Last Weekend of Summer

Summer break is about over, and we've all just been taking it easy/lazy while we still can. I haven't made the kids do much, chores-wise (although Abi and Natalie did a fab job cleaning up the main floor yesterday evening). Abi went and picked up Lily and Sophi in Provo this morning. Those of us at home went to clean the chapel at 8am. ALS joined us around 8:30. Owen and Daniel have been playing with friends most days, after a token practice session, cleaning of their room and folding clothes. Practicing hasn't been much cause Owen has had a cold sore, and so if he can't play trumpet, and then Daniel protests he shouldn't need to practice sax if Owen doesn't have to do trumpet. Sophi and Lily have been at FSY this week. Abi has gone with Corey most days to do ACT stuff while he works at his dad's. Natalie, Peter and Katharine are my buddies here at home. There are still legos everywhere - have been this whole week. Peter and Katharine playing at the top of the stairs...

I'm wishing we had a playroom so the legos weren't at the top of the stairs or in our bedroom. Maybe we need to nix the music room and have that be a playroom? Or maybe it doesn't matter now that kids will be in school again soon. Do you like Katharine's hair? Natalie did that Thursday night, K slept in it and was still proud of her Anna hairdo yesterday morning (and this morning... yes she's on day two of this outfit and 'do). 

I called Peter and Katharine to come downstairs yesterday to come and see the butterflies. Terry brought over 6 for us to help release. Peter said "cool" and then went back upstairs. K came with me outside.

They were all rearing to go. As soon as Katharine had one on her finger... 

...away it would fly!

4 flew away right away up high into the trees, one flew down onto the street. Daniel came home while we were outside and he ran and got that one. 

Terry kept it in her mesh cage for a few more hours and then released it later. Fun stuff. She's had 10 emerge so far, has 20+ more to go. I have a few baby caterpillars that I might give away. 

I gave the kids my 4 Lego Story books that I'm saving for my grandbabies. (I've tried to save sets before... it didn't work) Natalie promised they won't lose the pieces, so we'll see... that promise has been made many times before by many different children and yet to have been kept, although I've never made them pinky promise... but I gave the books to Natalie for Peter and Katharine to play with, with the full knowledge of what I was doing. I guess I can love my children as much as my grandchildren, but my children already have SO MANY LEGOS. My goal, after K starts kindergarten in 2027, is to get all the legos organized, and then maybe I'll remake a few of my favorite sets for Katharine to play with when she gets home from school. (Cinderella's castle - see "Thursday"). 

Well, what else... yesterday Corey was fasting, so then I started a fast, so we didn't go out to eat for date night, we went climbing instead. I did the red 5.11b with only one rest, that one is intense. My goal is to be able to do it without a break before Wesley gets home, or before they take it down, or before we cancel our membership, whichever comes first. We might be cancelling momentum, but if we do that I think we should cancel music lessons too. We've either really got to hunker down and get through this and cut off all/any non-vital expenses, or I guess if we're gonna keep playing like we can keep paying for all of this, we'll keep pretending. The kids were invited to two birthday parties today, but we didn't go to either. I'm about at my breaking point and I just can't do birthday parties. I called and talked to Nicole yesterday morning, and she gave her permission to say no to the birthday parties. She said they would not miss me, and I believe her. So I just blew them both off. Probably not very nice, but it was necessary for my survival. The upstairs AC is broken, I woke up at 3am Friday morning and moved to the basement. Woke up, went out for a walk w/o headphones, then called Nicole for the home stretch. I've been thinking of the phrase "You must be the rock that the river cannot wash away." - from a talk by Elder Richard Maynes "The Strength to Endure". That talk helped me in 2016, and here we still are. I'm working on trust. Trust in the Lord. 

Natalie just came up and showed me that she's learned the tik-tok version of the Soda Pop dance, so then I just wasted the past 30 min learning that via this tutorial, then practice at tempo. Back to blogging, I just finished May, yay. Gonna chip away at April June July next. Corey and boys and K are watching Journey to Mysterious Island, and I am blogging until we go to bed. LSN are at a neighbor's house for a party, Abi is sleeping over with friends. We didn't allow sleepovers, but Abi has broken our resolve. She'll be 18 next month, so yeah, we wave the white flag.