2020 :: week 18

April 26

When I got out of bed Sunday morning the big kids had already gotten Miles out of bed and had each built a habitat. All three of them really wanted Miles to join them in their "home," but failed to realize that Miles wouldn't respect the sanctity of the structure. After he destroyed two homes we had to put an end to this game because I wasn't in the mood for all the tears.

April 27

Elliott only eats dinner under the following circumstances: 1-a favorite food is served (homemade pizza, french toast, naan bread, mashed potatoes); 2-it is a dessert night; or 3-he is starving. We used to have assigned dessert nights, but Anthony decided to switch things up. Every night as we finish eating he flips a coin to determine if that night we get dessert. Heads you get dessert, tails you don't. Once the coin is flipped you cannot go back and eat more dinner to get your dessert. Lauren and Will have been loving this because they usually eat their dinner and are getting dessert more than before. Plus the anticipation for the coin toss is kind of exciting! Elliott has suffered some disappointments, like when he only ate his pasta and refused to eat the meatballs and the coin was heads, or when he ate tons of homemade pizza and edamame and the coin landed tails. But he is eating his dinner more consistently, so we will continue for now.

April 28

I very much look forward to my evening walk. I usually go after we put Lauren, Elliott and Miles to bed and before I read scriptures with Will. The sky has been so pretty lately, and as the sun goes down it almost feels cold. *

April 29

Elliott collected some of the many catkins that have fallen in our yard this week. They only come once a year, but they are obnoxious. He said he was making a house and the catkins were his bed.

April 30

After watching the series finale of LEGO Masters the big kids holed themselves up in Lauren's room and built for hours.

May 1

Elliott is Mr. Imagination. Sometimes on our walks I have to yell at him to get moving because Will and Lauren have gotten so far ahead of us I can't see them and Miles is grunting at me to move because we have stopped to wait for Elliott to catch up with us once again. He always happily speeds up, and then tells me about what he was doing. On this day he was collecting sticks for his house to protect against the Corona invasion. It is amusing to me how often he works in the corona virus and COVID-19 into his imaginary scenarios.

May 2

The lilacs at the side of our house are finally blooming and I am loving it! Maybe it is a symptom of our slower pace of life, but I am noticing and appreciating the flowers more this year. In the afternoon we went to a drive-by birthday party for our primary president. Her husband passed away at the end of March (from cancer) and her counselors organized a party so she could see her beloved primary kids. We made our kids wear masks for the first time (it was their first time out in public talking to people outside of our family) and we had a few meltdowns about how uncomfortable they were. I started getting a migraine on Saturday afternoon, so instead of saunaing with Anthony after the kids were in bed like we had planned, I sat outside the sauna and talked to him. We have found that if I sauna when I have a headache it gets way worse.