Amber rocks

The scene: Friday morning at 7:45am, 11 minutes before it was time to walk to the school bus stop. 

"Amber, put your piano books into your backpack," I called from the kitchen. On Fridays, the girls go straight to piano lessons after school, so they carry their piano books in their backpacks.

Amber unzipped her backpack and started removing crumpled papers and other miscellaneous items one by one. Soon there were half a dozen coloring pages, worksheets, a mashed lunchbox, and a crumpled sweater scattered across the floor.

Jay

 It's the first day of Jay's birth month, so how about a feature on my firstborn? Jay is in the middle of middle school right now and he has Activities that are separate and distinct from his younger sisters. He attends young men's activity every Wednesday night at church and helps pass the sacrament on Sundays. He is the secretary in the deacons quorum. He plays tuba in the school band and string bass in the school orchestra. He is on the middle school track team and convinced several of his friends to join the team with him to make it more fun. He grew his beautiful hair out till it was the longest it's ever been, claiming that he wanted to run one track race with it long before he whacked it all off. 

March BOOKS

Ah, March: the first month of track season. A month spent adjusting to Jeff being gone 30 extra hours each week. This year's coping mechanism leaned much more heavily on the Netflix side of cushioning rather than the literary fluff as in the past. Survival is about doing what works NOW, and I struck out when it came to finding cute fun fictional fluff in March. But I found a rich vein of light sweet entertainment in the TV-14 East Asian Drama category on Netflix! I will not be listing and reviewing the many K-dramas and Chinese dramas (are they C-dramas?) that I watched in March, but suffice it to say that it was many. I read a modest ten books on the side.

Talk

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting at church today, with all of the usual heart-pounding palm-sweating side effects.

The view out my bedroom window: a beautiful sunset reflected on puffy clouds in the eastern sky.

Winter in April

We very nearly had a white Easter! Some wild wintry weather dominated our week. 

On Monday there was an intense wind/hail/snow storm that knocked out power for all of the schools in town, and students were dismissed to go home before noon. The snow blew sideways and didn't stick to the ground. Jeff picked up all three kids on his way home, and we decided to have screen time right away in case the power went out later. The power never went out at our house, so we all had a very quiet afternoon of pure veg-time. It was a random extension of spring break!

Spring Break 2022

We spent Spring Break 2022 at home, and it was just what we all needed. Jeff went to track practice for a few hours every morning while the kids had leisurely cartoon time. Depending on the weather, I either went on a run during that time or watched a show of my own. It always feels extra decadent to watch TV in the morning, because I usually reserve my own TV time for a well-earned break after I've been productive all day. During spring break, though, I gave myself permission to stay in my pajamas and watch an episode or two before beginning my day, and it made the entire week feel like such a relaxing vacation. I very much preferred watching TV while my kids were watching TV instead of trying to be productive while they lounged, which inevitably makes me grumpy. I was a much happier human being when I allowed myself the same TV break as my kids. 

Isn't it interesting/annoying how many of the cages we think we're trapped in are of our own making? 

March Finale

 March went out like a lamb, with soft sunny weather, fresh green grass, and tender pink blossoms.  

Downtown Sunnyside in springtime.

The Great Gnocchi Debacle

The recipe looked so easy, with just two ingredients (baked butternut squash and flour: mix them together and form into balls). I spent almost an hour prepping all of the little gnocchi pellets early in the day and put them in the fridge, as the recipe suggested. I prefer cooking before I have a hangry family clustering around asking what I'm making and when it will be ready, over and over, so I like to prep as much of dinner early as possible. With the gnocchi pieces formed beforehand, I could simply dump them into boiling water to cook for 4 minutes, butter and herb them, and have an easy dinner in next to no time. 

Top 10 of the Week

 Top 10 of the week: 

1. Monday: I enjoyed a refreshing fun hill run with an awkward after-show (details below).
2. Tuesday: The canal by our house filled with water!
3. Tuesday: Jay played in both the band and the orchestra at his second trimester school concert.
4. Tuesday: I helped with a Relief Society activity.
5. Wednesday: I weeded and cleared our garden.
6. Friday: I went on my longest run in almost five months-- 7 miles!
7. Friday: Rose, Amber, and I went to the library together after school and piano lessons.
8. Saturday: Jeff had a track meet, the kids roamed the countryside, a Netflix black hole for me.
9. Sunday: We stayed home and watched stake conference via Zoom. 
10. Jeff had three less-tired/more energetic days this week amidst his brutal slow long Covid recovery. It was very encouraging!

Windy Weekly

We really only one word to describe most of what happens in March: WIND. For better or worse, the wind invades, accosts, and blows through nearly every March memory. I read through my journal from this week and I hardly mentioned the wind because it feels redundant, haha. Full disclosure: we did have 2 non-windy days this week. 

Sunday, March 6th: Rose made cookies today and they melted into one big blob on the cookie sheet, so we cut them up into bars. After dinner I said "thanks again for making cookies, Rose!" Everyone joined in thanking her. A pause. Should I go for it? I asked myself. Yeah, I need to do this. I said "since nobody got my hint... Rose made us cookies and we all thanked her. I made everyone dinner, annnnnd...." I paused and rolled my hand to encourage a response. After a few beats they picked up on it and chorused "thank you for the dinner, Mom." 

March Rollercoaster

The first week of March always requires me to make rapid gear shifts, but this one was a doozy, even for March. The constant woosh and rush of wild March wind makes everything seem more urgent, more desperate, and less comfortable. My journal entries always seem to be more detailed when I'm in crisis mode, so this is a copy-paste-and-edit-for-coherence journal post.

Monday, February 28, 2022: What a day. I had a lot of housework on my list today (laundry, meal plan, grocery shopping, vacuum, make bread, make dinner). Right after the girls caught the school bus this morning, Jeff texted and asked if I would come help out at track practice in the afternoon, since one of the assistant coaches was out with a back injury. I reluctantly said yes. So I rushed through all of my work (and fit in a run and a short yoga sesh) and even managed to put dinner in the instant pot and rice cooker before picking Jay up from school. After I had dropped Jay off at home, I turned around and drove back to the school for track practice.

February Books

I read a dozen books in February.