Bookclub--June Edition

We didn't get together during May because Collette and Amy had both had surgeries, Michelle was in Paris and we were all crazy busy with the end of the school year.

Collette had this delightful bowl of cherries to keep us occupied while we waited for everyone to arrive.

We all brought our dinner (Kneaders for me and Michelle this time).

Michelle gave us these darling gift bags she bought at a flea market in Paris full of goodies.

 Inside the bags were a notebook, a magnet, a huge Roche truffle and a roll of Washi tape. 

Since we were also celebrating Jana's birthday (which was back in May) she had requested something CHOCOLATE for dessert. Michelle made a very rich, brownie pudding dessert with whipped cream which was scrumptious.

 Collette showed us the book of Women's Conference talks she's in, very exciting!

 We gave Jana a $100 gift card for IKEA.

I've totally slacked on making us take self-portraits so we did one this time, but sadly it was at the end of the night (11:30pm) so we were all weary.

12 on the 12th--Year in Review

I can't believe another year has gone by already; the days are slow but the years are fast for sure. I love documenting the year this way! Amy M. (who coordinates 12 on the 12th) has started a Facebook group for anyone who wants to participate (so you don't have to have a blog or anything). Go here if you want to join.

Saturday January 12, 2013

Tuesday February 12, 2013

Tuesday March 12, 2013

Friday April 12, 2013

Sunday May 12, 2013

Wednesday June 12, 2013

Friday July 12, 2013

 Monday August 12, 2013

Thursday September 12, 2013

Saturday October 12, 2013

Tuesday November 12, 2013

Thursday December 12, 2013

Are you going to participate?

12 on the 12th--2012 in Review

Ahhh it's time for another 12 on the 12th year in review, I love these!! I can't properly explain the giddiness I feel as I look at these grids. They are such an accurate representation of our family's daily life and such a fun way to capture the random details. I sometimes feel like I should have grander plans when I find myself documenting the 12th in a similar way to the month before, but really we are creatures of habit with small fluctuations in-between and when I see these pictures I feel fondness for these days even though they weren't super exciting or grand.

Thursday January 12, 2012

Sunday February 12, 2012

Monday March 12, 2012

 Thursday April 12, 2012

Saturday May 12, 2012

Tuesday June 12, 2012

 

Thursday July 12, 2012

Sunday August 12, 2012

 Wednesday September 12, 2012

 Friday October 12, 2012

Monday November 12, 2012

Wednesday December 12, 2012

Scenes from Today

I had Parent/Teacher Conferences at Whitney's school this afternoon and wanted to bring something to her teacher and the two front office secretaries. This time I emailed them all the day before to see what their favorite things are (it's hard to guess for people you don't know well), so I ended up giving a cute jar with M&Ms in it to the secretaries and a box of Mini Triscuits, 5 string cheeses and a bottle of water to Whitney's teacher since she's trying to lose some baby weight. It pained me to give her nontreat items, but she definitely didn't want anything tempting.

Every year at the book fair we buy a book for the kids' classroom and then Whitney gets to pick one thing; I about fell over when she wanted to buy a One Direction poster! It's going on the back of the kids' bedroom door so she can see it when she sits at her desk, and so the rest of us won't ever really see it.

Landon has taken over the kitchen counter with a leaf-identification project he's doing for Biology. He's been gathering and pressing leaves for weeks and has to identify and label all of them. He has labeled 35 of the 50 so tonight is going to be a long night, but then I'll get to have a clean counter again!

After dropping Landon at football practice, Whitney and I went over to the junior field to watch Austin's soccer scrimmage...except Austin's team didn't end up being there! I texted Robyn and found out it had been cancelled, so Whitney and I sat in our chairs and watched a girls team full of strangers for about 20 minutes until it was time to go see Lori. It was a little weird, but the girls' team was quite good so I was hoping Whitney would get inspired.

The reason we were waiting for Lori to get home is so that we could meet her new puppy Brody. He's a teacup Bulldog and is all kinds of cute. We sat outside for 45 minutes or so playing with him and waiting for him to go to the bathroom, but he didn't do that until we'd been inside for about 10 minutes then did his business on the floor! Whitney and I made a hasty exit and left Lori to enjoy the clean up...I'm standing firm with my "nothing that poops" policy of animal ownership no matter how cute!

Every night after football practice Landon gets undressed in the garage, but can't do so until he has the itouch with him so he can listen to music. It cracks me up that even the short process of getting undressed needs a soundtrack, but then again he is my son.

Some friends dropped off a pile of corn for us, so nice.

Update

 

• The computer is still down and this laptop is better than nothing for sure.
• Our road is still torn apart but I'm getting used to cutting through the medical plaza's parking lot to get home so I'm handling it.
• I went to the doctor today and have been advised to double my meds several days before my monthly melancholia sets in. This may seem obvious, but I never really knew exactly when those days would be until having them hit around bookclub time two months in a row. Now I scheduled with myself so I hopefully I can nip those irrational feelings before they take over. Ah womanhood...
• The DISH guy came on Tuesday and figured out that the trees in our front yard have grown so much in the 8 years we've lived here that they're blocking the signal to the dish. He had to move the dish to the back of the house and tweak the angle...who knew? Now we'll be able to watch our shows without them turning into muted, garbly pixels of doom!

Lemons?

Good grief. Between our computer being down with a virus, our DISH receiver freaking out so we can't watch anything without losing the signal, and the insane amount of construction plaguing our every path (the detours have detours) I feel like I'm losing my mind! I'm trying to be a grown-up about things, but it's not going so well.

Not Myself

Oh goodness, I haven't been feeling like myself for the past 3 days and it's exhausting. I ended up coming home after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday because I felt like I couldn't function properly. I felt tired, anti-social, cloudy-headed and like an all-around mess. I spent the entire rest of the day in bed reading/sleeping until 9:00 when I officially went to bed for the night.

I somehow muddled through work yesterday, but felt impatient, cloudy-headed, anti-social and a bit panicked at the thought of having to do my job day after day after day for another school year and beyond. I came home from work, did some laundry and vacuuming (I thought I was restoring order and would feel better), then spent the rest of the evening reading in bed until I officially went to bed at 8:30! I had a headache and the weather had been rainy (which usually hurts my head) but still this is not normal.

I woke up at 5:30am and still had my headache, so I texted my boss, took some medicine and slept until 11:00!! What is up with the universe? I can't figure out if I'm severely depressed (though I've been taking my meds), am just in a funk, am hormonal, or what. Surely this can't continue. Aargh!

Just Keep Swimming...

We had some glorious storms on Saturday, with blue skies and sun in-between, it was weird but kind of great too. We had a mellow afternoon at home together hanging out (very rare for a Saturday).

The weather is similar now so I just made 9 phone calls to cancel soccer practice, woohoo, bonus hours in my day! I am so weary, despite it only being a 4 day work week. I feel like I'm constantly review the "open loops" in my brain (i.e., pick up Whitney, buy posterboard, go to band, call about football carpool, make chicken salad for Saturday and on and on), I realize this is normal life but it is exhausting!

That's about all I've got to say.

Creative Friday--No Creativity Edition

It had been two weeks since Michelle and I last got together for Creative Friday, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

I love my calendar alerts!

Eva was the only one who did anything creative. She made clothes for her glow-in-the-dark dinosaur and then a pouch (with some help from Michelle) for her stick pony (sadly I don't have a photo).

After a couple of months of fruitless searches for white shipping tags, I finally found some online (through ULINE) in 1000 quantities. Michelle and I went in on them together and will be properly supplied for years!

Eva was cracking us up as she excitedly called a friend to see if she could play (notice her crossed fingers).

Michelle and I talked the whole time, we didn't even get any of our project stuff out. We had to catch up on life chat and spent 2.5 hours doing that. Ahhh, what a relief.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: It actually snowed today!

Sunday Thoughts

Oh my, my, my, today was one of those fantastic Relief Society lessons that felt like it was just for me. I took 2.5 pages of notes and was writing through tears by the end, especially as we sang "How Gentle God's Commands" (that's not a hymn I know very well so the words hit me hard today--click the link and listen to it).

Our fabulous Relief Society president taught today about trying to change someone else and how only the Holy Ghost can change someone else's heart.

• When we ask the Lord how we can change someone else (a spouse...ahem, a child, a co-worker, a parent, etc.,) we are really asking Him to change their hearts. We can't change them, only the Holy Ghost can be the agent of change!
• We can pray to know what we need to change in ourselves in order to help them.
• Criticism kills love, it kills their desire to change. (Ouch!)
• Charity never faileth! We can't always get the outcome we want because we can't override some one's free agency. Instead it brings us a tiny bit closer to the Savior and we are changed.
• When we use criticism we are using Stan's tool to accomplish Christ's purpose and it will never work!
• We need to make the choice to continue on the path to the Savior.
• We need to ask ourselves what our motivation to change the other person is. Is it just an irritation or is it a major problem? We need to let go of the things that don't really matter.
• Pray for help and say "Heavenly Father, this is your child please help me to know how best to help them."
• Often the answer to conquering ill-feelings toward someone in our family is to serve them. "Serve him and be free" are the words that came to her mind one time while she was praying not to be frustrated with her husband. She said it doesn't add up but that's the arithmetic of heaven. When we lose ourselves in the service of others we actually find ourselves.
• 2 Nephi 32:2 When we have the Holy Ghost we speak with the tongue of angels.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: It's not a very good idea to make a roast in the crock pot on a Fast Sunday...the smell is torturing me.

Sunday Thoughts

Last night found me struggling to get motivated for church again this week, but I continued to prepare my Sunday School lesson, prayed fervently for help, and went to bed at 9:00 for a NyQuil-induced slumber of champions.

This week it was Sacrament Meeting that gave me the boost I needed and answered my prayer. The first talk was a great one by a freshly returned missionary (his testimony and enthusiasm were contagious) and the 2nd talk was the high council speaker from our ward (he is amazing, but rarely gets to speak in our ward).

The high council speaker's talk was all about enjoying mortality and doing hard things! (Um hello!)

--We are all called to pass through times of misery, but we don't have to be miserable.
--We shouldn't be afraid of doing hard things.
--Trying to escape our trials is NOT part of the Plan of Happiness.
--In their day, Laman and Lemuel would have been considered "active" members of the church. They did many of the outward things they were asked to do (leave their home, get the plates from Laban), but complained while doing them...are we like them?
--We were saved to be on the earth in these latter days, we were valiant and faithful in the premortal life.
--Before we came to earth, we were told of the challenges we would face and we all answered by saying, "I can do that!" (Here he gave examples like--being born with a birth defect, having a spouse be unfaithful, having a chronic illness, being short and fat, having Alzheimer's Disease, being poor.)
--Don't pray to avoid your trials. Don't be afraid of doing hard things. We are faithful and strong, we can handle the things that come our way.

This was the perfect pep talk for me right now. I know and believe all of these things, yet I still manage to forget and end up feeling weak and negative about life; I actually complained to Michelle about being mortal the other day. When I snap out of these feelings by gaining perspective I feel embarrassed for falling so easily, yet when I'm in the middle of suffering through something I can't seem to see clear of it. Aargh!

**Thoughts??**

P.S. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday.

Comment Window Tidbit: Our computer may have died (or perhaps just slipped into a coma) so that means I'm now using an old laptop and may have lost a whole lot of data. I'm not happy about it, and my posting may decrease as a result. I've got a system people and now it's been blown to bits.

Yesterday I...

Jessie and Michelle have done "Today I" posts recently, so I'm joining in. This is my "Today I..." for yesterday.

Awoke
Showered
Drank
Read
Prayed
Brushed
Reminded
Asked
Thanked
Hugged
Rode
Helped
Laughed
Sighed
Encouraged
Shrugged
Solved
Erased
Walked
Thought
Paced
Read
Wondered
Learned
Ate
Mused
Dreaded
Judged
Scolded
Watched
Climbed
Sat
Listed
Told
Swallowed
Visited
Complimented
Shared
Babysat
Shopped
Scratched
Searched
Ordered
Blogged
Wrapped
Organized
Wrote
Gathered
Washed
Dried
Tied
Vacuumed
Searched
Groaned
Slept

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Sweet fancy Moses this day has finally arrived! I will be break soon, woohoo!

Quick Post

I'm working on a big post from last weekend's events, but I need more time so instead I give you this.


I had lunch with my dad today and we discussed the cruel realities of life in this economy. I had already started applying for jobs a couple weeks ago, and am feeling more desperate than ever before. I teared up multiple times at lunch, all the while thinking "keep it together man!"

I'm just not loving adulthood right now and am having uncomfortable growing pains. I need to let go of any and all expectations I had for this stage of my life, because they're just not happening. I need to embrace some sort of new normal, but I don't even know what that is yet.

**Are you making ends meet?
Are you having growing pains?
Have you had to embrace a new normal?**

Comment Window Tidbit: It felt like a cool, Fall day today and I loved it!

Five for Friday--Human Shuttle Edition

After reading April's great post last week I ended up rereading Gift From The Sea. It's a book that should really be a yearly read for me and one that I never get tired of. It's quick, insightful, totally pertinent to today despite being written in 1955, and a wonderful reminder that my current perspective/season of life will change with time.

It is also fun for me to see all the passages I highlighted (there are a ridiculous amount) and notes I made in the book, but a bit humbling to think that I'm still working on the same issues with myself. Aargh!


There's a single mom in our ward with 2 boys (ages 6 and 8) who needs help watching her kids while she works during the week, so various families have been taking turns having the boys over to play for the day and we took last Monday. They're sweet boys I know from primary, but the work really fell to Landon and Whitney who played with them all day. I was seriously impressed with how it all worked out and I paid them 5 marbles each for this job.


Collette has been recovering from surgery and going a little stir crazy at home so I picked her up and we went for a long lunch at Kneaders.

Crazily enough, we ran into Amy there!

Whitney has been taking a weekly oil painting class this month, but had the chance to do a one time t-shirt class as well. I arranged things so her best friend could go too and thought this would be a fun, summer thing to do. However, I did not foresee the trauma of Whitney hating her design or the horror of the background color turning out more green than blue. She was in tears, scorned the shirt, said it was "a once in a lifetime thing" (what the?!) and took over an hour to come out of it. Good Hell! Freakin kids...why do I try to facilitate fun things for them?


Because of Landon's 3 week stint doing summer band I am driving to the junior high every morning at 10:00. I had a couple nice days of reading at the park during that hour, but I've also had a few heinous days of running Whitney to art across town at the same time. I have gone through 3/4 a tank of gas since Monday! I don't know how families with many children handle this because I'm quite sure the constant clock-checking, stopping and starting, reminding, deadlines and overall hullabaloo sucks the life out of a person. There are probably people who are energized by this type of efficiency, but I don't like them. Ha.

**Does shuttling kids suck the life out of you?
What books do you like to reread?
Did you go out to lunch this week?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Tomorrow is the 12th so it's time for another 12 on the 12th edition, our first Saturday 12th so far this year.