I would take the class. What do I do to stay sane? Gen authorities told us to have at least two hobbies outside our motherhood, so uh, if you need any more endorsement, there it is. I garden and ... I guess I just garden. I suppose I ought to add another hobby. It would be awesome if you did the photography class. I'd totally be jealous. Someday I would really like to do that. And some cooking classes. I spent the morning at my visiting teach-ees house. She is an amazing cook and she was showing me all sorts of tricks. We might be getting a food processor. Yeah, I know, we make big, sudden changes over here :). But seriously, who thought to shred your chicken by tossing a couple cooked chicken breasts in your Kitchen-aid and letting the beaters shred it for you? Blew my mind. Almost as much as finding out that there are no real nutritional benefits to milk for anyone over the age of 2 - it is just another sugary drink, ladies. And you probably all knew that already. But throwing milk in the same category as powdered
And as to when does it get easier? I don't know. I think it gets easier when it has been harder for a while? And then you get to look back and think about how much greener it was on the other side? I don't think there is ever an easier. You just trade in one hard for a different kind of hard. At least it switches up so you don't get bored.
Chris --
I taught seminary this week - it was on the Fall of Adam. We did the Marshmallow Challenge (marshmallowchallenge.com). Basically you give them 18 minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure out of dried spaghetti and tape that can hold a marshmallow. The interesting part of this lesson who does well and who does poorly. It turns out that kindergarteners do much better than lawyers and business school students at building the structures. This is because b-school students have a single plan and they try to execute it perfectly . . . . and this often leads to disaster. Kindergarteners try a bunch of things - some fail and some succeed - and then they keep trying. The point here is that some people believe the church is about people being perfect - planning perfect lives, never making mistakes - but that is an exactly wrong and dangerous philosophy. God gave us agency so that we could fail, get back up, repent and learn. The people that make it into heaven are not the people who lived perfect lives - they are the people that repented again and again.
Issac - has a dirty mouth; he keeps giving me infections. Also, he's constipated. one night he was so mad and tired from trying to poo that Chris got up at three, took Issac and let me sleep while he drove through construction traffic trying to find an open store that sold suppositories (I thought we had more, but the bottle was empty.. nooooooo!). But it's all ok because usually if you talk to him at all, he will start laughing and grinning. He's super ticklish, too.
Esther - Is so fun. She is quirky in an endearing fun kinda way. She has an easy beautiful laugh that sometimes becomes a mischievous cackle. She scrunches her nose and grins when she is teasing you. She gives the most satisfying, warm snuggle hugs ever. She ADORES Chris. Right now she is upstairs in her bed screaming because I would not let her eat a cup full of sprinkles for dinner. She and Ethan are good friends and share with each other readily. Often when I am holding Isaac, she will come and reach for him saying 'hugs hugs!' and I will lower Isaac and she will give him a big, tender hug. And then she will run off, pumping her arms like she is in some big marathon with her little round bum wiggling and running almost independent of her body. It sounds weird, but it is absolutely adorable.
Ethan - Insists on doing whatever it is that the older two are doing. If Parker stops to talk to the cross guard, well then by golly, Ethan is going to talk to that cross guard, too. No one knows what he is saying, but he is sure it is every bit as important as what Parker was saying. If Lyra gets a hug, Ethan is going to get one, too. Even if it is from someone who is a complete stranger to him.
Parker - Is so gentle and kind to the younger kids. He makes games for them, he puts up with them crawling on him and wrestling with him. Once Ethan did something that hurt Parker. When I tried to tell Ethan to stop an apologize, Parker said it was ok, that Ethan didn't know and didn't mean it. We also did Parent teacher meetings and his teacher was funny. Apparently he sees things very differently. And sometimes it is problematic but apparently it has blown her mind a few times. Which was funny to watch.
Lyra - Has figured out that if she makes a chart to stop any given habit, then at the end she can probably get a good deal of the things she wants. So, when she wanted a kite, she made a bubble chart, with the picture of a kite at the bottom. 'Mommy, when I fill in all the bubbles, I get a kite, ok?' And the funny thing is, she is right. You stop picking your nose or forgetting to flush the toilet or whatever, for 17 days in a row, I will get you a kite. Lyra has a hard time getting to sleep at night. Often she won't fall asleep till ten. Sometimes if Chris or I go in there to snuggle with her she will fall asleep closer to nine. Once I could hear Chris coming to see how it was going with her so I told her to pretend we were asleep. We both lay there with our eyes closed, peaceful expressions and occasionally letting out the loudest most heinous snores we could make. All three of us ended up laughing and Chris came to snuggle on the other side of Lyra. It reminded Lyra of a song she had learned and she started singing 'there was one in the bed and the little one said 'roll over'' And of course she and Chris started rolling towards me. So of course I was off. They did the song again and Lyra rolled off into my arms. Then she and I looked at each other, Lyra grinned and started singing 'there was one in the bed and then he said 'roll over'' so of course, Chris rolled off - right on top of both of us, still giggling. We are ridiculous. No wonder snuggling with her at night only helps sometimes.
Chris - doing presentations to small groups of Sr vice presidents. And teaching seminary. Also, he tried to get the kids to eat a very healthy soup I had made them all by pouring sprinkles on it. SPRINKLES! So much for healthy. The kids actually gave it a try. I think they would eat poop if we put sprinkles on it. Chris has an interview tomorrow. It has been a big week for him.
Dad took some pictures while he was out here for the baby blessing. It was so kind of him.
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