April 14, 2019

Spring is here!  That means our weeknights are now filled with tennis, soccer, piano, mutual, activity days, etc.  Spring and Fall are so busy! Last week Emmie had a soccer game and Owen had a Jazz Band concert on the same night.  John spent the night in the rain with a sad little girl who took her turn playing goalie against her teams toughest competitor and ended up letting in 4 goals.  While Emmie is a phenomenal offensive player,  she lacks good defensive instinct.  They lost the game 4-2 and she was so sad.  Luckily she is a ie year old and bounces back quickly from upset. She was happy to be at practice the next night and also had an amazing game on Saturday.  I spent that evening with Owen and got to listen to some smooth jazz.  For a 7-8th grade band they actually sounded amazing!

Owen tried out for the tennis team again this year.  He made the A team!  This year he has moved up from doubles alternate to second doubles.  He plays it cool but I think he’s excited.  He was also selected to join the national junior honor society.  His induction ceremony will be next month.  That boy is really going places.

We spent last weekend in front of the TV watching general conference. I really enjoyed conference this year. Not only were the traditional cinnamon rolls on point, but the lazy Sunday was just what I needed.  Saturday was busy and we listened a lot while we worked, but on Sunday I slept in until 7:00, relaxed and listened all day, and my parents made us a fabulous dinner.  It was perfect.

Owen spent the Saturday of conference in his room having an “Ann Frank” experience for his history class.  He had to spend 8 hours in his room and not talk to anyone.  He couldn’t have devices and could only come out to go to the bathroom.  We slipped in food and checked on him periodically.  And we made him start his time over when he checked on him on hour 2 and he was being dishonest and was playing a game on a sneaked in phone. So technically Owen spent 10 hours in his room and hopefully learned a lesson in honesty.

For me the main take-always from conference were that I need to be more determined to make our family study lessons engaging and educational. I feel like right now we are going through the motions but not really putting much effort in.  We need to up our game. The message I kept hearing was that now is the time to study and learn and teach in our homes, while simultaneously simplifying where we can in our lives. I also felt an urgent need to increase my own knowledge.  The talks that meant the most to me were Sis. Eubanks, Elder Bednar, elder Ballard, and Elder Holland. President Nelson’s talk made me wonder if I should send it to Kortney.  I feel like it was directed toward her. There were also several messages about missionary work.  Missionary work is something that I struggle with.  It is uncomfortable for me.  So I think to begin with I’m going to be less afraid to talk about church at work.

The most immediate lesson I learned from conference was from Sister Eubank.  I’ve really enjoyed her talks in the past but her talk on Sunday morning was one that calmed me and helped me feel peace. I’m embarrassed to admit this because it seems stupid and silly in some ways, but I had an experience where a friend did something that really hurt my feelings.  I won’t go into details but I felt sad, and mad, and lonely all at the same time.  This happened right before the start of the Sunday morning session.  I loved listening to Sis. Eubanks talk and was reminded of the peace that we will always feel when we are listening to others teach and testify of Christ.  My plan is to go back and listen to talks that I loved, and also some of the talks that I missed.  And then of course to try a little more fully to be a little better in the ways I was prompted.
Emmie has recently been trying to read at least  300 minutes a week.  It’s doable…but sometimes tricky when there’s so much going on after school! She told me they get a prize if they read that many minutes and that there is a reading competition going on at her school.  If there’s one thing I can say about Emmie, it’s that she is a fierce competitor.  She has made sure to get her reading minutes in, even if she has to try to read while eating, walking, and brushing her teeth.

Yesterday John and Owen joined the scouts on a 10 mile hike/walk.  So the girls and I drove downtown and hiked table rock.  We’ve heard that this years trek will be a little more rigorous than the last and that people need to make sure they’re in shape.  So that’s what we’re doing.  I’m mostly concerned with everyone breaking in their shoes.  So I foresee a lot of hikes and walks in the near future.  We’ve got just under 2 months to get ready!  Clearly I need to start thinking about it…we’ve got a lot of gear to gather, work to do, and plans to make.

March 2019

I’m feeling behind in my writing!  I need to try harder to write weekly so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming!  The beginning of this month I finished up the used book drive I was in charge of at work.  We ended up collecting over 3,500 books and raised close to $1,000.  During the chaos of the book drive and everything else that makes me busy, I had a moment of crazy.  I applied for another job at the school district.  I didn’t really want the job, but the hours were appealing.  Still 15 hours a week but crammed into two days instead of five.  This pushed me to talk to my boss about my hours.  I feel like 15 hours a week should be doable.  But with my kids’ schedules it just feels like I don’t have time to get anything done.  Luckily I work with great women.  My new schedule will be 3 days a week, 5 hours a day.  I will still be able to get Emmie off to school and be home before anyone gets home.  But I’ll have 2 days a week to get things done at home, clean for my mom, or work on instrument repair.  I’ve only actually worked this schedule for one week because of spring break, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be life changing!

The week before spring break Ains and Emmie had a piano recital.  The kids were all encouraged to memorize their songs and play without music.  Ainsley had a hard song and this was stressing her out.  She was still struggling with a couple of parts and had a nervous break down an hour before the recital.  I think she didn’t want to feel like she had let everyone down.  But what she failed to understand is that no one would feel let down if she used her music.  In the end both girls were amazing. Ainsley took her music up with her but didn’t use it until the parts she struggled with.  When she sat down after playing she told me that she had drawn a blank half way through and couldn’t find her place in her music so she was just making things up!  And I’m pretty sure only her teacher and herself even noticed.

My friend Natalie had some free ski passes to Tamarack.  Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for us, she wasn’t able to use them.  She was kind and offered them to us! So we got a free day of skiing on a new mountain.  We got up early on the Saturday before spring break, loaded the kids and gear in the car, picked up some breakfast burritos, and started the two hour drive toward Cascade.  John and I have never been to Tamarack before, so we were relying on our GPS.  In an attempt to be prepared I had called the resort earlier in the week and the woman I spoke with on the phone reassured me that the roads were clear and we would easily get there in our van.  Sadly, our GPS chose “the road less traveled” to get us there! It was horrible!  We turned off of a clear highway onto a dirt road.  Well, technically the road was sometimes dirt, sometimes paved, sometimes sheets of snow and ice, sometimes full of horrifyingly deep ruts of snow, and always FULL of the biggest potholes you have ever seen!  So many potholes you couldn’t even dodge them! It was the worst road I’ve driven on in my life.  And we were in our van.  We saw 2-3 trucks during the hour we spent on that terrifying road.  My stomach was literally in knots and I was worried we weren’t going to make it.  I couldn’t figure out how the Tamarack lady thought these were clear roads!  Eventually we did make it.  And I’m sure we did permanent damage to the van that we have yet to discover.  We learned upon arriving that the road we took is a nightmare year round.  And that if you stay on the highway there are clear paved roads the whole time.  Needless to say our ride home was a breeze!  Once we finally got to the resort we had a nice day skiing.  It was really warm and the snow was a little slushy. Strangely John and Ainsley were the ones to ski the longest. By the end of the day we had explored a lot of the mountain and found a couple of favorite runs. The mountain closed at 4:00, but we were tired and done for the day at 3:30.  It was a nice little getaway and a good end to ski season!

I still can't get over those amazing views!

This month we also celebrated John’s birthday.  We got to celebrate with his parents this year since they were in town watching Dan and Paige’s kids.  It was nice to have them over. We celebrated by taking the kids to one of our family favorites, Red Pavilion, for dinner.  Then both of our parents came over that night for presents and cake and ice cream. It was a pretty low-key celebration.

The day after John’s birthday we packed up the car and headed to Salt Lake.  We hadn’t been in nearly a year and John’s mom is having a hip replacement in a few weeks  so we thought it would be nice to visit for a couple of days. On our way there we drove into Burley and ate dinner at the Taco Bandito.  I remember eating there as a kid.  It was a fun little jaunt down memory lane as we were able to drive past the Welch Music store and my elementary school (Dworshak) on our way to dinner.

While in Salt Lake we didn’t do much.  Saturday we took the kids to temple square with Steph and her kids.  We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday just hanging out at John’s parents.  It was nice to visit and relax a bit.  We also got a call from Brother Tingy (a member of our old stake presidency) that Sunday.  He called and asked John and I if we would be willing to he trek parents again this year.  I’m assuming they had more kids sign up for trek than they anticipated and most likely had couples called that had to cancel.  We were a logical choice since we’ve done it before.  I think it will be a great experience.  We will be trekking in a new location and will have two of our kids there with us. Poor Emmie will he home alone.  I'm glad we’ll be able to go, but honestly we’ve been so busy I haven’t really even had time to think about it.

On Monday morning we packed up the car and stopped by IKEA on our way back to Meridian.  Somehow we spent over $500 while we were there.  We have issues.  Actually, most of that was some new book shelves for our front room for John’s birthday.  We kind of bought them on a whim.  But due to the fact that John is a book hoarder they were practically a necessity  (Sometimes I get tired of storing books…but I suppose there are worse things!). Due to the fact that we weren't really planning on bringing home two big book shelves from Salt Lake we hadn't really planned for the extra space. After unpacking and repacking the van very strategically we BARELY fit our family and all of our stuff.  It was a squishy ride home.

I have been dreaming of "Marie Kondo-ing" our house since watching Tidying Up on Netflix a few months ago. I decided that Spring Break would be the best time to make my dream a reality.  The day after we got home from Salt Lake, with surprisingly little whining, the kids and I attacked the house. We all spent the next few days getting rid of junk. We have completely cleaned out almost the entire house! We've filled bags and bags for DI and the garbage.  It feels amazing. Look at those organized drawers!

Only my bedroom and closet remain.  John and I hope to tackle that this weekend. Sadly my organized feeling was short lived. The new shelves we purchased turned into a decision to completely redo our front room.  So the second half of our Spring Break was spent painting.  I pulled our desk outside and sanded it down.  Repainted and stained the desk.  I repainted and recovered our desk chair.  I still need to make some floating shelves, paint a side table, and paint some frames for some sheet music to go above our piano.  It will look awesome when it’s done!  Hopefully we’ll finish up all of our projects this week and I’ll have a de-junked house and a beautiful new office/piano room. Fingers crossed!

My poor kids had a fairly boring Spring Break.  A true first world problem I suppose.  One day after getting my daily painting done I took Owen and Emmie to the park to fly kites.  If you look closely you can spot Owen and Emmie and their kites in the pictures below.

Ainsley was a little social and got together with her friends a couple of times.  And Owen was able to get together with friends once or twice.  But mostly we were home working.  Which is okay.  Because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Just for fun...

John and I went to dinner one night and got a million calls and texts from the kids.  Apparently too much time at home also causes sibling fighting at my house.

We also got family pictures taken recently.  I still don't have any copies back.  But here is a preview....

And last but not least…a quote. “I’m full handed”. —Emmie anytime her hands are full and she doesn’t want to carry anything else.