Getting Stuff Done

Today I ran more errands than ever before in my life. As that little framed thing from Hobby Lobby says "Messy bun and getting stuff done." I am home today after a major Christmas Shopping Binge. The older kids still had school today, but the younger kids are out, so Abi was my amazing baby sitter while I ran out this morning. I checked the weather last night: there was a storm forecast to be coming in at 2, so I left early and with great efficiency as I trying to race the weather (it was win-dy!). My original list wasn't this long, but here are all the places I ended up going to:

1. Home Depot to return the other toilet handle
2. DI to drop off donations
3. Ski N See to buy ski gloves for tomorrow
4. Red Balloon to buy Beanie Boos for Christmas
5. Spoons N Spice - to buy a few good cutting knives and nice small silverware for the toddlers
6. Kid to Kid - a few Christmas dresses (75% off now!) and toys for Owen and Daniel
7. Good Earth - nutritional yeast for Hyrum's Vegan Pizzas
8. Office Max - Tul pens for the stocking stuffers
9. DSW - nice black shoes for Joseph, he knows so it's okay for me to write it here. I had to ask him what size, I'm taking a gamble that they'll fit okay and be comfortable for him.
10. Ross - art stuff for kids and a few other things
11. TJMaxx - sheets for Corey and I, few stocking stuffers
12. Trader Joe's - my first time going in there ever. Got dried fruits and nuts for some healthy Christmas Day snacks
13. Target - grabbed a few things

Then I went home to relieve Abi. It was 1:00 and I would need to go get Skyline carpool in a bit. Wesley had a LBB performance and Joseph had a sectional, so Joseph had to take him, but J had to leave right after school to a Madrigal performance, so another mom did my carpool today, I went and got Wes from school, and I've been driving the Fiesta all day, which was fine before the storm, but I pick up Wes and had to take Wes to meet Joseph down town so they could get to American Fork in time. As we started to drive down town, the flurries began. I was getting worried but prayed and we met Joseph in time, then I headed home, buuuut, since it was on the way and I promised myself that I'd be fast, I stopped by the Murray Costco for food. I started to fill my cart with veggies, but then saw they didn't have any Vegan Pizza! Hyrum might die, so I'm gonna have to go to Costco again anyway to Sandy to see if they have it - but I'll have to wait until later, so, blah, I hurried and put back the things in my car - just like 6 veggie things, then I ran back to the car. So that was errand 14. Then I came down State Street and went by #15 Toys R Us for a few legos. Then I was on my way home, cause I didn't trust my tin-can of a vehicle to make it much longer in the snow, plus it's windshield wipers are terible. I got home and parked in the street so I could hurry and shovel the driveway before driving on it - which is my #1 winter rule - do NOT under (almost) any circumstance drive on our north facing driveway if there is snow on it without clearing off the snow first. 

Abi helped me, then Hyrum came out and wanted to go to the store. Then he and Abi started a snowball fight while I worked. I came to Abi's aide and put a few shovel-fuls of snow on Hyrum's head. Then he threw a snowball at me! He got me right in the head and ear! 

Well, after that second pile of snow down his shirt, I admit I deserved it. We had dinner - Hyrum made due without vegan pizza, and I watched Corey chase the little kids around.

Our house looks pretty good considering I've been gone all day. Abi gets all the credit.

Those little boys are so cute. Then I told Corey I had to leave him with little kids, cause Hyrum and Wes really wanted to finish their shopping. Boys, I've already been out all day! I don't want to go again! But they ignored my please and we went. So my last errand for the day was taking them to Target for my second time, I snapped a pic at the check out - feeling I should document this somehow, cause that makes #16 errands in one day. And that is a lot!

I guess I am a little impressed with myself, but I also don't feel very well right now, like not physically, just kinda empty inside. I guess I felt like I spent my day doing all this shopping just to do it, kinda, cause that is our culture? I mean I did get some things they want and need, but a lot was unnecessary and will just be more stuff to pick up after Christmas has come and gone. My kids don't need this much, and heaven knows my messy house doesn't want/need any more things inside it for me to shuffle in bins. We should be saving more or paying off music tours and stuff. But oh well. I guess I can return it if we need to return anything. I'm not sure what Corey's bought, we have not coordinated at all. We'll see how this goes! Another quote from the Hobby Lobby wall art collection:

I hope we're making the right things the priority.

For The Animals

Today Ethan stayed home from school. He went to bed early last night cause he was feeling ill. When I woke him up this morning he still felt sick and tired and just couldn't get out of bed, so I let him sleep, and he slept until 11:30. He called me at 11:30 asking where I was. I was at Study group. Our discussion today was on The Ten Commandments. Among the things that came up during the discussion was hunting, and someone shared this excerpt by President Kimball in his October 1978 General Conference talk titled "Fundamental Principles to Ponder and Live"

Now, I also would like to add some of my feelings concerning the unnecessary shedding of blood and destruction of life. I think that every soul should be impressed by the sentiments that have been expressed here by the prophets. And not less with reference to the killing of innocent birds is the wildlife of our country that live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is a shame, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend not only to the bird life but to the life of all animals. For that purpose I read the scripture where the Lord gave us all the animals. Seemingly, he thought it was important that all these animals be on the earth for our use and encouragement. 

President Joseph F. Smith said, “When I visited, a few years ago, the Yellowstone National Park, and saw in the streams and the beautiful lakes, birds swimming quite fearless of man, allowing passers-by to approach them as closely almost as tame birds, and apprehending no fear of them, and when I saw droves of beautiful deer [feeding] along the side of the road, as fearless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, it filled my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost a foretaste of that period hoped for when there shall be none to hurt and none to molest in all the land, especially among all the inhabitants of Zion. These same birds, if they were to visit other regions, inhabited by man, would, on account of their tameness, doubtless become more easily a prey to the gunner. The same may be said of those beautiful creatures—the deer and the antelope. If they should wander out of the park, beyond the protection that is established there for these animals, they would become, of course, an easy prey to those who were seeking their lives. I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life. I have known men—and they still exist among us—who enjoy what is, to them, the ‘sport’ of hunting birds and slaying them by the hundreds, and who will come in after a day’s sport, boasting of how many harmless birds they have had the skill to slaughter, and day after day, during the season when it is lawful for men to hunt and kill (the birds having had a season of protection and not apprehending danger) go out by scores or hundreds, and you may hear their guns early in the morning on the day of the opening, as if great armies had met in battle; and the terrible work of slaughtering the innocent birds goes on. 

"I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939, pp. 265–66.) 

One of the poets stated in this connection: 
Take not away the life you cannot give, 
For all things have an equal right to live. 

—and I might add there also, because God gave it to them, and they were to be used only, as I understand, for food and to supply the needs of men. It is quite a different matter when a pioneer crossing the plains would kill a buffalo to bring food to his children and his family. There were also those vicious men who would kill buffalo only for their tongues and skins, permitting the life to be sacrificed and the food also to be wasted. 

When asked how he governed so many people, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” We look to the Prophet Joseph Smith for proper teaching. He said once: “We crossed the Embarras river and encamped on a small branch of the same about one mile west. In pitching my tent we found three massasaugas or prairie rattlesnakes, which the brethren were about to kill, but I said, ‘Let them alone—don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless, before the brute creation; and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.’ The brethren took the serpents carefully on sticks and carried them across the creek. I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during our journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger.” (History of the Church, 2:71–72.)

So I looked up that talk above after I got home, then I got on a vegan tangent on Youtube. Ethan was my captive audience today (last week was Hyrum) and Eth watched this compilation of Vegan things with me, cause he was in the kitchen eating, ha! He agreed it was sad all the animals that die and also said "Humans are jerks." At minute 48 there, a man who is a holocaust survivor and he compared how the slaughter house shows a disregard for life the same way the Nazis did - hearts of cows, hooves, and other body parts all neatly stacked. Both the meat and animal industry use a highly efficient and dispassionate process and seem to feel no guilt about what they are or were doing. It is a long video, so we didn't see all of it but it stayed up on my computer and I'd get in another 10 minutes here and there. Ethan turned it on again tonight when I was washing dishes. I listened, and Lily came in and watched when an alligator got killed and it reasonably made her really sad. Sorry Lil. I didn't mean for you to see that. She then went over to the computer where she typed up then printed about 40 of these. She meant to do 5, but didn't think the printer was working, but it's just slow, so she accidentally printed 40. Cute girl. She wants to put them around the neighborhood. Become Vegin!

Tonight I finished watching it, it showed a clip about ostrich bags, which led me to this peta ostrich video. I feel really bad about the ostrich farms - and for a $4000 hand bag?!? Really? Poor creatures. and of course they show us the adorable baby ostrichs, so sad. Poor sweet little things. If I ever see some one with one of those bags, I might try to nicely inform them and encourage them to really think about where it came from and the animal that died for it. Although, in a near death experience book I read a few years ago, the guy died and his spirit was walking through the hospital and went into a doctors office. As his spirit walked through the leather sofa in the office, he was able to know in an instant the cows it came from, where they lived, their whole existance. Same with the trees that made the wood desk he walked through. He was told that the animals and trees were glad that they were able to be of use to the children of God. And I think it could/should be okay to use them a little bit, but me thinks it's gotten a bit out of control in our world. And I don't know why animals being used for shoes, car interiors, etc hadn't registered in my aspiring vegan head. We have a few leather things around here, but now I'm going to go for only purchasing plant-based items. "Vegan fabrics" - I didn't even know that was a thing until today. You learn something new every day.

Hyrum is 15!

We had another birthday around here (seems like we have a lot of those...) I gave him some vegan treats - bbq chips, gum, and dark chocolate bark. And that was it, for the rest of his gift I let him chose between cash or a transfer to his card, he took the transfer. Easy, and done, yay. It's too hard to risk buying clothes for teens, they are particular and have their own styles, so I don't bother. Plus Hyrum is a simple guy and is saving his money for a car, we found out yesterday on our date with him, he's going for a "blue sedan", which Corey thought was a pretty funny statement.

So, the kids are sometimes disappointed when their birthday is on a Sunday for some reason. But Hyrum got to share his day with friends at church, so that's a plus, right? Little party right there! Usually at church, the leaders will bring cake or some junk food, but for Hyrum, they brought grapes and strawberries for everyone! Isn't that great!? So, still got to celebrate with some friends, and another plus - both sets of grandparents came by! Hyrum opened his gifts from Corey's parents out in their van.

My toddlers running around in diapers, kind of embarrassing. Oh well. What can I say, it's hot. My mom came by shortly after Corey's parents, and my dad came too! We don't go over to my parent's house enough, and when "the birthday lady" (aka my mom) comes by for birthdays and now and then when she's running errands, it's usually just on her own, so we don't see my dad as much. So, see, Hyrum! One of the perks of a Sunday birthday! More visitors who aren't on the clock! I was excited to share the healthy and tasty cashew milk ice cream with my parents, it was so delicious. And my mother did a real labor of love by making Hyrum that vegan cake (in the top pic) from scratch!! It was also very good! And (just to get on my plant based soapbox for a second)... something about food that is made of more real ingredients: it actually feeds your body! Which is good, cause your body wants to be fed! So since your body receives actual nourishment from the real and un-refinced ingredients, you stop eating! ...cause you're body sends the signal to your brain and tastebuds saying "Ok, sweet, thanks, I got what I need to survive, I'm good!" and turns off hunger - vs. - the highly refined and scientifically calculated to be addictive junk food that our culture usually uses to celebrate occasions like birthdays. Yeah, I did buy some of the normal junk ice cream to keep the rest of the home crowd happy, but I also got the good cashew stuff and some coconut frozen dessert sandwiches. Junk ice cream was eaten in a hurry and gone, with kids asking for more helpings while the smaller containers of the more delicious good stuff will be enjoyed by Hyrum and I for a few more days. Corey and Mel tried it too, it's really good. And we've got left over cake to enjoy, I think it might take a few days to finish all that off, it was very filling. Happy Birthday Hyrum, hope it was a good one.

Dinner and Santa Claus

The Christmas season is in full swing, with another year at our ward Christmas Party, and another year of sitting on Santa's lap, and another year of Owen being traumatized by Santa, again (see pic 4). And he didn't even go near him this year, just the thought of it made this little boy sad. He still can make the saddest little frowns (old video of his baby frowns, starting at 2:06). First we'll start with Natalie, who sang Santa a song - the one she's learned at school "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause"

Then Sophi had a turn.

And this is Owen's expression showing his disagreement at the mere suggestion that we have him go close to "that man..."

And a video of his vocal protest.

Sorry Owen, you don't have to go see him. And he didn't. He came and sat on my lap instead, my nice familiar lap (well, what is left of it with my preg belly).

The dinner was nice. I ate the broccoli salad I brought (that was vegan) and a few desserts (which were most likely not vegan.) After dinner there was a music program like last year. The Skyline Madrigals sang again (we miss you Joseph!) and then Santa. The kids are getting excited for Christmas. :)

Good Days

Well, it's mercifully been another amazing and wonderful day. Kids and parents are all feeling healthy and well. We had violin lessons in person this week (they were online all of Jan) so that was nice to be there in person. Peter came, he had missed the train and all the fun puzzles. He used puzzles to give me a little lesson on all the modes of travel.

Things are really going so good lately, it's making me a little nervous that something bad could be coming. The whole main floor and upstairs of our house are still clean. Tonight I was done loading the dinner dishes and was wiping down the sink before we had even finished clearing off the table from another sit down dinner (mostly vegan potato bar (did have some diced ham for the kids)). I think Corey and I have both been all vegan for the past 2 weeks except for date night. Today the cleanliness jumped up two more levels cause I totally cleared out and organized my reading and scriptures desks in our bedroom...

Before above and after below -

...and I cleaned Corey's shower. I call it "Corey's shower" cause I never use it, I always take baths. I think the last time it was cleaned was in 2019 when Iveth was here. For a few months, she came over 2 or 3 times a week and helped me clean, and we did a deep clean of our bedroom and bathroom, so yeah, it's been a while. It looks so amazing now, I'm excited for Corey to notice it tomorrow! We talked to Ethan on the phone today, and Melodie was able to jump on for a few minutes. Melodie just has four more weeks until she comes home!!! Corey said "We're nervous to have you guys come home, cause things are going so good, I think we're being blessed by having all of these missionaries out serving, and we don't want it to end!" We know we need His help, and I know that even when it isn't as noticeable as it is right now, God does bless us and help us every day. I'm still kinda bracing myself for something though, cause I believe in the law of undulation and "this too shall pass" applies to the good and easy times too. I try to always be prepared for worst case scenarios, like this baby being stillborn. I have a friend who had a stillborn baby and one look at her facebook cover photo is all it takes to make me weep. I just looked it up so I could link it here and I'm crying again. The joy of expectation, then the sorrow at unrealized hopes and dreams. But happiness comes again - here they are celebrating her third birthday in heaven this past September, and they are all smiling. Joy comes again. Christ gives us hope, and through him all tears will be wiped away. When I thing of pregnancy and birth, there are just like a million things that could go wrong, it's a miracle anyone is born! If this little one does die, or if Corey or any of my kids do, I know people would come and comfort us and mourn with us. I know that we are all in God's hands. Having a child is always a risk, always an act of faith. It's out of our control, but I know in whom I have trusted. Ok, well there I've come full circle with my thoughts today: life is great, it could go horribly wrong at any moment, but it's ok cause God is in control!! I was reading CS Lewis "The Problem of Pain" at violin today, and it's pretty deep and over my comprehension, but basically from chapter 1 I think he is trying to say that pain can only exists if you believe in a higher power, otherwise there is no morality standard. I'll try to read more and share it if I understand anything. I have a clean desk now, that is my reading "intellectual" desk (the above desk with the before and after) and this one is also in our bedroom by the closet and is my "spiritual" desk (speaking of the 4 areas of the youth initiative). 

We haven't done great as a family at making goals with the children and youth program yet. But it took us a good 2 years to get going with the Come Follow Me program... I didn't do great with personal or family study in 2019 with the New Testament or 2020 with the Book of Mormon, but we did awesome last year with the D&C in 2021 and are rocking it this year so far (I am loving all the podcasts!!), so I'm being patient with myself that we'll get a handle on the Children and Youth program eventually, too. 

When I saw this print up, it reminded me of the 12 hours of the Hebrew day and the four watches of their night, so I thought I'd try to split up the goals into certain times of the day like that. I'm still working on it. I do have that pic above taped to the wall by my scripture study desk on the wall to remind me that I need to work on these goals/habits - 

Ok, time for bed, goodnight.

Family Outing

Well, it's summer, and the lazy days are getting the better of us. Not entirely, but I'm having a hard time enforcing rules, like no TV until all chores are done. Wesley, have you practiced? 

He had. Well ok, but then the problem is that if he watches a movie, people that haven't finished their tasks start creeping in and soon everyone is sitting around watching movies they've already seen too many times. But I do admit, Wes, that it is cute to see Daniel having you sit on his lap.

I wasn't enforcing things much yesterday cause after I got off the computer I was busy figuring out outfits and doing hair. Everyone was ready just about on time, Mel was the slowpoke, she had a flute practice for a musical number on Sunday - she left for that at 4 and she still didn't know what she was going to wear. But she got home at 5, figured it out, and we were heading to the car at 5:30, on our way at 5:45. We got there a little late, like 7 minutes. But it was good and I hope it was a successful photo shoot. We took about half of the pics near the BYU Museum of Art, then headed across the parking lot to a fun little park where the kids got a little distracted by the ducks at he pond. Cute little baby ducks! They were super cute. After picture, the kids rolled down the hill and got their white tights dirty. Owen was chewing out Hyrum over something.

Well, what should we do now? They kids were troopers. We did the pictures at BYU so that we could wisk Ethan away from his Music camp and then let him return with as little time away as possible. 

So Eth missed out on the family dinner at Brick Oven, but he was able to make it back for the dance. Daniel's got his teddy bear. We waited for a table for 12.

We placed a big order. I can't remember the last time we all went out to eat at any restaurant besides the Chuck A Rama Buffet place. The kids struggled a little bit waiting to be served. We told them this is a step up from Chuck a Rama, this is more like a real restaurant. We just always go to Chuck a Rama cause it's easy. This was harder for us, this was the game "Dining out with kids -Level 2". I'm not sure we passed the level, but it was a good first go. When the lady delivered our 16 in pizza, it wasn't set right on the iron thing holding it up and the whole thing slid off of the pizza pan. We told them no worries, it was fine. Two pieces got the cheese messed up but it was still fine, but they said they'd go make us a new pizza. Corey again told them we're easy to please, don't worry about it, then instead they offered cookies for our table.

So that turned out to be a nice win cause those are some seriously good cookies (I make an exception from vegan morals now and then for chocolate or desserts, I'm a choco-vegan) Daniel enjoying pizza and garlic bread. Sophi ordered macaroni too

Hyrum got the pasta bar. Mel and I had soup and salad. The Tuscan Bean soup was very good! Everyone eating. Some of the kids were disappointed we weren't doing Chuck a Rama, but after eating they decided it was good, almost better. Sometimes it's better just to do something new or different for a change.

Some fun family conversation during the meal. Corey's comments always make me laugh.

We were there near the end of the work day, and one of the last groups to leave. Mel watched Natalie and Sophi walk on top of the parking curb stops. They're cute. When they were walking out I knew they wouldn't be able to resist.

Cute kids. That was a fun and memorable family outing, and just in time. We have a few days for a few more. Let's go have fun.

Not On Top of It

This morning while I made oatmeal for breakfast, these two cute little boys played at my feet. Daniel was teaching Peter how to play drums on the pots and pans.

I've been pretty consistent at making oatmeal every school morning. Corey likes the steel cut oats, so we don't do the regular rolled oats anymore. As I've mentioned before, we only have 2 vehicles right now. I'm okay to be left a home without one usually, but if Corey takes the car then he runs the risk of being the one that needs to go get the kids at school, should any emergency arise. So it's best if I keep the car even though I don't need it. So I took Corey to work this morning. So after we dropped him off, I took the little boys to the store with me (because today was one of the rare occasions that I was on top of it for once and I actually knew what I wanted to make for dinner tonight!) The boys were excited about getting in the car cart!

I used to always go to Fresh Market instead of Smith's because they had car shopping carts.

But Fresh Market closed a year or so ago, so now I'm stuck with Smiths, so I usually don't take kids.

I can do Costco with the little boys, but I don't like going to Smiths. Maceys worked though - I can do Macey's with these little guys.

Hey, this could even be a standard operating procedure that I go do a quick "groceries for dinner" run after dropping Corey off at work. ...Of course, that would mean that I have to be on top of it, and right now.... I'm not...  as evidenced by the fact that I bought some vegan treats at the store....

So we had vegan ice cream for breakfast. Yeah, so I'm not performing at my peak right now. I blame this guy...

He's like literally sucking the life out of me. I've told Corey that my only complaint about Peter is that he nurses too well. And is too content to keep it up. So I'm feeling trapped a little bit and am looking forward to having my freedom back some day in the future. Once I have sovereignty over my body again, then I'll get my act together again and might be on top of it. But as for now, hooray for hardship nice cream. And violin playing. Violin is my new escape from life. I really like it. I played for a few hours today (another reason why the house is a mess...) This is what my thumb looks like after holding the violin bow for a long time. It makes me feel like I'm working hard, go me.

Ya can't be on top of everything. Taking care of kids, cleaning, family budget, dinner, violin, nursing... Right now I'm in survival mode, so we'll see how it goes, and we'll try to just keep on keeping on.

Vegan Resolution

So. Last night before scriptures, Corey thought he'd share one of his videos from his youtube and internet findings. It was an Unreported World episode called "The Vietnam Dog Snatchers". He only got 20 seconds into sharing it with us though, cause after the 3 clips in those first 20 seconds, the kids were screaming. Especially Lily. Well thanks for that sweetie! I added a few comments: why do we care about dogs and our pets but we eat other animals? You know pigs are just as smart at dogs. If we humans say we care about animals, well hey, maybe we shouldn't eat them? I'm glad Corey showed them the start of that video. They didn't like it, but I do believe it has helped push them another step in the hopefully plant-based eating direction. This morning, I found this note on Lily's shelf with a little reminder she made for herself:

I watched the whole video today. It is sad to watch, so you've been warned.
Here's one more vegan-ish article I've been meaning to share - a cow now named Brianna that escaped the slaughter house truck and delivered a baby calf 2 days later. I read that in January, after I was driving Wes home after picking him up from a LBB Tour, and on the drive home we passed like 5 semi trucks full of cows. It made me sad. I'm glad to plant based.

What else. Abi had an orthodontist appointment today, and right after that I had planned to go to the Tulip Festival with my dad. My mom came too, and we drove down together - Mom, Dad, me and a few kids. We got rained out though. Like downpour. We headed home rather than wait it out to see if it stopped. Kinda bummed, I don't know why I didn't check the weather this morning. Hopefully we have another chance to go before the festival ends.

Daniel Is 1!!

Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite little man!! Daniel, you did it! You turned 1!

Are you ready to PAR-TY! Put your hands in the air!

Yes, this little guy is so proud of himself. He's standing up!

"Look ma! No hands!"

He's not walking yet, but I think we are just days away from this little guy becoming a bi-ped. I'm going to miss him crawling. Our baby days may be over forever. So here is Daniel and his chocolate face. Hooray for me (aka the Birthday scrooge), that this little one year old did not have any birthday expectations. I, knowing this, did not do a darn thing. I told him the day before though. I said "Daniel, I'm not getting you any presents" and he was completely fine with it. Thus, we didn't put up the "Daniel is 1!" letters in the kitchen window. And I didn't get Daniel any cake. Or ice cream. And he doesn't mind one bit. We did celebrate with a little bit of chocolate - a wheat roll with some nutella, hence the messy chocolate face in these pictures. Nutella is everyone's favorite and the sweet chocolatey calorie curse keeps showing up in our house via Corey who keeps buying it. He feels some kinda need to buy junk and un-healthy foods since I began my attempt to turn our home vegan. I get to eat un-vegan desserts on our birthdays, thus 11 times a year if I'm good. I ate some nutella with bread, then I ate some more, then I threw it up high on top of the cupboards so I couldn't get it without a stool and some conscious effort. I am now safe until the kids start asking if there is any more nutella, at which time I'll probably serve up bread and nutella for everyone so we can try to be rid of it! Atleast until Corey buys it again.

Hopefully Potty Trained

Today was a good day. Corey took a few kids skiing on the kiddie hill at Alta this afternoon (Abi, Sophi, Owen, and Daniel) that's always fun. I'll try to get some of his pics here. Or if you're some future historian doing research here, there should be some skiing pictures and videos on our family cloud drive. That's where most of Corey's pictures are videos are all ending up, unless I ask him to send me some on Whatsapp. We need to figure out what to do with his stuff so they aren't just lost in computer storage. Well, just know that he takes more pictures than I do. And the kids take lots of nonsense videos and hundreds of selfies on his phone too, so yeah, there's stuff there.

The thing I'm most excited about from today is that I think that Daniel is almost potty trained. I forgot to get diapers his size today at Walmart, and I'm almost out of diapers, so instead of running out again I figured let's do this - and I've been buckled down for the day watching him (except for just crossing my fingers while he went skiing). Tonight I could just tell by a look on his face that he was about to go hide and do #2 somewhere in privacy, but I grabbed him and wooshed him away to the toilet and there FINALLY did it! A month into this and he had his first successful #2 in the toilet. I had been trying to bribe him with ice cream for days and weeks: "If you go poop in potty, I will buy you ice cream!" And cookies, and candy, and whatever you want - it was reverse terrorism negotiation "I will meet your demands!" "Just poop in the potty and I will get you whatever you want!" Well, the son of a gun did it, so off we went to the store....

...and to the ice cream isle -

And he picked out drumsticks. (And I got some vegan soy bars for Hyrum and myself) 

And we brought them home and shared them. 

We have not had ice cream for a long time. We ate ice cream almost daily in Brazil in 2015, it helped us cope. I'm an anti-dairy flexitarian now, a flexible vegan, so I let cow cream slide as a birthday-day only treat. But we haven't had any birthdays since September! Well, we did have Mel's but she was at college so we didn't have cake and ice cream here (Natalie was a bit ticked off) and we didn't have cake and ice cream for Joseph's birthday either, cause he's gone, and we didn't have it for Peter either, cause P doesn't care. So yeah, this really is a special treat now cause it is a rare delicacy.

They did this little "cheers" thing, like they were making a toast "To Daniel!" "To clean underwear!"  "To ice cream!" 

I'll keep an eye on him for the next few days, but I'm glad we crossed this hurdle and he knows how it's supposed to be done. And we made such a big deal about it, I hope that it works. After him, I've just got one more kid in diapers! After 20+ years of this, that's crazy. I can hardly imagine not having to change a kid's diaper, but I bet it will be nice! Peter, you're next.

Painting and Imagining

My little artists are hard at work. Sophi got his paint by number for Christmas from Corey's parents and showed me her completed work yesterday. 

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Today I got out a paint by number that I got for Christmas 2019 for the kids that I never gave anyone. Daniel and I got to work on it. It was a painting of a little puppy.

Some of those kits don't work very well. Daniel paints very carefully and precisely, just like he draws (fourth picture). Only it's a little harder to control paint... and paintbrushes with paint on them... and the black kept going slightly outside of the designated number 10 area...

Eventually his frustration got to him and we put away the kit and he did some freestyle painting.

He is a good little boy. Painting and creating art is one of the things I want to make as part of my regular life. One thing that Laura Dixon shares in almost every podcast how she likes to imagine a world where women don't worry about their weight anymore, where we are happy with our bodies and how they look, where we are naturally thin and healthy and our brains are not preoccupied with dieting and exercising! Imagine if we all actually spent our time each day doing all the amazing things that we dream of doing. One of those things for me would be creating art. I studied and majored in art when I went to Snow College way back in the day, you know. I want to draw and paint again. I love thinking of that too - not worrying about weight or exercise, and I do the things I want to do! My goal is to figure it out this year and have this year be the last year that I'm working on getting to my ideal weight. (Physical Hunger vs. Emotional Hunger) And so every year after this, a naturally thin person is just who I am, it's just part of me. Wouldn't that be nice? The first step is believing it's possible, and I do have that hope now. Slowly but surely I can gain evidence that it really IS true, and give it some time and I will be there. 

Here are a few cute pictures from yesterday of Peter and Wesley playing a shooting game with guns they made from the marble run toy. 

The shoot each other wit a "pyew-pyew!", then they die, then they come back to life with a kiss. 

Peter is a cutie pie. We love his little face. 

Here's his cute little face after having nutella and bread for breakfast. 

I do think it's a bit absurd for Nutella to be able to pass itself off as a breakfast food. That is one contributor to the obesity problem we've got on our hands. Corey likes to get the 5lb tubs at Costco. Thankfully we don't over eat it, so it has lasted us a long time, but we are all carrying extra weight around here and I think it would be good to end our relationship with Nutella. We're on the 2nd 5lb tub right now. I'm glad that I'm not tempted by it. There are other foods I need to work on getting over, but Nutella isn't one of them for me. It will be for the kids. Maybe I can talk Corey into not buying it again, although he does like to have it around for when he makes crepes. Nutella did help me cope back in Costa Rica, before I knew that I really needed to process my emotions - but if you read that post, like I'm talking about what I eat and then talking about trying to exercise it off. (Here's what Laura teaches about exercise in episode #49) It's like the obesity and medication cycle we have going on too. One of the Vegan doctors talked about how on television, you see all these ads for processed foods, and then right after them are ads for different medications to help with all our problems. Let food be thy medicine. I'm not so strict about being vegan (I usually have shrimp or salmon on date night) but I'm really glad that I rarely eat meat and that our meat consumption as a family is much reduced as well. I also totally agree with this Dr. Fuhrman's quote from pg. 61 of his book Eat to Live (emphasis mine):

"The diseases of poverty are mostly infections diseases and are found in areas of the world with compromised nutrition. Heart attacks and the most common cancers (breast, colon, prostate) are found in rich societies where nutritional extravagance is the rule. Nowhere in the world today can we find a society that combines economic wealth with a high intake and variety of unrefined plant foods. CAN YOU IMAGINE the HEALTH POTENTIAL of a society that would be able to enjoy excellent sanitation, emergency medical care, refrigeration, clean water, flush toilets, and availability of fresh produce year round and yet avoid nutritional ignorance and nutritional extravagance? WE HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TODAY! An unprecedented opportunity in human history the opportunity to live a long and healthy life without fear of disease. This opportunity can be yours!"

That's another fun thing to imagine! It's time to just put an end to the insanity. Go listen to Laura Dixon. Here's a good one that was a good shoulder shake - #15 The Pandemic Excuse. Ok, there's my rant/tangent. That's all for tonight.