Peter's First Grade Program

Peter had his first grade program today - "The Day The Crayons Quit!"

Daniel and now Peter have been the only kids that did this new "Crayon" themed program, and I like it - it's very visually nice to look at with all the colors. The rest of the kids did "First Grade Magic" - ( Lily, Sophi, not Natalie cause of covid, Owen). Peter was one of the yellow crayons.

Sophi and Natalie wanted to sleep in after a long day yesterday with their ballroom concert, so they slept in, came to the first part of Peter's program, then Corey took them and Abi to school after about half way through.

Peter's speaking part was for a pink crayon.

It was cute. Peter did great. He was really jammin' out on his guitar at the end of the "Purple People Eater" song - I'll try to post the video of that. Katharine was the last sibling here at the end of the program - went to get a pic with Peter, but she didn't want to smile.

Not sure why?

She was ok to do a crazy face though!

Peter thinks green is the best color.

So, Lily took the van to school this morning, then Corey left with his car when he took ASN to school, so Katharine and I walked home. I let her watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. I have been in a bit of a fun, not sure why, I didn't ever really get going today, didn't exercise, was just a bit dead and flat all day. I took Abi to work at 2, went straight from there to pick up Lily. A tender mercy here - Abi was going to bike to work, but then her bike didn't work, so she asked for my bike, I didn't really want her to use mine, so then I said I'd take her, which was when we found out she almost biked to work with the van key. Lily had the other key at school, so I was almost left with a van without a key to it, which would have been a problem when I needed to take Owen to his trumpet lesson. So yay that I offered to take Abi to work. So A to work, then picked up Lily, home for an hour, then took D to a friends house at 4:30 before their 5pm soccer party, Owen came with and we went straight from there to his trumpet lesson which was 5:30 - 6, then back to the soccer party. I might want to find a trumpet teacher here in Sandy. I don't think we need to drive to Sugarhouse for that... I'm trying to find ways to spend less time in the car. I am also really wanting to stop carpool and have the kids go to our boundary school. That's what I was thinking about most of the day as I drove around. I left Owen there at 6:30 to play with Daniel and his team, went home to get Peter and Katharine, back to the park where they played until 7:30. Peter practicing spider man skills - 

The party was over but I stayed and visited with Meghan about my carpool situation. Then dropped off books at the library, then to pick up Abi who was off of work at 7:30. She wasn't ready, so in my moment of weakness while we waited for her, I decided to go into Target for ice cream. We found drumsticks, I ate two.

Back home, trying to get kids ready for bed. Corey worked late. I'm spent, done, over it, etc etc. I'm glad school is almost out, I'm dragging myself across the finish line.

'Lache Walk

Corey and I went on a hike tonight, yay! It was a "Lache Hike/walk!" "Lache" is a fun word coined by the Holderness Family recently. I love it

"She is real happy to be with you in this place cause you are on a trail and you're talkin' bout your lache..." I told him about what a moraine is. "So we are standing on the Little Cottonwood Canyon left lateral moraine..."

Second time recently (in our whole marriage?) that we've done a hike together, not counting hikes with kids, cause those don't count. I like doing a lache walks. Corey and I went on a few hikes in high school and college (Mt Olypus and Granger Peak) and hiking or walking really gives you time to talk, which I quite enjoy seeing that I'm a "quality time" love language person. Biking is fun, but we don't have much chance to talk. We need to use the headphones that Christian gave us for Christmas.

I was glad to go on a walk with him cause he spent every spare moment this past week and today working on his Mother's Day Lesson for Relief Society tomorrow. It was nice of him to take an hour plus break to visit with me on this hike. I think he likes teaching, so I don't think he minds that I volunteered him for that, other than this is higher stakes cause he's teaching a room full of women, so it's foreign territory and he doesn't want to mess it up. It could also be considered high stakes cause it's "mother's day" and many women have high opinions and feelings about mother's day. I didn't mean to give him more to do cause he's already got a full plate, but from what I can see, he's really put a lot of thought and effort into it. I know it will be a wonderful lesson. I went over with Sophi and we set up chairs for a big crowd cause we'll have all the primary lady teachers in here as well as all the young women girls and all their teachers. We were able to squeeze in an extra row across the back. We're hoping 110 chairs covers it. 

So with Corey putting every spare moment into lesson prep, I took care of soccer. Oh, Corey also had to take his car in for new tires this morning at 10, so he was doing that as well. This was the second to last day of games for the boys. Wes went with me to all of them (such a nice big brother). Owen's game was at 9. He scored a goal and had two assists. Daniel was right after at 10:15, then we came home for a short break, back out with Wes Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine for Peter's game at 12:45. Back home at 2, spent the whole morning at soccer. I really like watching Owen's games cuase they all basically get how to play the sport and they pass and stuff. Daniel and Peter's games are just a test of patience and encouragement for everyone. They bunch up like crazy, or they'll go for the ball when their own teammate has it, it's just frustrating to watch if you're focused on the purpose of the sport. But if you just go with the idea that you're cheering for your kids and giving them an opportunity to learn how to deal with sad feelings from getting scored on a lot, while also being outside and getting some fresh air, then it's more tolerable. Daniel's team lost by a lot, as did Peter's. If you see Daniel, ask him about the kid who put his teammate in a headlock. I think that moment was etched in their team folklore forever, and has been magnified each time Daniel tells it (the kid was being a bit aggressive, and it was a foul, but he was also really good). 

One last item of interest - Hyrum is still working at making sourdough. He sent me a pic of his loaf  today and it looked really good! Had a nice shape and rise, he probably could have browned it a little more but it looked really good! I hope his starter is treating him right. 

Making It Happen

Wes made date night happen tonight. Corey and I went for a ride in corner canyon. I didn't feel like Corey and I had date night the past two weeks - last week cause Corey was pulling a long work night, and the week before that because Joseph and Eliza were in town and we got together with all of the kids. So tonight we had to do it. I wanted to leave but and I had not prepped stuff for dinner for the kids, which sadly has been the default lately. But we had to go to beat the sunset. Wes had been working outside. As we pulled out he asked if there was any dinner ready. "No..." (sorry!) "But you have a car and there's a store down the street! We know the girls will pitch in if you take them down!" And that was all the encouragement they needed. They went to the store, bought stuff for pizza, and made it happen for themselves. Corey and I did our part by leaving, and the kids did the pizza and movies by themselves. Good job kids! Let's do this again next week. 

I guess I usually don't get dinner ready... usually it's Abi who makes dinner. Today my excuse is that I was on recovery mode all day. 

On our date night drive, Corey's mind seemed full/done at the end of a long day and work week, but I was peppering him with lots of questions wanting him to explore options with me - "Where do you want to go ride? LCC or Corner Canyon? Maybe Corner Canyon, but where should we park, which trail should we take?? I wanted to do the Corner Canyon loop but there probably isn't time, hmm - last time we left at 6:52 and the sun set was at 8:17 and we were coming down in the dark. It's already 6:50 right now, but sunset is later today at 8:28... Maybe if we don't go down rush to start at the bottom? We can test if it counts if we start the loop right at the Coyote Hollow trailhead..." That was all that was going on in my brain, I held back and only did 20 percent capacity (he's living on easy mode! haha see this reel by davi87 on instagram -it's totally true I'm not as annoying as I could be and he should be grateful! I'm capable of way worse) oh that also made me think of another reel of his which I shared with Corey later, haha. "Everyday is a new episode of 'why is this my problem...'" and "the emotional weight of having to make one more decision..." I'm sorry Corey! I'll try to go easy on you when you're at the end of a work week. That is why we need weekly date nights though - so I can break it up. Right now I've got a backlog of 3 weeks of my mind running at full speed that I need some companion release on.

We both had a slow morning cause of cleaning the temple last night - Corey, Wes and I were there at 10 and we got home at 12:30 am. I still got up and got the kids out the door, took a very short nap today, but yeah I was a bit lethargic all day. Last night when we got back, Lily was still up doing her Utah online classes. She's gotta finish her class this weekend. 

When Katharine woke up this morning and was ready for breakfast, I tried to sound tempting and offered her some fruit: "Would you like some WaTeRMeLoN???" "No." Pause "can I have a pickle? Actually THREE pickles." Well I guess so... I served up three pickles. She wanted them cut small.

After two bites: "Mom, I don't want my pickles" haha figures. I've been trying to eat more vegetables so the pickles were out cause I had a tuna salad for breakfast with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onion and mustard. I threw her in my salad. I did really good this week having tuna salad two times, sardines once, and one day I enjoyed eggs with bell peppers, onions, tomatoe, lime, and avocado. I have a memory of preparing that and eating that in Brazil 2007 and thinking it was the best thing ever. Avocados in Brazil were amazing (2nd pic).

So today I moved around stuff on the wall. I moved the LOVE thing over to the bay window in our bedroom and put the Little Cottonwood Creek painting in our room. 

Corey took a pic of Mount Olympus from his dad's front porch for me. I'll be doing that sometime. Ran an errand to Deseret Book to buy some bookmarks for the graduating senior girls that will be entering Relief Society. Looked at art there. Artists to look up: J Kirk Richards, Kate Lee, and Paige Payne. (I already know Greg Olsen). Watched a few reels about Michael Jackson today and listened to Human Nature and Stranger in Moscow on my drive. MJ is currently all over my youtube algorithm. I need to run another errand soon to get more bowls with lids for the sourdough. The girls and I are always looking for bowls and lids. 

A few things from yesterday... Natalie has been out of a phone since fall. Today we finally got it fixed. She earned money to help pay for it. A nice guy out in Draper fixed it for $99 bucks. It was interesting to watch! It took him 20 minutes. I was impressed. 

His workspace was a big disheveled, but hey, so it mine. I still recommend. He knew what he was doing and he was fast. Dustin at Tech MD in Draper. Natalie, are you glad to have a phone again? 

I think a tongue sticking out means yes. AND, since both of my violists have phones, I have an easy consequence for not practicing violin. As soon as we got home, I took both of their phones and told them to practice 45 minutes, which they dutifully did. 

They have not had violin lessons since fall, and thus have been equally slacking in the violin department, as have I as violin practicing enforcer. We're gonna try and change that now.

Daniel and Owen both had soccer practice last night. Corey rode his bike to his dad's so I could have his car cause Wes needed the van. I took Owen to his trumpet lesson, then met Wes at Wayne's house, picked up Wes, left Corey with his car, and then straight to soccer practice to drop off Owen and pick up Daniel. I let him use his free ice cream coupon and Wes got some sushi for himself.

Daniel looks like a chipmunk. 

Second Painting Study

I finished another painting today! 

I found this frame and canvas at the DI for $2 bucks. My apologies to Alice Ives, I have erased her 1982 painting of the Pacific. I flipped it upside down so a little bit of her ocean lives on as part of my sky. I think painting over another painting is a great way to up-cycle. Even better if it already comes with a frame. I thought the dark brown frame around this one would work well with the nature of the ruins. My progress as of last night -

I worked on it for an hour or two yesterday. This is from a photo I took March 18 (second pic) when I biked to the ruins. I did not get proportions right in my painting (they don't look this large from our vantage point across the stream) but that's ok, cause I want them to be a focal point anyway. I need to print larger pics for my reference, rather than trying to paint from my phone screen! 

So yeah, spent time painting yesterday and today. Today Wes did some major work in the front yard. 

He's been helping Corey for a few days making a demo video, and they finished the audio for that yesterday. So today he was free to do stuff at home for me. Aww we're gonna miss him so much! 

Tonight I almost went to the gym, but instead I went up the canyon for a little walk followed by a sketch of the creek and prayer or two. I found a nice secret spot by the ruins that I hope to go back to soon. 

I liked these scriptures verses on "benefit"... praying for the Lord to help us and let us be of benefit to others. We will wait patiently upon the Lord. 

Monday Morning

Cute Katharine crawled into bed with us last night. She's been sleeping with Abi lately, so this was a  tender start to the week to have her come snuggle with me. 

She's been doing a good job of changing into clean pajamas every night before she goes to bed. Abi's helped her develop that habit cause Abi doesn't want a dirty kid that smells like outside to come in her bed. I could/should do a better job of keeping her and her brothers clean, but I'm trying. They just keep getting dirty every day! 

Cute Katharine has also started drawing little stick figures. Here's one she did today - of her, Becca, and Scarlett, all wearing crowns.

Cute smiling people

This pic from April 13 again, aww she's so proud of herself!

I went on a quick bike ride tonight - had to be quick to make it to the ruins before the sun set on me. I like this picture of the creek as I crossed the third bridge. 

We didn't have FHE tonight - Corey worked late and I was getting back from my ride. I thought it would be ok cause I thought we could take the kids to see the Michael movie tomorrow for $5 buck Tuesday, but that might not happen (we're waiting for a check...) We could atleast go over to the rec center, we're not getting our money's worth with the kids memberships there. We'll shoot for that next week. Yesterday we had some neighbors invite our whole family over for dinner. Telling the girls to turn and smile for me - 

The kids all enjoyed the meal after fasting today. They had some pulled pork, potatoes, and broccoli. We brought 4 loaves of sourdough to contribute to the meal, and then sheet cake of brownies for dessert. We really enjoyed the visit and learning more about their family. They had a few beautiful paintings in their home, one of Mount Timpanogos cause Maryann grew up in Utah County, so that was a view with meaning to her. It was such a pretty painting. I think I'd like to do one soon of Mt Olympus or of the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. On our way home, the kids asked if they could hold onto the bike rack. There were seven kids on there - WLSNODP

Probably not the safest thing, but we'll just pretend we live in the 80s. 

Abi drove the van with me and Katharine, we let K stick her head out through the sunroof.

Climbing OUTSIDE!

Today Corey and I went climbing outside for the first time ever. 

Our Green River camping friend Craig texted asking if we wanted to go this afternoon. We said yes. Corey also wanted to get in a ride. I didn't feel up to a ride, but then I went anyway. We arranged it for him to meet us up at the Lisa Falls trailhead after we biked up the trail. We figured it would take us about an hour so to meet at 2. We were mostly right on time, except that it took us a few extra minutes to get out of the house. So we were there at 2:10. Craig was ready and we hiked up the short trail to the bottom of the slab we were gonna climb. It was like 60 minutes of instruction and learning, 5 min of actual climbing, and 25 min of figuring out what to do and who goes where. Craig climbed up first and set the anchors with "nuts" and "cams" (see all these new words we learned!) Craig anchored himself at the first pitch, then Corey went and removed the anchors, and then I went up. This climb had a "mantle" move, another new word. The climb is called Lisa Buttress I think? He showed us something on "Mountain Project" about it, and that also said that this was a 5.7 route. I could believe that. Corey's shoes were no good, if we do this again we'll want climbing shoes. It's probably time to bite that bullet anyway. After climbing for over 90 minutes and a bit of visiting, we said bye and finished our ride up the trail to the Ruins. Came down techy. We were gone for quite a bit - left at 1:15 and were back home at 5:15. We met Craig at 2:10, started our climbing at 2:30, and did a whole 16 feet. The mountain looked so cool from up higher! 

We started the second half of our ride at 4:45, and were home in 33 minutes. All was well at home - kids coloring on the sidewalk with chalk.

Wes was a champ and took Peter to his 2:00 soccer game so we could go recreate. Natalie, Owen, and Daniel all went to Peter's game to cheer him on.

Owen had a 9am game and requested that both Wesley and I attend and cheer him on, which we gladly did. Corey took Daniel to his game. And then we left Wes to do Peter. When we left home, Wesley was rallying the troops to work. "All right soldier!..." (He had Hyrum's pellet gun)

It's been really great having Wesley home to help out. We're gonna miss him when he starts working as an FSY counselor soon. Tonight the kids watched Holes. That is a really fun show (except for the nice school teacher turned outlaw murder part...) We've all seen it before, but I guess the kids only caught some of the fun connections back then - today they understood more the back and forth and past and future connections with Stanley's grandfather and Madam Zeroni and they were kinda mind blown - like when Stanley carries Zero up the mountain, that is how the curse gets broken!! WHAATT?!? And then I was really liking what Stanley said about feeling really good, feeling lucky. I want to feel that too - maybe our luck is changing too! Cause we have a clean basement, I make bread now, I've been really coming across a lot of art inspiration with people I'm meeting and stuff, so I'm inspired about that, and today we felt inspired to climb outside, yeah... maybe we're gonna have money soon! Corey said he wanted to get me a new bike for my birthday (aww, so sweet) and maybe that will happen this year. That would be fun. I'll try to keep expectations low, but I'm also going to try out "feeling lucky" and we'll see what happens! I got lucky today with a present from Mel - she amazon'd me a new bread knife! Wow! 

It cuts SOOOO amazingly well. Maybe our lucky is changing. And now it's 12:45, I should head to bed and blog more tomorrow. 'Night!

2 Hour Painting

This morning Katharine asked Corey to take her to Uptown Jungle, and he said ok. Yay, I have some personal time to get something done! I thought I'd try to catch up on the blog... I'm done though this month, and it might be cool to finish April before April is over... but instead I thought I'd try out my new art area. I got an old canvas that the kids had drawn on previously (since I'm just going to be warming up my art muscles for a while) and then I whipped out this!

Done with acrylic paints at my little art desk.

I used this photo from last week (April 21) as my subject.

It would be super fun to go out on the trial and paint on the trail! I'm going to do that this summer. Yay for my first painting in a few years. I sent it to the kids, Corey said it must be AI cause he hasn't been gone long enough with Katharine for me to do that, haha. I was going fast though - for a quick "Impressionist" style piece. I am pleased, that was fun. This art area b-day gift will be a gift that keeps on giving. Now I'll blog. :) It's 2:10 right now. I haven't exercised yet. Oh wait yes I did, I went on a walk this morning. My left hip hurts from sitting though while I painted that (sat half of the time, stood for half) so maybe I'll go walk around for a bit to help it out. 

Hibberts are coming over tonight cause Camilla is in town with her family. They came to attend her son's graduation from the UofU today. I'll update with pics of that later. 

Doctor and Donuts

Katharine slept with Abi last night, and around midnight Abi sent a voice message and said K was crying about her ear hurting. I could hear K whimpering in the message). So first thing I did at 8am was call the pediatrician to get her in for a sick visit. I was able to get an appointment at 11, so I went to my parents house for a bit to give them our air mattress and help clean before company came (Camilla and fam arrived this afternoon for Graigy's graduation from the U of U on Thursday.) and to drop off Nerf guns for my brother Neil to borrow. Cleaned 9-10, home at 10:15 to pick up K and took her to see Dr. Schmidt. Taking her pulse~

This morning she was fine and said it wasn't hurting, but that's what's been going on for probably the past two week - it bothers her a little at night and then she's fine all day. Last night was the first time it bothered her a lot. Doctor said her ear didn't look bad, it was subtle... it wasn't shiny like a healthy ear drum is supposed to be. 

So they called in some of the pink amoxicillin and we picked it up on the way home. She's taking it through Friday. She took it at noon like a champ and will take it again tonight, twice a day for 5 days. We also went by the library to pick up MoonWalk which I had put on hold. I liked this painting at the library. Looks like the boardwalk around Silver Lake.

Back at home, K watched a little bit of Bluey and fell asleep with Wes. Cute to see siblings taking a nap together...

I went and took a nap too, and then, more basement work! Basement day 3 as part of my lifelong birthday wish. We made great progress. Pic of Wes taking a little break to play legos with Peter after Peter got home from school. I sorted out some of duplo legos to donate. 

Tonight we cleaned the finished side and moved everything around. We moved a bookshelf and the desk over to the unfinished/un carpeted side. Corey came to help with the des, it was heavy. This is going to be my new art area! 

The kids have already gotten paint on the desk, so it's ok if I do too as I work on art through out the next half century. We stayed up a bit late as we kept trying to do "one more thing..." vacuum, move stuff out of this side. Make this nicer. Wesley is going to set up a bed for himself here, and that will also be where the blow up mattress will go when any of the married kids come by. 

We moved one shelf over to the unfinished side, that will be for books and scrapbooks, and this one that we left here (on the left of that pic) is going to be for games. Games have been in the upstairs locked closet and also in the hutch on the main floor. Now they have ONE designated spot, yayyy. So lots of good work done today, then it was time for FHE. Wesley thought it would be fun to have a donut eating contest. 

Rules were - on your back, don't use your hands. 

Natalie helping Katharine - 

After the boys and K were done, then it was the older kids' turn. I cried of laughter seeing the girls do it. Natalie was going ALL IN. She was gonna eat that sugary donut, come what may. Look at Sophi's eyes as Natalie came after her with her open mouth! So funny 

So we got a dozen donuts. Boys and K = 4 donuts. WASN = 4 donuts. Corey Lily and I declined to eat them, so there were 4 left. We turned it into a blindfolded free for all. 

Corey got a video of that. Natalie and Peter were the last donut left, and were got very close to open mouth kissing. This girl was committed - sugar all over her face! It was pretty funny.