Month: January 2012 (Page 1 of 2)

It’s been a super packed weekend around here, with a lot of church responsibilities and meetings.
Thursday, after working all day, we had to hustle to get dinner ready by 5:00 to feed the missionaries. When I found out the day before that we had the opportunity to feed the elders, my daughter said, “WHYYYYY? We’re already members of the church! Why should the missionaries come HERE?”
Oh, dear. But we had a nice dinner, and a nice visit. After dinner, Cole went with the missionaries to their appointments for the evening, and I went to book club (which, by the way, we read A town like Alice, and if you haven’t ever read it, I recommend it. Kind of a slow start, but great story. In case you were looking for something to read right now)

Friday, I was pleased to not have to work. Somehow the day before I had wrenched my back and I have had some twinges of pain when I do things like breathe too deeply or make any sudden moves. But instead of a quiet night at home, we had a Relief Society sponsored activity for couples. Not a fun date exactly, but a night about preparedness. We went (with a skeptical attitude for sure), but it was a worthwhile and productive evening.

Saturday, I had a Stake Relief Society women’s conference,

then lunch with dear friends,


and a Jazz game that night!

Sunday, I had to figure out my sharing time idea for our 9:00 church. After church, we caught small naps, then the home teachers came. Two meetings at night–a fireside for all seminary students at 6:00, and Priesthood Preview put on by the primary at 7.

So much for being a recluse and a hermit, right?

Even though it’s not been a typical January around here (no snow…what?), I think I’ve gotten the typical January blahs. Really. I don’t really want to go anywhere, I’d rather stay home.
Shopping? Na, I’ve got enough STUFF here already.
Groceries? We don’t really need bread and milk, do we? Can’t we just make dinner from the stuff we have?
Pick up the kids from school? Oh, all right, if I have to.
Exercise? I’ve got a treadmill here in the basement I can use if I feel the urge.
Take the kids to a friend’s house? Couldn’t they just come and play here?
Go to work as a substitute teacher? I do have a job for tomorrow that I’ll have to GEAR UP for, but I don’t really want to work much, especially if hubby’s out of town. And that’s good because people with smart phones must snatch up the available jobs so quickly, that it’s actually not that easy to get subbing jobs unless you are requested.
Go to a Jazz game? I gave away tickets to a Jazz game last week. I had won them and actually gone to pick them up myself, with plans to take one of the kids for a fun night out. But then I kind of changed my mind and didn’t really want to leave the kids alone two nights in a row, and drive up to Salt Lake two nights in a row (I always have bells rehearsal in SLC on Wed nights), so I offered them up to friends and got a taker pretty quick.

And when I do venture out, I try to make sure I can do more than one errand on each trip. Save gas, less pollution, right? If I’m going to Costco, let’s make sure to pick up whatever I need at Walgreens on the same trip. Or better yet, I order things online. My kids mocked me and laughed when a big package arrived from Staples, and when we opened it, it contained 12 rolls of paper towels. What? We needed paper towels, and there was a sale and a coupon and free delivery. Same thing when a shipment of toilet paper and cheez-its arrived from Amazon. Hey! Free shipping, sale, what’s the problem? I see no problem with having the groceries come to me. In Manhattan, everyone does grocery delivery! Of course, they do it because they don’t have cars, not because they don’t feel like going to the store for paper towels. Same diff.

Because I’d really rather stay home. I have a lot of purging, cleaning, and organizing to do. Books to read, kids to clean up after, bills to pay, chickens to feed, dinner to cook, sharing time to plan, laundry to fold, etc. Is there anything wrong with just wanting to stay home? I mentioned to my hubby that I felt like I was turning into a hermit and didn’t want to go out anywhere lately, and he said, “Are you kidding me? Compared to MY mom, you’re still a social butterfly! You go to bells at least once a week, you go to church things, you take the kids to piano lessons and school things, you go to book club.” Oh, that’s right. I guess I do.

And should we get to the paranoid part? My nephew was recently hospitalized for gall stones, but when they were in there to remove his gall bladder, they found out that he had pancreatitis, and it’s changed his life forever. He’s been on a feeding tube for almost two months, can’t eat solid food, and now has to manage his insulin. And all this started with heartburn, then stomach pains. Scary. So, when I had heartburn a couple of nights in a row, then had unexplained stomach and back pain, where do my thoughts go? Oh, my gosh, do I have pancreatic inflammation? I went to bed last night with not one heated wheat bag, but two. One for my back and one for my tummy. Paranoid? Maybe. Hypochondriac? Maybe just a little. Concerned citizen? Yes. The good news is, I don’t feel any of that pain this morning. Maybe that ‘strenuous’ 30 minutes on the treadmill pulled something. Maybe it was something I ate that was giving me gas. Who knows. If it comes back, though, I’m calling the doctor.

So, for today, I will just stay home and enjoy my day at home. I do have about 100 pages of my book club book to read, so I’d better work on that.

Ryan was out of town for a few days. Ok, more than a few days. I guess it was more like 11 days. Time to go to China AND Las Vegas for business. I know! Anyway, while Ryan is gone, I usually try to do some kind of organizational project that makes a big huge mess and then I don’t really have to worry about getting it cleaned up at the end of the day. Not that he would complain, but my projects sometimes involve rearranging our bedroom, cleaning out the closet, etc, and I tend to pile a bunch of stuff on the bed, and it’s just nice to not have to move that pile to the floor so that both of us can sleep at night. I also don’t mind that I don’t have to cook while he’s gone. I mean, I still cook for the kids, but our dinners tend to be more kid friendly. You know, the chicken nugget, macaroni and cheese, cheese on tortilla type dinners that the kids like, but I don’t really serve for family dinners that often. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Julia Childs here, but I do usually make dinner every night, and by dinner, I mean a main dish with some kind of fruit and veg.

I didn’t take pictures, but I did rearrange our bedroom again this week. Moved the big old dresser, cleaned out drawers, sent a whole bunch of stuff to DI, organized the shoes, etc. As I was in the thick of that job, I realized that my makeup drawer was pretty out of control.

I couldn’t throw it all out, of course, but I did get rid of a lot of old makeup. I realized that the blush I use the most is about 3 years old and was from Costco. I still use it! I had some very old mascara and some foundation that I’ve never worn because it has a smell, and I couldn’t stand having a smell on my face all day. I would always wonder what that SMELL was, not realizing it was right on and under my nose. Out it goes. I still have too much makeup, but at least it’s corralled and contanerized, and the eye stuff is no longer fraternizing with the cheek stuff and the lip stuff.

I just tackled one of the “junk drawers” in the kitchen today. Ugh. Disney park hopper passes from our vacation in 2002? Countless pens and pencils, googly eyes? What? I did find a really cute pair of purple sunglasses that I don’t ever remember buying, so score one there. Primary music leader helps, stickers that say “I led the music in Singing time”, and even Cole’s scout card saying he had earned his bobcat badge (not the badge, just the card). Now most of that is in the trash.

If only I could get every area of the house cleaned and purged and cleaned out more often than once every 5 years!

I may occasionally (cough cough) drive carpool in my pajamas and greasy hair, but I will not, I repeat NOT walk into the school like that. Not any school. Not ever. I may be a slob, but I can’t let everyone at the school know that, can I?
Besides, do you really want that office girl (who now knows your NAME) to see your mom walk in with your homework looking all scroungy in a bathrobe and curlers? I think not. I can only IMAGINE the rumors that would spread. Did you see so-and-so’s mom? Not only was she wearing orange crocs, but she was wearing pajamas!!! Oh, the shame.
So, if you text me that you left your
a-mathbook
b-chips for a party
c-photos for digital photography
d-permission slip
e-lunch
f-whatever

I will first have to get everyone else out the door, then I will have to get ready, which might even include a shower.

And that is why it might take me two hours to get your stuff to you at school.

Getting everyone up and ready for church at 9:00 after staying up late celebrating last night was not that much fun. Thankfully, Ryan got up right with his alarm, and the both of us were ready before 8, so we could encourage the kids along in their getting ready process. I even made a smoothie for me and made pancakes for John and a couple of other kids who also decided they would like pancakes.

Primary was interesting. Half of the kids were either out of town or their parents let them sleep in. So we were already pretty sparse. And then those new sunbeams…they didn’t know what in the world was going on. They looked so confused! “Why do I have to sit on this chair? Where are my snacks? Where are the toys? Why are we at church in the morning anyways?” Seemed to be the thoughts of those 5 little three year olds. Luckily, we have the most wonderful nursery leaders and they were absolutely prepared, handing out fruit snacks, then taking a break from sharing time to go for a walk. These same sunbeam leaders can be heard singing and playing the guitar during their class time.

I was in charge of the sharing time (I volunteered, since I basically was gone most of the month of December) and we talked about agency, and choice and consequences. I got a lot of blank looks from the junior primary, but they did think it was cool that they get CTR rings. I wonder how long they will hold on to those? My guess is 2-3 days and then the majority of them will be lost.

Today marked a sad little milestone in my life. My youngest child moved from the junior primary to the senior primary today. He told me this morning, “Mom, I won’t see you until SENIOR primary.” I told him that he should just stay in junior primary because those kids in the senior primary are naughty. Jenna, who is already in senior primary, didn’t take too kindly to that remark.