Happy Birthday Ethan

Happy Birthday to Ethan!

Ethan Bella and Alvie came up and let us celebrate with them today. Wayne, Mel and Christian all came over too. We had Clam Chowder with sourdough and some chili and a salad. Ethan said Clam Clowder in a bread bowl is his favorite food cause once when he was at Disneyland on a Soundhouse Tour (or Band with school?) he was super hungry and ordered that and it was the best thing he'd ever tasted, so that is his favorite even though he doesn't have it a lot. Bella knows all about "chowda" cause she served a mission in the northeast. After we ate dinner (around 4, cause Corey and I had a church meeting at 2pm) we played a Kahoot that Bella and Melodie made. Some fun trivia about Ethan that was really fun. The only question I can remember at the moment is what was a type of discipline that was used with Ethan? And the choices were:

• time out
• a fine
• the hold
• phone taken away

and the answer might have been all of the above, haha. Ethan, aka "Doobyschoo" won, followed by Melodie and Christian, aka "Melodistian" (nice couple name!) and I got third. I was "Mary", a white polar bear with pink flowers). Corey's avatar was "Skunky" - a rabbit with a top hat on. 

Then we had cake that Abi made (baked it at Terry's house) and some cookies and cream ice cream, which is Ethan's fav. He and Bella made that cute birthday plate at Color Me Mine recently. It says "HBD tweaker" haha.

Ethan blew his candle's out with hardly any effort. 

We had fun visiting with them today. All of the aunts and uncles enjoyed some Alvie time. 

Lily and Ethan both took Alvin and Katharine on a quick ride around the block in the trailer.

And the kids were hitting my new racquetballs in the street and lost a few of them, darn kids. They had fun talking outside. I got a mosquito bite and went inside after that. 

One other cute thing from today... Katharine slept on our floor last night, and this morning we heard her do a little wiggling around then she said in her sleep “Ahhh! Such a relaxing day!” I went and took this pic of her right after -

So adorable, I love her.

Reading Tent & Spring Soccer

Peter really wanted to go to school yesterday, cause they were having a little activity called "Camp Read A Lot". On Thursday he probably was still sick and shouldn't have gone, but Abi sent him. Yesterday he really was feeling fine and better but he wasn't supposed to go to school cause of the fever the day before. But since he really really wanted to go I let him go and just hoped they wouldn't notice. Alas, they called me at 9:30 to come get him. Drat I got caught. I was just coming back from taking Katharine to Scarlett's house, so I was actually on the street right by the school and so I was there in less than a 30 seconds. He put on a brave face in the office as a secretary went back to get his backpack. The nurse said he had to be clear of a fever for 24 hours without medication. She said he told her he had taken some medicine, but I said I hadn't given him any, which was true. The fever they noted was yesterday around noon, so she said he could come back at noon if he wanted. We went to the car and he started to cry cause he really wanted to stay for camp read a lot. "You can come back at noon, do you want to try that?" "No (sniffle) it's fine." I told him we'd make a tent at home and we went to the store to buy him a some ice cream and a box of Nerds candy. I got an orange tube tent from the 72 hour kits and set up a place for him to read. 

So, yeah, poor Peter missed a whole week of school. But he is feeling better now and went to his soccer game today. 

So I helped Peter with that yesterday instead of blogging while K played at Scarlett's house until almost noon. After K got home, she and Peter played Starfall and Peter's also been doing Lexia. 

This morning for us was full of soccer. Daniel at 9, Owen and peter both at 11:30. I took Daniel. He played good and had fun. 

After his game at Lone Peak Park, I came back, told Peter and Owen to get ready. I took P, Corey took Owen. After Owen's game, Corey took O with him to Provo to go by Warehouse B to see if he could find something for Ethan's birthday, and cause he has store credit there. I haven't been that impressed with the purchases there but Corey is always giving them a chance to impress them. I'm impressed Corey's committed to that drive just to see if there is something. Corey went to Costco after that. Owen was watching the time. His game was over at 12:30 and he they didn't get back home until 3:30. On the way home, Corey told me that Owen said "I just wasted 3 hours of my life!" haha, that was funny. I'm sure he'll try to avoid tagging along with Corey, in the future!

Corey and I didn't go on a date last night, cause he was helping a neighbor move. And cause all of our sitters were gone. Abi was hanging out with friends and LSN all spent the night at the Felix's cabin for a "March Party" with their girlfriends. LSN got back around 1, Corey was still gone, they started laundry, chilled, took naps, and after Corey got back he put them to work cleaning the garage with him. Yayyy. I cooked bread for tomorrow (E's bday) but cooked it over at Terry's house cause I guess I killed our oven sometime on Friday. It hasn't been staying hot enough for sourdough. So now we're looking at ovens and I've got a lot of dough that I need to cook. I thought we might go on a date tonight, and we did finally get away for a quick ride about 30 min before sunset. We went to Corner Canyon and did Clarks cause we were racing the sun and got in a quick workout with that, then went by Walmart on the way home to get Minute tapioca so Corey could make that for tomorrow. I got pink lady apples and a 2 and a 4 candle for E's birthday tomorrow. Bella is going to make Clam Chowder cause that's Ethan's favorite meal (who knew?!) and I've got chili going and we'll hopefully have cooked sourdough. Terry said I can come use her oven so I'll prob go cook it at her house. 

You Ok?

Our family has joined the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center again. I signed us up last night and this morning Corey and I were able to go while Abi was at home getting the kids out the door. We lifted weights, swam a few laps, and then did the sauna for 15 minutes. I did butterfly stroke swimming cause I didn't want to get my hair wet. The sauna there is a lot hotter than Momentum's! It was nice. 

When we came home, Lily was dressed up for Spirit week at Skyline - today was Business day. Corey saw her and paused... "What is this? I don’t know what to think but I know I need a picture..." He took a pic, and then so did I. She was holding a mug and wearing Corey's dress shirt, suit coat, and his shorts, along with Christmas shorts and birkenstock sandals. 

Since she was dressed in her clothes, Corey asked "Are you ok? Do we need to spend more time together?" haha like she's trying to find a way to be close to her father cause he's absent, so she takes his clothes all the time? She and I laughed, and she said that wasn't it. It was Business day! ...but I still didn't know what she was dressed as. She didn't make me guess and just said she was dressed like she was on a zoom call! Oh! I get it! I like it. Formal on top, relaxed on bottom. Very creative Lily! And way to go showing school spirit.

At home, Abi had sent ODP all to school. Peter was a bit iffy but she thought I told her to send him. I told her to see how he was, and she said he still seemed sick, but she thought that I wanted him to go anyway. No, that's not it. I guess we'll see how it goes. I went on a hike with K and some toddler friends. We got a ride there with Caroline at 9:40. It was just down at Quail Hollow. Cute kids - 

After we got home, I was stretching in my room when I saw that I had missed a call from the Granite. They left a message that Peter needed to be picked up. They said he had a fever, doh! And they had called me an hour ago before I saw it. I said I'd be there asap but I had to walk. Then I remembered I had the trailer! I hurried and put K in the bike trailer and we went over to get him (Abi had the van for seminary). Thankfully he fit in the trailer too. Nice and scrunched, but they both fit. Back at home -

Peter home for his 4th day this week, poor kid. He and K did starfall and I helped him with a bit of Lexia. I cooked sourdough. I took a mini loaf to Dean Smart (300 grams size). Corey had given Abi a lecture last night about practicing her Spanish, so after school I helped her out by putting on a movie in Spanish. We watched Megamente (Megamind) - I like it, it is a good show. 

So Peter has used my computer today doing Lexia, cause the computer downstairs sometimes doesn't work, or the older kids are using it. I keep thinking I'll catch up on computer work, but alas I am once again behind on the blog, and also lagging with cleaning the house. I did bake a few small loaves of sourdough today, and am currently debating if I should prep any dough for tomorrow. Owen and Daniel had soccer practices. They both have coach Meghan again, yay.

At 7:30pm I left to take L&N to Dollar Tree, they need decorations for a "March Party" tomorrow with friends. Before the dollar store, we went by neighbor's house to get some chicken eggs from her. She has 5 red hens and they lay 5-7 eggs a day right now, which is more eggs than she and her husband can use. The girls said we should get chickens and I'm interested. I'll start toying with that idea soon. Then drove to Ft Union shopping center by Momentum and I ran into Dicks to buy a swim cap while L&N ran into Dollar Tree to get stuff. I told them that I don't think they work hard enough at home or school to warrant a party every month. We were all super quick in the stores so we could pick up Owen on time from soccer on our way home. For scriptures we had a brief Frankie Paul discussion at scriptures about leaning your ladder against the wrong wall (she was going to be the new Bachlorette but the show just got cancelled) Babylon can't satisfy. Ethan had good news tonight. We also talked to the kids about some good news Ethan got - there's been lots of drama with him and a friend and we told the kids a little bit about that, and he was talking to a mentor at BYU and E said he was basically offered a pot of gold opportunity from him. It was good to have good news, we're excited for him. 

Time for bed, just gave Abi a blank check, she's going to go get her passport tomorrow. 

Slowing in Nature

Corey missed his workout on Monday so he went out and did Clark's last night. I thought he went up the Quarry trail and was interested in seeing how far he got. I checked life 360 to see how far up he was and saw that he was in Corner Canyon, drat. When I checked, he was at Peakview and had been there for 20 minutes. He paused his ride to talk with Eth and also his friend, who were needing business advice about stuff going on. Corey's been very helpful to them, he's a good mentor. So anyway, I decided I would have to go check out Quarry myself. I left for a ride today after Sophi and Natalie got home from school. (Abi had Lyceum and Lily went to Wayne's). On my ride I listened to this BYU speech again "Be Still and Know That I Am God" by Shayla Bott. A few parts I liked on this second listen through - 

"Slow down your body, slow down your life." 
"Where we spend our time shows us what we worship." - Mary Oliver

"You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships." - David Foster Wallace

I decided to put some of her counsel into practice and didn't listen on my whole ride. For some of it I listened to nature and talked to God, Tevye style. It was nice to be outside. The trail was clear up until the 2nd bridge, and after that there were a few stretches of snow here and there. 

Had to HAB the last 20 yards to the ruins. I got the Lisa Rocks today!

These Granite canyon walls are sacred - the stone here was prepared by the Lord and used for the Salt Lake Temple. I'm so grateful to live here.

I haven't been up to the ruins since Feb 7! So yeah it was good. Girls all had YW tonight - they went on a hike from Hidden Valley to Bear Canyon bridge. That's a nice hike spring is almost officially here. 

Peter was home sick again today. He woke me up at 4:45 am this morning with a knock at our bedroom door cause the poor kid #2'd his pants during the night. Thankfully not a lot in volume, but whatever sickness he has sure has an exceedingly putrid odor. (Sorry again for tmi, but it's real life.) I gave him a quick bath, started laundry, sent him back to bed, washed my hands well and then went down to get my sourdough ready for breakfast. I divided the 1000 gram dough into 3 loaves today instead of two, and they are smaller and so cute! I had them ready for the kids for breakfast. Two out of the oven, last one cooking. 

I wanted to get a pic of all three but I sent one with Corey when he left with carpool while the last one was still cooking. I think we might never go back to store bought bread. Also gave him some chili & kimchi and also stuff for his yogurt fruit breakfast of champions. 

So Peter stayed home once again, and Daniel. K might be getting the bug. She hasn't messed her pants yet but had quite a few bathroom trips yesterday. We'll get through this. I enjoy having them home.

More Sourdough

"Temple Tuesday"s are still happening, but my 5am temple mornings have ended. I first missed it two weeks ago when K woke up at 4:30 am and told me to stay. That time, after Corey got back from the temple, he offered to stay home with her and I was able to go at a normal time, aka 10 am which was a lot nicer. Then last week I was feeling a little sick and thus again opted out of the early hour trip but did go later (and only had a slight coughing attack). This morning I stayed home without a real reason other than it's probably better for my possibly overworked and inflamed body, so here we are. Oh, also cause I needed to cook sourdough for my family. Would you like to see my loaf from this morning? 

Isn't that PRETTY!!?!?! Oh yeah I'm getting good!! Those smaller scoring cuts were inspired by this video. I like the look of them a lot. Also it's too bad I saw that after I threw out a lot of starter that I thought was bad cause of that grey liquid. Oh well. I took a loaf to Jami next door yesterday, and this morning I took the pretty loaf above to the neighbors across the street. I'm going to try and give away a loaf a day this week. This one below was for the kids. (Shall I post another photo of my bread?)...

It's fun, but I probably don't need to keep taking photos of it? I must be a proud mama though, cause I want to take pics and share them. I liked making designs. Maybe it's a good creative and artistic outlet since I don't have time to draw or paint. Here's my loaf from yesterday - 

And I tried to make two loafs at the same time in the dutch oven without using the bread pan (just so I could do two at once). Turned out ok, slight smile/banana bend to them.

I guess bread is my current hobby. I'll try not to post more pics. Or if I just have to share I guess I could have a kid help me start a youtube channel, ha.

So, temple: I'm still going, but just not at 5am. I could do 5am if we go to bed at 9, but that prob won't be happening as long as we have children in our home, so, yeah. I'll take advantage of having Abi around on Tuesdays and Thursday while we have her and I'll just go when she gets back home from seminary. Which is what I did today. I went to Draper and did initiatories at 2 and then went on a bike ride! Yay, win-win. I did Clarks. I would have done Ann's but there was a guy in front of me and he turned on Ann's, and I didn't want to follow him or pass him and have him follow me and have to worry about playing bike tag, so it's easier to just take a different route, even if it's Clarks. I was proud that I was willing to take on Clarks this early in the season. It was good though, I just kept it steady and didn't try to break any personal records. I didn't have to stop and walk, yay.

Another good thing from today - it was the first night in over a week that I did not cough during the night, yay. I also didn't have a fit this morning or at all today, yay again. I'm crossing my fingers that I'm all better. I've got 3 sick kids though.  Daniel and Peter were sick on Sunday, yesterday Peter stayed home but Daniel seemed better so I sent him and then they called saying he threw up and to come get him, doh! That was around 3:30 and school was almost out, but Abi had left with the van so I didn't have a car. They said he had a fever too so he couldn't come tomorrow. And they said he couldn't go home on the bus today, agh... thankfully Corey was able to hurry home to get him. Corey was almost on his way home anyway so we could have an early FHE. We were going to go swimming at the Rec Center, but with D&P sick, we did something more chill and just watched Catch Me If You Can and ate ice cream. The kids have been requesting to watch that since they saw their cousin Mikey's play. So then today Peter was really sick, Daniel had to stay cause they said he had a fever yesterday, and Sophi  stayed home too not feeling well. Daniel seems fine, other than a cough at night like I had. Peter's been the worst of them today - he's had an upset stomach and really yellow runny #2, (sorry about the tmi). Poor kid accidentally messed up his pants 4 times today so it's good he was home. Corey said today was an unproductive day for him - too many interruptions. I did pretty good. This morning I talked to Nicole as I moved bikes from the basement into the backyard. After Abi got back from seminary she moved Jerry to the shed, yay so that will be better too. 

Goals: Two Options

I really liked this quote I saw today - 

"You have two options: Increase your sacrifice - or - reduce your desire"

I was thinking of this regarding the health and flexibility of my body. I say I want to do the splits, but do I? I can choose to reduce or eliminate that desire OR I can increase my sacrifice to actually work harder towards it. Same with getting fit. If I want to be trim, I need to increase my sacrifice (aka skip the ice cream and goodies) or I could reduce my desire and just settle for where I'm at. What do I really want? "What desirest thou?" (1 Nephi 11, 2 Nephi 28)

Another thing I think that quote applies to: discipleship. Am I really making my discipleship my highest priority, as President Nelson's counseled us to do? "Brothers and sisters, now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority." I don't want to reduce that desire, so I want to increase my sacrifice and intentionally do things that make Christ a higher priority in my day to day life.

So I was thinking about goals, and I think I can narrow them down to three:

1. My discipleship to Christ: scriptures, prayer, temple attendance, service
2. Mastery of my body: health and strength through nutrition and exercise
3. Master of my home: organized and free of clutter. I want to be in control here and I don't want our "stuff" to control me! 

So, that's what I'm currently going to be thinking about and working on. I organized a little bit in the basement today while I listened to General Conference talks. I'm giving a lesson in Relief Society on April 12th on Elder Christofferson's message "Look to God and Live". So I'm getting that in my head. 

Peter and Daniel stayed home from church today not feeling well. Corey stayed home for sacrament meeting and then I came home after that and he went for the second hour. Peter has slept almost the whole day. The primary children sang in sacrament meeting, and Daniel's voice was missed. Katharine was cute up on the stand, but she was staring at her thumb. She got a papercut yesterday when she was sliding her thumb along the side of a book. That will do it. It's very small, but it's been a trial for her. Putting on a brave face though!

At 5pm, I went to a neighbor's house with a bunch of other ladies in the neighborhood and we watched the Relief Society Broadcast for the anniversary of Relief Society. It was really good. I didn't take notes, just listened. One quote I remember by Sister Johnson: You can do hard alone or do your hard with Jesus. I choose Jesus. I had a cry with a neighbor Peggy over there, I wasn't expecting all those pent up feelings to surface, but I think it's cause we've been studying Joseph of Egypt this week, and as part of that, I revisited this post from 2017 when his story helped me cope with Movie Mouth ending. Kinda feels like we're still in jail (comparing to Joseph) but I trust that we'll be delivered soon and be able to help and serve others on a greater scale. I trust in the Lord's timing. Continuing with that train of thought, we watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tonight, with our personal editing of parts. Pic below of Abi and Natalie ready for me to turn it on. Katharine getting squished by her big sisters! 

Corey and Lily left to pick up Ethan and Bella from the airport while we watched it. E&B are coming back from a trip to San Diego with Bella's family. I still have Nuremburg rented and made the kids agree we'll watch is next Sunday without protests or complaints.

Yesterday Corey worked all day, but we did leave to climb for one last time around 7:30. We went to the Fort Union location and did top rope. The usually do 8 routes, but a few time we've done 10. So today we did eleven, just so we can end with a bang. It's been a nice weekend, with temps in the low 40s and mid 60s. Next week will be in the 70s, just in time for soccer games to start next Saturday for Owen Daniel and Peter. It will be busy but it's ok. We'll plan to get in our workouts early. 

Yesterday a neighbor invited Daniel and Peter to go to the Symphony with her and her son John. They had gotten tickets for their family to go, but then her husband and daughters couldn't come, so they invited the neighborhood gang. 

It was for the "Carnival of the Animals" performance. I'm grateful for wonderful neighbors that give my kids civilized and expansive activites!

At home I'm still on a sourdough kick. Yesterday I used my starter for the first time (in the jar with the green lid). I started making it on March 8th and I worked good! I also tried dividing the dough and put it in a bread pan, which conveniently fit in the dutch oven, so it made a baby bread shaped loaf. We girls all thought it was cute and they want me to make more sandwich loaf shaped bread tomorrow so they can make sandwiches for school.

I was trying to catch the steam coming out of the bread. Corey and Lily are still gone picking up Ethan and Bella. Ethan's arrival time that he told Corey was California time, not Salt Lake time, so Corey and Lily were an hour earlier than needed and E&B were an hour later than planned. I'm going to get kids to bed. I'll probably take carpool in the morning cause Corey's not going to get enough sleep with the time. 

Jerry the Guinea Pig

The girls didn't have school today and it was nice to have them home to help. I slept better last night  than the previous two nights, with not too much coughing during the night, but then this morning I woke up earlier than I wanted at 5:42 and then I started to cough, and it wouldn't stop for 45 minutes. At 6:30 I abandoned hope of falling back asleep and I went to boulder a few minutes then sat in the sauna before I had to get back to get the boys off to school. I applied for free/reduced lunches last month and we were approved, so that has been a blessing that they are getting free lunches right now, and the district let me know that free breakfast is included with that. The boys have been going in for that this week when I take Owen over for safety patrol.

Around 10 this morning, I told K I'd read her a book, and we started reading a Strawberry Shortcake book she got at the library, and I got over half way in before the tired kicked in and I told her I couldn't finish it and to go ask Abi. Then I laid down. Abi told me she was going to go to the mall, I asked her to take K and N to K could have an experience and so Natalie could get rid of the pile of clothes that she's collected to try and sell to Uptown Cheapskate. Then Abi decided not to go to the mall and around one o'clock she told me she was running an errand with Natalie and Katharine, out to South Jordan... to buy a guinea pig... um... whatever/ok, so I guess I gave approval as I lay on the couch with my head covered. An hour later they came home with Jerry.

Katharine is excited. She probably needs a little creature to love.

I've said before that Guinea pigs are the perfect pet, and I still think that is true. It is especially true for non-pet people like ourselves who are not really committed and need a low maintenance animal. I have not missed not having pets around. In this post, after our last guinea pig died, I said it would be 5 years before we'd have another pet, and we made it 7 1/2 years, so next time I'll just have to say 10 or 20 years, haha. It will be ok. I also said in that post that I didn't want a pet cause the kids hardly played with them or seem to care about them, and I'm still going to stand by that criteria. As of the past 6 hours, the kids have all been quite engaged. If they keep this up and I don't have to do anything, this is fine. Abi has said she'll pay for all the food and do all the cleaning, but since she's leaving in July, yeah... we'll see how this goes. So welcome to our home, Jerry. We already had a pet Jerry, Jerry the Butterfly, who lived a short life from Aug 22 - 29, 2022. He was a pet and a life nonetheless, so in the official family records this new Jerry will be Jerry the Guinea Pig or Jerry the II. 

The boys were all very excited when they saw the pet when they came home from school and invited all their friends over to see the new pet. Corey and I went on a ride for date night tonight in Corner Canyon (downhill trails are dry and open!) and then we went to Aubergine, and while we were out Abi sent this picture of Peter reading to Jerry. 

I might add that the people who sold Abi all this stuff were super generous as they gave it all for $10 bucks. They sold Jerry cause they are moving. I'm sure they were glad that he was bought by Abi Natalie and Katharine, as that seemed to give evidence of him having many loving mothers for the rest of his life. This pig was majorly pampered! Look at that two story high rise apartment! Wow. So it was a very good deal, and we'll see how it goes through July and we'll reevaluate when Abi leaves for her mission. Until then, welcome to our home Jerry ...though we're probably going to have Abi move you outside, it's nothing personal, just allergies (Corey, Lily, & Peter.) So welcome to our yard?

Baking Bread

Yesterday I made dough for 8 loaves of bread. I cooked 5 for dinner last night and to have on hand for breakfast, and then baked 3 this morning. Lily told me to pace myself so I don't get burned out. It's so easy though, I don't know that I will unless the kids stop eating it. Shall I upload another photo of bread? I tried this big "wheat" pattern after I saw it on youtube. 

I went to visit some ladies in the neighborhood today and gifted them all a loaf - Carol P and Jen R and when Kathy O brought me back home I gave her one too. They might be too big to give to couples and neighbors who live alone, so I might try forming smaller loaves or maybe I'll get a smaller dutch oven sometime? Or loaf pan? I'll explore what options are out there. 

The kids played a lot outside yesterday and today. Spring is in the air. We are going to have a family work day on Saturday and get things cleaned up a little bit. Bulk clean up isn't until May, but we'll try to start clearing out a little bit each week in the garbage can. The kids jumped on the trampoline while I raked pine needles. I counted raking as my movement for yesterday. This morning at 6:30 Corey and I got up early to go climbing at Fort Union. We decided to cancel our membership for a bit, so I did that on Monday, did I already mention that? We have this week through Saturday and then we're taking a break and going to join the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. We'll take the kids swimming this summer, play some racquetball and lift weights and stuff, and will still have a sauna there, yay.

At 9pm tonight Corey was still working and I started cleaning the house. I'm glad I had desire to do that, it's been a while. I took stuff downstairs (snow boots) and I'm hoping tomorrow to keep it going and to get ski stuff all organized and put away properly for the season, and we still have Christmas stuff all in a mess down there. There's a lot to do. 

Another Day

I made 4 loaves of sourdough yesterday, and 4 more today. Lily told me to not wear myself out! I'm saving some to bake in the morning and I'll deliver them to some sisters in the ward when Kathy O and I go visiting. So other than baking, what have I been doing... I went to visit my parents yesterday. Did the usual and cleaned out their fridge. I also went to Costco, yay, Corey got a check Sunday. He's still working toward that big break through, and we have thankfully survived another day. I haven't taken pictures, except for a sunset yesterday - 

The weather was warm yesterday, but felt a bit chilly-er today. I have been a bit sick with a stupid persistent cough at night time. It seems to be worse when I lay down, so I've moved to the loveseat in our room to try and be a bit elevated, plus it helps to have a drink of water close by in the window. Since I was a bit tired from not sleeping well, I didn't go to the temple early. Plus I didn't want to have a coughing fit there. I thought I'd wait until later this week, but then Corey said I could go, so I went around 10 am and he stayed home with Katharine. I did have a coughing fit fighting to happen, but I kept it in control and hope the ladies around me don't get sick. 

On my weekly drive to the temple, that's when I try to catch up on Marco Polo's that my family sends. My sister Patrice pointed out that this upcoming General Conference will fall on Easter Sunday, and it will also be solemn assembly because that is when we will sustain President Dallin H. Oaks at prophet, seer and revelator. She is also planning to fast, even though our fast and testimony meeting with our congregations will be on March 22 (March 29 is a special Easter Palm Sunday service). So yeah, I think I'll made General Conference a fast weekend too. Patrice did some study of what a solemn assembly is and found this quote by Joseph Smith:

"We must have all things prepared... and call our solemn assembly as the Lord has commanded us... [all] who are prepared, and are sufficiently pure to abide the presence of the Savior, will see Him in the solemn assembly." 

See this article about the Kirtland Temple dedication and also Doctrine and Covenants 88:69, 75. Fun fact - I had a long wait before intitatories, so I didn't go to the celestial room after, but as I was waiting for initiatories, I opened to D&C 88 and read that section! Came home, Corey left, I made a grape chicken salad tonight for dinner, so it was sourdough with the chicken grape salad, and it was a hit. My life seems to only be able to handle one mode: Reading, Cleaning, Baking, Blogging, or something else random (like caterpillars, violin, legos, puzzles, or memorizing something). Hopefully I can get a little better at being balanced and doing a little bit everyday, or atleast I hope to manage the kids and have them help do some stuff everyday. I'm consistent at Laundry and making the bed, and that's it for chores. I'm pretty consistent at exercising, though I haven't done intense cardio lately since the Gooseberry ride with friends. Temps have been to warm to do the trial, and I don't like the road, so I've just been going on walks. I'm hoping taking a rest break will help my left hip and left shoulder, which started having pain issues this past fall (frozen shoulder?). They feel ok when I climb and stuff, but my left shoulder hurts if I try to do push ups. I'm gonna be 50 years old this year, so I guess this is when pains of aging start to sneak into life. 

Brown Nosing

The girls begged to stay out late last night. I told them it was daylight saving and that they'd probably have a hard time getting up. They promised they wouldn't. We let Mel and Christian take Corey's car last night when they headed back to Lehi, cause Christian's car was having some issue and needed to be towed - so in addition to time feeling earlier cause of daylight savings, we would also need to walk to church (I'd rather do that than take two trips). Well, I told them to please be home at midnight, but then Corey and I went to bed and let them be the deciders of their own bedtime/fate. Abi got home at midnight. LSN were all at Jane's house watching a movie. Sophi and Natalie said they got back around 12:20, and Lily at 12:40 or something. They all woke up ok this morning when I went to tell them it was time to rise and shine, except Lily, who was already up on her own AND had made breakfast for everyone! 

THIS is how you brown-nose your parents. I walked to church with Lily, Peter, and Katharine, and got a text from Corey telling me "Thank you!" for the breakfast. I showed it to Lily and thanked her for making me look good (he prob knew it wasn't me). I told him later that it was Lily. Sophi and Natalie got a brief lecture from Corey for us not being able to trust them with their excuse "we lost track of time" and Lily was forgiven cause she really stepped it up. If they want more freedom, they need to do some more work around here, so maybe this will be a good thing if they help out more. I enjoyed walking to church. Took a photo of our chapel steeple with the mountains in the background.

Rumor has it that, since our stake has less people than in the past (hence the combing of wards last fall from 7 wards to 5 wards in our stake) and because our building is so old, they are getting rid of it and we will be moving to a new chapel this summer, prob the one of Mt. Jordan Road where we hosted Ethan and Bella's wedding dinner. It will be ok, but I am sad and will miss the granite. I'm need to take a few more photos of it. In church today, Bro Sonntag said he sees pictures in the Granite of the plan of salvation - the premortal life on the left, mortal life in the middle, and judgement day/exaltation in the north/right wall of Granite. I mean to take pics of it today so I could study it and see what I could see. It's kinda like an ink blot test!

I took a nap today, and when I woke up Mel and Christian and Ethan and Bella and Alvie were all here visiting with Corey in our room. M&C came to return Corey's car, and E&B were stopping by on their way back to Provo after spending the night downtown for their anniversary. Two years - crazy. 

I wanted to watch Nuremborg today and rented it on youtube, but then the teens all vetoed it, so we just went to bed early. We'll watch it next week.

Park City - Canyon Village

We made a plan this week to go skiing today at Park City. Mel and Christian were on in our plan, and they came up last night and spent the night. Today we pulled it off our master plan. We did something. We went, we skied. Go team. 

We packed gear last night. This morning we were up by 7 with the plan to leave at 8, but we didn't get out until 8:15. The traffic wasn't bad and we were pulling into the parking lot at 9. That was where we seemed to get delayed. Took forever for everyone to find their gloves and get their boots on and find their skis and poles etc etc...

Once a handful of the kids were ready, we told them to head over to the Cabriolet. Corey, Katharine, and I were the last ones to go on it. Katharine said it was fun. Everyone was waiting for us at the gondola. I took K potty first, then we took the Red Pine Gondola up. Fun. 

Cute little face.

I asked if she was going to ski with me. She said no. She is going to ski with her dad.

We were finally on the hill at 10. It was very crowded. We went up Saddleback Express. I told them that when Corey and I were here, the Sun Peak Express was fun and not busy, so we started down together that way, but then the kids all took off south on Mainline while Corey and I and PK went down Eclipse to Sun Peak. I skied with K for a moment and then she wanted Corey to carry her. I admit it was prob a little steep for a 3 year old.

We went up Sun Peak and then back toward Hidden Meadow where we stayed for most of the day. Con becauset that lift is busy, but pro cause it's an easy hill. It's also close to the bathrooms, so it was good. We told the kids to meet at Tombstone at 1 o'clock for lunch. Yesterday I got food at Walmart for lunch. Corey suggested sandwiches, but I didn't want to buy bread when we had wheat sourdough bread I made, even though the kids didn't love it.... I got Nutella and figured if I gave it a good coating, the kids would tolerate it. Corey packed that up in his backpack and carried it around all morning with two water bottles. Lunch time.

It worked out great. Corey "We just saved ourselves thousands of dollars!!" Haha, yeah, cause they charge $35 for a hamburger meal! So that was lunch, plus bananas and clementines, and then I also got Clif Bars and Beef sticks for everyone to take with them and I told them this was it for food - make it last, that's gotta get you through until 3. We took the group pic (at top of post) and then told them to have fun and meet us at 3pm at Red Pine. They all went up Tombstone and Corey and I went up Over and Out and then down Raptor Way so we could show Peter and Katharine the Orange Bubble Lift! They loved it.

Corey took K after that and I stayed with Peter. We did Hidden Meadow a lot of times. He liked the Hidden Bear green trail on the west of that lift, where you could sneak through the trees a little bit. We did that over and over. One time there were other kids on the trail and he and I got separated momentarily. I saw him, skied toward him, and then he sunk under the tree where he had been waiting for me. 

Luckily Corey came by right then and he was able to rescue Peter. Some kids were done at 3 and they met up with Corey and took K back to the car. Corey stayed at Red Pine to count kids as they left. Peter wanted to keep going "one more time" and since Corey was still waiting for so and so, we'd go again. Owen went again, then we went again to try and catch him. "Ok, last run" - we said that a few times. Finally we were like "Ooookkkkaaaayy" and we took off our skis. Everyone is headed down?" Corey said Mel Christian and Owen went one more time on Hidden Meadow, and Peter said "I want to go one more time!" So we went one more time. And that really was our last one at 3:49, cause the Red Pine Gondonla closed at 4 so we needed to get on it to get back to the car. Though once we were on it we realized we prob could have skied down, darn! I like that Peter and Owen were so die hard! We were able to pack up quickly and got home a little after 5. I asked Corey if he wanted to go out for a date, since we missed last night (I was at a bridal shower) and he said yes, but then we both fixed ourselves a bowl of fruit and yogurt with homemade granola, and realized we prob didn't want to go out to eat now. So he has been working, I went with Abi to visit a neighbor who gave her some dresses for her mission, and now I'm doing laundry and giving kids baths before church tomorrow. It was a great and perfect ski day. I never like all the getting ready, but once that is behind us it's fun to ski and grea. Now I'm just putting things back in order! I'll finish that on Monday. 

Wheat Bread

Lily and I both felt like something was a little off on Tuesday and then we realized that neither of us  had made any sourdough, haha, yeah that's it! I made up for that yesterday morning. We were almost out of flour, but I got a 25 lb bag of flour from my parents on Monday. The paper bag didn't have a label on it of expiration, so but I figured it was probably expired, as most things are in our parents' homes. The question is how expired - a year or two? or a decade or two? Hmm. I opened it up and saw that it had clumps and it smelled old. Yeah, we don't want to use this. 

I went into the basement where we have like 20 big canisters of wheat. I brought some up and got out the mill and I milled some whole wheat flour, yay. I decided to try out fresh whole wheat sourdough today! I milled over 1/2 of a bucket plus a #10 can. 

I've got two loaves proofing before lunch, and I was thinking this is gonna be great! This is as fresh as it gets! I was hoping I didn't need to change anything for whole wheat sourdough cause I didn't research rules before I started. I did Lily's recipe for a smaller loaf and Olivia Rose's recipe for a big loaf for dinner tonight (I did Olivia's recipe, but prepped it Lily's way). 

Cooked these two loaves of wheat bread for dinner last night that were both amazing. The first one got cut into right away but then was left out and uneaten. I told my self it was cause the wheat makes you feel more full than the white sourdough, so yay they were satisfied. Saved the other one for after Corey got home. 

Corey said it was excellent. The children, however, have let me know that they don't like the wheat as much. Well, that's sad to hear, cause I when the kids were cleaning up the kitchen last night (which I appreciated), Abi emptied the whole thing of old flour into the flour bin. That last bit we had at the bottom in there is officially contaminated now, so unfortunately, we are OUT of white flour. Corey told me to wait on going to Costco. Sooo, what do we do? This morning I decided to just try out the white expired stuff, to see if the kids notice anything and if they like it more than the wheat. I made dough for 4 loaves this morning, let it sit, tried to mix it but it did not stretch well at all. Proofed kinda ok? But had a texture like the whole wheat in how it kinda wouldn't stick/gum together. I cooked it at 4pm, Natalie was anxiously waiting. But after it came out, she said "This smells weird..." followed with a cut into the loaf, another whiff, and then a final statement of judgement: "This smells like a bean bag." and she left. Loaf 2 was cooking while Natalie passed that judgement, so there are 2 done but I just going to toss them both and the 2 proofing loaves. Too bad that flour was bad! I need to go to the store cause we are out of our current staples (flour, potatoes, oranges, pink lady apples, bananas, tomatoes, granola) and about out of most other things. But times like this are good, cause it makes us use things we don't use when there are other options: tuna, quinoa, rice, prunes, walnuts, raisins, and wheat flour! I'll get some wheat dough going to night for breakfast tomorrow. Here is one of the recipes I currently use fo ra large 1000 gram loaf - the Olivia Rose recipe:

• 250g sourdough starter
• 725g water and then mix everything
• 25g salt and then mix everything
• 1000g flour and then mix well until shaggy dough forms

Cover bowl for 30 min and set on counter

#1 stretch/fold around 8 times. Cover wait 30 min

#2 stretch/fold around 4-6 times. Cover wait 30 min

#3 stretch/fold using coil folds around 4-6 times. Cover and place in warm area for 2hr until dough doubles in size

Remove dough from bowl and split into two equal parts for two loaves

Stretch dough out and using a tri-fold method fold the dough then roll up into ball

Use push-pulls to build dough surface tension and then let sit on counter for 20 minutes

Place dough into a floured banneton seam side up. Cover and place into fridge for 2hr to proof

Pre-heat oven to 500 with dutch oven inside oven pre-heating as well.

Pull bread out of fridge to do minor design scoring

Put bread on parchment paper and into dutch oven, optionally an ice cube can go in dutch oven but outside the paper

Bake for 7 minutes and then do major center score cut. You can remove dutch oven lid or replace it depending on your desired finish.  Aim for 200-210 internal temperature of the bread, exact cooking times vary per individual ovens so remember yours after you make the first loaves.

What else... I did some insurance stuff yesterday. We were above the max income for medicaid, but the kids were all approved for CHIP, so that's good that they have insurance. I got a ton of paper work in the mail from them, cause they sent me the stuff individually for each child, rather than one thing for our  whole family so yeah I got 3 packets for each of the 8 children so I had 24 packets of stuff to go through and respond to. CHIP gave us dental too, so I'm going to set up those appointments for everybody. It will be Peter's first time going to the dentist. The rest of them haven't been since July 2020. I still need to figure something out for me and Corey, but in the meantime we have decided to not get sick or have any health emergencies. 

Corey's working hard. Last night he worked until 9pm and I assume it will be the same tonight. He says he is "so so close on the technology" and that he is trying to get to this next very very big milestone, and then the next step after that is to demo it in a user interface. I asked him to explain what the milestone is in very dumbed down English: "Basically computing and validating accuracy for everything. The next step would be like actually showing it with a visualization like an actual format they can see, but the data looks like it’s solid and I've proved/am proving it with lots of help. I've got one more thing I might try to calculate... I might call it a night, but I’m gonna try and see if we can figure it out but we’re super close. Part of it is ChatGPT keeps asking me 'Would you like this new suggestion?' and as long as I understand it, it usually works out so I’m feeling very bullish on where we’re at. So one thing I didn’t know is that you could do triangulation with three views or four or five views and that’s more accurate, not just with two views so I decided to turn that on and that’s appears to be working which I'm thrilled about. God bless the men and women that figured all this math out." 

Also Kat did some Starfall and watched a bit of strawberry shortcake yesterday and today. Her friend Scarlett came over to play today at 12:30. Abi was here so Corey and I went climbing at 1. I've been trying to blog, stretch, and read. I took a cat nap at 1 yesterday and then went on a walk to Sunrise Point. 

Walking around the dimple dell, I was thinking it would be so cool to turn the historic Muir-Poulson home into a little Granite Museum and have all the stuff that they present at the 4th of July on permanent display there. I also wish I could renovate the old Historic Granite Chapel into a reception hall, that would be fun. Fun to dream. It's almost 6pm now and Abi took the little kids to the library. I'm going to go figure out something else for dinner since the musty bread was a bust.