Holidays

Monday was Christmas! I didn't write last week, but this week has been long enough for both of them. This first picture happened last week. Cecily came into our room while Steve and I were talking before he left for work and she slapped him across the face. After she got in trouble for slapping her father, she wailed, "But I just didn't get enough sleep!"

I finished these before Christmas. Aren't you proud of me? I love the way they turned out. But I was right. The girls haven't played with them at all. :( Okay, maybe they've played with them a little bit, but mostly just to bend their limbs and flip their hair around. But it's okay. I knew that would happen. It happens every time I spend a lot of time making a gift for my kids. I still enjoyed making them.

Last Saturday, we hosted Christmas with my family at my house. The Staleys unfortunately weren't able to come, but we Skyped with them as we opened gifts.

On Christmas Eve night it started snowing around 7pm and snowed all night. It was a Christmas miracle. As we drove up to read the Christmas story out of the Bible with Nick and Wilda, we passed two multi-car pile-ups on the freeway. It made me sad for those who were either hurt or worse on what is supposed to be the happiest time of year. It also made me more grateful that all of my loved ones were healthy and safe.

Santa brought the girls lots of fun stuff on Christmas morning, then we had yummy homemade waffles for breakfast and then opened presents from each other. I got so much exciting stuff, too. We were very blessed this year.

The kids went outside with Steve and built a snowman in our newly-fallen snow in the afternoon. And that night, we went to my parents' house and watched the end of Home Alone with the Ben Frohlichs.

Wednesday we bought tickets to go see the new Star Wars movie as a family. I was worried that it would be terrible, or disappointing, or SOUL DESTROYING because all of the bad reviews. But it was wonderful! We all enjoyed it and I thought they did an excellent job with it.

After a 2 1/2 hour movie, Cecily needed to move around for a while, so we stopped at the mall's play area before heading home.

Thursday night, we invited some friends over to have pizza and play games, but the wife got sick and they had to cancel. Instead, we invited three single friends over to play. The kids didn't get friends over, but us adults had fun playing a couple of rounds of Dominion.

Friday, we needed to do some housecleaning, fold laundry, and we put away ALL of the Christmas decorations. It was so nice outside when we were taking down the lights that I had to take my coat off. It's been so warm here that they are predicting drought conditions for this summer because we don't have enough snowpack to sustain normal water levels in the dams.

Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa and our family went to the Utah Museum of Natural History. The big Christmas present we gave our girls this year was a Visit Salt Lake pass that gives us entrance to fourteen different attractions in Salt Lake. The Natural History museum was the first of those attractions and we had a lot of fun. There were sections on geology (we liked the gems), dinosaurs, Vikings, animals, solar power/astronomy, and Native Americans. We were there for five hours, including a VERY expensive lunch at the cafe there. Then Grandpa took us all out for Nielson's custard before we headed home. We were all tired after our long day, so the girls watched a movie and I listened to a book while I finished up some more crocheting.

Today is New Years Eve. I've been thinking about goals for the next year and for my life. I usually make goals every year, but I feel like last year I just didn't have the energy to do it. This year will be better though. I've already got a few in mind. Tomorrow, the girls get to go play at Nana's house for a while and I think I'll take the time to write down the goals for the new year. Tonight, we're hanging out at Nick and Wilda's with lots of good food, friends, and games. Ben's daughter Dylan is staying over night, so it should be a great party for everyone. :)

I love making things, an announcement, and more Christmastime busy-ness

I was in the car a lot this week. For having almost all of my Christmas shopping done last week, I, for some reason still had to leave the house to do some sort of shopping EVERY DAY this week. Cecily gets super annoyed.

Unfortunately, I took almost no pictures this week. So I'll try to keep my words to a minimum.

I helped Cecily and Mira wrap their presents to cousins one night. Mira was SO proud of doing it mostly by herself. I had writing group one night this week, and it's always fun to get together and eat and chat and catch up on each other's lives. Honestly, it's more about that than the writing. We spend less than 1/3 of the time actually talking about the words. :) One night this week, I took the girls to Dollar Tree and DI to pick out gifts for each other. One night this week, I separated all of the legos we have by color and put them in the new bin I bought for $5 at DI while we watched The Grinch (cartoon) and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. The rest of the family sat on the couch and didn't help me. (I'm not bitter or anything.) One night this week, we all painted Christmas ornaments to put on the tree. It's a tradition we started two years ago, so now we all have 3 hand-painted ornaments on the tree and it's so fun to get them out from the previous year and see how the kids have improved. I love it. Steve goes along with it because I love it. :)

I've continued to keep an eye on the #LighttheWorld initiative. I had so much gusto that first week and was proud that I planned ahead and had activities we could do each day. When I went to look at the calendar last Sunday to plan out the week again, I realized that I'd done each one already in one way or another.

Monday was "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." —Matthew 5:44 The suggestion was to apologize to someone you may have hurt or offended, or to focus on being kind to someone that is hard to get along with. I do this with my children constantly. I try to apologize to them when I've yelled at them or not taken their feelings into consideration. I try daily to be kinder to them, even when they're at their worst.

Tuesday was "I was sick, and ye visited me." —Matthew 25:36 That day, me and the girls actually did go to a nursing home and sing Christmas carols to the residents with Emilia's Activity Days girls.

Wednesday was "Search the scriptures." —John 5:39 The suggestions were to read scriptures daily with your family, share a scripture on social media, or send a scripture to a friend who you think might need it. We try to read the scriptures as a family every day before school starts. We don't always make it, but we're pretty consistent. I also had sent a scripture to a friend who I thought might need it just two days earlier.

Thursday was "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." —Matthew 25:35 The suggestions were to do something nice for a stranger. Now that I'm looking at it, I guess I could have done a better job that day of focusing on helping someone I don't know. For that day, I thought of the friend we gave all of our extra Christmas money to because their heater had gone out and they were living off space heaters and a small fireplace. They weren't strangers, but we took them in in the best way we could. I also regularly give money to the people begging with cardboard signs at Walmart. Usually just the change I have in my purse, if I have any. But maybe I'll try this week to do something nice for a complete stranger, even if it's just giving them a compliment.

I was frustrated at first because I wasn't participating the way I had been the first week, but I came to a place of peace about it. I think I can be content knowing that I live the kind of life daily that emulates aspects of the Savior. I didn't have a photo op to share on social media, but I think that's okay.

And onto my only photos for the week--Christmas presents. I'm making mermaid dolls for the girls because they've been asking for them since before our trip to Disneyland, and because we got them "experiences" with their Christmas money instead of toys and I wanted them to have a couple of toys to open Christmas day. I work on them every night after the girls go to bed and I'm really excited about how they're turning out. Making gifts is really my happy place at Christmas time anyway, so I'm glad I have an excuse. :)

Last but not least, my announcement.

I found out this week that the short story I wrote was chosen to be published in the anthology I wrote it for and submitted it to. It will be my first published piece and I'm so excited. It was a daunting thing for me to write a short story. I haven't read many short stories and I felt very inadequate and underprepared, but I pushed through those negative feelings and did it anyway. And I got in! I'll even get royalties after the first 200 copies sell (haha! I doubt that will happen, but it's nice to think about.) I'll let you know when it comes out so you can get a copy if you'd like. I appreciate everyone's support of this hobby of mine and always asking how it's going. Yay for baby steps!

Big to-do list

I finished decorating the house last Monday (or Sunday night?--I can't remember). I was inspired by the decorations at my friend's house, the one I went to for the girls' night last week. It felt so cozy and festive, I wanted to duplicate the feeling. And it worked. I feel cozy and festive at my house now, too. And it worked out, too, since we're hosting my family's Christmas party this year.

Monday morning, Emilia and Mira came out of their room both wearing the same pants, black boots and black shirts. I had to document.

Monday night, we took our neighbor gifts around. We do wrapping paper and our neighbors seem to appreciate it. After, I knelt down on the floor to work on something and the cat thought I was making a throne for her. :P

My birthday present from Steve came on Tuesday, so I had to wear it on Wednesday because I was in love. <3 p="">

I had a ridiculously busy week. My to do list got checked off at record pace:
X put up outside lights
X call new insurance agent
X buy last of Christmas presents
   X playstation gift card
   X game for frohlich boys
   X cards for RS presidency
   X dad's gift
X put items up on KSL: doll house, trampoline, wii fit, kids kitchen, little people, frozen toy, car seat, stroller
X  send disk to coombses
  look up Light the World and plan for next week
X mail letters to Grandpa
XXXXX exercise
X  wash laundry
X  fold laundry
X buy ribbon
X deposit money
X do budget
X clean master bedroom
 wash sheets/blankies
X clean out garage
X exchange coloring book for mom
X buy envelopes for cards
 make doctor appointments
  emilia for sleep
  me for yearly exam
 X me for alternative medicine
  me for dentist
  steve for dentist
X go on date
X help at ward Christmas Party
X go grocery shopping
  X costco
  X Walmart
   smith's

When I was photographing stuff to sell on the classifieds, Steve was helping me pose all the Little People and I thought it was cute.

I also managed to drop my phone today and destroy the screen. Again. Ugh. Hopefully the warranty I bought will cover the replacement. 

The holiday Spirit

Some years Christmas is nothing but stress. Some years it is a source of joy. I think this year is going to be the second kind. I have almost all of my shopping done already. I have all of my indoor decorations up. I think our tree is gorgeous and love that Cecily jumps for joy every time she sees it and yells, "It's so beautiful!" I love that I'm not in the middle of a writing project and therefore I can take all month to work on craft projects that will make Christmas less expensive and more fun for me. I got to go to a "kick off December right," girls night on the first day of December and did my nails and toenails for the season, along with eating tasty food and enjoying great company. The next day I had a perfect birthday, and the day after that, I got to have dinner with my family and open presents. That was today. I'm really looking forward to the season.

Now to the photos, which is really the important part, am I right? Apparently I didn't take any photos before Thursday. I don't remember a lot of what I did before Wednesday. I do know I helped Julia for like 3 hours on Tuesday because she needed a window cleaned inside and out including the tracks (and she doesn't own a vacuum). On Wednesday I got to have lunch with two ladies from my old writing group and it was fabulous. I found out the one who didn't already have an agent got one last week after only sending 6 queries. That's insanity. Most people send out hundreds before getting an agent. I'm so elated and jealous and not sure I should be jealous at the same time. Having an agent means pressure. I waffle back and forth between feeling ready for that kind of pressure and thinking that is the worst idea I've ever had. Steve went out with friends to say goodbye to one that was moving away that night. Thursday was the last day of November and I had a short story due. I had to go check and see if I'd told you about it already. I don't think I did. I found out from a writing group I'm part of on Facebook that thebrothersuber.com was doing a submission call for a short story that was a sci-fi retelling of a fairytale. That's exactly what I was doing with the last book I wrote, except I used Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't sure if they would consider AinW a fairytale, so I just took the same world I had already created and picked a different fairytale to tell about. I picked Little Red Riding Hood because it was the one I could picture fitting the best within my world. I just barely slid that baby in under the deadline, which was midnight on November 30th. I'll let y'all know if it gets chosen for publication. Also being the last day of November, I realized we hadn't visiting our visiting teaching sisters, so my partner and I put together these holiday potpourri bags and delivered them to the sisters we visit. I love the smell of that stuff. If you want to try it out yourself, you can get the recipe here: http://rachelschultz.com/2013/12/12/cinnamon-cranberry-stove-top-potpourri/

Friday, I planned on doing fun stuff and relaxing because that writing deadline almost killed me. I don't think I got enough sleep for the whole week beforehand. I felt like a zombie all day on Thursday. But instead, I wrote a letter to a friend for the kick-off of #LighttheWorld, put dinner in the crockpot, exercised, roasted a pumpkin, made 4 loaves of gluten-free pumpkin bread, took the girls to pick out Christmas presents for their cousins, and cleaned out my car. But at least I got to go to the girls' night that night. It was so much fun.

Saturday was my birthday! I turned 39. And instead of rehashing everything, you get my summary from Instagram: Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I had a wonderful day. We put up and decorated our Christmas tree, I got to exercise, we celebrated Mira getting her art selected for the Springville Art museum's children's art exhibit (they had an opening "gala"), went to dinner and the BYU MOA M.C. Escher exhibit, played a new game at dragons keep, and now I'm going to listen to my book and crochet. It was so lovely!

I'm looking forward to another great week this week. I hope your Christmas Spirit is thriving as well. If not, check out the #LighttheWorld initiative. If nothing else, the introductory videos will make you cry. :) (It's put on by our church, but it's almost completely non-denominational Christian. The idea is to purposely do things this season to emulate Christ as a way to remember Him at this time of year.) For example, yesterday's theme was "I was thirsty and ye gave me drink," from Matthew 25:35. So we donated money to an organization that provides clean water to people who need it around the world. Today's theme was, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days," from Matthew 12:12 (the idea being that we should do good works on the Sabbath and not just sit around or do housework) so we wrote letters to Great Grandpa Frohlich and are going to mail them tomorrow along with a family photo. I appreciate the help to be less commercial during this sacred season. The link to the calendar, videos, and ideas is here:  https://www.mormon.org/

Also, here are all the photos I got off Steve's phone tonight of things that happened a while ago.

The Tabernacle viewing and subsequent visit to the Bean Museum:

The Daddy/Daughter Date from halloween:

And a "family photo" in bed that Cecily insisted on. :)