Slow Week

 My week was a slow motion battle with my body: a slow four day recovery from last weekend's sickness, slowly easing back into physical activity, a visit to the chiropractor wherein my shoulder and hip were put back in place and we discussed the slow process of healing from the lingering side effects of these malignments. It was all very slow and maddening.

The kids had a regular routine school week. Rose did unintentional battle with the mean girls in P.E. class, and after a rude hurtful confrontation from them which later involved a stellar teacher, the mean girls left Rose alone for the rest of the week. Jay ran five miles with his friend after school one day and felt the endorphin rush. One day after school, Amber reported that "my friend freaked out and stood on the desk and started throwing crayons, and the teacher had to wrestle him down. Our class was evacuated." A few weeks ago, Amber's teacher told me how sweet it is that Amber is friends with the "hard kids" and genuinely likes and helps them. My heart was warm when Amber described the situation in her class as something her friend did--no judgement, just events. It is so Amber to see through to the heart of each human and I hope I can help her cultivate that kindness. 

Jeff finished coaching his first high school boys' swim season! Their season finale was a meet in Moses Lake, WA on Thursday night. He was proud of his little team of 7 boys--they all ended the season with personal records. The team went to an understaffed Denny's in Moses Lake after the meet to celebrate the season, and it took so long that Jeff didn't get home till after 10pm that night. But swim season is OVER! Now Jeff has three whole weeks off from coaching until high school track practice starts! 

Even better, Jeff is FEELING GOOD. This week he was healthy and had so much of his usual Jeff-zest, energy, and joie de vivre back. On Saturday, we went on an actual DATE. Together. Alone. Without our kids or any high schoolers. I think the last time we went somewhere alone together was way back in early summer. So it was an extra special treat to spend 3+ hours together, just the two of us. 

Now that I've built up our date, let me say what we did on the date. We drove the 40 minutes to Costco and got some groceries. Them we picked up Krispy Kreme donuts and drove home. But it was a date! We joked that the date-element was that we were alone together, that we went to Costco without a list (reckless date decadence), and of course the sweet donuts capped it all off nicely. The lady in the Krispy Kreme drive-thru randomly gave us our two donuts for free! The date magic surrounded us. 

I love how special our Saturday morning Costco date felt. I didn't have to share Jeff's attention with anyone else. We were free to talk about any topic we wanted to without eavesdropping children listening in and asking questions. We went somewhere outside of our home, which I don't always want to do but felt wonderful this time. And best of all, Jeff was himself! Mentally, physically, he is on the mend. He is still being very mindful in his efforts to continue healing from all of his recent health issues, like taking a nap (or two) every day and easing gently back into exercise, but he has enough energy to joke and talk and drive me to Costco! It's a heady feeling for both of us.

We had several sunny days with rich sunrises this week.

Jeff practiced his new trumpet after school every day. (I got the trumpet from an estate sale a few weeks ago.)

Rose and Amber took turns trying the trumpet too.

Last Sunday night, we let Amber persuade us into a game of Cover Your Assets, which is a cutthroat card game where the goal is to steal money from each other. The one condition we have every time we play this game is that Amber promises not to cry. She gets very upset and angry when people steal her cards. She cried after this game and it devolved into a semi-angry semi-playful wrestling match. In the family prayer afterwards, Rose said "please help us to love each other again, and please help us to be kind to each other." After the 15 minutes of utter chaos, anger, frustration, and tears we had just lived through, Rose's prayer made all of us laugh so hard we barely survived the rest of the prayer. 

It is not easy being the youngest, even in games of chance. Poor Amber. She's so intense about playing hard and winning! It's maddening and cute all at once.

Amber was feeling reluctant to read some verses of the New Testament one night...

...she sank low and disappeared when it was her turn to read. She also did not want to eat the nourishing beef lentil soup that I made--not even the broth. She took forever to eat the one bite I required of her before she could leave the table. Then she took even longer to eat the other two bites I required if she wanted to have any screen time after diner. It was a long ordeal at the dinner table.

Jay was joking around dressing and acting like an "emo" kid/slouchy teenager with his hat, headphones, and phone. I laughed so hard when I looked over his shoulder and saw that the app he was scrolling in was the scriptures. That about sums up Jay's sense of humor!

Rose joined in on the silly emo dress-up.

Amber walked all over the house on all fours, with roller skates on her "front legs" and bunny slippers on her "back legs."

My February 2nd sketch-of-the-day. Amber learned all about groundhogs at school and told us all about them at dinner.

Family prayer without Jeff on Thursday night.

Decompressing after school with a little Nintendo.

Decompressing at bedtime with a little balance board seesaw rocking.

Donut date! (How old is too old to take date selfies?)