2024 :: week 14

March 31

Happy Easter from the John family! Our ward's Easter program was really nice. The primary kids sang "Jesus is Risen." The music was great--3 vocal solos, a saxophone solo and 2 choir numbers. A member of each presidency was asked to give a 2 minute talk/testimony about Easter related topics. I was asked to speak about the purpose of Easter. I came across Elder Uchtdorf's talk "Behold the Man!"while I was preparing and found it to be very moving. That evening we had a traditional ham dinner at my parents' house, followed by the grandkid egg hunt. It was a full, fun Easter.

April 1

Miles wanted to use the quarters he got from Memaw's egg hunt to buy some mini Funko pops at Five Below. He got the Donald Duck for his birthday, and I put the Pluto in his Easter basket. He chose the Mikey and Minnie to buy, but then cried and was quite upset with me when he had to hand his money over to pay for them. He accused me of "stealing his money" as we left the store. So...I've got lots of lessons still to teach him about how the economy works. We all want to have our cake and eat it too.

April 2

Some weeks I feel more motivated to meal plan than others. This was a good week. On Monday we had corn chowder made with leftover Easter ham. On Tuesday we had chicken tikka masala. Wednesday was cold and and I changed up the plan and made Willy chili. Thursday I made breakfast casserole for both us and a woman in the ward that was recovering from surgery. There was a miscommunication and the woman is out of state, so we ended up with an extra casserole. We had enough food leftover from the previous two nights that we divvied up the remainder Friday night. Saturday we had creamy chicken and rice--a perfect meal to come home to after Lauren's soccer game ended at 4:30pm. 

April 3

Wednesday evening we did our John family backyard egg hunt. Anthony is really good at hiding the eggs. The kids were happy with their haul--mainly Kit Kats, Hershey's eggs, Twix and Laffy Taffys. 

April 4

I'm in this weird mental space with my life right now. In less than two months the kids will be out of school for the summer. In 4.5 months Miles starts kindergarten and the chapter of my life as a full-time stay-at-home-caretaker-mom will be over. Knowing that my daily one-on-one time with Miles is coming to a close is very bittersweet. In the meantime I am trying to make the most of the time we do have. For the most part I have few regrets. Of course there are things I wish I had done better or more, but I realize that I only have that realization because of experience and that helps me be at peace. I usually like to know exactly what I'll be doing day to day six months from now, but feel at peace that it will all work out.  

April 5

Lauren joined her fellow 6th graders from OPC on their field trip to TimberRidge (located near the Ernie Miller Nature Center) in Olathe. The kids were divided into groups of about a dozen. Parent leaders could not lead their own children (Lauren was in Charlotte Hagman's group) as to not handicap their ability to be push themselves. They participated in the low challenge course for four hours. One of the challenges had three platforms and two boards and the group had to figure out how to get the entire group across without touching the ground. In another challenge the group stood in a circle with a ball everyone had to touch once, but you couldn't throw it to someone next to you and the person who started with the ball also had to end with the ball. Pictured above is a spiderweb where the kids had to get through without touching the string. According to the website this program is built around "team success and reflection." Lauren seemed to have a good time. 

April 6

It was a beautiful spring Saturday. Elliott was ecstatic when he got invited to his buddy Townes' house. His brother had a friend over too, and they boys had a lot of fun playing sports together. Basketball, home run derby and trading baseball cards--Elliott was in heaven! Will had a productive day doing lawncare for Mark with the Bensons and for Sarah with Tony. Lauren played well in her second to last soccer game with the Pink Thunder.