K's Shoes

I found quite a few photos on my phone tonight. Most were of Katharine's shoes yesterday at church during Sacrament meeting.

These are her "slippers". Here you can see how amazing they are compared to the footwear of her sisters boring brown sandals and black shoes. These slippers have glitter and diamond and pink and gold and bows and just wow. 

She makes me smile.

Melodie said that she has a whole album titled "Katharine's feet". Today K took a few photos as well. One was of the scratch on her foot, which was a pretty big deal when it happened on Saturday. She's coping with it well. Next to the robot cat which Natalie got from her friend Lani May for K. It meow's at us in the dark and startles us sometimes.

Katharine's baby zebra in his bed...

And what was I, her mother, doing while K was taking photographs? She took a photo of that too. 

That's me taking a quick nap on the floor. I think I gave her my phone in exchange for her giving me a few minutes to sleep. Not much to report. No violin today, cause their teacher is in Italy with a violin group. Sophi and Natalie have kinda been slacking with violin. They don't really have a goal with it, and unlike with jazz, there's no live in parent who knows a lot about it.  I haven't done much since K was born almost 3 years ago. Violin is so competitive too, I'm not sure what the plan is with it. Other than just to develop a skill that they can use the rest of their life to bless others? Even if they don't ever make it into Lyceum or tour Italy, it is a good thing and a good way to spend their time. Sophi's been distracted with Duolingo until recently. Last Wednesday I encouraged her to give it up, after talking to Wes last Monday where mentioned how he quit it and has been glad to have that time to put somewhere else. He warned that Duolingo doesn't let you leave peacefully. They'll send you some emails saying stuff like "so do you give up on all your goals??" or "I was going to send that to you in French, but then you wouldn't understand..." They really get you by trying to have you keep a streak and there are some other gimicks... It's so stupid though, cause Sophi was using it FOR ENGLISH just to keep her streak. So dumb. To quote Sophi from last Wednesday, when she deleted the app: 

"Duolingo is like kind of evil, yeah. I hate it. I just do it, because like they have the freaking scoreboard. I’m in the diamond league and I’m like 50,000 XP away from being first place. It’s so stupid, and it’s always so stressful. I have a 63 day streak and I’m like really stressing about this because, also, they do like after I finish one of the like quests like the daily quest they give me XP for tomorrow so then right when I open the app the next day like the XP starts going and I can’t pause it so I have to do it right then." 

I don't really understand what most of that means. Sounds like they got her trapped in a game that they made up. Sophi agreed to let it go and walk away from it all. She opened her phone to delete the app. 

Me: I bet you’re gonna feel freedom. 

Sophi: I’m already feeling it. Gasp - it's gone! Yay! 

Now with all her free time, she can focus on violin! or reading her scriptures in prep for receiving her patriarchal blessing. A little more on Sophi and Natalie. They both broke their phones a while ago, and then both worked to save money to get new Gabb phones. Sophi used her birthday money, and Natalie read all 4 of the Saints volumes to earn money (I said I'd pay $25 for each one). Natalie read and also sometimes played it on audio and followed along in her book. She did it pretty quickly, I was impressed with her focus. That's our little go getter. I have been trying to take away their phones on Sundays, to give their brains a rest and prevent brain rot. Lily doens't have a phone. She hasn't had one since fall. Hers broke and she hasn't cared enough to earn money to buy one. Sophi's broke when it was in her pocket and she was getting in the car and closed the door on her jacket pocket, and thus her phone. Natalie's screen was good, but something else broke on it when it fell from her top bunk bed after she changed beds to the top. I can't remember how Lily's broke. 

After I gave Sophi her phone back Sunday night, she saw that she had gotten a text from a boy, and they mutually like each other (gave each other Christmas presents) and Sunday night he texted her to ask her to be his girlfriend. She replied that she can't have a boyfriend, and she can't date until she's 16. Good girl Soph. It was funny cause Natalie has PE with the boy and she was being a mediator, telling him that Corey is strict so it's not Sophi's fault, and that Sophi likes him, and that it's nothing personal, but she can't be his girl right now. Corey and Mel talking to Sophi in her bed - laughing about stuff. Corey is sorry that she broke his heart. 

Mel also gave advice that she's glad that she didn't date or get serious with boys in jr high or high school. It's not the time for that. Save it for college. But Sophi didn't want to hurt his feelings. Natalie at Sophi's desk, prob texting the guy. That reminds me of a meme Corey shared last week: 

Our girls are often talking about trying to figure out boys, and Corey tells them that males aren't  very complicated. So that meme seemed to send the message. Lily said to him "these memes are getting personal!"

Also, speaking about boyfriends, Mel came up last night to hang out. She left this morning. Christian is in Chile visiting his mission with his little brother. So since she had time on her hands, Mel and brought some dough, and for some reason made a muscular kangaroo out of bread. Dough ready to go in the oven.

Fresh out of the oven. Kangaroo with a tiny head.