Last week was an "I'm struggling with the motivation part of depression" sort of week. I've been sick off and on for a good month and a half now and whenever my body needs nutrients to keep my body healthy, my mind doesn't get the nutrients it needs to be healthy, and my depression rears its ugly head. It hasn't been terrible. Just sorta iffy. Iffy mental health, iffy physical health = iffy housecleaning and other responsible adulting. I didn't even really take pictures, so it must have been iffy. :)

This picture was taken to document something humorous Cecily said.

Here's the story as I put it on Instagram:
Yesterday afternoon I picked up Cecily from a friend who had been babysitting her. As we left, Cecily waved and yelled, "Bye, I love you!" and happily skipped to the car. After we picked up her sisters from school, we stopped at Home Depot to get some wire for a craft project. The guy helping us reminded me of my dad and he asked the girls grandfatherly questions as he worked. As we walked away, he waved and warmly said, "Bye!" Cecily enthusiastically waved back and said, "Bye, I love you!" But instead of skipping away happily, she made this face, totally embarrassed, and said, "I just said I love you to a man I don't know!"

She also desperately wanted a picture with her fake keys. Because she's Cecily.

This picture was taken to commemorate a trip to Nickel City with the girls and the two younger Stratton cousins. We were going to send one of the girls to the BYU football game with the Strattons earlier in the day (because they had an extra ticket), but then two of them wanted to go, and then both of them said they'd prefer to go to Nickel City instead when I offered it as an alternative to the one who didn't get to go to the game.

This is Emilia's water cycle project. The red ball is the sun. The black cloud thing is precipitation. The white clouds are condensation. and at the bottom are piles of snow and a streak of water that are the accumulation. I thought it was clever that she wrote the word "accumulation" with pipe cleaners on top of the snow. She learned a song that goes with it that she sung over and over and over and it got stuck in everyone's head. Evaporation, and condensation, ... Great, now I'm going to have it stuck in my head again.

This week was Thanksgiving of course. We were busy every single day prepping for our very first Thanksgiving meal that we prepared by ourselves, eating and cleaning up after said meal, playing games with family members, making gingerbread houses, getting a Watts family picture with all 26 Wattses, cleaning out my parents' house and moving stuff into their new house in Spanish Fork, and being sick (with a not-fun head cold). The girls LOVED playing with cousins all weekend since all of Steve's sisters were in town.

And one more funny Cecily story copied from Instagram:
Despite her mischievousness (like cutting off the hair of 4 of her *sister's* Barbies on a whim the other day), this one is also often my best and most willing helper. She made her bed this morning just because she thought it should be made (I don't require bed making on Sundays). She also cracks me up every day. Today while making her bed she told me, "This is my version--Michael and Maya sitting in a tree, one fell off and broke their crown, Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, no more girls falling on broken trees."

Now I'm pooped and I'm headed to bed early. Have a great week!

Boys happened

Emilia had an appointment with an orthopedic pediatric specialist on Monday because the regular doctor was unsure if the break would affect her growth plate. Fortunately, the orthopedic surgeon said the break touched the growth plate, but didn't cut across it, so he doesn't expect any problems. He also said both fractures were pretty small, so she only has to wear the cast for 3 weeks before they cut it off and re-x-ray it. If it looks good at that point, she won't have to have another cast. Three weeks is way better than I thought it would be. And I was so glad she didn't have to get it above her elbow and she has use of her fingers. She was excited about that, too.

It was funny, when the nurse came in to get the appointment started, she asked, "How'd you break it? Did you fall? What happened?" And Emilia's response was, "Boys happened." The tech laughed so hard and then responded. "Boys happened. That's the best response ever. I should have that tattooed on my forehead." Lol.

Tuesday I helped Julia for a couple of hours, ran to the store, got a haircut, had a counseling appointment, and then was totally peopled out for the day and made Steve put the kids to bed so I could decompress. After the kid craziness was out for the night, I listened to a book while I folded clothes.

Wednesday, Cecily had tumbling and Thursday, Mira had gymnastics. I only moved Cecily's to Wednesdays because I had a friend in my ward whose girls were going Thursdays at the same time as Mira. She was willing to drive Mira, so I would only have to go once a week still. But then, two weeks after this arrangement started, the friend moved her girls to a different day. Ugh. So now I'm driving there twice a week and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep it up very long. It's hard on me and the girls.

But other than those two things, we didn't have anything on the schedule. But somehow the week seemed incredibly long. I guess I did decide to clean out the garden that morning. And that turned into me winterizing all the planting beds, too. It took me a few hours. Then I had a presidency meeting that went for a couple of hours. So in between the yard work and the meeting, I had to do a bunch of shopping in order to get the items we were thinking about using for our yearly ward Christmas party service project. This year we're sending supplies to the family of a lady who's from Puerto Rico, so I had to figure out which supplies would fit in a priority mail box and not be too heavy.

The garden after I cleaned it out.

A praying friend I found and moved.

My totally adorable shopping partner.

Thursday Mira stayed home sick with a sore throat and then was fine like an hour later. So I took her and Cecily to a park for a picnic lunch since it was supposed to be the last really warm day of the year. We stayed for a couple hours and the girls had a blast. We gathered horse chestnuts for decorating while we were there, too. That evening I came down with a fever again, but I had to take Mira to gymnastics and Steve had game night, so we had McDonald's for dinner and the girls played video games until bed time.

Before we went to the park, Mira was making "blind bags" for Cecily to open. They are so creative.

Friday I had to go to a training meeting in Salt Lake. I found out that Utah has a free online preschool and I found out there was an opening for her at the beginning of last week. But I had to attend a training meeting in order to qualify, so I took Cecily up to hang out with my mom while I went to the meeting. It seems like a pretty cool deal. Kids who have used the program in the past (it's required they use it 15 minutes a day 5 days a week if you sign up), end up at a 1st grade reading level. I don't care if Cecily can read early, but she seems interested in letters and sounds, and she LOVES screen time, so I thought this would be a great fit for her. They also offer optional math and science readiness through the program, so it will be interesting to see if she chooses to do that part of it, too.

Yesterday Steve and I did a lot of writing. Steve is doing National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, which is a contest to see if you can write 50,000 words in 1 month. For reference, one double-spaced page in microsoft word is about 250 words and to accomplish the goal, you have to write 1667 each day of November. He's doing great and is even a little ahead. He's writing a literary novel about the South. I'm writing a short story for an anthology submission call. It's a sci-fi version of Little Red Riding Hood. Steve also helped a friend move for a good 6 hours. He's a good guy like that. :)

I found Mira asleep in this totally uncomfortable position before going to bed last night. I chuckled over that for a while. :)

Today was a good day filled with food and family and friends and games. We are so lucky that Nick and Wilda are willing to feed us each Sunday and that our kids can hang out with their grandparents from both sides so regularly. What a blessing in their lives!

Was Halloween this week?

It was another crazy busy week. I don't remember much about Monday because it feels like it was three weeks ago. I know I painted my nails and Cecily's nails. I really love how they turned out. I also know I did our laundry. I helped Emilia and Mira with the art they were going to enter in the Springville Museum of Art Children's Art Competition.

Tuesday was Halloween and I still went and helped Julia. It was a terrible idea. I was so crunched for time. But she needs so much help that I feel like I'm abandoning her if I don't go. Then I had to go home and get a costume on me and Cecily and head to Emilia's Halloween party at school. I had two relay games for the kids to do.

After the class party, me and Ces went to the gym to watch the costume parade.

Emilia is the teal mermaid near the front.

After school, Emilia and Mira went to set up for their performance. For weeks before Halloween, these 4 girls made up a song, a dance, practiced it, and made invitations which they delivered to the entire neighborhood. If you want to see a video of the performance, you can view it here.

That night, we went trick-or-treating around Grandma and Grandpa's house. They each got a haul. Again.

This is Cecily being her funny self.  Her words:
Cecily: My brain is fighting, Mom.
Me: Your brain is fighting? What is it fighting?
Cecily: Nooo. There's two people in my brain and they're fighting each other about my necklace.
Me: There are two people in your brain?
Cecily: Yes. They are twins and their names are Percy and Violet.

I waited five minutes and asked her for their names again and she said the same ones. She knows her brain well!. :)

In this one, she's wearing two skirts, a pair of capris, black socks with pink and blue shoes on the wrong feet, an owl shirt, and heart sunglasses. And when we went into the bathroom at the hospital that day, she declared, "It smells like pumpkin pie with cherries inside in here!" If only I had so much flare.

Emilia broke her arm. Some boys at school didn't know when to quit and sent her flying. Broke both bones in her lower arm, but fortunately, not badly. More info on that next week.

The sky matched my mood one morning. Of course I had to document it.

Mira got her nails painted, too. And a collage, because she asked for one. I guess collages mean something is awesome.

Steve and I went on a very short date that included sushi from the grocery store and a view of the valley.

This is every stuffed animal we own sitting in stuffed animal church. It lasted at least an hour, so I'd say my kids got the church thing down. :)

Pre-Halloween insanity

This week felt like crazy sauce.

Monday, Steve celebrated his 42nd birthday. Cecily and I went to have lunch with him at his work, and then I had to turn around and run home because Mira was having a friend come home with us for a play date after school. Then I had to feed the kids before heading up to Orem to have FHE with Great Grandma Watts at 6pm. After FHE, we took Steve out for treat at a place called The Chocolate in Orem. We were underwhelmed even though they have amazing reviews on Google and they had two gluten-free selections for me.

I helped Julia for a while on Tuesday, then I volunteered at the school's book fair for an hour and a half, then I had to finish up the last touches on Halloween costumes because we had a ward Trunk-or-Treat on Wednesday. Before the Trunk-or-Treat, I had visiting teaching and Cecily had tumbling, plus I signed up to bring a dessert to the Chili Cook-off that they host right after.

Thursday, I signed up to bring soup for the teachers dinner during SEP (Student/Educator/Parent, I think) conferences. So since I was making soup for that, I decided to make extra for our family to eat that night too. I had a two-hour lunch with another lady I visit teach. Then I had to pick up kids, take Mira to a lady who said she'd take her to gymnastics, take the soup to the school and attend two teacher conferences, then head home to get Emilia ready for her Daddy Daughter Halloween Dinner Date and Dance for activity days. She and Steve had a ton of fun. But it wasn't until they were leaving that I realized that I'd made a ton of soup for me, Mira, and Cecily. *le sigh* Then I had to go pick up my pot from the school at 7 and I had at least as much of that left as I had at home. So we have a ton of leftover soup in our fridge that no one wants to eat because the noodles got soggy.

Friday, my visiting teachers were coming over. One of them asked if I would give her a tour of my house and show her all the things I'd repurposed, made, or found for almost nothing, so then I felt this driving need to CLEAN EVERYTHING. But at least by 2pm, my house was spotless. Emilia and Mira had another play date at a friend's house after school, so I took Cecily to feed the ducks and run around at the park for an hour and a half. I sure love hanging out with that kid. She makes being a mom fun. Then Steve took me on a date that night and actually went shopping with me. We were going to see a movie, but Steve always gets home like a 1/2 hour too late to make it to the early show and we're too cheap to pay for a movie and a babysitter for 5 hours (because we leave at 6:30 and if we go to a late show, we'd be out until 11:30). So we ended up watching Hidden Figures from Redbox after we got home. It was definitely an eye opening film. What amazing women!

Saturday, we had my family over for dinner, cleaned bathrooms and went and picked up Mira's glasses. Not in that order. Mira likes her glasses about as well as you might like stepping in dog poo and then walking around with it all day long. She makes that dog poo face the entire time she wears them anyway.  And I just realized I have not taken her picture. I need to do that. Steve got an expansion for his favorite game, Splendor that night, since we were celebrating his birthday with my family. He finally got to try it out tonight. We were invited to dinner with some ward friends, and then different ward friends came over after we got home to play the expansion with him. Phew! No wonder I'm exhausted. Kinda like Mystery:

These are from the duck pond park date with Cecily:

Catch-up after being sick

So last Sunday I told you we had people over for dinner and that it was delicious. What I didn't say was that the previous night I had felt a little nauseated, but by Sunday night was hungry and didn't feel any of that wooziness, so I ate my dinner. Well, about 2.5 hours after dinner, the wooziness came back. I felt bad that we'd had people over if I was sick, but I'd really thought I was fine. That night I was incredibly nauseated and didn't sleep much because of it. Steve stayed home from work Monday so I could rest, which was a huge boon. He even went grocery shopping! Tuesday, I still was sick, but I didn't want to keep him home again, so Cecily and I just had a quiet day together and the girls played by themselves after school. Wednesday, I was finally feeling like I was on the mend (four days later!), so we ran some errands and cleaned up the mess that 3 days of mom not feeling well will cause.

The rest of the week was pretty packed, but each day was good in its own way. I got to have a girls night with my friend, Camber on Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday were fall break for the kids, so they played with friends in the morning and Mira had an eye appointment in the afternoon. She will be the newest glasses-wearing member of our family as soon as they come in. I feel for her because she's scared to be a "glasses girl." So grandparents and anyone else sympathetic to her plight, if you'll pray for her I would appreciate it. I'm not sure how to make her feel better. The optometrist says that it's just an astigmatism (and not nearsightedness), but if she doesn't wear the glasses it will get worse faster. After the appointment, we picked up Camber's daughter, Cassie, for a sleepover, and Steve had D&D that night. Friday, we played in the morning, had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and then after lunch, took Cassie home on our way to my parents' house. My mom had lots of fun activities planned for us.  Blinking monster eyes out of paper, cookie and kiss witch's hats, and we each got our own haunted house to decorate. I loved seeing how each of my girls made their house unique and creative. Saturday, Joe and Cindy and their kids came up to go to the tour of the Biblical Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant at BYU and to celebrate Steve's birthday. We played a lot of games and were taken out for dinner by Nick and Wilda. It was a fun day and we always love seeing cousins. Today, Steve and I were wiped out and so, after church, had a play computer games with the kids sort of night.

Mira and Emilia like dressing Cecily up. I love that they covered her entire head in bows for this outfit. I think she was the Queen of Cecilyland in this particular instance.

Playing with the pieces from Cootie...
Me: She looks like a cowgirl. Is she?
Cecily: Yeah. But she wears skates, cuz she likes to skate everywhere.
Me: Oh, okay.
Cecily: And she not from a farm. She's from a dance party.
. . .
Cecily: Now I'm making her dad. He has hands so he can grab things.
Me: Is he wearing a bow?
Cecily: (without any hint of humor) Yes.

While we were running errands, I took Cecily to a new donut place in Spanish Fork. I didn't have one, but she scarfed hers down, so I'll say it gets a thumbs up.

Cecily was very proud of this lego creation.

Our haunted houses from visiting Nana:

Cecily's:

Mine:

Emilia's:

Mira's:

From the Biblical Tabernacle tour:

Remember the b&w photo challenge I told you about? These are all photos I considered, but ended up not using:

These are the ones I picked to use:

And remember the leaf photos I told you about? Well here they are. I'm not sure what to do with them, but I think they turned out about how I wanted them to. A lot of these are Mira's designs. I am so impressed with her eye for composition. The ones that are her designs, I marked at the bottom.

The ones after this were all Mira's. She put the leaves where she wanted them and I took the picture.

Do you have any favorites? Any ideas what to do with them?