I need to simplify

I thought last week was busy. This one was even worse. I made a list at the beginning of the week of all the things I needed to finish. I showed it to Steve and said, "There is not a way to complete everything on this list even if I ignore the kids all week. I don't know what to do." He kindly offered to do a couple of the things--laundry and grocery shopping--to ease my burden. But I still didn't get everything done. And I still ignored the kids for most of the week.

I did take the younger ones to a park one day. The trees are just beginning to change color here.

Part of the problem this week was that I had my writing retreat all day Friday and Saturday. So I had to get everything done that I normally do, with two fewer days to do it in. Plus I had to read all of the submissions this week, which ended up totally about 180 pages in Microsoft Word. That's a lot of reading. The view from the condo was gorgeous, though.

I also needed to process the pictures I took when we went to Boise a few weeks ago. My contract says I will get the pictures processed in approximately three weeks. And this weekend was the three week mark. I could have done them this week, but the couple was asking about them and I have a lot to do this next week, too, so I decided to be uber busy last week instead of this week.

Decorating for Halloween was also on my list, since I knew if I didn't do it this week, I wouldn't do it all because it's not worth changing all of my decorations for a couple weeks. Plus, the girls enjoy it so much, I like to be festive for them.

We also took the girls to Cocoa Bean one night this week and watched Empire Strikes Back for the first time with the older two. That needs to go down in the record books. :)

I was sad that I missed my Grandpa Frohlich's 90th birthday party. I couldn't swing two trips to ND in one year, but I'm sure they had a great celebration without me. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

preparing

It seems like a lot of this week was spent preparing. Preparing for Halloween, preparing for a garage sale, preparing for Steve's birthday, preparing for a writing retreat...

I worked on Halloween costumes for the girls. Mira wants to be a "rockstar bat." So I'm making her a rockstar costume and bat wings and she is wearing them together. That's Mira for you. Emilia wants to be Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon 2.  I got Mira's costume done Friday. It was super simple. Emilia's will be quite a bit harder. But I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Mira mostly figured out this configuration for Cecily's GoGo Smartwheels herself. We wanted to remember how to do it again next time, so I took a picture. :) For those of you with little ones, these are GREAT toys.

We had a garage sale yesterday, so Thursday, I helped a friend go through her storage space to find stuff to put in the garage sale. We had a bunch of stuff, but not enough to make for a big sale, so I asked a bunch of neighbors if they wanted to go in with us. This friend said she'd like to, but she didn't want to risk the spiders in her storage space. That's why I went in and helped. I also baked about 6 dozen giant cookies on Thursday to sell at the garage sale. Ends up, buying muffins from Costco is much less work and much more profitable than selling cookies.

But the sale was successful, though stressful, since no one was helping this year. It was just me and Steve and one of us had to be taking care of the girls.

This neighbor that I helped find stuff for the garage sale is the same neighbor that is babysitting the girls for me once a week. It's a service exchange sort of thing and it's been super helpful for me. And the girls LOVE her.  This is what they did this last week with the neighbor's bubble gun.

Steve's birthday is coming up in two weeks and he's turning 40. I'm trying to put some fun plans together for him. I hope they work out!

A pepper I grew in my garden. My first ever completely red pepper.

This coming week, my writing group is having a writing retreat. We are renting a condo not far from my house and writing and giggling for two days. I had to get the housing squared away and babysitting for the kids. The only thing left to do is figure out food and we are set! I'm excited for the writing time. And it's always a blast to spend time with friends away from the kids. I'm grateful Steve encourages me to do things like this. I've also been keeping up on my writing goals.

This next week will probably be more of the same.  I need to finish Halloween decorations and costumes, read all the submissions for my writing group, and do some more birthday planning. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Blessed

My computer is not recognizing my phone at the moment. Probably one or both of them need to be shut off and turned on again. Or my phone needs a total reformat. That would be fun.

I did manage to get some of my pictures off before this malfunction, so you'll be getting a few anyway. They're not necessarily in chronological order, so sorry if it's confusing.

Last weekend, Steve and I had a private weekend without our kids thanks to my wonderful family. Nicole Nelson and my parents took our girls Thursday night through Sunday. Steve and I were invited to the wedding of a friend in Boise, ID, and since we were going so far, we decided to use the time to celebrate our 9-year anniversary. It was a fun weekend for everyone, I think.

Besides attending the wedding, we had dinner with the friend and his family, and I took wedding photos for them. Steve and I also got to play tennis, write, go to the temple, and visit the Boise Art Museum.

On our way to Boise.

We encountered a pay phone, which we had been talking to our girls about on our way to Nicole's house. I had to snap a picture because they didn't know what we were talking about!

These pictures accurately portray how much fun our children had during the weekend. (A lot.)

This weekend was General Conference. The talks were inspiring, and uplifting. I can't wait to read them in the Ensign. We were lucky enough to be able to watch with Steve's sisters, Heather and Nicole, and their families. It was nice to have playmates for our children, too. I got to listen to more of Conference this year than I have in five years.

This weekend, Emilia, Mira, and I also had our art in an art contest/silent auction to benefit families of children with rare and undiagnosed diseases. Each of us created art and donated it to the organization and then they sold it through a silent auction. Each of the the girls won first prize in their age category. Emilia won an art class and Mira won a family day pass to all of Thanksgiving Point's attractions (Thanksgiving Point has a dinosaur museum, a discovery museum, beautiful flower gardens, and a petting zoo/farm). I'm excited for them to be able to use their prizes. I'm also very proud of their willingness to participate and help others.

Our 3 pieces of art

Mira (and Cecily) with her art (the pink and blue flowers).

Emilia with her art. Didn't she do a wonderful job?

This past Friday night, Steve and I were able to attend the BYU football game with Nick, Wilda, and the Strattons. It was chilly--mostly because it rained on us about 1/2 the game. But it was a decently interesting game, and no one received a season-ending injury (like three of our players did--including the quarterback--when we went to a game last year).

The clouds right before we left for the game. Pretty, but ominous.

I feel very blessed to have a wonderful family, to live in a beautiful place, and to have a faith that sustains me. God is good to me and I love him with all my heart. Thank you for the good influence that all of you have had on my life. May God bless you, too.