2013 :: week 12

Sunday afternoon we were all feeling pretty cold. It was a gray day too, which made it seem even colder. Because the weather had been so nice on Thursday and Friday I turned our heat off and had forgotten about it once it turned cold again. We turned the heat back on and expected things to warm up fairly soon. It did not. As the night went on it got colder and we realized our heater was broken. We wore extra clothes to bed and put extra blankets on the kids. Good thing, when we woke up Monday morning it was 54 degrees in our house. We were able to get someone to our house Monday morning who solved the problem in about 5 minutes and our house warmed up pretty quickly.

Apparently our kids aren't the only ones in the family who throw tantrums. This is the scene of my "tantrum" Monday night. I volunteered to make a cake for our Relief Socity birthday party Tuesday and set about to make it after the kids went to bed. I was in a hurry and doubled one ingredient, which turned out to be a costly mistake. I ended up burning out the motor in my hand mixer and had to make a quick trip to Target to get a new one. Then I had to clean up the cement-like mess before I could start the process over again. I think I must have been tired (none of us slept very well the night before due to the chilly temperatures) because when Anthony tried to help me I started going off about hard and unfair my life was. Obvioiusly this in not true, but I really did feel that way in the moment. Luckily my second attempt was successful.

Will and I attempted to grow some wheat grass for Easter this year. We soaked the wheat last Thursday and had been watering the seeds each day since. Sunday we started to notice some sprouts. When we checked on them Tuesday we could see grass! We were both very excited. The grass grows really fast. There is significantly more growth in this picture (taken in the evening) than there was in the morning.

Wednesday we went to Kalediescope with a group of friends, organized by my friend Susan. Because of spring break it was more crowded than other times we had gone, so Lauren was stuck in the stroller. Initially I let her walk about a bit, but she just darted off, and since she is so short it was hard to keep track of her. She was pretty upset with me when I put her in the stroller, but I was able to win her back a bit when we went in the dark room and she got to hold the glow wand. Will had a great time painting and "making art projects."

I've mentioned before that Will likes to help in the kitchen, and how it can be annoying. Lately I have been trying to come up with things he can do that are within his skill level that are actually helpful. I've started letting him help me chop veggies with a plastic knife. He does a pretty good job with peppers and onions. He is usually very careful and I don't dread him demanding to help in the kitchen as much anymore.

Friday night I hosted a baby shower for my friend, Lindsay. Lindsay and her husband moved to Kansas a few months ago and then she got put on bedrest, so we had the shower after her baby was born. Her baby, Hailey is so tiny and beautiful. I forgot how delicate newborns are, although my newborns were never quite as small as Hailey. We did a few crafts and snacked on some good food.

Saturday morning I particiapted in the Diva Dash 5K. I signed up to run this race around Christmas to keep me motivated to exercise this winter. This was, of course, before it snowed this winter. Training for the last month was pretty tough, and I didn't run once in the past week for various reasons. I feel pretty good about it though. I am proud of myself for doing it even though I was exhausted because Lauren woke me up 4 times in the night, it was freezing cold, and my calf had been bothering me. Some accomplishments: I have gotten pretty good at pacing and breathing, which don't seem like very big accomplishments, but for me they are. It was pretty cold (32 degrees at the start) and I thought my hands were going to fall off for the first mile. I accidentally burning my finger with a glue gun Saturday night, and it was strange how similar the pain was to the ache I felt in my hands when they were freezing that morning.