Temple, Violin, Soccer, & Biking

It was a good Saturday. Mel, Wes, Abi, and Lily went to the Jordan River temple to do baptisms early at 7. 

Abi scheduled that herself again, I'm impressed. Corey and I went to Draper yesterday morning for a session, since it was an online school day for the elementary kids and no school for jr, high kids. So it was a good chance for Corey and I to go, plus I knew we wouldn't be able to do it this morning with all of our sitters gone. Corey stayed home with the little boys... including this one that we're trying to figure out how to keep out of our bed. 

(I actually don't mind so much where Peter is as long as I get to sleep too, but it would be good if he could start to sleep through the night before the baby comes... I don't think I can juggle night time interruptions from both of them...) So MWAL were at the temple this morning, C was home with ODP, and I woke up Sophi and Natalie early at 7 for Suzuki Federation down at SLCC. We entered the same doors where Natalie had her ballet performance last summer. Here's a cute pic from yesterday of Sophi getting in one last practice session of her pieces. Peter is always very quick to have us get his little violin too so he can practice with her. 

(HE IS SO CUTE)

We left around 7:45 this morning and got there with time to spare so we could figure out where to go. They left their cases downstairs, then went up to the performing rooms.

I was really impressed with the pieces that the kids played who went before us. They looked about the same age as Sophi and Natalie, but were doing amazingly hard songs in Books 3 and 4. I think we could be practicing harder and smarter, so I'm trying to think of what might work to motivate us all to work harder and learn more. There was a sign on the door that said no filming or pictures, and I obeyed for Sophi. She performed Witches Dance and Two Grenadiers. After I obeyed the rules for Sophi, I regretted it, so I did take one of Natalie. 

She played Minuet 2 and Happy Farmer. The room they were supposed to be in was locked, so our room was a hallway, but it was fine. Then we went to Costco, since we were downtown. I wanted to check to see if they still don't have ricemilk, and they don't. It's sad. I enjoyed buying rice milk in bulk and wholesale, but now I just have to go to Walmart every week and clear their shelf of the Rice Dream, if they have any. They often don't, but Friday I hit the jackpot and got 11 liters, o yeah. Corey can't do almond milk or oat milk, but he's ok with ricemilk, so that is my life, since I don't do cow milk and haven't for a few years. Corey will still get some sometimes to make tapioca. Anyway, so yeah, went to the store, got home, Corey took kids to his parents' house so that they could play and he could get work done. I took Abi to her soccer game. She was the green team. She said they lost 12-0. I lost count, but I'm not sure if their score was that high, but maybe it was. She got a slight sunburn. 

Then with all the little kids gone, I was able to sneak out with Mel and she and I went ON A BIKE RIDE!!! AT Corner Canyon!! 

The trail was nice and dry, and there were quite a few bikers out. We could still see snow up higher in the hills but they'll all be open soon. I love biking. We parked at Draper City Park and took the Porter Rockwell Trail and then did the little trail loop across from the cycle park that we took Angela and her family on try last September. It's a short, easy and fun green trail, so I hope it's not totally irresponsible of me to do that pregnant. I'm so excited to bike this summer and fall! I was telling Mel all about the trails and which ones are good and fun and pretty in the fall. It's going to be great to share it with her. 

We're trying to make space for Mel in the house. We started Monday evening by simply trying to move up a desk so Mel would have a place to work, and that has turned into a 5 day project of us switching the girls rooms all around. It's almost done - they all just need to finish putting their clothes away. Yesterday was a good cleaning day for me and I picked up everything off the floor in their rooms and shoved it in laundry baskets and onto their beds and I got the floors vacuumed. Here are the before the change pictures - Lily and Sophi's room, Sophi in middle and Lily on bottom:

I took those pics on Jan 22, when I was doing awesome at keeping the house clean (still am, pretty much). Abi and Natalie shared a room - Natalie's desk on the right, Abi's on the left.

And the boys room looks the same now as it did in January. Wes on the white loft bed, the 3 little boys in the triple bunk, O on top, D in the middle, and P on bottom.

The house isn't as clean now as it was in January, but I guess it was pretty important to me and I get a lot of pride out of a clean house, since I blogged about it a lot when I was on that cleaning streak. I'm going to try and get back on it. I'm hoping some nesting instincts kick in soon. 

My Area

Well, our house guests left on Saturday morning. I had plans for the kids to help me reclaim my basement office area on Saturday evening, but it didn't happen. Today I did it myself. This morning I made a pathway and brought my treadmill back in, yay! The kids needed to leave for school and Daniel was awake, so after sending them off, my baby played sweetly with a toy on the floor as I did a 20 minute jog with a few walks and a few sprints in between. I put the treadmill in a different corner that I think works much better than where it was before. My cd player is also nicely within reach so I can skip songs as needed. I also have my yoga stuff set up. I took apart the beds, moved the black table back in and made a vase of flowers for it that I think is cute and pretty, I'm in the process of bringing my weights back downstairs. I moved them up into my bedroom closet when they came in February, thinking I could do a little resistance exercises in there... never happened. I also raked up the pile of leaves out the basement door that were wet with rain and stuck on the cement. Hopefully it will dry up a little and then I can sweep it off. Anyway, so far I'm really happy with how it looks!

I even have my laptop here at my desk again! And I'm typing here rather than in my closet on the floor. Well here is Wes sitting at it as I took a picture of it.

I still have to go through all my little piles on the desk shelves and on my bookshelves on the opposite wall behind me. When Angela and her girls first came, this office area was a total mess, and I was stressed out as you might recall. This is the only carpeted area in the basement, but it was a mess, so I cleaned up the lego area instead and put their beds up there. It wasn't the best, as it has cement walls, but was all I could do at the time. When they got here though they cleaned up this area and wanted to move their beds over here where it would be warmer. I felt kinda like a bad host for setting up the beds in a bad area... We've been watching the Kindness Diaries on byutv. It's a little documentary of a guy traveling around the world relying only on the kindness of strangers to give him gas for his motorbike, food, and a place to stay each night. Like two weeks ago we saw him stay with a family in India where they said "Guest is God" and a guy and his pregnant wife slept on the floor so his kids and Leon could sleep in the bed (I think it was the guy in the blue shirt at :10 here). That would have been the more charitable thing for us to do for our guests, but maybe not for 2 months? I was impressed with them though - As I sit here in comfort and luxury I hope that someday I can learn to be as charitable to others as poor people in India.

Anyway, so my closet has been my homebase for a while and the house is pretty desordenado, but not much more than usual I guess. I'm glad to be able to put it back together. The kids and I have been talking about clearing out most of the junk in the unfinished area and turning it into a roller skating area, ha! I think it would be fun, we'll see if we can actually get rid of all the clutter, cause that would be fun. I still remember playing at my friends house as a kid, her name was Krissy Vargeson (Not sure of the spelling there... I can't find her on facebook...) - we set up a whole street area in her garage, with chalk roads, yield signs, stop signs, and we'd ride around her garage on our bikes, it was so fun. It would be fun to set up something like that here - and Owen and Natalie can ride their scoot bikes and trikes around it while the older kids use roller blades, skates, or ripsticks. Fun fun! I'm going to go clean some more and see if we can do it.

Mom Moments

Well, yesterday the inevitable happened.  Owen's blanket broke. It is now in two pieces, the main piece, and the strip with the all important tags. Owen brought it to me last night and said to fix it, but this blanket has had more than it's fair share of mending, so much that I haven't even dared wash it for months (I know, nasty...) so I told Owen "I can't, it's broken" and lo and behold... (is this the moment we've been waiting for?)... Owen was able to go to bed without it! Am I happy? Or am I sad? Another baby is growing up and another phase of his childhood might be past and gone forever. That makes me feel kinda sad, but I guess I have two more behind him. Last night Owen didn't take Louie to bed with him either. Today he fell asleep for his nap in my room without his binky, blankie, or Louie. I kinda felt sorry for Louie though...

Tonight when we were going to bed, I gave Owen his blanket strip, which he rejected, and so I tried to just give him his binky and Louie, and he threw Louie across the room! (Well, as far as a 3 year old can throw a toy). I picked up this dear stuffed animal and told him sorry and hugged him. I can't find if I ever blogged it, but some time ago, I think before Peter was born, Owen woke up during the night and I layed down with him, and then I had this random thought that if Owen were to die, what would I do with Louie? Would I keep him with me, to remember my little Owen, or would I bury him with Owen to keep Owen safe? I don't know what I would have done, but the thought of it made me cry, so I was laying next to Owen at 4 in the morning crying about Owen being gone and what I would do with Louie. But now I might not have to worry about that. All this time, Louie has been a faithful companion, and just like that, it's over. Doesn't seem right. We'll see if Owen takes him at all this upcoming week. If not, I will be taking Louie and putting him on my shelf where I keep my babies' faithful but forgotten toddler toys like Natalie's leopard.

So been feeling a bit sentimental today. Remembering my little ones, I can't stop time and tuck away their childhood (Lily's pillow) but I will try to savor the moments. The good, the bad, the irritating and the messy. Today it was mostly the irritating and messy. The kids haven't messed up the floor from it's mop and shine yesterday, yay. But there's always the mess that comes from a family of 14 - they all contribute to the mess. Abi was trying on different jackets for school before she left... I began to tidy up after, and I had already picked up 3 of her jackets in the side room, I then came into the front room to find two more...

She is my best kitchen cleaner, but clothes are her weakness. She leave a big mess of clothes in her bedroom, she just drops them. This morning, after looking at her room again, I told her we gotta break that habit. Took the jacket pick so I can remember to revisit the topic with her again. Another annoying thing - downstairs in the basement, about a week ago I found an empty box of my ABC markers which I had tried to hide from them... I looked around and couldn't find the markers. I have two sets, one old, one new, I wasn't sure if this was the old or new set. But today I found the markers in a box hidden somewhere by kids. Most of the lids were off, and it was my new set. I threw them hard into the trash can. They destroy and break things quickly and often. Sigh. Breathe...

I found those as I was cleaning up the room for a friend from Chile who is coming to stay with us for a bit (Angela's husband). I had Imagine Dragons on the bluetooth - "I Don't Know Why". Yes, why!??! Why can't they stop getting into my things? I just need to lock them all in our room. I looked at the markers, tried to breath. Not a big deal, like $7 bucks maybe? Am I going to miss the mess? Or will it still visit us in grandchild form? The music played, and I felt like it was my destructor children saying it "Tell me that you love me, tell me that you love me, tell me that you love me..." I don't know why they seek and destroy, but I will try to remember what is important. They are more important than markers. I am trying to practice being calm. I had a few voxer chats with Holly about that too - give myself an opportunity to breathe. Oh, and Peter threw up on me this morning too - right after he ate, he started coughing and made himself gag...

Luckily I was holding him towards me, so I was able to cup it all in my chest between Peter and I

Yay, it didn't get on the carpet. All the mess and struggle is giving me experience and teaching me to be patient and calm and to control what I can control. I can control myself, they need me to be that steady rock for them, a rock of calm and security. It will all become good memories eventually anyway, I will try to be calm and enjoy the now before these baby and toddler and childhood moments all slip away forever.