FHE Turkeys

We had a simple FHE tonight. Abi went to the store and got the goods for candy turkeys, and then they made them.

I was actually upstairs laying down when it happened. 

These are little turkeys that JeNeal often made with the kids up at Park City for Thanksgiving. We will be going up there this year for Thanksgiving and now that we're warmed up on the candy craft, maybe we'll take the stuff up and do it again there. 

So it was pretty simple and had no prayer, hymn or activity, just chocolatey treat, and they were ok with that. 

Corey was still working, but he got home shortly after treats were eaten, and then we read scriptures early, so we'll add that as part of FHE tradition.

What else happened today. I was pretty lazy again. I can't get it going. And Katharine holds me hostage. She won't let me leave the room and do anything, which eventually saps my energy. We did work on her school book a little bit. She holds her writing instruments perfectly. Practicing her letters, she thought it was pretty fun and would studiously concentrate as she traced, and then fall back giggling when she was done.

She did her Fs perfectly. When the girls were almost home, I was getting ready to go for a ride, and K could tell and was weepy, telling me not to leave. "I'll be lost!!" "I'm not leaving until Lily gets back! Lily will be with you! You won't be lost." She wasn't buying it, so I distracted her with ice cream (bad mother). I said let's go get ice cream, and then Lily will be back and I'll go for a ride. I had the car today, so we hurried down and got ice cream at Macey's again with Daniel's free ice cream punch card. 

They made it waaaaay too big. It's generous of them, but you should not do that for a 3 year old. She shared a little bit willingly, and I took some sneakily when it was melting too fast and was gonna drip on her (we stopped by Walgreens to pick up photos after getting the ice cream, which I had been wanting to do all day but K didn't want to). Then I escaped for a ride. I got another local legend! For the techy section! Cool! A tree fell over the path last week. Today I brought up clippers in my backpack and I cut some branches of small trees to make a path around it. I dug my heel in the dirt to show the way for other bikers, and now I can get around it without having to do the black diamond log drop that someone else made. 

All the fall leaves are gone, but I want to take advantage of the doable temperature before winter comes. I'm glad we did scriptures earlier, that gave me this chance to blog a bit before bed. I'm still behind, and didn't record at all last week. Must do better. I did load dishes and wash pots and pans tonight, yay.

See Beyond

It is 7pm. I have had a super lazy day. This little girl is kinda sucking the life out of me. I don't sleep well at night. She comes in our bed everynight. It's cute. 

My lacking any get go might be a combination of tending to K and Natalie, who stayed home from school again today. This is sick day 3. She's feeling better, but low on energy from not eating much the past few days. Plus her lips are all sore with cold sores, so she is not going out in public until they heal. She's been sleeping in our room on the "sick couch" so I can be her attentive nurse. She's all set up for with a shelf for water, vaseline, q-tips and toilet paper.

I let her and Katharine watch movies while I took a nap this morning. I've been struggling to get going all day. After waking up from my too long nap, I went for a ride. It was super windy, but the temperature was good (65 degrees). It was sludge going against the wind though. There was a tree that fell down on Techy, making a new feature. But the rocks that some diligent soul piled up to make it passable, did not make it possible for me. There is a little drop right there, and so now to go slightly up on the log and then drop down is beyond my techy abilities, so I'll have to go up there sometime and clip away branches to make myself a new path around it, cause this feature is not happening. 

Enjoying the fall mountains, even though things have rusted and fallen and left "the mountainside cold and bare..." - Sleepwalker The Killers. In a few spots the rusted leaves are still holding on. 

Oh, and I became the "local legend" for church to wasatch, haha, that's fun. I rode through the neighborhood after I was home, there were a few pretty bushes bright with red. I need some of these in our yard someday. 

I did read a totally appropriate entry in Simple Abundance today. It hit the spot. It was almost the actual entry for today too! But just a day later, the Nov 6 entry. It talked about coping, and coping well. It's like in the scriptures: there is submitting (Mosiah 3:19), and there's submitting with patience, and submitting cheerfully and with patience! (Mosiah 24:15). I'm working on the cheerful part. So the Nov 6 entry is good - she gave some tips for coping through the little things. "Coping well enables you to see beyond the circumference of circumstance, so that the Real in the center of your daily round is not hidden by happenstance" and "Every time we cope well with whatever real life throws our way, it's another deposit of confidence, creativity and courage in our self esteem account. So congratulate yourself each night for handling the unexpected with finesses. Well done." Blogging helps me cope. Going to go give myself a pat on the back. 

Tabernacle Concert

Tonight I went down to see Abi in a Lyceum concert. From the Lyceum website, this concert was titled: Youth Inspiring Youth ~ "This fun and inspiring concert offers an exclusive preview of music from our upcoming Lyceum album. Hear lush new arrangements from the new hymnbook, epic expansions of beloved favorites, and masterworks by Beethoven, The Beatles, and more! The combined Lyceum Philharmonic and Symphony join forces with the Institute Choirs of SLCC, UVU, and Utah, creating an orchestra and chorus of over 500 youth in a moving expression of musical testimony, talent, and tribute to our nation."

It was at the Tabernacle, and was free, which means we just saved atleast $70 bucks with the 7 of us in attendance. I went down with Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine. As I was getting ready to leave, Mel texted asking if she and Christian could come by, and I said the littles and I were going downtown, so they joined us and met us down there. They got there first, so when I arrived I called Mel and she came out to get the kids, then I went to park the car. I refused to pay $13 for parking, so I went a bit far away and was thus a little late joining them but it was all good cause the kids were in capable hands. (Savings for the evening now $83!) 

A few times I was impressed with myself and my ability to focus and be touched by the music despite the kids being a bit noisy and restless. (Katharine wanted to climb the column next to me. I hope they weren't too distracting or irritating to the people behind us!) The first song that made me tear up was My Country 'Tis of Thee ~ I loved how the organ was lit up to go with the song they were performing!

With all the chaos that seems to be happening in our country (from what I've read in the news, nothing I've personally seen yet) I felt a lot of hope being in the tabernacle with a huge crowd to know that there is a group of people in the USA that is looking for a king, and that king is JESUS CHRIST and him alone. He died so that we could have agency to act freely and learn from our mistakes as we exercise our freedom. Let freedom ring! Thank God for our freedom and for Christ saving us from all the mistakes and sins we commit as we exercise our agency. He's prepared a way for us to learn and be forgiven, I'm so grateful! And then they sang a beautiful rendition of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with images of stars and galaxies on the tabernacle ceiling - it was powerful! I wrote down some of the lyrics that stood out to me as the choir sang ~ "Now let us rejoice, Comfort this sweet sentence gives, HE LIVES, He lives to silence all my fears, to calm my troubled heart" (again thinking of the risky financial situation we are still in personally, which feels a little scarier with the mess our country is in with the current president who has no guiding moral principles (I'm not liberal, but I'm definitely a "Never Trump"-er)

So I loved that one and it strengthened my knowledge once again that Christ is in control. Nathan Pacheco performed "Don't Cry" and then did "Forever" which is one of my faVoRiTes!!! (When "Forever" started, Peter said "This is a Cars song" which Katharine heard and corrected him "This is a Sleeping Beauty song..." haha cute kids). Nathan Pacheco said "We've all got things that we're up against, but Christ has overcome all of those things" Similar to another concert of his that we attended, at this one the audience sang with him "We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, the Lamb has overcome!" over and over again. The Lamb has overcome! He has ALREADY overcome all things! Every sin and problem to ever happen on this earth, he has overcome it! At the end, with images of clouds behind the organ, he sang "I Believe in Christ" 

Actually it might not have been the clouds during that song, but it set the stage for it, and it felt heavenly. I remember last time I heard Nathan Pacheco sing "I Believe in Christ" at the tabernacle, and just like that time, I loved hearing it as a solo! It is really a song that is bearing a strong personal testimony! 

So, that was wonderful, and I plan to go to the next free Lyceum concert. Good job Abi!

I was also thinking of all the work that goes into productions like that - years of practicing for each of those musicians, not to mention the time they put in just today.... Abi got up at 8, left home at 9 for downtown where they were doing a recording, then a brief lunch, then a few more hours of recording, then a rehearsal for the concert tonight, then the concert. It was an all day event for each of those musicians. We had one stressful moment at 1pm - she got locked out of the car somehow, but the car was still on (not running, but the power was left on...) she had the key in her hand, but the fob wasn't working to unlock it, and the manual key that she got out from inside the fob it wasn't working either. She had to be inside for the recording, so Corey and I drove down so we could try to open it and stay to wait for a locksmith, if needed. (I thought Corey and I were both going to go out to eat since we missed date night last night.) As soon as we got there, Corey got the manual key from the van key that we brought, and it opened the car right away. "Just what I thought would happen..." Corey said with a sigh. 

I said "It's ok! This is good! This is the best case scenario! We don't need to get a locksmith! We just saved $100 bucks!!" (Daily total $183!) We tried again with the key Abi had been trying with, and it did NOT work. Hmm, that was when we discovered why: she had the manual key for Corey's car! Yep, it worked on Corey's car, and the manual key that was in Corey's fob worked on the van. Somehow and sometime someone switched them, so hooray - mystery solved, we switched them back, and we saved $100 bucks for not having to get a locksmith, woo!

After resolving the locked out of the car situation, we took both cars home. I didn't know we were doing that. Corey "Why did you think we both came?" "Cause we were going out to eat?" Tomorrow is fast Sunday, and since we missed date night last night, I had said earlier that we should go out to eat for lunch and then start our fast. But instead we drove home. I called him as we drove, thinking we could swing by Beaumont Cafe or Aubergine, but he didn't answer. He called me back 10 min later, but we were past the exits we would have needed to take. We went home, then went down to Vessel Kitchen for a quick lunch. Then home, didn't do much cleaning or anything productive today, despite my thinking it would be a good work day. Corey and I went climbing (toprope) at 9am. The kids fed themselves breakfasts of Halloween candy. I'm not doing great at breakfast lately, esp today with Halloween sugar overload lingering. It will probably be gone by tonight. 

Daniel slept in his clothes... that he wore to school and trick or treating. Egh, I'm not doing great at giving the boys baths or having them wear pjs to bed, or washing their sheets, it's all just dirty, gross. What else - So Abi was gone all day, Lily cleaned her room all day, Sophi had a sleepover last night (after weeks of negotiation) and she got home at 1 and then slept until 5 - so yay, two days wasted on that sleepover (not likely to happen again!). Natalie is sick with a fever and headache and has been sleeping all day. Owen was his usual amazing diligent self, getting his stuff done then going to play. Boys jumped on the trampoline, and then watched a fair share of DVDs as well. Katharine has learned how to turn them on in our room. I might move that tv somewhere else. 

I went to Costco with a strict budget of $300, and we knew going in that almost half of it would be going toward renewing our membership. I did an awesome job, gave myself a "PR". Corey and I are going to go over finances together tomorrow, for the first time probably ever? I did the budgeting for most things through Sept 2020, then stopped in Oct 2020 and Corey's been doing almost all of it since then. I still do utilities and trumpet and violin lessons. Maybe us working together on a budget and financial planning has been what the Lord has been waiting on for all these years. Fingers crossed and hands praying that as we do work on it together that things will go better. I made a short grocery list before going to Costco, and added up each thing as I put it in the cart, but I got a little sloppy at the end with my adding items, thus had to leave 3 things at the check out cause they put me over (sorry mayo, bread and protein powder! Maybe next week). I'm excited about my new favorite meal: sweet potatoes, avocado, kimchi lately, with the almond dip, (which we call B sauce, or itchy sauce) - it's good! Looking forward to eating that tomorrow when I end my fast. I spent $298.69, a personal best, yay. Maybe if we are good stewards over every dime, God will entrust us with a couple million dollars and we'll put it to good use, counting and budgeting to the penny! Ok, well busy day. Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow, and yay for the end of daylight saving time. 

Chill Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Wrides. This has been a pretty chill Halloween, so it was just right. I'm glad we survived it and it wasn't too painful. We didn't get too much candy - I didn't get the Costco bag, just one at Smiths, and we ran out at the end and I had to steal some from the kids to refill, but it was ok and I'm glad we didn't overbuy. We also didn't go shop for any more costumes, which is good cause we have 4 huge bins of costumes. I feel like October passed quickly, which I am grateful for. We kept ourselves busy with fall bike rides, and it didn't seem like the whole haunted scary part wasn't overbearing. Corey and I went on a ride around 2:30 so that worked out perfect. 

The kids gave themselves extra time today to get their costumes on. Abi was a crunchy teen and said she wore less makeup than usual. Lily = Minion, Sophi = Ninja Turtle, Natalie = Adam Sandler, Owen = Spider Man, Daniel = Zombie. Daniel made his own costume but woke up early to finish it - cutting up his pants a little more and and painting the shirt with some blood. 

Ready to go to school at 8:30 - Peter's awake now - he's a cowboy with a sachel.

When I woke up at 6:30, Owen was downstair reading and had been for thirty minutes. I tell ya, he's a different kind of kid! I'm impressed by him everyday for his work schedule.

Before the ride, I was trying on a few things - I had a Mario Suit (so I could ride my bike and be Mario Kart!) or a Zoot suit, Wesley's India outfit on the bed and tried it on. It's pretty cool, I would have worn it if I was a guy and/or taller. I was a bit too short. It fit Abi pretty well. 

Abi left when we were almost back from our ride, and she took took Sophi and Natalie out to friends' houses. Abi worked on her BYU essays tonight then was planning to go to a party after that. So it was just us and the little kids. We did pizza at the Felix's (Corey took kids over) and I passed out candy and set up the Bose outside and turned on Michael Jackson music. I ended up being a Smooth Criminal tonight. 

Lily wins the make-up award. She made herself into a skeleton again - the third time this week.

Katharine didn't dress up at all, but that's ok, cause she didn't hardly trick or treat either.

She put on her shiny shoes, walked downstairs on one side of the street, then came back on the other side, and that was it, and that was ok with me. Daniel and Peter finished pretty early too (Corey kept track of them via his bike). After Daniel was done, I let him use my jacket and hat to pretend to be a mannequin scaring people.  

He said he scared a lot of people.

We let Owen just run loose - he was out with his friend and was gone the longest, and came back with the most candy. 

Ethan and Bella sent us a pic of their costumes - so cute! Alvin and the Chipmunks!

And Mel and Christian's costumes make me laugh the hardest - soo funny!

I just got back from picking up Natalie, time for bed. It was a good Halloween. I'm glad it was on a Friday, that works out really well. I had fun dancing to Thriller and Smooth Criminal, I might need to have my kids see those MJ videos so they know some music history. 

Trunk or Treat

This past Sunday, we attended my parent's ward to hear them speak in sacrament meeting. During the announcements, it was mentioned that there would be a Trunk or Treat on Thursday. Their stake is lacking on little ones, I thought it would be fun to go support the Butler West Stake with our numbers. So tonight, we did.

It was nice and easy and the kids got a few treats and hot coco. Even I dressed up.

I guess I'm really feeling the Halloween Spirit.

Peter givin' a "Yee Haw!"

Sophi stayed home from the trunk or treat so that she could clean and complete tasks, in an attempt to sweet talk us into letting her have a sleepover tomorrow night. Hmm... we talked about it tonight after we got back, and we're going to let her, but from here on out, before she asks, she needs to have a 4.0, cause it's totally possible for her to get a 4.0, it's just helping them find the incentive! And now I think we found it. She made a Ninja turtle shell with her friends and they are all wearing those tomorrow. 

Yesterday I did a good job blogging while K watched Elena of Avalor (that is a stupid show). Unfortunately the Elena theme song was stuck in my head while Corey and I went on a ride in Corner Canyon. I had my headphones, but didn't listen on the climb, cause Corey's airpods weren't working. I charged them, but the left ear bud doesn't work if he sneezes, and thus it wasn't working. We should buy him new airpods. He lost his case two years ago? On a ride in Park City, somewhere on Seldom Seen it flew out of his pocket, sad. So since then, we've just kept his in a small case that used to hold airbuds and we use my case to charge both. 

Oh, today I finished listening to all of President Oak's talks, all 101 of them! I started that on Sept 29,  after President Nelson passes away, I was going to try to finish the 99 of them before General Conference. Didn't do that, but kept at it and I'm proud that I finished the last one this morning. My takeaways - It was kinda sad to see them go from speaking in their strong and familiar "young" voice, and then to hear how much he's aged by the last one. President Oak's first talk was in Oct '71 when he was the President of BYU. That talk, Strive for Excellence, was EXCELLENT! Next was in Oct 1984 and then every conference after that. Really great messages. He speaks powerfully and with certainty in every message. The only one that I noticed him get choked up in was April 2000, and it happened to be when speaking of the death of loved ones. He choked up again for the second time this past Conference when talking about the passing of his father when Dallin was just a 7 year old boy. How that affected him! I'm sure his father has been helping him from beyond the veil over these many years, and how pleased he must be with the prophet of God that Dallin has become. I have started reading his book "In The Lord's Hands". Reading President Nelson's book really helped my testimony of him grow when he became our prophet and president, and I know it will be the same and I learn more about President Oaks. We are praying for him as he begins this new calling. He has dedicated his life to God, and is laying down his life for us. He has been for the past 41 years. I'm very grateful for the humble service our general authorities give in our behalf. 

Ice Cream at Macey's

Sometime in the previous decade (2010 - 2020) I would listen to the BYU Devotionals quite frequently. They were then, and still are, on BYU tv at 11 am. I recently set an alarm to begin listening to them again. Today was a forum with Catherine Ruth Pakaluk. So so good. She got a well deserved standing ovation. One of my favorite quotes from it: "I would always choose another child." Another one I wrote down was her saying that the women she interviewed said that children are "the purpose of their lives and the meaning of their marriages". I totally agree. I'm so grateful to be a mother, to have had 13 beautiful children born to me. I recognize that God has been super generous with us. I'd happily take a few dozen more if I could. I love spending time with them, making sacrifices for them, and sharing life with them. My kids give joy to my heart and purpose to my life. I took cute Katharine on a bike ride in the trailer this afternoon. We went down to Macey's to get an ice cream. Cute little girls in her helmet. We parked the bike then went inside.

When the guy started the ice cream, it was all soft and watery - probably from not having served any ice cream for a few hours or at all yet today? He apologized and asked if it was ok for him to put it in a cup. I'm assuming in case the cone got too soggy too quickly. He set the cone aside, then he got a large clear cut and took it to the ice cream machine where he filled it almost all the way to the top! Then he put the cone, which already had ice cream, on top of that. Wow. Katharine you hit the jackpot! I took the cone and let K have the big cup. 

That's a bit too much ice cream for a 3 year old... I'm sure she'll be disappointed next time we come here, cause her serving probably won't be that big ever again. I hope she'll be ok with that. 

So after getting that huge serving of ice cream, I assumed she'd be content for a while. Hence, I decided I could take my time going back home. I also wasn't too keen on the idea of going up the steep hill, so I went south and through the neighborhoods. I found a small dirt trail that ended with big cement blocks and a chain preventing my passing. A nice man saw me in my predicament and came and helped me lift K in the trailer up and over the chain. (Thank you kind sir!) After that I slowly worked my way up the ridge. I called back to Kathrine to check on her a few times, she was quiet. I stopped and lifted up the screen to see her head was bobbing forward, she was asleep, and her cup of ice cream was tipped over and she was using it as an arm rest. Yay. I was pretty sure she hadn't finished it, so... I was going to have a mess to clean up. I told myself it was ok cause maybe the blanket caught most of it? Easy cause I can just throw that in the washing machine. We were almost home when she woke up, and I heard her crying "Someone ate my ice cream! Waaah!" I pulled into the backyard, parked the bike, surveyed the mess. I had: one empty cup of ice cream...

One sad little girl...

And a mess of ice cream that was not contained in the blanket, but had spilled on the red blanket, and the pink blanket, and all over the seat of the trailer, and most of it was on K's pajamas. Her "Belle" nightgown was soaked. Why did she think someone ate her ice cream? Did she not notice something wet and cold on all over her hip and bottom? Cute sad little girl.

I carefully picked her up, feet forward and upside down, so the ice cream would run down her leg and not drip onto the carpet, and I carried her up to the tub. Natalie took over from there. 

The right half of K's underwear was soaked with chocolate ice cream, but cause of it's location we imagined it was #2. What a mess. A typical ending to an outing with kids. It was good "type 2 fun" which means it's fun and funny after the fact, lol. This was also tolerable in the moment, cause I'm used to moments like this! It's all good childhood memories.

Fall Break Read-a-thon

Today is the final day of Fall break for the boys. Daniel and Peter did some reading in the pantry, lol, and Owen did 2 hours of reading along as he listened to Audible.

The boys all did a lot of reading this past weekend, it's been like a fall break read a thon. Last Thursday, I told the boys that they could go play at the church, cause I needed to go update the board in the Relief Society room anyway. Well, I kept putting off. We didn't go on Thursday, didn't go Friday, then I got in over my head with the mess in the kitchen on Saturday. I eventually did go at 9:30 pm Saturday night. Daniel and Peter came with me, but that didn't give them enough time to play. I told them that we would go again Monday/today, which we did. Owen also brought his friend Afton, who knocked on the door right as we were heading to the car. The kids played at the church while I worked on the RS board some more. I didn't need to get back home, and I brought my computer, so I tried to blog after I was done with the church stuff. That didn't work well though, cause I kept getting interrupted. After two hours, they were hungry so we came back home. After the girls got home from school, I went on a ride to the ruins. I enjoy the mountains.

It was a bit cold though. Note to self: if it's 45 degrees or less, get toe warmers. Corey stayed at his dad's and worked late, and also told me to not spend $ tonight, so our original plan for this last FHE before Halloween, which was going to be buying then carving pumpkins, was scratched. Natalie started to cry. I'm not sure why she took it so hard.

I did have some chocolate chips and pumpkin puree on hand, so I gave those to her and she was able make pumpkin cookies. 

She's becoming quite the baker and getting lots of experience with different recipe's under her belt. I told the kids that we'll go to the trunk or treat in my parent's neighborhood, that we heard about yesterday when we were at their ward, so that is Thursday and will be a FHE extension. Then they watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on the ipad, cause the remote to connect to the tv wasn't working or something.

Do you like Lily's make up there? She was being creative this evening and made herself become a skeleton.

I was impressed with the neck and stuff! It was all very bone-like Lily! Good job.