Another boring picture week this week. Not a single one. And I realized that last week I forgot to mention I had writing group. I'm not sure how. It was the highlight of my week. Besides spending time with my family, that is my second-favorite thing to do on the planet. Of course, walking through the Louvre or writing poetry while sipping herbal tea and looking through my rose-colored glasses at the Eiffel Tower might bump writing group down a notch, but since that's not in my cards right now, writing group pretty much rocks my normal, everyday life.
Let's see...Monday night, Emilia taught us about the "places" we have to go on the road back to our Heavenly Father. Places like prayer, making good choices, and reading the scriptures. She had a little roadmap and a car that drove from "Earthly Home" back to our "Heavenly Home." It was cute.
Tuesday I had a presidency meeting and then that night, my friend Camber came over and we did crafts. She made some bows for her girls and I made some birthday cards. It's always good to have some crafty girl time.
Thursday, I had parent-teacher conferences for Emilia. Her teacher says she loves having her in class, that she always has a great attitude, and she loves learning new things--she just soaks them up. She is doing great in all her subjects, too. Out of all the testing that was done, she only missed two questions, I think. We are so proud of her. Steve also had game night that night and I played, too, for once.
This makes it sound like it was a fairly normal evening, but really it was more of a family misadventure. If you don't want to read the story, just skip the next paragraph. :)
I decided earlier in the day that I was going to make soup and crusty bread for dinner, partly because it sounded good, but mostly because I wanted to take a meal to a friend and that would be easy to transport (and totally tasty). Mira had a friend come over right after lunch and shortly after that, I put Cecily down for her nap. I was going to do some organizing in the kitchen and then do some writing while they played. Then I remembered the bread needed to rise for 3 hours, so I needed to get it started or it wouldn't be ready in time for dinner. I start making up the dough, when the girls decide they need a snack. Pause. Get them snack. Finish mixing and set the bowl aside. Sit down and try to write, realize it's time to go get Emilia from school soon. But the girls are not done playing, so I call the friend's mom and she agrees to watch them for a few minutes while I go get Emilia. When I get off the phone, Mira is like, "She's just coming with, Mom." Oh, yeah. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Arrive at the school. Emilia is with a friend, begging to let her play soon. We won't have time until next week, so we decide to have her come today. The more the merrier, right? So after getting permission, we all drive back to our house. After the friends go home, I need to start dinner, but then Cecily wakes up and wants me to hold her. But she's HEAVY. so I put on a baby signing time downstairs for her. This causes Mira to cry uncontrollably because
she doesn't want
to watch Baby Signing Time. I finally put Wild Kratts on my phone. By then it's like 6pm and Steve, who got to work
before 8am that morning (miraculously), still isn't home. Emilia's parent/teacher conference is at 6:20, so I call Steve to see where he is. He hasn't left work yet. He had a project he had to finish. Gah! So I pack up all the girls, having to stop their shows in the middle, which causes wailing of unparalleled proportions from Mira, get shoes and coats on and into the car. We are late, but she's running late, so it's mostly okay. While I try to talk to the teacher, Mira is still wailing somewhere in the classroom, Cecily is trying to walk off with the entire container of suckers or trying to unwrap all of them, and Emilia is dancing around singing, "This is my classroom. I'm in my classroom at night!" Mira has finally calmed down by the time we are walking back out to the car, but then she tries to follow Emilia over a snowbank, slips, falls, and whacks herself on the jagged snow. More wailing. Cecily, mad that I won't let her walk across the street without holding my hand also starts wailing. This continues through buckling them and the entire ride home. Steve is home when we get back, which is when I realize he has friends coming over for game night in 20 minutes. I tell him he gets the kids until his friend gets here. He is gracious about it. After closing myself in my room for 5 minutes, I realize I have soup on the stove that isn't even close to done, and bread that is
still rising on the counter. I won't have dinner ready for like another 30 minutes minimum. So I grab my coat and tell Steve I'm getting Little Caesars. When I get back, Steve tels me Cecily dumped an entire cup of water on her head while I was gone, but on the upside, the girls are all in their pjs now. I get the girls their food, which Cecily refuses to eat, then prep the oven for baking the bread which has been rising for like 5 hours now. Just then, the last of the friends shows up with a Papa Murphy's pizza he would like to bake in our oven. Can I just quit now? But no. I bake the bread, then the pizza. Meanwhile girls are read to, and put to bed. By 8:30 pm, I finally get to eat some of my soup and some bread. And I don't want to do anything else for the night that requires effort. So I play Savage Worlds with Steve and his friends. Phew!
Friday, the girls and I went to visit my mom, where Alison introduced Emilia to the game Harvest Moon. She played it for like 2 hours while we were there. I haven't let her play it at home yet. I don't want more reasons to have screen time. Uck.
Yesterday, Steve was a dear and watched the girls so I could go write for about 4 hours at the library. He took them to the treehouse at the mall. When they got back he said, "Cecily really loves that slide. You told me that before. But I didn't think she loved it
that much." Yup. That girl LOVES going down a slide.
