Trip to St. George

I missed last week because we were in St. George. The previous week was super busy. I took the lady I help to DI for a couple of hours on Tuesday while Steve was working from home. I had lots of laundry to do and I needed to clean both bathrooms before we left. The girls had parent/teacher conferences (they both are model students, though Mira is much more average as far as grades go. She is either satisfatory or mastered on all of the subjects, though--no below average). I spent time with my friend Gina one night. I had a follow-up appointment with the homeopathic doctor. I had to pack all the girls and myself for a 4-day trip, get the car packed, get the house straightened, work on my writing, do some shopping, and get my parents off to their trip to colorado (Steve took them to the train station at 4am on Tuesday and then was cranky all day).

I find it cute that Mira is so proud of her bed-making skills that she often wants to take a picture when she's done. :)

Another photo from my instagram challenge: favorite genre: YA sci-fi/fantasy, sock Sunday: I just need my feet warm, favorite trope: beauty and the beast, plotter/pantser/other: both, depending on whether I've written anything like it before.

The girls decided I needed a picture of them hugging at parent teacher conferences.

Friday afternoon, we drove down to St. George and stayed until Monday evening. We went to a number of parks, hiked in Snow Canyon on the Butterfly Trail (there's a rock that looks like butterfly wings), learned how to play pickle ball, played a number of board/group games, attended church twice, and ate a lot of good food. Joe and Cindy are so nice for always being willing to host us.

I loved their two geckos. They always peeked their heads out to see who was watching them.

When we got back Tuesday, I went up to BYU to get us tickets to Murder on the Orient Express at the dollar theater on campus. Since I was up there, Mira and Cecily wanted to come with and go bowling. I did pretty good!

I got to hang out with my friend Camber this week, Steve got to play LOTR with Ben, I took the girls to the library, went grocery shopping at Walmart and Costco in the same day (this may not sound that amazing, but it totally is), the girls had a sleepover at Camber's house, her daughter Cassie came and played at our house, Steve and I went on a date (to the movie I got tickets for), I exercised FIVE days this week (I think that's a record), I picked up my parents from their flight home, Steve and I both did some writing, and I played a lot of Ori and the Blind Forest--a video game that is totally addicting. It was busy, but it was a really good week. I think the exercise makes a huge difference in my emotional stability. I felt really mentally healthy this week and really the only difference was the five days of exercise. I'm excited for the week to come!

Introspection

Wilda asked Steve today how our week went and Steve immediately answered, "It was kind of a crappy week at our house, post-holiday." I'm not feeling so negative about it, but I know what he means.

Steve is struggling at work. Not *with* the work, but with feeling like he's needed. His team had slowly been breaking apart during the last part of the year and there are only a couple of people left with rumors that his team leader might bow out soon, too. He's never felt like his team does a job that no one else can do, and he's never felt like he's improving lives or even reaching the "end guy" even though he's on the communications team. So he's been very introspective all week (the whole manly mind cave sort of thing). He's got to figure out if he wants to stay with Oracle or move to a different company/career.

I've been suffering post-holidays depression because I ate far too much wheat and sugar and did far too little exercise for my body to not protest. Today it finally feels like all that is working its way out of my system and I'm coming out of the blahs. It helps that I ate fairly healthy and exercised as much as I could this week (which was still only 3 days, but it's way better than none). I've also been struggling to figure out what I want to do with myself. I've been getting a lot of joy out of creating things (bows and mermaids and hats and barbie clothes and notecards recently), but that's not something that I can really make money off of, and even if I could, I'd probably be making about $3 an hour. Plus, if I could get more efficient so I could make more money at doing crafts, the creativity would likely plummet, taking the joy out of it. So crafting is fun, but it doesn't provide much value for the family past saving a bit of money using a lot of my time. I've been writing for 9 years now and I enjoy that as well. But so far, I've earned exactly $50 and spent over $1000 (going to conferences, entering contests, etc.) so it's definitely not a lucrative hobby either. It pays even less than crafting! ;) And the more I do it, the less I'm sure that I'm up for the marketing aspect of being an author. So do I go back to teaching? Do I just craft and write for fun in my free time? Do I push away my fears and continue to try to publish? Do I risk having another baby at my age so I have something that demands my time again? (That makes parenthood sound lovely, doesn't it?) I've been trying to figure all that out this week, too.

So Steve and I have been complete joys to be around. *Not.*

The writing conference I go to every year is doing an instagram challenge this year. I've participated a couple of days:

Day 2 #storymakers18 #igchallenge : word for this year. I feel like the word "care" is going to play an important role in my life this year. I feel a push to care about and serve individuals I come in contact with this year. I want to make sure I make time to take care of myself. I need to figure out what exactly I care about so I can make and achieve goals that will bring satisfaction, joy, and a feeling of accomplishment to my life. I need to take care to balance my desires with those of my spouse and children. I may have taken this theme too far, but I don't care. Bahaha. I slay me.

Day 4 #storymakers18 #igchallenge : writing space. I use a laptop because my brain works best when I'm comfy. This is my usual spot, and my usual companion, but my bed, the benches at the kids' gymnastics place, the in-laws front room couch, or the splash pad, are not out of the running.

I just found this story Mira wrote. Translation below.

Page 1: The Book of Mermaid Diary. Hi I am Ella. Once I went to a party.

Page 2: And then I turned into a mermaid again. And then I went to the ocean and I was safe.

Page 3: I like to swim. I like a moon [?]. Like my story? YES / NO !

Page 4: I like you. The end.

Monday we just had a lazy day. I had doctor appointments on Tuesday and Thursday (naturopath to get some blood tests done to see if my supplements are working/needed, and my yearly checkup) and I had bloodwork done on Wednesday. The kids had gymnastics Wednesday. Friday, I went to the temple in the afternoon and Mira got the Stand Strong student award at school. Steve worked from home so he could go to the assembly. I always appreciate when her positive qualities get recognized by others. It makes it seem more real than when we or grandparents say it.

Steve and I are entering a video contest for the writing contest, too. I'm excited to show you the end result next week. Stay tuned!