Happy Birthday Abi!

Happy Birthday to Hermana Wride!! Aww, I remember this little baby... Abi at 2 days old ~

Now that baby is starting her last year as a teenager, how did that happen?? I didn't send her a package or anything, sorry Abi! Living international makes it a little trickier for a mom like me that is not on top of it. I told her I'll put some $ in her account though, and she can buy herself something. I'm not sure there are a lot of places to shop there on the Missionary Training campus, so maybe she'll save it for Panama. She leaves for Panama next Wednesday, Sept 9. Exciting!

Katharine slept in Peter's bed with him last night. Here they were before I woke him up. His feet were at her stomach. I helped turn him out of the bed so he wouldn't kick her. 

I told Daniel and Peter to both whisper. Peter got dressed then said he had a tummy ache, so I told him to go back to bed. I was down getting Daniel's reading minutes logged and initalling his planner, and I could hear P&K talking. I guess when he went to lay back down, it woke her up. They came down for breakfast. I asked how he was feeling, he said it still didn't feel very good. I baked a loaf of bread and enjoyed my beans and banana peppers for breakfast, while Corey went to the rec center to bike and swim. I'm hoping to go on a ride later. I haven't been riding this week cause our bikes have been in the shop since Saturday. I have trumpet this afternoon, so I can't do my 3pm ride, but I'm hoping to go after that. I'm at Burt Bros right now getting Corey's oil changed before I drive to American Fork to get my bike. Corey's bike was making noises so he wanted to take it in. He asked if I needed mine to go in for anything. I didn't have any complains, other than that my dropper post doesn't stick. Corey said they couldn't fix it, so I maybe they didn't do anything with mine? I don't know if they did other stuff, but my bike is done so I'm going to go get that as soon as the oil change is done. 

Peter and I worked in a scholastic 2nd grade book today. I'd love to homeschool him. He said it was fun to homeschool today, and he's thinking about it if he wants to, cause he knows he'd miss a lot of fun things at school. Maybe I could sweeten the deal with a Thanksgiving Point membership. Although I usually don't have a car, so maybe that wouldn't work. He and Katharine working on coloring pages. 

This evening Owen has a trumpet lesson. Nicole's kids are crashing here tonight before they head up to Idaho for school. They've been driving across the country from Maine, a trip Nicole has done many times. Corey, Lily and Wes are going to Sacrament tonight. Well, to Elko tonight, Sacramento tomorrow. Lily's going out there for a ACT class that will be tomorrow, Saturday, and Monday. Corey said it felt like the right thing to do, to take her out there. It won't be too crazy of a weekend to be a single parent, cause there are no soccer games cause of the Labor Day Weekend. Though I had hoped Corey and Wes could help us help out my sister J this weekend, but maybe I can still do it with the littles somehow. 

K, I'm going to catch up on the blog while I wait for the car, since I haven't recorded much the past two weeks yet. I'll maybe check back in later. 

Later - Corey and Lily left around 4:30 for Elko, the same time I left for trumpet. Owen is doing awesome at trumpet. He is doing jazz band, concert band, and he practiced for like 40 minutes before his lesson, and I was so impressed at his lesson, she was asking him about different songs, and I write down what to do in his lesson book but I have not been following up with him at all, but he is doing it on his own and was very prepared. His teacher was impressed with how well he's doing and so was I cause it is all him!

Wesley was a good host to Nicole's kids. He got the basement ready for them to stay in and moved his stuff out. He made pizza for everyone too, doing "date night" tonight, and then they watched some Spiderman TV series episodes. I got back and since everyone was in such capable hands, I left for a ride at 6:30 and enjoyed my time in the mountains. Wesley got a major sun burn one week ago when he was up in Bear Lake with Ethan and Bella and friends. He decided to not put on sunblock, cause he saw a meme that it causes cancer, and then he spent a full day out boating. He is still in pain on his shoulders. His whole back is peeling, and I've been coating him with aloe for the past 4 days, today we did lotion. He's going to wear sunblock next time. 

Stayed Up Late

Another school week is over. Corey's still working (6:15pm) so I'm not sure what date night will look like tonight. The kids are cooking a Costco pizza, and I'm just going to blog until he's on his way. Earlier today I was thinking it would be fun for us both to go explore around the other side of the creek of Techy that I did on Wednesday, but it might rain. He also might be working late enough that it won't give us much time before sunset, so maybe we'll reschedule that picnic idea. I'd love to take the kids up there if there was a safe bridge to cross, but so far it's just been me trying to balance as I walk across fallen logs. 

I stayed up late last night, so I struggled getting going most of the day. I wasn't fully functional until it was past lunch time. That is a good reminder to myself to not do that to my body or brain again. I stayed up cause I was watching this video "The Story of Reckless Ben" with tidbits of his growing up and stuff. He's "the most Ohioan Ohioan to ever Ohio" (1:14) haha. I started watching that as I shaped some dough for breakfast. I had been thinking about him cause of a video Corey shared for scriptures last night, a new Reckless Ben one that was posted yesterday about a human trafficking ring. It had 3.8 million views last night when we saw it, and it's at 9.9 million now at 6pm! After watching it we were all kinda in awe with our jaws dropped and I might want to join his Patreon so we can see the  next part of the documentary. Wow, that man is fearless taking on people that are rich, wicked, and able to silence judges, law enforcement, and news outlets yikes! Or finding other ways to ruin their lives. So after that I stayed up too late watching the story about Ben's upbringing and stuff (I liked it, I'm impressed). When I was done with that video, I visited with Lily until 1. She was working on posters for Senior Sunrise and seemed like she still had more work to do. 

Aaaand she had to be at Skyline at 5:45 am for that! I went to bed, she worked on it until 2. She was supposed to wake up at 5, leave at 5:30, and she sent me a text at 2am before she went to sleep asking me to help be sure she was up at 5. Well I did not see that text cause I did not wake up myself until after 6, so she missed her alarm and woke up in a panic at 6:15 and then just grabbed the posters and sprinted out the door just wearing the clothes she slept in. No make up or changing her clothes, nothing. Then Corey and SNO and carpool left at 7:15. I got Daniel and Peter up at 8, they left around 8:30, and Katharine slept until 9:30. I got her breakfast, let her watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and some Bluey while I had my GBOM salad and Berry and Seed dessert. I was tired, read a little bit, but mostly rested on the couch next to her until Owen got home at 1. D&P got home at 2, they had a swim party with the neighborhood at 3, I paid Natalie $3 to take them there, and also bribed her with brownies. Yeah I've been struggling to get going all day. Trying to catch up a bit on the blog while I wait for Corey now. 

Yesterday was pretty good. Katharine played with a neighbor Becca from 10-2, I read and worked on a disciple binder for myself. 

Inspiration behind this is this quote: "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." So, if my discipleship to Jesus Christ is my highest priority, what does that look like? What am I doing? One thing I think that means is that I'm studying about Jesus every day and thinking of ways I can apply what I learn about him to my life, in ways that I act and things I do. So I read a few Liahona articles, I'm keeping track of what I read, I'm going to try and read an article or General Conference talk every day, and try to apply to my life what I learn. Yesterday I left for the rec center at 4 and did some kettlebell stuff with 20 Minute Marriage ~ for my 1st round I used a 26 lbs kettlebell, 2nd round 35 woo. Also a round of LeoMoves stuff. 

Plus kettlebell halos w/17lbs 10 each side, and bottoms up presses from this Trevor's instinct video. I was able to do the right arm easily enough, 3sets of 10 each time, but my left arm was really hard! Had to do 1or 2 at a time and rest until got to 10, then 10 more halos each side. Ended with 60 bear crawls. I still like Zuzka, and there are lots of other great fit people on youtube that are in my feed. After that workout, I hurried home so we could take Daniel to soccer practice. Lily took him while I got dinner ready, then they ate while I left at 6:45 for a ride. Went to the ruins and did techy on the descent, 11.48 in 1 hour 32 min. I was straight into the wind on the road for the first 3 miles, it was slow and hard. I left the ruins at sunset, 8:06, and was able to see ok on the trail ride down. Today I just did a little hike around the creek near the 1st bridge. It is my spot to go to when I don't have a lot of time. I love the creek. It's my happy place. 

I call this rock below "Chief" cause it's huge, and I think of Jesus being the Chief Cornerstone. Jesus is my rock.

Corey's almost here, 7:30 now. We're just going to go to Aubergine. It's late for dinner and I'm not too hungry (had a bit of fresh sourdough) so I think I'll just get some nice cream tonight. :)

Crest with the Gygi's

We had a great ride with our friends the Gygi's this morning! I asked Jill earlier this week if they'd want to join Corey and I for a ride of the Wasatch Crest, and I'm glad they took us up on it! They've done it before but it's been a few years. For Corey and I this was our first Crest ride this year, and we probably only need to do it once every summer. Maybe again in the fall? We woke up at 6, got dressed, loaded up our bikes and went to pick them up at 6:20. Wes came along with us to be our chauffer. We drove straight to Guardsman's Pass by Brighton and unloaded and then Wes drove the car back down and left in near Macey's in Holladay on Wasatch, and he called Lily to come pick him up there. Wes took some bad photos of us, trying to be funny. Too close...

Or too far away...

But the far away ones got the sky, which was very pretty. 

Ok Wes, that's enough dinking around from you!

As you can see, the sky was party cloudy, and that gave us amazing shade for most of our ride this morning. It was so nice and the temperature was lovely, AND it rained a little bit last night (thunder and lightening, but only for like an hour) which was just enough precipitation to wake up the aromas of the mountains. The trail wasn't muddy, just amazing "hero dirt" as the biking community says. It was actually so perfect, I felt like it was a gift from God - a gift of time, sights, shade, and smells. Love love loved it. 

We were back at the car around 11:30. Total distance was 23.78 miles, 3 hours 6 min of riding. It was a lot of fun to be with the Gygis!

While we were gone, Lily took the kids to their games. Instructions were not totally followed, but in their defense, I didn't write them down. (Owen and Daniel's soccer games were right after each other, O at 9 and D at 10:15, and Owen was just supposed to stay for Daniel's, but Lily took Owen home cause she thought Daniel's game was at 11:30, and that she didn't need to go get him until 12, so after the game Daniel was a little lost waiting for someone to get him. The coach still had one more game to coach, her kindergartener's team, so Daniel stayed and played with their kids until Lily got there. So some miscommunication, but it all ended well. Games were attended even without me there to manage, and I was able to go on a ride, so yay, it worked.

I took a shower and then a nap after we got home. Then I went to the church to do some stuff on the Relief Society board, which calling I'm going to be released from soon, so I'm trying to have it all organized and ship shape.

I told the older kids yesterday that Elder Kearon's talk from this week is required listening. I did some googling after listening to minute 21:04 ~ The ancient Greek word for "consider" in the biblical phrase "consider the lilies" is καταμανθάνω (katamanthanō), which literally means to study a thing thoroughly, to examine it with real care, or to learn it by heart. When Jesus uses this word in Matthew 6:28 during the Sermon on the Mount, he is not telling his audience to simply cast a passing glance at the flowers. Instead, he is commanding them to investigate, dissect, and deeply analyze the nature of how they exist without anxiety." (So good!) 

9pm, shared a polo with my siblings and then said it all again to my kids. I was preaching to them all about the health that comes from eating a plant based diet. My siblings and I have been talking about this a lot because of my mom's undiagnosed dementia, which is getting worse. I have shared this with the kids before (June 2017), but now that Corey's on board and with my mom's health, it's coming up again with a bit more power and urgency. So, I remembered this part and decided to give us all a refresher on this great book! There's a great quote that has stuck with me since I first read it in Joel Fuhrman's book "Eat to Live" on page 58 - 61, he talks about how wealthy nations are the ones dying from dietary disease, and poor nations die from infection diseases from poor sanitation problems. See this graph:

Then starting on page 61 (all emphasis mine) ~ "The diseases of poverty are mostly infections diseases and are found in areas of the world with compromised nutrition. Heart attacks and the most common cancers (breast, colon, prostate) are found in rich societies where nutritional extravagance is the rule. No where in the world today can we find a society that combines economic wealth with a high intake and variety of unrefined plant foods. CAN YOU IMAGINE the HEALTH POTENTIAL of a society that would be able to enjoy excellent sanitation, emergency medical care, refrigeration, clean water, flush toilets, and availability of fresh produce year round and yet avoid nutritional ignorance and nutritional extravagance? WE HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TODAY! An unprecedented opportunity in human history the opportunity to live a long and healthy life without fear of disease. This opportunity can be yours!"

After our ride today, Corey went to work at his dad's. He stayed there a little late, but that's ok. I read scriptures with the kids. Talking at scriptures ~

Laughing as Hyrum told stories and was being clever. Daniel is dressed for church tomorrow complete with tie, lol.

We're leaving at 8 to go to church in Layton at Uncle Neil's ward for cousin Mikey's farewell and cousin Sam's homecoming! Exciting. Sam got back on Thursday, Mikey gets set apart on Tuesday. 

Oh, a few things from yesterday - I took a quick hike at 6:40 am, exploring below the 1st bridge before Lily had to go to school. 32 min, .74 miles

I am looking around at a closer spot so I can go have private quiet time when I need a quick escape but don't have the time to walk to the ruins. The 1st bridge will work nicely!

Natalie stayed home from school yesterday to babysit for a neighbor who had a wedding and couldn't find anyone else. Katharine woke up at 6 and went with her and was with her all day. I checked in at 10 - I thought it was funny. 

That is why I miss having Peter at home, cause he was the same way with Katharine. It helped me out a ton to have a kid who knew how to play like a kid! We joked that Natalie should split her babysitting money with Katharine, haha. Katharine was there with her all day until 4 and I got a lot done around the house. With the money she earned, Natalie wanted to go buy clothes, but instead Corey took her to Hobby Lobby to buy a sewing machine and some fabric, so that she can scratch that itch but do it by making her own clothes and ALSO learn a skill at the same time. So she stayed up last night working on that. I haven't taught them anything, they're just gonna teach themselves and learn as they go.

They broke my sewing machine earlier this year, and I don't sew much so I didn't care about fixing it (just to have them be the ones to use it and probably break it again). We'll see how long this one lasts them. 

Playing with Katharine

Well, we're on day 4 of elementary school and I'm already missing having Peter at home. He's Katharine's best playmate and I just can't compare with him. I'm doing my best to keep her company though. We read books, color and play and I'm sure in the coming days I'll turn on Daniel Tiger or Bluey for her. I read to her twice yesterday, once in the morning and then in the afternoon, but both times I got soooo sleepy. I couldn't keep my eyes open or my sentences coherent. So then we switched strategies - we headed to the basement where she played while Wes and I cleaned. I'm pleased to say that balance has been restored to one part of that black hole, aka the carpeted room. It was a big mess the whole time Abi was here, now it's nice and neat. I'm hoping Wes is able to help me do the same to the unfinished side, which has also become a big mess. As we cleaned up, we found all of Abi's graduation cords. The light pink one almost looked like hair. Today I thought that could be fun... and I braided it into her hair. Now she's Rapunzel!

Some drawings that Peter and Katharine did today after school. 

I was helping K draw a heart, which she found a little tricky. I drew two dots and showed her to go from the dot up and around then down to the dot. She tried, then said with disappointment and a sigh "That's a circle..." (2nd up on bottom left) So then I drew 4 dots, but that wasn't more helpful (bottom left). So then she did one side and I did one side. That worked better. And we could even rotate the paper to make it work. Her best one that we both helped with is top center. It was really cute. 

She's got smiley faces down!

Today I enjoyed a hike - 6:15 am morning hike to ruins. 1.35 miles, 40 minutes. A momma deer and her two babies crossed the trail in front of me, so fun

Taking time to consider the wildflowers -

There are paper airplanes EVERYWHERE from our FHE activity on Monday night. 

It's cute, I'm glad they are having fun, but I don't want to pick these up anymore. That's enough airplanes. I'm hiding the paper. 

This past Tuesday, Katharine was quite sad that she wasn't able to go to Hale Theater with Wayne, and that she's never had a turn. (I was sad she was too young to go to see Frozen last year). She was weeping when we walked Peter to the car to go with Wayne, and Wayne said that he'd taker her out on a date soon. Today he came and picked her up at 11 and they went out for a date. First she needed one more hug. 

They went out to eat at Wendy's down the street. Fun!

Then Wayne took her to Kid to Kid, which I had suggested as a possible activity they could do. He said he played the "old man" card and had the store employees tell him what size she probably wore and where it was in the store. I guess Katharine picked out the clothes? She came home and changed into her new shirt and shorts - looks like they fit ok, so good job! Then she was ready for me again. Time to play legos.

We made an ocean with rocks for King Triton and Flounder to live in. These are rose quarts rocks that Daniel picked up at the exit of Three Canyon in the spring. They've all been kicking around in their bedroom since then. 

I was pleased with how it looked. We also used one of her blue ballet costumes to be the waves coming up to the shore on the left there. 

I'm doing pretty good at playing with her, I hope. I kinda struggle with it though and have to work to quiet my mind of all the other things I need to be doing. Yesterday around 2:30 in the afternoon, Kat was calling me to come play with legos, but I wanted to leave for my ride. I went and played for a little bit, and then the kids got home so I asked Natalie to take over while I get ready for my 3pm ride. I was thinking of that phrase "Careful and _____ at home..." as I left for my ride. I left at 3:40 pm and it was hot, so I took a quick detour and stopped by the Bells Canyon bathroom to soak my shirt. Then the 94 degree temp was tolerable! I quickly googled the phrase in my head and found that the actual phrase and conference talk my brain was trying to remember was Elder Bednar's 2009 talk "More Diligent and Concerned at Home". I listened to that twice as I climbed up the trail as I pondered if I'm being attentive to the kids if I leave when the kids get back home after school. I want to be diligent. He talked about expressing love, bearing testimony, and being consistent with things like family prayer and scriptures, so then I felt ok cause we're doing pretty good at those. After that talk, Elder Uchtdorf's message came on next via the autoplay, and he spoke of things of the same theme "The Love of God". Also the word disciple has been perking up my ears lately, cause if my discipleship is supposed to be my highest priority, I better be studying that and creating a discipleship 101 curriculum for myself. I continued and enjoyed my ride and I shall most likely keep exercising in my 3pm window, cause that is the most available to me this upcoming year.

I rode 11.78 miles, took me 1 hour 35 min. I spent 30 min at the ruins crossing the creek and stuff. I saw two fish try to fly up the waterfall! ...or maybe it was the same fish that tried twice? That's the first time I've seen a fish though! I got the local legend with 16 efforts for Cottonwood Road/Dirt Climb to Pipe for all athletes! (already had it for Women) AND the LCC Enduro Descent, also for all athletes, with 11 efforts (Those two numbers should be the same, maybe minus one for the descent for when I had to bail out of my ride cause of rain, but most always when I go up, I come down too, so I think the "11 efforts" is wrong, should be 15. Last night I was able to go do a little bit of upper body at the gym. I was going to swim, but I got there and learned that the pool is closed for maintenance until Sep 9, boo. I didn't go swim at all last week, and I won't be going this week apparently. I'll try to do other things to help my shoulders, which have NOT been hurting these past few months! I'm wondering if my left shoulder hurt from climbing. Or maybe cause I wasn't stretching it? I've been trying to do stretching and Chinese Qigong (Lymph) stuff to help it and I guess it working, and the arm circles I do when I do the back stroke. I'll try to keep it up until the indoor pool opens up again. 

Two more items about clothing. One - washing clothes. I've decided to separate from our current washer and dryer. They will be leaving our home soon. Lest I forget why they are no longer welcome, it is because of Ub by the washer, and 3C by the dryer. 

The washer can't spin without much coaxing and having things perfectly balanced in the drum, which try as I might, I can rarely get to it's high standard of perfection. So this past week I've resorted to a new method of just throwing all the still very wet clothes onto two towels on the floor, hoping that will get them unsoaked enough to be able to go in the dryer.

I will not miss them when they are gone. 

Another clothing item - the teenage girls are wearing their little brother's clothes. On Wednesday, Natalie wore Peter's Spiderman t-shirt

And this morning she left in a button up shirt of Daniel's. Kinda funny. 

You make them look cute though, Natalie!

Get Up

It's Tuesday - time for the temple and errands. I went at 5 for initiatories at Jordan River, and I took Corey's car, cause I'd be back before he left for the temple, which has usually been 6:15, and I was back by then, but he had already left! And he took the van that the kids use. So then I was like "Well I guess they get to have Corey's car for the day..." Lily Sophi Natalie and Owen all left at 6:45. They get up on their own too and all leave right at the agreed time. I'm way impressed. They make it super easy. Daniel and Peter need a little more help getting out the door. They will lounge around in bed for 20-30 minutes if I'll let them. I have to stay in there and rub their backs and say "Stretch your body, wake yourself up. Get up. Get up. Hey, it's time to get up! Come on, it's time to get out of bed" etc for 20 minutes. 

As you can see from the sign he made, Peter sleeps on the Spider-Bed (cute). Peter was like "ugh, do I have to go to school??" Peter, it is only the SECOND DAY. Yes, you need to go. They do eventually get out of bed, and I continue to stay by them and tell them what to do. To each of them "Change your clothes. Put your pajamas in your drawer. Get your socks. Brush your hair. Ok, let's go downstairs" and then we get them bread or some fruit for breakfast and I sign their planners and put ice in Peter's water bottle and then they are ready to go. On a good day they'll leave by 8:30, on a not as good day they don't leave until 8:35 and then I tell Peter to run up the street, or I get to help him hustle up the street. Katharine is usually up by that time. 

I spent most of my spare time today reading. I finished "A Land Unknown: Hell's Dominion" which I ordered on Aug 4 and it arrived the 14th. I started reading it Friday as Corey and I drove to Jump for our date. Today Corey went to the temple too, and he also doesn't take carpool on Tuesdays, so that is the day I have a car. With said car, Katharine and I went to visit my parents for fun, I picked some morning glory from their lawn. Then we went to Costco, so I guess it was good I had the van instead of Corey's car. I had AC and room for all the food. And since I'm nice I fill up the car with gas. 

Today was Abi's p-day and it was so great to talk with her for the first time since she got to Mexico, yay! She is struggling with the language, but that is to be expected, so we told her she's right on track! Perfect! Yes, this is exactly how you should be feeling right now!  

Tonight Wayne came to pick up a kid at 5:30 to go to Hale Theater with him. There was a bit of back and forth as to who's turn it is to go. I need to keep better track so that it's fair. But we're pretty sure Peter has only been once, so I let him go. 

Such a fun tradition, I'm grateful Wayne makes time for his grandkids like this! I want to do stuff like that with my grandchildren.

Sophi made dinner tonight. I sat for dinner and then took off for a hike at 7pm. I just drove up to Lisa to explore. 2.25 miles, 1 hour 17 min. I cleaned up (organized rocks and logs) at the fort that whoever is/was making at Hogum Fork.

Big logs on left, regular hiking sticks on right. 

I got across the creek 4 times in new places! A little stressful cause I kept hiking up at one point, not sure if I'd find a place to cross, but I made it and didn't get my shoes wet and didn't get eaten by a cougar or any wild animal.

Corey said the BYU by Brother Kearon from today was really good. Elder Kearon talked about peace, rest, and slowing down. I think everyone in the world needs that message. I went on a hike tonight and it wasn't on the BYU Speeches podcast yet, and I didn't want to use my battery to have it on youtube, so I'm going to listen to it tomorrow. 

First Day of School

Today is the first day of our academic year schedule, as Daniel and Peter have joined their older siblings at school. Happy first day! Peter walked and Daniel rode his bike to the bus stop. I rode up with Katharine in the trailer. Daniel hid his bike behind a bush and they got in line.

The bus was there right on schedule at 8:42. BYE!

And then I biked with Katharine over to the school so we could take a picture of them entering the school on "the red carpet". I found Peter standing in his class line and him come stand on the carpet for a pic. I assumed that when his class entered the building, it would be too busy with parents and children for me to see him, and I was correct. 

I walked around to find Daniel but he wasn't there. He went into the school for breakfast. So then K and I started to get ready to go back home, when we saw her friend Scarlett. I invited her to come over to play and that worked for her mom so yay, Kat has a friend today!

They are a cute little duo.

So, with this beginning of the school year, these past few weeks I have looked things over and have planned out for my new schedule to be for me to give my mornings to my children, and then when they get home from school, that's when I take my break for exercise. So after Lily got home today, I took a ride. It was quite warm (low 90s) but it was great, the sky was so blue! It was beautiful. 

I biked to the ruins. I got across the creek tonight in the place by the ruins where I've been trying to make some piles of rocks for me to hop over across. 

Today I finally made it and cheered for myself at my victory, and I didn't fall in and get my shoes wet. It helps a little bit that the creek water is low as we approach the end of summer weather. Sigh, I love the canyon though. It's my happy place.

Corey takes carpool MWThF, Tuesdays we both go to the temple (me usually at 5am) and Corey stays home from work that day so I have a car to run any errands or take care of appointments. Daniel and Owen both have soccer, O on Tuesday nights, Daniel on Thursday, and Owen also has trumpet on Thursdays. Wednesday is YW. Another part of our new schedule per Corey's request: sit down dinners. Thanks to Lily for helping that happen tonight.

I've planned for the girls to each take a night to help me out: L - Monday Mexican, Sophi Tues Asian, Natalie Thursday Potato Bar or leftovers, I do Wednesday, and they also have a younger brother help them out with setting the table: Peter Monday, Daniel Tues (before soccer) and Owen Thursday. So those are a few ideal goals for now, we'll figure out the other days later. Baby steps. Wednesday is YW so that's an early dinner night and I'm taking that one. We asked the kids about school and Natalie was making really silly expressions as she reacted to everyone's tales of their day.

They are funny. 

Only 7 kids around the table, such a small group. Monday is FHE (though I'm going to try to persuade Corey to move that to Sundays). Tonight we had a paper airplane contest. Corey showing a video on the side room tv for people to follow. 

Ready to launch. 

Corey made a few targets with the hockey goals. Daniel's planes did the best. 

No prize other than bragging rights. And while they were making their planes, I was cleaning up the kitchen and trying to do laundry. I say trying, cause both of our machines are having issued. The washing machine does not for it's life want to spin the clothes. It will be unbalance and do a "Ub" code, then sometimes if the code doesn't stop it, it will start a rinse and spin cycle again. Sometimes a load of wash will still be going after 2 hours and not be finished cause it's not spinning and just keeps rinsing and trying again. So that was what it was doing tonight when I was washing, thus I tried but am probably going to just pause it until morning. If I do catch it when it is unbalance (sign for that is a big thunderous rattling from the laundry room) then I'll come up, hit power to turn it off, then turn it on, put it on spin cycle, reach in and try to balance it out again, start, it will say "21" minutes, and at minute 18, I'll know if it's still unbalance. Then I have to go stop it again, rebalance it, and try the spin cycle again. Other methods are to hang all the clothes in our shower or out our bedroom deck until morning. It's almost making me want to cry, the constant interruption to any task I'm doing to go stop it so doesn't start the rinse cycle again. Frustrating to be trying to clean the clothes but not be able to clean the clothes. I feel like I'm damned and unable to progress/move forward with life. I really need to wash towels, but it can't handle towels. It doesn't like it if the kids loads have jeans or hoodies. The boys always have jeans, and the girls and jeans and hoodies, so yeah, it's been a struggle for the past few months. I need to dry some clothes too, but I can't leave the dryer on at night, cause it doesn't turn off. So I either need to wait until morning or set an alarm for an hour to turn it off. When it does it's "3C" code, it will just go all night. When it used to do 3C, it did room temp air, so it took several hours for the clothes to dry. Right now a good thing is that it is blowing heat for the first hour. What I've been doing lately is opening the door (that's the only way to turn it off) and leaving the door open when I power it on, then I'll select the cycle, press start, and then it will blink "dc" for "hey dummy the door needs to be closed" and then I close it, and it still flashes "dc" but then I press "start" and it will be "on" with heat until the time of the cycle ends, then it flashes 3C as it continues to spin and blow neutral air. I was texting Corey about getting new machines today, cause these machines are driving me crazy and this needs to stop. I can't go on like this.

But the first day of school routine was good. I have alarms set for different things. Every evening after dinner, I will also be chopping veggies and making Corey's breakfast in prep for when he has carpool mornings. We don't even need to do carpool - Lily could just take Owen and Natalie when she and Sophi leave, but Corey said we should contribute to the good of the neighborhood, so that's ok. It will be good for him to be able to get out the door and start his work day early and come home early for dinner. AND we'll do scriptures earlier and go to bed earlier too! I know we could do that of our own free will, but it helps to have an obligation to make sure we don't get lazy about it. 10 pm is the new bedtime goal, but it's past that cause I'm trying to help the washer spin. I'm going to go power it off now though and go to bed, I'll try to finish a few loads again tomorrow.