Dishes Away

I've been thinking of getting rid of stuff and living a more "minimalist" life. Yesterday I started by cleaning out Corey's nightstand. I did that one first, cause it's always easier to see plainly what other people should clear out than looking at myself and all the stuff that I need to get rid of, huh! Well, doing Corey's night stand got me started and after that I was able to dejunk some of my stuff in our bathroom - I cleared out makeup that I don't or haven't used and some of my essential oils. So I didn't do much, but I made a dent in it. I still have a ton to do, but since I made a few steps in the right direction, I'll pat myself on the back for a job well done and will cheer myself on - "go me!"

This morning, upon seeing my kitchen sink, I was thinking again of how I need to implement more minimalism in my life. I was specifically thinking of the Minimal Mom. I was thinking of her advice on how to declutter the kitchen, cause we need to big time. I just rewatched it and laughed at her "dirty dishes" example cause it was one freaking pan!! I was inspired by seeing her kids washing their own dishes (at 1:40 and 2:38). If our family can do this, the dishes will not stock up, which would be great, because the kids don't have any dishes as their fall back plan! Seriously, they use so many dishes. Even when it's just for a drink of water, they'll come up and if the little plastic Ikea cups are gone, they'll grab an Ikea bowl, or a plate, or use the big dinner cups, or they'll break out the fancy dishes. We have enough dishes to last several days, which is why today is WEDNESDAY and I just barely washed dishes from SUNDAY and we've still all had plenty of dishes to use and get dirty and pile up during the ensuing 3 day lapse. And I also HAVE run the dishwasher several times these past few days. Sigh. Abi was commenting recently how the dishwasher isn't getting the cups clean. And I thought well, we're going to fix that! Cause we're going to start HANDWASHING! Yippie! OK - so her was my sink this morning: 

It is rather obscene, don't you think? So I've been working in the kitchen all day fixing this problem, hopefully for the last time. I obviously started a load, I did a lot of handwashing too. I got some boxes - two to fill up with things to donate, and others to store while we experiment with this. I am donating almost all of our storage containers, I'm just keeping two sizes with their lids, plus some ZipTops that Joseph got me for Christmas. I put away extra dishes that I like in some avocado boxes I grabbed at Costco yesterday.

I'm not donating these dishes yet but they are now boxed up and in the basement. And this is our new dish arrangement:

We've tried something like this two years ago, but now with "only eight" kids at home, and with other drawers freed up from donating their cluttering contents, I think we have a chance at making this work better than last time. And if it doesn't work and I want to go back to having a ton of dishes piled up, well hey, I can just go and bring all the dished back out of the avocado boxes in the basement. Here are the kids personal silverware on the right side there below -

The silverware was moved over from where they used to be on the kitchen island and I switched them with some family utensils (cooking, cutting, and serving things) which are now at the island along with the utensils for Corey and me.

We also have a pot of spatulas and whisks in a container next to the stovetop. I cleared out about half of those. Also, we had 5 can openers and I never knew which ones were good, but today I tried them all, and only one of them works and it works well, so that is in the drawer next to the measuring cups, yay! I am very pleased and am going to take a break to practice violin for a bit and then might go work some more. No wait! The next episode of The Chosen is on right now I think!! I'm going to go turn that on! Yay! Next on the dock for tomorrow: Laundry room, my bedroom desks, and I'll do a little bit in the basement too.

Longer Birthdays

My mom came over today with birthday wishes for Wes and Lily. There was a delicious small cake for Lily and an ice cream cake for Wes. We sang to Lily first. 

Lily had been at Isa's house and so Isa came over with her when I told her my mom had come. My mom had brought re-lighting candles, so after Lily blew them out they lit up again!

It took a few finger pinches of water to get them out for good. It was funny. Then it was Wesley's turn. 

We had a few more kids come home with neighbor friends and we were glad, because we had plenty of cake to share. Wesley is ready to take on the relighting candles. Let's show them who's boss!

There was a lot of smoke but Wes finally got them out.

You ready for cake, Peter?

Most of the kids went out side to enjoy their cake. Wes and Lily stayed inside to open presents

I hope it was fun for them to have their birthdays last longer! I hope these two don't mind sharing their birthday celebrations sometimes, cause it tends to happen when your birthdays are just a day apart. 

Tomorrow is Wesley's last day of driver's ed, yay, so then I will have my mornings back. Abi had a flute lesson, and I ran to Costco while I waited for her. Her lessons are 45 minutes now instead of 30, but she only had a 30 one last time, so we added that 15 minutes on to today, so she had an hour. That is a more reasonable time to run errands instead of 30 minutes, so that was good. I went to Target quickly and then Costco for drinks for bbq tonight, and peaches to get us through the week. Sophi's soccer team had a bbq at her coaches house at 6. We were a little bit late. 

The kids were interested in his chickens! Everyone went in to help feed them in the chicken run. Hi Peter.

A quick rainstorm blew through and moved everyone inside. Daniel enjoying his hotdog and using very good table manners, ha.

The girls on Sophi's team and all of their parents seem super great and nice. It was good to get to know them a little bit and to try to put names to faces.

Two last items - Hyrum has been texting from Philly - he has an ingrown toe nail. I gave what advice I could and we are praying for his quick recovery. And today I joined Laura Dixon's program, check my exercise blog for updates on that. I read the contract very carefully - I'm going to do it right this time, and am feeling hopeful. I feel like my weight is like my house - I can get off the weight or get my house really clean sometimes, but it hasn't been permanent yet, and I'm ready to learn why and end the battle with my weight for good. I'm trusting as I learn my thoughts I'll be able to end the wrestle with clutter too. 

Dentist, Face Painting and Card Games

Daniel had a dentist appointment this morning to take care of a cavity on one of his front teeth. 

Last year the dentist said he had a cavity on the back side of his front tooth, on the flat surface, but I don't know if that is just a weird place to try and repair or what but she didn't fix it. But now there was an obvious hole in his tooth which I figured was from that, compounded by the fact that Daniel grinds his teeth and has worn them both down a lot. 

Now it's all fixed, so that's good, and hopefully he won't grind it down much more before he loses his teeth. Daniel was wearing his Spiderman Pajamas from yesterday after church, and he also still had some marker on his face. Yesterday after church I spent some time with my little boys by doing a little bit of "face painting". It started with Daniel, who only changed into his Sunday clothes after I promised him that after we got home, he would be able to change back into his special Spiderman outfit AND I would also draw a Spider Man face on him and then he'd look so cool! So here are some pictures from yesterday - I did Daniel first, and then the other kids lined up. 

I did a puppy on Peter - 

I asked Sophi to document - she took these pictures of Peter and me.

It wasn't paint - it was Crayola washable marker. But "face markering" or "face drawing" doesn't sound the same. Maybe I could call it "Face Crayola-ing". I had the kid tell me what they wanted to be, then I looked through the images to a photo that looked doable, and then I did a quick sketch on their face. I did a fairy on Natalie which didn't work out well in my opinion, but she was happy with it. I needed a white marker to make it look right, which I didn't have. I did a wolf on Owen's face, and a cat face on Sophi. The kids liked it, so it was fun. 

Joseph and Emily and Emily's sister Abby came over for dinner yesterday. They played some games with the kids - an intense came of Othello between Joseph and Emily with three kids looking on and giving unsolicited advice. Emily won two games, then Joseph won the last round. 

Abby played Cover Your Assets with Natalie. I need to learn how to play that game. 

Emily knows a lot of card games and taught us how to play Lucky Unders last night. Today Joseph and Emily came back again and Wes, Joseph, Emily, and I were able to continue our game of hearts. I had kept our score from yesterday so we were able to keep score from where we had left off.

Emily kept picking on Joseph and slipping him the Queen of Spades, and he was losing big time with 99 points (after someone gets 100 the game is over), and then Emily felt bad and decided to change her strategy and started picking on Wes, who was at like 38, and before we knew it, Wes had caught up to us and was in 90s and we were all high enough that whoever got the Queen would be the loser, and soon it showed up in his pile and Wes withdrew from the game in outrage and we were dying laughing! Fun times. Wes has been eager to teach us the games that he played on high adventure, like Scum, BS, Hearts, and Royals, so this was good to get me sold on card games, it was fun. Here are a few pictures of Wes playing cards on his high adventure week at Lake Powell - It was from June 7-12. They have only just barely uploaded the photos and shared them with us.

Wes felt like he looked pretty awesome in his sunglasses. 

I was looking for pictures of him boat surfing, but I couldn't find one of him - partly cause the surfer was usually too far away to be able to tell who it was, and other pics were too dark. But lucky Wes that someone took these two profile pics of him.

He had a good time there, and good job me for finally blogging it three weeks later. We had violin today and Natalie used my phone to talk with them play with the filters. 

We're so excited for Ethan to be going to the Dominican Republic soon! He leaves for the DR on the 8th of July, it will be here before he knows it!

Biking, Wedding and Zions

I got up nice and early today and when you get up early, you get to see the SUNRISE!!! Beautiful! 

I got up because Corey, Wes, Joseph and I had plans to go on a morning bike ride at Corner Canyon, with plans to be back home in time for Joseph to be able to get ready for Talmage's wedding. 

It all went according to plan. I dropped them off at Potato Hill, then I drove back to the cycle park with the car and parked it there. Then I got down my bike and headed up the Corner Canyon Access Trail, hoping to meet up with them somewhere. I mostly wanted to get in a workout anyway, so it was great, and I saw them coming down when I was looking at the info kiosk on the Corner Canyon Access Trail 

and Bonneville Shoreline Trail intersection. They said it was a lot of fun, and then we headed back to the car. I took a Rush access and got on the Limelight trail and that was a lot of fun. I'm excited to come back here later and explore more!

The reception tonight was very nice. Joseph and his friends all decorated Talmage and Cami's car - Joseph on the left with a blue balloon, Emily in the pink next to him. 

We were at the reception for a while visiting with Joseph's friend Scotty and his wife Xani who are expecting their first child, exciting! It was fun to talk to them and we hope to visit with them again. Abi came with us to the reception, and then we were a little late taking her to a friend's house. She needed to catch up with her friends since she was gone all week at camp, so Corey took her over and waited for her at his parent's house, I took Wes to a birthday party for a friend out in West Valley, which he left shortly after arriving because it wasn't a very spirit inviting activity, and he wants to pass the sacrament tomorrow. He called Corey to pick him up, even though I had just left and was probably closer than Corey, but I guess sometimes boys like to share things with their dad. that's ok. Here are some pictures of camp this past week for Abi and Lily.

They had a good sized group of girls.

They did a bit of rappelling

They said it was really fun.

But Abi almost touched a dead bird that was in this water. 

She said it smelled bad. So gross, but fun. Hard work and good recreation. Here are a few pics of Lily -

Feeling more safe at the bottom - 

Lily on another descent:

They also did a bit of hiking to and from the places where they rappelled. 

Zions is a beautiful area!

Lily said she had a good birthday, but that it also didn't feel like a birthday. Good thing she has a few more days of birthday fun. My parents are in Texas today for Kimberly's baptism, so they'll be coming by Monday with their birthday wishes for Wes and Lily.

I'm glad Abi and Lily were able to have such a great experience at camp!

Wesley is 16!!

We've got another 16 year old in our family. It was a real "I'm 16" birthday because today Wes had his driver's test! 

He was pretty nervous. He got there to driver's ed class early enough that he was able to talk to his teacher and, when Wes saw that he was going to be with the "scary" instructor, he mentioned his fear and his teacher switched him to the "nice" instructor, and Wesley says it is because of that that he passed. He's had his permit for two weeks and he passed - not too shabby Wes! He couldn't miss more than 20 points to pass, and he got -18, phew! He was behind after high adventure (oh I still need to share those pictures...) but has been able to get all caught up on his course work, and get all his road and range drives in, and is doing pretty good staying on top of his other classes too (Fitness for Life and BYU math - he's on track from what he reports but I have not verified, so Wes we're taking your word on it!) I picked him up after class and then we went by the Northridge Learning Academy to pick up his Chemistry packet, then we went by Costco for some b-day ice cream. After we unloaded Costco groceries, we hurried to Smith's to get some Wesley's cake. He wanted a sushi cake again.

Make a wish!

His siblings were a little disappointed to not have cake but they were like "Fine... it's your birthday... we'll give it a try..." but Wes was a little protective and didn't want them to have the sushi, HE wanted it all! So I distracted them with some ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks. They all went outside for with their ice cream and Wes was able to enjoy the sushi in peace. (and I had some too, I think my favorite part is the ginger!) I got Wes a Big Joe chair last week as an early b-day present, but I didn't give him anything today. And we didn't put up the birthday banner and I haven't been doing the window decorations lately either... sorry if we were kinda lame. I think Corey's going to take him out tomorrow for stuff. Then the kids worked on their school books. 

Natalie and Daniel are two of my most diligent students. 

Natalie gives herself a sticker for each page she completes. Daniel is still a very careful color-er (4th pic). Corey's parents came by to give him gifts. I didn't get any pictures of him and his b-day presents, but I was going out to take some pictures when we got a surprise - Abi showed up! I thought they were getting back tomorrow! Yay! Lily was lagging behind and had sent a message with Abi to have Sophi come and help her. I said I'd go help. We found Lily.

Everyone is home! 

They didn't know that Lily would show up today and didn't have her b-day gifts, but I guess they had time cause Corey's parents went back home to get Lily's presents. 

I'll share pictures of their camp tomorrow. Welcome back home, girls!

The last thing that Corey and I did for fun today was go out to eat with Joseph and his girlfriend Emily. 

We went to the India House, cause there's never a wait and it has nice ambiance. And because it is delicious, so we enjoyed a very nice visit as we ate good food. Joseph is in town because Talmage is getting married tomorrow, and Emily will be spending the day with Joseph as they attend the sealing and celebration. It's been nice to have him here for a few days! He will be going up to Bear Lake on Tuesday with Emily and her family and spending a few days up there for the 4th of July weekend (their relationship might be getting serious!) So that will be fun for him! 

One last thing that I almost forgot to mention - today we found out that Ethan is finally going to be going to the Dominican Republic! He is going to go on July 8th. We are excited to talk with him on Monday about it. He had known for a few weeks that his high school BFF and current companion, Elder Pugsley/Truman, is leaving for his original assignment to Mexico on July 6th, so yeah, we're happy for him that he'll be able to go and that he'll almost have a year there! It is good news and we are grateful.