . Loved the video of her explaining her work. So beautiful. I didn't really take time to look too deeply at the pieces, but I walked by and read the explanation of the ones that caught my attention. Other ones that I studied (and that you can google if you want) were:

Nicole Woodbury Preece - Within the Marrow of Our Bones, 2019. Porcelain ceramic, 8.5 x 8.5 x 4 inches. 

John Hafen (American, born Switzerland, 1856–1910), Garden of Eden, circa 1893. 

Wulf Barsch (American, born Germany, 1943), In the Valley of the Sun and the Moon: Snow Canyon, 2000. Oil on canvas, 71 1/2 x 54 inches.

They had some large screens that had quotes that really touched me. I was feeling it in my soul ~

"The influence of art is so powerful in shaping our lives for a higher appreciatoin of the creations of our God that we cannon afford to neglect an acquaintance with it....

...We should be as eager for its companionship as we are eager for chairs to sit upon or for food to sustain our lives. For it has as important a mission in shaping our character and in conducting our happiness as anything that we term necessities. - John Hafen

More quotes on display: 

Art can transmit a message of hope, light, and truth anchored in Jesus Christ, His glory, and His work for the eternal well-being of the whole human race...

...Art shows there is a greater purpose in life which transcends our daily worries, stresses, pleasures, and joys. Expression through art is one of the ways we can help bridge the divide. - Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Yes... I was feeling like my heart has been touched by hope and truth anchored in Christ on display here. "Latter-day Saints believe that God is a creator and that humans can emulate the divine through their own acts of creation. Joseph Smith noted that each individual and entity on earth is “the workmanship of [God’s] hands” with the divine design. Therefore, the Earth and its inhabitants are sacred and latter-day saint thought. This view of the divine landscape and constructed sacred space is manifested in Latter-day Saint, visual arts, as well." There is a greater purpose in life than my daily worries and stresses and busy-ness - butter messes and kids not asking permission... even transcends my joys and pleasures - life is more than a clean organized house. 

I want to fight to bridge the divide through art. I want to think bigger and beyond the day to day - I want to think celestial.

And so my heart was full, and then the museum was getting ready to close. It was still pretty busy but people were starting to file out. I was looking for the girls in our ward, and as I wandered around I turned to see these two Inkjet prints, titled Sky I/Sky II by Daniel Everett and I started to bawl. 

"In the European and American art tradition, artists such as John Constable, Caspar David Friedrich, Albert Bierstadt, and Harry Anderson produced evocative of cloudscapes to symbolize God’s infinite power. In such paintings, the sky serves as a canvas upon which the Master Creator paints. Everett's inkjet prints Sky I/Sky II, present two cloud studies that seek to capture the majesty of His creations. With this pairing, the artist invokes the Christian tradition of the diptych (or double panel) used in devotional altarpieces the artwork is stripped of any detail other than the clusters of dynamic clouds traveling across the heavenly sphere and other worldly hues of pink, blue, and lavender. The faint grid the edge of the canvas view that the human art can never compete with that of the divine."

Yeah, it made me cry. 

I found the girls. Lily saw that I had been crying and gave me a hug. I told her I was ok, just feeling touched by the spirit. We took a pic of the Young Women group outside of the museum. 

Sophi and Lily both wanted to ride home with their friends. That was ok with me, so I walked back to my car, and then I cried the whole way home as I listened to Seph Schlueter "Counting My Blessings" and "Running Back to You". I don't want to have a hard heart or to freak out about butter messes. God has been and is so good to me. My heart is full. Please Lord help me always have a grateful heart. I know you are good to me, help me to always see and remember your goodness. Maybe I can find someway to express these feelings through art someday. 

Well Visits

Yesterday I woke up on my own before my alarm, yay, so I went bouldering at Millcreek. Then I found my old fitbit, and got 10K steps by taking K on a walk in stroller for 50 min, plus 30 min stretching. Last Wed I started to do stretching in my room when I read my scriptures. It's working pretty good. 

I've had two days of well visits at the pediatrician. A&L went in yesterday at 12:30. I scheduled the visit for Lily a few weeks ago, cause she's got a big plantar wart on her foot that has been bothering her for months and killing her the past two weeks. Then I called last week to see if I could tack Abi onto Lily's appointment cause she needed a physician check to finish her paperwork for golf tryouts. It was like an hour wait, which was annoying and Abi had to leave early to make it to the 4pm tryouts. So she went by Dr. Schmits house later that evening to finish what she needed for that. I took Lily back home then hurried out to take S&N to violin. I went to Millcreek library to blog while they were at violin. I was able to do one blog post (Anniversary dinner). I was glad for a little bit of time to feel like I got something done. After those longer than planned visits yesterday, I wasn't excited about doing it again with Peter today. Waiting at the dr visit Monday, Katharine was doing her best to be patient. 

We were waiting for an hour. Abi was worried she wouldn't make it to her 4pm tryouts. Lily had her backpack. It looked like Lily was getting stuff done at her computer....

...but mostly she was coloring on her chromebook. I hope that all comes off Lil!

They were going to give her a shot, but she panicked and said she couldn't, if she did she'd pass out and it would mess up her tryouts. Ok, we'll put it off. I thought it was funny how quickly she went from "yay we're finally having our check up" to "If you give me a shot I'LL DIE!!!" Abi doesn't do well with shots. 

Lily getting a wart on her hand frozen. She was tough for that, but said she did not think she could handle that kind of pain on her foot which was already swollen and in pain. So we're gonna do wart pads and duct tape for that, per the dr's recommendation. It will take longer, but we'll do it. 

Had a nice phone visit with Wes. Ethan went off for a bit about WORKING hard and not wasting time and doing what a missionary is supposed to be doing (He had just got an email from one of his MTC missionaries that is out in the field now and kinda surprised at how much time they waste, so Ethan was feeling the need to rant and let Wesley have his lecture. Wes took it for him, and Wes has been doing all the stuff Ethan said to do. Wes is working hard and doing great!

Ok, so then for today - I went to the temple early with my mom. It took a while, cause the lady doing my initiatories, who I had each time because there were just two workers in our booth, she was totally like Giselle from Enchanted. She was very pretty and pleasant, but it was sooo distracting the way she talked. She was very flowery in her language and she didn't talk quickly, which is fine, but it took FOREVER and it was distracting to me. I was trying to appreciate it rather than get annoyed, but I guess I did end up more on the annoyed side, hence my needing to come and vent about it here. It was just so slow. So we didn't go to the celestial room after initiatories cause we had used all of our time. It's ok, it was kinda funny, a unique experience. I did do a quick bouldering session at the Sandy Momentum after temple, then the busy busy morning continued when I got home to take carpool and on my way out I asked Corey to wake up the boys and Katharine so we could go over to the school for "Books and Bagels" aka let's eat garbage for breakfast (donuts and chocolate milk). 

They loved it. Me... not so much, ugh. 

Then we went to the book fair, so I could hear about all the books my kids want that I am not going to buy for them. But I did take pictures of them and said I'd look them up on Amazon (if they remember that they want them after they get home and ask me to look them up) 

Peter didn't stay for school, we just left straight for his well visit was a 9:45. Katharine is like "Hey, this is fun... we were here yesterday!"

Peter is fit as a fiddle.

It's been a long two days of not being home. K and I both took a nap after we got home. 

I think I'm going to need to recover tomorrow and just be lazy. I dropped the boys off at Activity days this afternoon... (they made bird houses)

They are a cute group of boys. Owen's house - 

And Daniel's, which the boys all told me D threw over the fence right after the activity, in view of his leaders, cause he didn't like how it turned out (not the best of manners on diplay there, Daniel...)

While they were painting, I went for a hike to Bells (2.47 miles in 1 hour 3 min) which was good for my mental health. I went up to Bells. There is still a bit of ice and snow, but it was good. 

And I came home to see that Owen had been looking for clothes in the bins in the basement that I had carefully separated and organized. Sigh.  

I brought him downstairs to tell him that this mess was not ok. He put things back with my help.  There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the basement. I've been avoiding it. I guess I could do that tomorrow on my day off.