2019 :: week 47

November 17

It was an unusual Sunday. We normally have church at 10:30am, but due to the other wards in our building having Stake Conference, our ward met at 1pm instead. The afternoon flew by! Anthony took the older kids to the church to watch the Face to Face with Elder Gong, but Miles had not napped all afternoon, so stayed back and fed him and put him and Elliott to bed a little early.

November 18

Monday ended up being super productive, despite a few set backs. I got up and got my machines working for me--I started a load of laundry and a load of dishes before I took the kids to school. I went to the gym for the first time in a long time. However, when I got back from the gym and went to move the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer I noticed that the washing machine had not drained all of the water. Instead of letting myself dwell on expensive worst case scenarios--which I often do--I got online and was able to figure out what was most likely causing the problem. Then I saw found how to manually drain the machine and did it! I was able to wash three more loads after this with no problem. After I got the laundry up and running again I finished putting the new trampoline mat on the frame. It felt good to be productive because after the kids get home from school my energy switches to them.

November 19

Tony was in San Diego for the week attending a conference for work. While he was gone I continued my daily "mental health walks." He doesn't travel nearly as much as he used to, for which I am grateful. Luckily the weather was nice enough that I could take Miles with me. He seems to enjoy watching the world pass by as we was walk around the neighborhood. He certainly fussed less than he did when we were at home and I was trying to make dinner.

November 20

We made a quick trip to the library Wednesday evening to pick up some books for Will. While Will and I searched for books Lauren and Elliott did a scavenger hunt and put on puppet shows for each other. Will's teacher (Mrs. Votava) has really lit a fire under him and his reading this year. All fourth graders are challenged to read forty books over the course of the school year, but are only allowed a few from each genre. Will has maxed out his "graphic novel," "historical fiction," "science fiction," "mysteries," "fantasies" and "biographies," so we were looking for a few books that would be considered "realistic fiction." We settled on A Long Walk to Water about kids growing up in Sudan.

November 21

After I pick up Elliott from preschool we meet the big kids at the park. Even though we live extremely close to the park I usually drive straight there. When it is time to go the kids like to wait on the bench and have me pick them up in the van. They call the bench the "bus stop."

November 22

Friday morning Elliott's friend Kendall came over for a few hours so her mom could go to the doctor and pick up a prescription. Stephanie has been coughing for awhile and then ran a fever for several days--turns out she had pneumonia! Elliott and Kendall made me "cookies" out of playdoh, played with Paw Patrol toys and jumped on the trampoline.

November 23

Due to the massive amount of leaves we have in our front yard, it didn't take very long for Anthony to rake this huge pile. What takes time is mulching and bagging them up! Elliott, Will and our neighbor Curran enjoyed playing in the pile, but they also helped clean the leaves up too. Lauren and I spent most of the morning in her room doing a deep clean. We moved some furniture around to fit the way she uses her room now and vacuumed and dusted and wiped baseboards. We threw away enough stuff to completely fill a large trash bag and made a large pile of clothes, toys and books she has outgrown to pass down to Elliott or donate. That evening we treated ourselves to Chick-fil-A peppermint shakes and our second family sauna session