Easter shenanigans

These are the bunnies that my mom made with the girls last week. Aren't they cute?

I enjoyed this week a lot.Monday for family home evening, we tried to continue with the Easter theme and had a little mishap.  I made (the real meaning of) Easter eggs a couple of years ago. There are a dozen eggs and each one has a little physical prompt and a scrap with a scripture on them. The scriptures show the story of Easter. So, the first one has a little fake palm leaf and you read the scripture about Christ entering Jerusalem. When I made them, the kids were bored almost immediately. But this year, Emilia was excited to look at them again, so we got them out for FHE. All was well until we got to #3--the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where I apparently left the unleaved bread in there for two years. Somehow, there were still live bugs eating it when she opened it and everything fell onto her lap. She screamed and flipped out and we had to get the vacuum out to vacuum everything twice and they still did not want to walk in the living room. I was afraid she and Mira would have nightmares, but they both said prayers before bed that they would be able to forget about the whole thing and it seems that their prayers were answered.

Monday and Tuesday were rainy and cold. Not fun to be outside in, but my hyacinths bloomed beautifully.

I made spaghetti Monday night. I almost never make spaghetti. It's just so boring. But I wanted leftover spaghetti noodles to try this recipe. And I'm glad I did. It was delicious. Leftover spaghetti noodles, two eggs, sage, salt & pepper, and some gruyère, fried in butter and topped with green onions.

We worked on the bathroom a lot this week. One night we taped everything. One day I wiped down all the walls. It took me two days to put four coats of polyurethane on the cabinet. Friday night I started painting. After doing all the corners and the ceiling, I realized I did not like the color at all. So Saturday I ran to Home Depot and got paint samples. After much discussion, we figured out a new color to try, but didn't have time to get more, so I'll have to do that this week. Our undermount sink hardware came this week, too, so as soon as I get the room painted, we'll be able to put everything together. Wahoo!

Friday night, a local store that Cecily adores was having a chili cookoff/ice carving/log chopping contest. I decided we should all go and check it out. It was cold and the chili samples were like 2 bites big, so it wasn't that fun for me. But the kids always enjoy the rocketship slide, so at least there was that.

Saturday, we went as a family to get summer clothes for the girls. I think I've said before how much less stressful it is for me if I bring Steve along so he can make decisions about what to get and what to leave. It wasn't that hard this time. Apparently March is too early to go shopping for summer clothes. There wasn't much to choose from. We got it done, though! Including new Easter dresses for the girls. I can check that one off my list. Yessss!

We also had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Grandma Watts was generous enough to provide tons of eggs and goodies for the kids to find. Plus, their cousins, the Nelson girls, are staying at Grandma and Grandpa's for the week, so the girls got to play with cousins, too. They were in heaven.

Then this morning, the girls had Easter baskets to find. My parents always hid our Easter baskets on Sunday morning and it was one of my favorite traditions. My parents were good at hiding them so it was a challenge to find them. I underestimated Mira. She found all three baskets in less than a minute. So I re-hid Emilia's before she got out of bed. It took her a little longer then. Cecily, for some reason, LOVES eggs. Eggs of all kinds. So Easter baskets and egg hunts were rather a dream come true for her. She needed me to take a picture of her this morning with her basket after she'd opened all of her eggs. :)

The girls in their Easter dresses.

A blur

This week was one of those weeks that everything seems like a blur because there was just so much of it. I volunteered at the school book fair twice this week, got my hair dyed again, went to parent-teacher conference, planned a birthday party for Mira, grocery shopped, exercised a few times, went to my mom's house so she could see the grandkids for a few hours, got my car fixed, brought a leprechaun to life, critiqued a sub from a writing friend, took Mira to a doctor appointment, attended a temple dedication, went to a birthday party for Steve's best friend, fitted the undermount sink in the girls' bathroom, watched the new Peanuts movie, wrote a couple thousand words in my book and two blog posts, and helped Emilia in her quest to learn to ride her bike.

If you want to read the blog posts, they are available here: http://scribblesanddabbles.blogspot.com/

I took exactly one picture and it was not related to any of this. It does illustrate how awesome my kids are, though. :)

Genius talker, developing singer, soon-to-be reader, a new job, and 'home' work.

I was sick again this week. I made it all winter being completely healthy and then February hit and I've been sick ever since. So silly. I'm glad I made it through winter, though. I'll take it.

Besides being sick on Wednesday and Thursday, I worked on our bathroom remodel. We want to update both upstairs bathrooms, but we decided to start with the girls' bathroom because it's also the one people who come over use, and because I already had all the decorations for it (that's probably not true--but I have a lot).

So I painted the cabinet this week and we removed the old countertop. I was able to find a used granite countertop on our local Craig's-List-type ads (KSL) that was the exact right size for our current vanity. It was cheaper than refinishing the countertop with one of those kits from Home Depot, plus it came with the sink and the faucet! I was super excited to find it. We'll have to do some work to get the new countertop on, but I think it will look great when we're done. I will definitely post before and after pictures.

I also had a breakthrough with my writing this week, remembered to take Mira to preschool on both Monday and Wednesday (miracle!), and was offered a job 'teaching' an after-school creative writing club at a local high school. One which I can bring my kids to and get paid well. I'm excited to start doing that in the next couple weeks.

Steve got to play LOTR card game, too, with my brother and another friend. He was sick one day, but apparently his was food poisoning, poor guy. He interviewed for a new position at work last week, but didn't hear back about it, so he's thinking he didn't get it. I don't think he was invested in this position, so I don't think he's too disappointed, but I think he'll keep looking. He's pretty bored at his current job and he's so smart, he definitely needs his work to be challenging in order to not hate it. That and he likes to feel like he's contributing to the big picture. In a company of over 100,000 employees, it's hard to see your contributions making a difference.

The kids are doing great, too. Cecily is becoming quite the singer. I'd post a video, but they don't work in the emails and nobody seems to be able to figure out how to get into the blog to look at them. :)

Cecily napping with Snoopy.

Mira is loving preschool. She's excited to tell me what she did every time I pick her up. I look forward to her learning to read next year. I've tried to teach her, but she doesn't have the patience to work with me every day, nor does she think I know what I'm talking about. So kindergarten it is. She will be a great reader and her highly active imagination will love it.

Mira picked out this outfit herself. Including the blue hairspray on her pigtails. She should be interesting as a teen.

Emilia has been in the 'special education' program at school since preschool when she tested as having a lot of Aspergers tendencies. Most of the things they/I worried about were social, but she has to have an academic subject she sees the special ed teachers for in order to stay in the program, so they choose to give her help in math since that was the subject she was least good at. This last week, though, the special ed teacher called me to tell me that Emilia is doing so well that she didn't think she needed services anymore. I had a couple meetings with them, they did a bunch of testing, and the school psychologist observed her. I had to fill out a behavioral questionnaire and so did the psychologist. And at the last meeting we went over everything. It seems at home, I see her having hyperactivity and anxiety issues, but she's handling them well at school, so they gave me some ideas to help her cope at home. The IQ testing they did knocked the socks off the school psychologist, though. In the language portion, Emilia scored a 146, which is genius-level (less than one percent of test takers score that high). Her overall IQ score was 126 which is still in the 'above average' range. So we were able to discuss how to keep her challenged in the coming years, so she doesn't get bored, or become afraid to face challenging things. Hopefully I'll be able to advocate for her and add to the education at home. The school staff seemed very willing to work with us, too. All of them seemed rather taken with her (I can see why). :)

Emilia got that die out of a vending machine yesterday, so she still thinks it's the best toy evah!

Shift in perspective

Have you ever had the experience where you know you are being blessed, that you have an easy life, that you're well taken care of, and that nothing is really going wrong, necessarily, but you just have a hard time feeling blessed and happy?

That was my week. I was cranky for no reason, I was disappointed about the smallest things. I wasn't uplifted by the sunshine and warm weather like I usually am.

I tried to pull myself out of it by telling myself that I have no reason to be sad or upset. My kids are healthy and beautiful and growing the way they should both physically and mentally. My husband is good to me, has steady work, and is a wonderful father. I get to stay home with my kids, have a flexible schedule, work on things I love, have money to decorate my house, and I have been blessed with so many talents and abilities. We have no shortage of food. We have a beautiful house in a safe neighborhood in a beautiful area of the world. My kids have good schools to go to. We have family nearby and we get along with them and support each other. I have friends who I love and I'm able to do fun things with them regularly. I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and a loving Heavenly Father and feel blessed by my membership in my church. And that's only a quick list. I have so much to be thankful for.

And yet thinking about all those things didn't help much. I realized that my depression meds are probably off and adjusted them. I realized, through a comment of a good friend, that I was focusing on the negative thoughts more than I was focusing on the positive. I'm trying to change that. I realized that there were some things that were disappointing me daily, so I adjusted my expectations. I realized that my kids are going through stages right now that would make anybody cranky and cut myself a little slack. And I did a lot of praying.

I'm feeling better today. Plus, attending church is uplifting (and gives me two whole hours away from my currently-difficult, though admittedly adorable kids). :)

Functioning under this emotion cloud was difficult, but I did function. I even had some fun.

One evening this week--Tuesday--I got to go out with my friend Gina. She treated me to Indian food at a hole-in-the-wall place up by where she lives. It was delicious. Curry and butter chicken and naan. Mmm . . . enough to make my mouth water just thinking about it. We got to talk for a good three hours about deep things and was a balm for both our souls, I think.

I got to take my kids to the park a couple times. Cecily would live at the park if the rest of us were inclined.

I redecorated my dresser. Again. I like how this iteration turned out, so I think I'm going to leave it. I need to get a saying printed to put in that big frame. I think I'm going to go with, "Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling."

I got to go to the temple, and mostly kept the house clean, and I got to bake cinnamon bread. (Four loaves! Two for us [they're almost gone] and two to give to the ladies I visit teach.)

I cleaned out the garage (mostly) (FINALLY). It feels so good to have a space decluttered, doesn't it? I love that feeling.

I went thrifting again because my mom asked me to find some cool stuff for her house after seeing my bedroom update last week. Here are some of the cool things I found this time.

And just for fun, here is a description of one of my mornings this week, to show you the craziness I deal with:

Mira is at a stage where she takes everything personally and gets upset about the stupidest things! Yesterday, she screamed for like five minutes straight because she couldn't follow our fingers to see the chickens that Emilia had seen through the car windows. Also, Cecily is at the stage where nothing she says makes sense and she doesn't understand simple questions. Like this morning, she kept pointing at the drawers in the kitchen saying, "I want that." And I kept saying, "Want what?" and she just kept repeating, "That!" until we were screaming at each other. So I told her, "If you could learn to communicate better, it would be really good." And her response was, "Yes, communicate. Want that. Communicate taste good." And instead of finding that funny I just wanted to scream and send her to her room. I finally figured out that she wanted the bread on top of the counter (which wasn't very close to the drawers she was pointing at, nor is it something she will usually eat for breakfast), but by that time I was so frustrated, my mood was entirely ruined. There was also the three girls who couldn't sit still long enough to listen to/read FIVE verses of scripture this morning. During those five verses, Cecily screamed at least three times, went to find her blankie, and climbed over three people, smashing my chest in the process, in order to lay still for about five seconds. Emilia decided to play with Mira's nose, who giggled and then screamed for her to stop it. We told Emilia to get her shoes on, which she ignored and started playing with her sisters. And then when I reminded her that she HAD to get her shoes on or she would be late, Mira and Cecily decided to keep her from leaving them by dragging on her arms until Emilia and I were both screaming at them to let go. Cecily decided to change her tugging and begging to Steve who was trying to get his lunch ready so he could take Emilia to school. That was all before 8:20 this morning. It's no wonder I feel like I'm crazy. It's not me. It's them.

Steve and Emilia and Mira got to do something fun on Saturday that I didn't do. Grandma and Grandpa Watts took them and Jane, Meg, and Kate to Disney on Ice. I stayed home with Cecily, because I knew her attention span would quit about half-way through and I would be more relaxed here at home. Steve says they all enjoyed it. (He's a guy, so I didn't get much more than that.)

In parting, I leave you with some pictures of Mira. I put her hair in pigtails one day. The next morning, she took the ponytail holders out, but her hair stayed. I woke up to her asking, "Mom--do I look like a cute elf?" I think she looks like the cutest elf around. :)

Updating

This week dragged SO much. I decided to update my bedroom on Monday and dragged a bunch of decorations up from the garage so I could try new configurations. I shopped like every day this week. THREE times at Walmart. Ugh. I also went to DI and another thrift store just up the road from here. Thursday morning, I tore the whole room apart--took everything off the bed and all the dressers and took down the stuff on the walls. I spray painted picture frames and more picture frames and MORE picture frames. I cut my hand three times on the stupid glass that didn't want to go in and out of one of the frames. And then on Friday, when I was putting the final touches on the room and getting ready to hang things, I broke that glass putting the back on the frame. I was boiling mad. Now that stupid frame is sitting on the dresser anyway, no glass whatsoever.

By the end of the week, I was just so fed up with having a mess that I thought I might strangle anyone who got in the way of me finishing. My kids got to entertain themselves that day. :) But I like how it turned out! All of the large framed pictures were done by my kids. Emilia's and Mira's were finished by me, because like I said, I wasn't waiting around for anything. That room was going to be done by Friday night or bad things were going to go down. They had drawn the outlines of what they wanted and I filled in anything they hadn't already painted. (Mira was SO mad. She screamed at me for ten minutes about how I'd ruined her picture. Though it was dinner time, so part of that was her hangry speaking. I like how it turned out. Hers is on the left above --that's the one without the glass-- and Emilia's is on the right.)

I found the duck bookends, the brass cans, and the white owl at the thrift store.
It's so exciting to find good stuff for cheap.

We're trying to update our bathrooms, too, so Saturday was spent sanding the cabinet in the girls' bathroom. It was way harder than I thought it would be to get the old varnish off. I thought I got it all, but apparently I didn't, because when I then started staining the doors, there were weird whitish patches all over the place. We may have to paint it instead.

It's been super super warm this week. Friday it was 53 degrees on the way to pick Emilia up from school. The sun's been shining and it's felt like spring. It's lovely--brings little flutters of happiness to my heart. I even saw some of my bulbs pushing up through the bark yesterday. This means the kids were able to play outside with friends this week, which is a welcome break, too.

Last night Steve and I were able to go on a date. We had fun eating pizza at Malawi's, shopping for new jeans for Steve and Dillards, and trying four flavors of specialty soda at Pop 'n Sweets. Our favorite was Swamp Pop brand Praline Cream Soda. I'm glad I don't live close to Pop 'n Sweets or it might become an obsession to try as many flavors as possible.

(Some pictures of the kids entertaining themselves)

Cecily did that puzzle all by herself. Her puzzle skills amaze me.

Mira in a princess outfit five sizes too big.

She dressed up Cecily, too.

Everybody building Legos.

We're done with it! Wahoo!

Last weekend, with everybody being sick for so long, was a hard weekend. The kids had Monday off school and we did a bunch of running around. Then Steve came home from work saying he didn't feel so great. So when Monday night rolled around, I was not up for have a meaningful and well-prepared Family Home Evening. So we watched a movie. Popped popcorn and everything. We ended up renting Kung-Fu Panda 2, because we had never seen it, and we want to go see the third one that's out in theaters. (It's gotten great reviews.) I'm not sure why we hadn't seen Kung-Fu Panda 2 before. The kids love the first one and have watched ALL the shorts a billion time son Netflix. It was a good movie. Much better than the new Annie that we watched last month.

Mira and Steve both ended up throwing up Tuesday morning, so we hung out at home and the kids watched a bunch of television and I worked on my writing. It was nice to feel like I caught up somewhat. Right now I'm trying to revise the book I just finished a first draft of in December, plus I'm starting a new book. Since my writing group broke up, I've been trying to get new critique partners, and that's been lots of work and an emotional drain. A routine might be right around the corner, but I'm not quite there yet, so it takes a lot of emotional energy to think about who is getting what when or whether I'm hurting the feelings of a new partner with my critiques, etc. So an entire morning to get through some of my writing and to look through some other peoples' writing was really nice.

I always take the girls to a friend's house on Thursdays for a few hours. She watches them and, generally, I write. I pay her back by making dinners or watching her kids or helping her kids with stuff. This week, her oldest (who is in college) came over for four hours and I helped her figure out Photoshop and Illustrator for one of the classes she's taking. It was fun to help someone else with my talents.

My parents came down Friday and stayed for the day, just to hang out and be with their grandkids. And they could because everybody was done being sick! Yea! My kids love Nana and Grandpa bunches (only slightly more than they love their electronic devices). :)

This one is hard to see, but it's Emilia sleeping. She looks just like she did when she was 2. Melted my Momma heart.

We also had the pleasure of being invited to one of Steve's friend's houses for dinner on Saturday night. We often invite people over for dinner or games or dessert or all three. But we rarely get those invitations returned. It was super nice to go and have yummy food and good company.

And today, we drove up to my parents house to have a family dinner to celebrate Ben's birthday. Now the kids are all in bed and I get to sit down and write. I'm excited. *rubs hands together*

I love that my kids are friends.

It makes me happy that my girls are friends. I hope I can teach them to serve and respect and love each other their whole lives.

Mira often pretends to read books. Here she is, pretending to read one to Cecily. Melts my heart.

On Monday, the local library had a family Valentine's dance. It was a lot of fun. They had live bands and a photo booth, and heart-shaped sugar cookies. We danced 'til the girls dropped.

On Tuesday, I got a new computer. Because tax returns. And because broken DVD player on the old one. Mira found it fascinating to look at herself in the non-fingerprinted screen.

She's a ham. Loves attention. Loves to make people laugh. Loves getting her picture taken or making a video of herself.

She got a haircut on Wednesday. I love it.

The stomach bug cycled through the family this week, which was surprisingly mild. But it kept us at home most of the week anyway. I did have my friend, Anessa, over on Tuesday night. We cut out felt hearts for Valentine's decorations, and watched a movie.

Friday, I finished the decorations with the help of the kids, and Sunday, they got some dollar store treats for the big day o' love.